Quote Originally Posted by wolverine View Post
Actually it won't create pedestrian density. Businesses do. Even one city block with 2000 residents can be silent. I think downtown can feel vibrant long before highrises go up. .
I don't think you are looking at this properly. What the residents will do a provide a better customer base for whatever businesses might want to open. A major retail area can draw customers from a wider area, as regional malls generally do, and they don't need a lot of nearby residents. But downtown Detroit is no longer a major retail area, it is never going to be able to compete with malls in terms of parking, and most businesses are going to need a critical mass of local customers to be successful. That implies a need for a lot more housing downtown.

The hope is that eventually downtown can get into a virtuous cycle, and you reach a sufficient density of businesses that it becomes a draw [[in conjunction with the other downtown entertainment attractions) that can pull people from outside downtown to shop, but I believe that density cannot be achieved without more local residents.