You make good points about parking in downtown. That said, I believe Detroit needs a multi-faceted solution to getting people in and out of downtown. It can't just be cars, because as I mentioned in another topic, an auto-centric downtown will almost by rule will be a dead zone for urban vitality. Simply because the parking demands mean that any step developers make towards urban vitality is simultaneously undone by the subsqeuent acquiescing to parking demands.

There's a reason why the strips with smaller 2-4 story urban buildings tend to have the liveliest scenes. When you build a 40 floor office building and intend on everyone driving to it, you've just screwed over an entire block. If you're lucky you'll get an Applebee's out of the deal.

If Detroit wants an urban core, it needs to be accessible by transit. DDOT is in shambles. It isn't the answer right now. It needs to be revamped or we need to create new solutions. Light rail on Woodward should extend to the suburbs. We need BRT in the city that's reliable so people that live in the city can quickly and easily get downtown. It's ridiculous that the people living in Midtown are driving everywhere. That's now how you build a true urban core.

We need to reduce parking demands in Downtown Detroit to make it vital.