Wayne County thinking of continuing downtown jail. Gilbert writes another letter.

[bailey]

OK.... I'm not going to get into the discussion about what to do with the Fail Jail site...

But I do want to emphasize this.... expand the entertainment disctrict.... Why?

During the our downtown theatre tours in August I had a discussion with one theatre operator who was lamenting that we don't have enough entertainment/visitors to go around as it is... many of the theatres are experiencing a lot of empty nights. Ditto for restaurants nearby.

Due to the problems of filling what we already have... the Gem Theatre no longer does much in the way of shows.... All Night Strut... Forbidden Broadway.... etc.... that's history... the Gem and Century now concentrate on weddings to make ends meet.

Before we decide to grow the district... let's try first to better fill what we already have, rather than end up like the casinos and keep fighting over an ever shrinking piece of the economic pie....

So we should not build any more residential, retail, parking and commercial spaces that aren't theaters because Forbes, Nederlander and Olympia can't book enough shows at their theaters that appeal to local tastes? 30kish will be packing into CoPa to watch the Tigers whenever they're in town. 100k drove out to AA to watch a crap college team play another college team that hasn't won a game in 3 years. 65k will pack FF to watch the [[historically) worst Pro football team in the league play. When's hockey start?

Maybe there just isn't a market here for musicals? Or a market at all for much "theater"? Or maybe they need to evaluate their pricing. In a 5 million person metro area, the issue isn't a lack of market, it's having a product not much of the market gives a shit about. That's a just the reality of the rust belt.

Restaurants will always have dead nights... but you know what makes them less dead? MORE RESIDENTIAL. Which is part of the Gilbert plan.

Gilbert's plan, favored by the building authority, is proposing a $500 million, 1.7 million square-foot development to include residential, hotel, retail and parking units