density

[canuck]

Density-wise, here is how Detroit metro stacks up in the USA.
Attachment 25565

It is still pretty dense compared to Chicago and seems denser than Boston. Houston, Tx is a blip compared in spite of the large metro population.

[313WX]

Very cool picture. I have a good friend[[several actually) who is a Detroit booster and he loves to tell me how if you stand in very specific spots at very specific times Detroit actually feels like a real city.

As far as the bolded, the only times I've noticed that you can go to any part of the city and it's not like a ghost town is...

1. During the 1st of the month when the government checks go out. With so many people in the city living under poverty and receiving some form of taxpayer assistance, essentially imagine almost half of everyone who lives in the city limits coming out at once to cash and spend their checks.

2. Weekdays when the Tigers games let out around 4pm. The baseball crowd all headed back to the suburbs at once combined with the normal rush hour commute, needless to say, makes for a hot mess of things on freeways and the surface streets.

3. Griswold street during the weekday lunch rush.

[Scottathew]

I started working downtown about five years ago, and the change in those five years has been amazing.

Do we look like NYC or Michigan Ave in Chicago? Nope. We'll never be like NYC, but we've got a shot at Woodward Avenue being like Michigan Avenue.

Things are changing with each week, each major announcement. The doubters keep saying, "they'll never build that, I don't believe it". Then the projects keep getting completed and become a part of reality.

Some of the doubters have closed their laptops and put down their pens. Some are still around, still doubting.

In the mean time, investors are replacing the doubters. They're taking note, they see the opportunity. Real estate prices downtown are spiking. Jobs are moving in downtown. Buildings are being renovated. When new residential towers open up, they have WAITING LISTS.

Things are changing for the better. It's not going to be overnight, but it's real.

[TTime]

Woodward becoming like Michigan Avenue would be a miracle. If you would've said it's got a shot of being like State Street in Chicago you would have a much more realistic sales pitch. Oh well, people just see what they want to see I guess.

[Bham1982]

We'll never be like NYC, but we've got a shot at Woodward Avenue being like Michigan Avenue.

There has yet to be a single urban market-rate building announced in Detroit. Not even one. Almost nothing has been built in recent decades, and the few things that have been built are either anti-urban, massively subsidized, or both.

Detroit needs to develop a market for urban real estate, and then people can dream.

[ABetterDetroit]

Detroit needs to develop a market for urban real estate, and then people can dream.

¹dream

noun, often attributive \ˈdrēm\: a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep
: an idea or vision that is created in your imagination and that is not real
: something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time

Funny it doesn't say anything about markets for urban real estate or when bham1982 says its ok to.

[Danny]

You completely missed anything I was saying. It's not whether it's pro or anti-development, it's how the development exists. Toronto has numerous examples of the super dense developments adjacent to low-density developments. Regardless of how much demand there is, it's odd development.

http://goo.gl/maps/twIaZ

http://goo.gl/maps/oBLg6

http://goo.gl/maps/FEhyP

http://goo.gl/maps/r5Dss

My assumption is that these low-rise areas were protected, either directly or indirectly and forcing developments adjacent to them to be extremely tall.

The point I was trying to make was that if Detroit hypothetically had some sort of high growth like that [[either in the future or in an alternate past), would neighborhoods like Corktown or Brush Park exist as preserved historical neighborhoods forcing density into other parts of downtown or other neighborhoods, or would all of those neighborhoods be run over with mid-rises and high-rises?

It's going to happen in Detroit as long as Dan Gilbert and his gang has their way. Give it about 30 years. You will see Detroit with high rises and more skyscrapers that rival Windsor, ONT.

[Hermod]

It is still pretty dense compared to Chicago and seems denser than Boston. Houston, Tx is a blip compared in spite of the large metro population.

Looking beyond the yellow blobs, the whole Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Detrot-Chicago-Milwuakee area has a yellowish glow like the Boston-Washington corridor.

[ghettopalmetto]

Almost nothing has been built in recent decades, and the few things that have been built are either anti-urban, massively subsidized, or both.

So, just like Oakland and Macomb Counties, right?

Detroit needs to develop a market for urban real estate, and then people can dream.

I'm glad you know what Detroit "needs" to do. But without dreaming, one becomes horribly restricted by the status quo.