November 30, 2000

Becky Drumman

Detroit has experienced a dramatic change. The city now has three casinos that are earning millions of dollars in business each day. That means more taxes for the city and state, and should lower the burden on the residents in providing for the cities funding. However, an unforeseen downside to this development has been the lack of parking available to those people who are not casino patrons. This would include city; county or state employees stationed downtown, in addition to the many private employed individuals each day. Moreover, people who visit one of these government offices, use the courts or patronize the private business establishments or some that are in need of parking for other reasons. Casino patrons get valet service while those who work in the city, ultimately supporting all the businesses downtown, are walking.

Before November, only two casinos were open for business. MGM Grand and Motor City Casino. Each is located in a portion of the downtown area that is not highly used by those who frequent downtown on a daily basis, whether for employment or other forms of business and pleasure and each of them built parking to accommodate their expected patrons. The Greektown Casino which opened on November 10th is located in the Greektown area which is between several state, city and county offices where many workers require parking and those persons who must visit those offices need temporary daily parking. Almost to the day that Greektown opened its casino, parking fares escalated and private management companies refused parking to non-casino patrons or raised rates sometimes doubling the former fee. What was fifty to a hundred dollars a month became two hundred or more per month. Daily rates went from as low as three dollars to seven in the less congested areas with the high volume areas having rates above the ten to fifteen dollar limit. Now those former parking customers are scrambling to either meet the higher costs or find alternative parking. If people are unable to expense the parking costs or if a company does not make arrangements with the parking structures for their employees or steady clients then its up to the individual to look to the alternatives. And it seems that alternatives for those who are not interested in pursuing casino gaming was far from the minds of the city officials when they chose the temporary casino locations. The Greektown casino also relied on a preexisting parking structure in the Greektown area, the Greektown Garage, that has on its own prior to casino traffic, filled up during the day and night. This made it difficult for the non-casino patrons to find affordable parking.

Late last year, the Detroit City Council held a discussion about the parking situation. They heard from different city officials including Municipal Parking Director Ronald Ruffin. He indicated that there is nothing the city can do to alleviate the problem commuters are experiencing. He stated that the parking structure currently under construction at the former Hudsons building location will be finished by next fall and should then offer some relief. Ruffin estimates that the city needs eight to ten thousand more spaces to meet current demand. With daily rates doubling, or higher at private lots, the city needs immediate help. There are less than eleven garages and six lots in the central downtown area, as surrounded by the Lodge, the Chrysler and Fisher freeways. Not all of these are opened 24 hours, such as the Cobo parking areas and some surface lots close at six o’clock. Some of these garages, are now occupied by casino patrons. In addition, the Kennedy Square garage is about to undergo a total rebuilding which will last through next summer making it unavailable during the peak months. Parking is scattered throughout the downtown area, which is convenient for those who need to park all over downtown but not to those needing extra spaces in the current high traveled areas. With promises of companies like Compuware and others moving into the buildings now planned for construction in the next two years. The city can expect things to get worse before they get better. Heavily congested cities like Chicago have daily rates as high as $30 in the immediate downtown area and monthly fees can top $300. Chicago has always been considered, world class, so their model for parking is probably Detroit's future. Then Chicago has a better transit system to supplement their commuter traffic. Demonstrating that other large cities have a plan for accommodating their commuters. On top of this the city is planning, or hoping, for more people to live in the downtown area. Older buildings are being remodeled to house loft apartments, new condominiums are going up downtown but no new parking is planned to park the new assumed cars. IN order to keep people on foot in these downtown home dwellings the needs of people who live downtown will have to be met. Food markets, clothing stores, pharmacies and other stores that people use everyday will have to locate downtown within waling distance. Thus far, no company or city official has come forth to announce any such project.

For people who work downtown there are now shuttles which will transport them from lots outside of the downtown area to specific locations inside the downtown freeway loop. However, this could be a problem and an inconvenience. This arrangement is predicated on the fact that most people leave their car in the morning and then return to it in the evening. Problems could occur if people need their vehicles when the shuttles are not running or when they must wait for a shuttle to return. Then there is the possibility that a person may miss a shuttle and then must walk to where they have parked their car. In emergencies this could be a detriment to employers if an employee cannot get to their car quickly. Already people who addressed the council have asked about the need to get quickly to their car to pick up their child from school in case of an emergency. Then there is the possibility that the further someone parks outside of the immediate downtown area the greater the risk of vandalism or theft of the car, its contents or attempts on the driver. A question by the council should have been what happens if a city employee who parks near the lots by Tiger Stadium and takes one of the shuttles, has to work late missing the last shuttle and then is accosted on their way to their car. In the winter months in Detroit it gets dark around four p.m. and few people like to walk by abandoned buildings even in broad daylight. Also with the heavy snow, not all walkways are well kept.

Other problems by those who addressed the council came from small businesses who are located downtown and have relied on customers who need convenient. One thing that Detroit does efficiently is ticketing those at an expired meter. Meters no longer allow all day or extended parking. Small business owners’ fear that their business could suffer because of Detroit’s parking crunch and the ensuing higher structure and lot rates. This problem could be exacerbated when the people mover partially shuts down when GM removes the HVAC structures facing Jefferson that the people mover uses as support for its track.

The parking discussions held by council during the week of November 27 did little as far as finding any solutions. There will most likely remain a parking crunch that will be dramatically affected when big events move into the downtown area. In January, there is the Auto Show and then shortly thereafter the Tigers open their new season. Then the summer months bring the Hart Plaza ethnic festivals with the Fourth of July fireworks that draw millions of people. Furthermore Detroit celebrates its three-hundredth anniversary this summer adding more people to downtown than during previous summer months. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer once stated that he would be glad to see traffic jams downtown. That is not necessarily a good indication that the downtown area is attracting more people. Many parts of downtown Detroit still are unused and abandoned. Only a few pockets are close to being fully used and with no publicly produced plan to spread the people out over the entire downtown area there doesn't seem to be a cure on the horizon. In addition, the talks of any type of mass transit system moving into and out of downtown Detroit have slowed. Even the idea of installing light commuter rail between Pontiac and Detroit is no longer mentioned. And the proposed redesign of I-375 could prevent light the aforementioned light rail project. There is a glimmer of hope for the future. The casinos are currently in their temporary locations and if they ever move to the permanent spots on the riverfront then the immediate downtown area will again have multiple spaces to use. Nevertheless, just this month Dennis Archer asked the city council to grant the city a one year extension to the agreement to acquire land for the permanent casinos. Recently WWJ, AM 950, reported that the Greektown parking attendants stated that they are not allowed to comment to the media when they were questioned about the availability of parking and the pricing during the Auto Show. The station reporters were asking about the influx of reporters for the pre-events when the press is allowed to view the exhibits. With the new millennium brings new problems.