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Saying No to Surface Parking in Downtown Detroit

Multiple proposals to demolish downtown buildings and put up surface parking lots are meeting resistance.

1 minute read

February 8, 2018, 9:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


The Little Caesars Arena under construction in April 2017. | Linda Parton / Shutterstock

"Downtown Detroit needs many things," writes John Gallagher. "More surface parking lots are not among them."

Gallagher, in a bit of a respite from a long history of reporting the news of the changes underway in Downtown Detroit, is providing this opinion in reaction to a a proposal by the Illitch family's development company to demolish buildings near the new Little Caesars Arena to make room for more surface parking lots.

But that's not the only place where plans are being made for surface parking. In fact, writes Gallagher, his distaste for the idea of more surface parking also "goes for vacant residential buildings on Cass near Interstate 75 that are the focus of a preservation fight just now, as well as other structures in the area that appear to be threatened with demolition."

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