Surface parking lots have "spread like a disease" and are "threatening to undermine Detroit's resurgence" was an organization's message during a Friday protest in Detroit's Cadillac Square.

Detroiters for Parking Reform called for a moratorium on new surface parking lots in the greater downtown area. The group says 40% of land used downtown is dedicated to parking in a city where 25% of residents don't have a car available to them.

"World class cities are not defined by how much parking they have," Detroiters for Parking Reform wrote in a news release.

The protest coincided with PARK(ing) Day, an annual event encouraging people to transform metered street parking into temporary mini parks in a gesture calling for action.

Detroiters for Parking Reform rented two spaces near Cadillac Square, where activists gave speeches and set up a park-style hangout. Friday's protest was the first event hosted by the organization founded less than a year ago.

Francis Grunow, one of the organization's founding members, said the group takes issue with how commercial lots are taxed and how developers are often incentivized or forced to build parking lots because of parking minimums set by the city.

He also said the fact that historic buildings are threatened to be demolished to make room for parking and that residents of neighborhoods where municipal parking lots are located often don't benefit from the revenue the lots generate is "problematic."

It was when the Detroit Saturday Night building was slated for demolition to build parking spaces in December when Grunow and a group of friends and professional acquaintances said, "Enough is enough."

"This is a national issue, other cities are just further ahead in addressing it," Detroiters for Parking Reform member Tess Parr said. Major cities across the U.S. — including some rust belt cities, she says — have pushed some of the reforms her group is lobbying.

There is more parking downtown than there ever has been, even with the decrease in population, said Grunow, but despite the lack of high quality public transit in Detroit, there are still ways to get around the city without driving.

"We have too long gone on the idea that it's a car or nothing," he said. "That doesn't need to be the case, even with our current transit options."

Utilizing current transit options — bikes, ride sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, electric scooters, buses, the QLINE and the Detroit People Mover — in addition to responsible parking management with the assistance of technology will alleviate some of Detroit's parking issues, Grunow said.

"DDOT (Detroit Department of Transporation) is improving its bus system with a more efficient schedule and new buses," Grunow said. "Regional transit would further improve this positive trend in transit options, which would mean less of a need for commuter parking."

Detroiters for Parking reform members say their organization urges the city to eliminate minimum parking requirements, rewrite its zoning ordinance, conduct a comprehensive parking study, establish mobility management plans such as subsidized transit passes and on-site bicycle storage, and disallow free parking for downtown tenants.

Group members say these changes will result in increased public space, healthier environmental quality, business development, affordable housing and transportation equity.

The Free Press reported in December that there are about 67,000 parking spaces downtown with prices ranging from $4 to $50 a day. Less than 5% of people in Detroit use public transportation to get to work, where in New York City and Chicago that number is about 30% and 20%, respectively.

The city of Detroit also owns several parking facilities and metered parking spaces throughout greater downtown. The Municipal Parking department earned over $21.7 million in fiscal year 2018-19, raking in a $7 million profit.

Claire Nowak-Boyd, outreach coordinator at Detroit-based Transit Riders United, said it's time to put people before cars in a speech she gave at the event.

"Do we want to use our very limited space to move people or for automobile storage?" she said. "People should come first."

Contact Omar Abdel-Baqui: 313-222-2514 or oabdel-baqui@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarabdelb