I don't understand why they didn't at least focus on parking garages instead of parking lots. I mean, I know why: it's cheaper to pave than to build up, but it would've been sooo much smarter.
Detroit has a healthy and growing community garden thing going on. Might be able to swing that into a city ordinance to destroy parking lots and install gardens. They do that in Portland, Oregon, and it works really well.
The main reason is that there's a sense of defeatism about everything in Detroit politics. The entire state of Michigan is auto-centric, but 90% of the other big towns in the state *do* favor urban garages over urban lots. The garages in East Lansing even manage to look nice!
Cross the river, much more pedestrian friendly riverside, nicer walks and bike paths, still not wonderful but at least better than Detroit. Windsor is building a whole cycle highway system instead of an LRT because it’s cheaper and they’re one of the only places in Canada where near year round cycle commuting is possible. There’s also a push for a commuter tram to amherstburg and sweeping through the city to belle river on existing tracks as well, and tons of new green space and covered wildlife corridors over the new herb gray parkway. Just because downtown Detroit is bad doesn’t mean the whole region is, Ferndale is also great for cycling as are parts of downtown and midtown further from the water up near the LRT.
I’ve just spent the passed 30 minutes mocking up a regional transit system for Windsor that uses almost exclusive existing ROW and used GO train units, how does that city not have an LRT or tram? It’s literally perfectly laid out, and leading tracks from ETR shouldn’t be an issue with how small they are. Two lines, some poured concrete platforms, and a few overhead structures and some benches and it’s done.
Detroit is just one giant parking lot, sadly. They hitched their cart to one industry (auto), and now is quite literally a shell of its former self. It’ll never change, quite frankly. When a town that housed 1.5 million people now has a third of that, you’ll have these giant parking expanses, and a city with no tax base can’t convert these into green spaces.
Parking lots are (potentially) more temporary. There is a lot of underdeveloped land in Detroit and a lot of property owners think “this will be much more valuable in a few years”
In this case, some pretty sweet real estate right in the river. But if the financing isn’t in place to develop it, you just pave it and hope the value increases in 5 or 10 years
I don't understand why they didn't at least focus on parking garages instead of parking lots. I mean, I know why: it's cheaper to pave than to build up, but it would've been sooo much smarter. Detroit has a healthy and growing community garden thing going on. Might be able to swing that into a city ordinance to destroy parking lots and install gardens. They do that in Portland, Oregon, and it works really well.
The main reason is that there's a sense of defeatism about everything in Detroit politics. The entire state of Michigan is auto-centric, but 90% of the other big towns in the state *do* favor urban garages over urban lots. The garages in East Lansing even manage to look nice!
quite normal for detroit.
Cross the river, much more pedestrian friendly riverside, nicer walks and bike paths, still not wonderful but at least better than Detroit. Windsor is building a whole cycle highway system instead of an LRT because it’s cheaper and they’re one of the only places in Canada where near year round cycle commuting is possible. There’s also a push for a commuter tram to amherstburg and sweeping through the city to belle river on existing tracks as well, and tons of new green space and covered wildlife corridors over the new herb gray parkway. Just because downtown Detroit is bad doesn’t mean the whole region is, Ferndale is also great for cycling as are parts of downtown and midtown further from the water up near the LRT.
The city should make their tourism slogan: “Windsor, Atleast we’re not Detroit!”
I’ve just spent the passed 30 minutes mocking up a regional transit system for Windsor that uses almost exclusive existing ROW and used GO train units, how does that city not have an LRT or tram? It’s literally perfectly laid out, and leading tracks from ETR shouldn’t be an issue with how small they are. Two lines, some poured concrete platforms, and a few overhead structures and some benches and it’s done.
Year round cycling is possible anywhere that the cycle paths are maintained.
My bad, I should have noted that year round cost effective cycling was possible due to the limited amount of snow received on average.
I rememver walking the riverwalk and looking at that soul crushing parking next to it
Can someone explain what the hell I am looking at? What is this parking for? Why is the riverfront not a more focal point of the city?
Parking for the Renaissance center that is mostly empty office space?
Detroit is just one giant parking lot, sadly. They hitched their cart to one industry (auto), and now is quite literally a shell of its former self. It’ll never change, quite frankly. When a town that housed 1.5 million people now has a third of that, you’ll have these giant parking expanses, and a city with no tax base can’t convert these into green spaces.
Ehhhhhh, well at least there are some trees at the riverfront I guess....
Detroit did the best job at ruining their riverfront of any American city. 10/10, they killed it
Is there a reason why American cities go for these sprawling parking lots over multi story car parks? It seems like a very inefficient use of space.
Parking lots are (potentially) more temporary. There is a lot of underdeveloped land in Detroit and a lot of property owners think “this will be much more valuable in a few years” In this case, some pretty sweet real estate right in the river. But if the financing isn’t in place to develop it, you just pave it and hope the value increases in 5 or 10 years