New Public Square Brings Life Back to Downtown Detroit

19 December 2005 - 2:00pm

Detroit's new public square, Campus Martius, has brought life back to an infamously moribund downtown.

"Only a year old, Campus Martius has hit a home run with public space advocates, designers and, most important of all, the people of Detroit and surrounding communities. People are coming back downtown to hear concerts, watch outdoor movies, admire the ever-changing flower gardens, delight in the fountains, meet a date at the Park Cafe, or simply sit and relax. A big attraction for everyone is to rub shoulders with all the other people there."

Source: Making Places Newsletter, December 19, 2005
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.