Now I know that right now, we have a hard enough time filling the current buildings that exist downtown, but I also know that our auto-centric focus on transportation and our lack of quality transit options poses another real issue for the downtown area.

I recently came across an article written about a proposal for Portland, Oregon where they were trying to find ways to create an automobile free downtown by 2050. There proposal was to build several massive parking structures that had direct access to freeways. From there, commuters could link to mass transit options or walk to their destinations. The idea is that he availability of parking at these structures would alleviate the need for other parking space and would increase demand for more buildings.

Anyway, I thought it was cool and possibly applicable to Detroit since we already have one parking structure on the periphery of downtown with direct access to the freeway.

http://hugeasscity.com/2010/01/14/th...ark-ride-ever/