[Jasoncw]

I don't think Spirit Plaza is a good idea and I think it's part of the endless line of the city chasing trendy streetscaping projects, over basic maintenance and general quality.

For basic wayfinding, one would expect Woodward to go all the way to Jefferson. There are also very few roads that cross through downtown from midtown. Woodward and Cass are the only two way streets that do, and Cass ends at Cobo, and now Woodward ends before Jefferson as well. (The same problem exists for going east and west through downtown, the Congress/Larned pair is the closest thing but it doesn't reach the west side of downtown.)

The problem with that area, for pedestrians (and cars as well), is the poor design of the intersections. There's too much left turns and lane merging going on in one area. Blocking off the intersection at Woodward and Jefferson around the fist helped this, and I would personally advocate reconfiguring Jefferson to force Michigan lefts at Woodward and Griswold, and then having some basic attention to detail in consideration of pedestrians (curb extensions at pedestrian crossings, pedestrian refuges between local and freeway lanes, barriers/landscaping, etc.).

And then there's not really any justification for more plaza space in the first place. Hart Plaza and Campus Martius are right there. Woodward has wide enough sidewalks for street furniture and some activation, not to mention the large open areas around the City-County building.

And then as DetroitSky said, there are opportunity costs. There are so many traffic engineering and pedestrian experience and park problems downtown that $800,000 could make more of an impact with.

Also partially related, I think there are too many buses getting funneled in that area. I think either they should all go to the Rosa Parks Transit Center, or they should make another bus station on the east side of downtown.