Print ArticleDowntown Detroit was one of the first cities featured in Metro Jacksonville's Learning From series in 2006. Since that initial article, Detroit has lost 200,000 additional residents, Mayor Kilpatrick has been sentenced to 28 years in prison, and being $18.5 billion in debt, it became the largest municipality in U.S. history to declare bankruptcy. Ignoring the negative national press, Metro Jacksonville's Ennis Davis returns to highlight a few successes this city has made with the ongoing revitalization of its downtown.
Campus Martius Park
The original Campus Martius Park was created in 1805 and covered several acres and was a major gathering area for citizens. The park was lost in the 1900s as the city's downtown was reconfigured to accommodate increased vehicular traffic. Due to a lack of a true park space in the heart of downtown, a new 1.2-acre Campus Martius Park was created in the median of Woodard Avenue in 2004.
It features two performance stages, sculptures, public spaces, a seasonal ice skating rink, and cafe. Today, Campus Martius Park is the home of the annual Motown Winter Blast, an event that has drawn more than 450,000 people to the downtown area every year. The success of this public space should offer hope for the future of Jacksonville's Hemming Plaza.
Comerica Park
Comerica Park is an open-air downtown ballpark that serves as the home of the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball. It replaced historic Tiger Stadium in 2000. It was joined by Ford Field, home to the NFL's Detroit Lions, in 2002. Together, they anchor the northern edge of downtown Detroit and have become major contributors to stimulating foot traffic throughout the city's core.
The major difference between downtown Detroit's sports facilities and Jacksonville's is distance. All of downtown Detroit's sporting venues are well integrated into the city's core. In addition, they are within walking distance of the Detroit Peoplemover and soon to be modern streetcar line. However, downtown Jacksonville doesn't recieve the same benefit from our investment in sports facilities because those venues are located a mile east and multimodal connectivity is limited.
Grand Circus Park
A part of Augustus Woodward's plan to rebuild the city after the fire of 1805, the city established the park in 1850.
Tale of the Tape:
Detroit Population 2013: 688,701 (City); 4,294,983 (Metro) - (incorporated in 1806)
Jacksonville Pop. 2013: 842,583 (City); 1,394,624 (Metro) - (incorporated in 1832)
City population 1950: Jacksonville (204,517); Detroit (1,849,568)
Metropolitan Area Growth rate (2010-2013)
Detroit: ?0.03%
Jacksonville: +3.64%
Urban Area Population (2010 census)
Detroit: 3,734,090 (ranked 11 nationwide)
Jacksonville: 1,065,219 (ranked 40 nationwide)
Urban Area Population Density (2010 census)
Detroit: 2,792.5/sq. mi.
Jacksonville: 2,008.5/sq. mi.
City Population Growth from 2010 to 2013
Detroit: -25,076
Jacksonville: +20,799
City Land Area
Detroit: 138.8 square miles
Jacksonville: 747.0 square miles
Convention Center Exhibition Space:
Detroit: Cobo Center (yb. 1960) - 723,000 square feet
Jacksonville: Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center (1986) - 78,500 square feet
Adjacent to Convention Center:
Detroit: Courtyard Detroit Downtown and Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center (both connected via People Mover)
Jacksonville: N/A
Tallest Building:
Detroit: Renaissance Center - 727 feet
Jacksonville: Bank of America Tower - 617 feet
Fortune 500 companies 2009 (City limits only):
Detroit: General Motors (7), Ally Financial (273), DTE Energy (290)
Jacksonville: CSX (231), Fidelity National Financial (316), Fidelity National Information Services (434)
Urban infill obstacles:
Detroit: Downtown is cut off from nearby neighborhoods and the waterfront by major highways (Jefferson, I-75, I-375, Lodge Freeway)
Jacksonville: State & Union Streets cut off Downtown Jacksonville from Springfield.
Downtown Nightlife:
Detroit: Greektown
Jacksonville: The Elbow
Common Downtown Albatross:
An abundance of surface parking lots
Who's Downtown is more walkable?
Detroit: 93 out of 100, according to walkscore.com
Jacksonville: 73 out of 100, according to walkscore.com
Visual Information
Green = Jacksonville's city limits (current urban core) before consolidation in 1968
Red = Jacksonville's current consolidated city-county limits
Jacksonville's current and original city limit boundaries over Detroit's (highlighted in red).
Article by Ennis Davis
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