Roads getting blocked off, allies getting blocked off - these were not an issue with the Downtown Hoedown. In addition, at the locations of the downtown Hoedown - Hart Plaza, Comerica Park, and the West Riverfront Park - there are not that many nearby residents [[especially West Riverfront Park, which is surrounded by the river, parking lots, vacant lots, and industrial/small office buildings).
This is a loss for downtown.
The Woodward Dream Cruise is irrelevant to the Hoedown, because they are completely different logistically. The Hoedown takes place in a defined downtown location and took place over a weekend, while the Dream Cruise takes place over a 16 mile long stretch of Woodward Av adjacent to residential neighborhoods over a whole week.
You say the economic impact to Downtown is minimal, but I remember hanging out on a Saturday at the Craft Barrel House when the Hoedown was taking place last year, and a ton of people from the Hoedown came to that bar, and I am sure many other drinking establishments downtown. You could distinguish them because a lot of those people were wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots.
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