It’s easy to measure a downtown by what rises above its buildings and what you read in the press – sky-high cranes, new and shiny investment announcements, and exciting travel headlines. None of these should be taken in stride, but the real test of a city’s health happens at street level. It shows up when people choose to spend time there, when public spaces feel welcoming and safe, when downtown works just as well on an ordinary weekday as it does during a major event, and when major projects are executed in a manner that includes listening to the community and planning for the future.
Detroit’s Downtown is growing rapidly. The main challenge now is making sure this growth and success align with how people use the city every day.
Two DDP leaders recently penned blogs that speak to this in highly different ways but that both demonstrate the breadth of DDP’s work and what our teams are doing to advance the mission.
In his piece, Downtown’s Public Spaces Are Works in Progress — By Design, Downtown Detroit Partnership Chief Public Spaces Officer David Cowan explains the shift in thinking regarding our public spaces. Public spaces must not be treated as finished projects but must evolve alongside the city itself. Beacon Park, Paradise Valley, Capitol Park, and Campus Martius Park are no longer amenities on the margins of development; they are infrastructure. They support social life, wellness, economic activity, and civic identity in ways buildings alone cannot. Campus Martius Park, which now welcomes more than 5 million visitors annually, offers a clear example. It reflects years of intentional investment and stewardship by the DDP – and new thinking for what to expect in the years to come.
This approach is less about redesigning Downtown than about managing success responsibly. Planning ahead ensures that increased visitation strengthens Downtown rather than overwhelming it. Temporary street closures, expanded pedestrian zones, safer crossings, and traffic-calming measures are practical tools that allow public space to expand when demand requires it. Recognizing this, the DDP recently secured a $100,000 Community Placemaking Grant through Project for Public Spaces’ Streets as Places initiative, selected from hundreds of applications nationwide. The goal is straightforward: rethink how streets surrounding Campus Martius Park and Cadillac Square function during Detroit’s busiest periods. I’ll be excited to share the results of this effort in future newsletters.
When one thinks of infrastructure, parks don’t generally come to mind, but the same theory as described above also applies to more traditional infrastructure: Freeways. For decades, American downtowns prioritized moving vehicles through city centers over the people who lived there. Today, many cities – most notably Detroit — are reconsidering that balance, not by eliminating access, but by asking when streets might better serve people instead of cars. This is the work of our Urban Innovation Team, but most notably our efforts regarding I-375 and I-75. Our thinking is captured by DDP’s Urban Innovation Specialist James Fidler in his recap of the recent I-75 Cap Feasibility Study public meeting.
A highway cap is a structural bridge built over the freeway. On top of that bridge, we design public spaces. For I-75, the goal is to reconnect Downtown and Midtown, a major step in creating a more connected city overall. This is not cosmetic. While we believe these new beautiful public spaces will encourage future growth and investment, it is about restoring continuity, honoring history, and designing infrastructure that serves people first and transforms a divisive piece of infrastructure into a connective civic space. As we watch the city transform with billions in investments from Downtown’s Hudson’s Detroit to the District Detroit to Henry Ford Health’s Destination: Grand, we know accessibility and connectivity will be essential. Equally essential is understanding what the community wants and needs from these spaces. As James explains, this is not a top-down approach but a collaboration between planners and the people who will use, work, play, and live near the space.
And in case you missed it, these projects are intrinsically linked to our overall mission to cultivate social and economic impact in Detroit and why the DDP is established as Detroit’s most sophisticated and scalable civic platform, combining economic development, urban innovation, place management, safety, mobility, data analytics, small-business support, and large-scale event execution.
To quote the Project for Public Spaces: “When public spaces are designed, programmed, and managed with participation from the full diversity of the community, they have the power to enhance our health, resilience, civic life, and local economies.”
The DDP’s approach in these areas is less about redesigning Downtown than about managing success responsibly. Growth and change, if left unmanaged, can diminish the experience that attracts people in the first place. Cities that thrive over time share a common trait: they adapt. They revisit assumptions about how streets function, how people gather, and how public investment supports community life. DDP, too, is adapting in real time.