Kudos, Complaints About Downtown Parking Ban

DETROIT (WWJ) - Unlike last year, this year's North American International Auto Show has ended without embarrassing news stories about expensive cars being ripped off in downtown Detroit.

Detroit Police, reporting 44 car break-ins the week before the ban and zero during the show, are crediting a ban on street parking in the Fox Town area. However, that same ban faced criticism Monday by some members of Detroit City Council.

Councilman James Tate said too many innocent downtown visitors had their vehicles towed.

"I would really appreciate if we would look at that moving forward from a more strategic standpoint -- not just looking at how can we reduce the number of vehicle thefts and vandals, but also how can we not penalize those who we want to make sure stay in the city," Tate said

Councilman Ken Cockrel said while the parking ban was a good idea, it should have been better publicized.

"Clearly, it did work. If it's going to be revisited and maybe executed again at some point, communication really is going to be key because it seems like the big issue is that no one knew about it," said Cockrel..

Police Chief Ralph Godbee said the auto show parking plan will be improved before it is implemented again.