The DDA encompasses all or part of 66 blocks, is approximately 271 acres, and is home to approximately 1,200 businesses, a great number of entertainment and educational venues, and approximately 2,800 Ann Arbor residents.

Available Data and Reports Include:

• Parking Materials
• Downtown Benchmarking
• Commuter Survey Report
• Renewal of the DDA Development Plan and Tax Increment Financing Plan
• go!pass Program Evaluation
• Related City Plans
• Related City Task Forces and Projects
• Ann Arbor Rankings

Parking Materials

Report in Sections:

• Table of Contents/Table of Figures (pdf)
• Chapter 1 - Introduction (pdf)
• Chapter 2 - Background Research (pdf)
• Chapter 3 - DDA Managed Parking Inventory (pdf)
• Chapter 4 - Other Inventories (pdf)
• Chapter 5 - Public Involvement (pdf)
• Appendices (pdf)

• Table of Contents/Table of Figures (pdf)
• Introduction/Chapter 1 - Benchmark and Existing Policy Documentation (pdf)
• Chapter 2 - Public Outreach Week #1 (pdf)
• Chapter 3 - Preliminary Recommendations (pdf)
• Chapter 4 - Public Outreach Week #2 (pdf)
• Chapter 5 - Final Recommendations (pdf)
• Appendix A - Implementation Examples (pdf)
• Appendix B - Commuter Bus Farebox Policy Peer Review (pdf)
• Appendix C - In Lieu Fees (pdf)
• Appendix D - Design Guidelines for Parking Facilities in Downtowns/Appendix E - Case Study--Boulder, Co/Appendix F - The 511 Travel Information System (pdf)
• Appendix G - Real-Time On-Street Occupancy Technology/Appendix H - Ordinance Example: Demand-Responsive On-Street Pricing (pdf)

Additional information can be found on the City's A2D2 Comprehensive Parking Strategies page.

Downtown Benchmarking

The DDA collects data from a variety of sources to track the relative health and changing dynamics of downtown Ann Arbor, with reports on a semi-annual basis. Additionally, we have acquired data from East Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids in order to compare Ann Arbor's downtown with these cities' downtowns. We welcome feedback on these reports, as our goal is to make it as useful as possible. Please email us at:dda@a2dda.org.

• Downtown Benchmark Data - through December 2007 (pdf)
• City Comparison - 2005 (pdf)

Commuter Survey Report

• DDA Renewal Plan 2003-2033 (pdf)

go!pass Program Evaluation

A survey of downtown employees prepared for the getDowntown program attempts to quantify the impact of the go!pass program, and also provides a snapshot of workforce demographics and travel patterns. The study indicates that the go!pass program has caused over 10% of pass holders to drive less, not only riding the bus more but also walking or biking to work more. On average, 1,100 trips are made with go!passes every weekday, and the program is estimated to have directly reduced the number of cars entering Ann Arbor every day by over 100. Additionally, the study points to the importance of home location in affecting travel patterns, with respondents indicating that the change that would have the greatest impact in their use of an automobile would be the ability to afford housing near downtown Ann Arbor. The study also examines the days and times at which downtown employees are commuting, where their current home location is, field of employment, and demographic data such as age, gender, and income.

• Evaluation of getDowntown go!pass program, 2005 (pdf) - Jonathan Levine, Urban and Regional Research Collaborative, University of Michigan.Commuter Survey Report

Related City Plans

• Downtown Plan (1988)
• Central Area Plan (1992)

Related City Task Forces and Projects

• A2D2: Ann Arbor Discovering Downtown and downtown zoning information
• Downtown Residential Task Force

Ann Arbor Ranks High In Quality of Life

2008 Rankings and Reports:

• Forbes.com has named the City of Ann Arbor fourth on its annual list of "The Smartest Cities in America."
• Prevention magazine rated Ann Arbor as the third best walking city in America.

• Ann Arbor's own Main Street was voted “Best Main Street in Michigan” by the Automobile Club of Michigan.

• The U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks the University of Michigan 24th among National Universities on their list of the nation's best colleges
• Sperling's BestPlaces ranked Ann Arbor as the 5th Best City to Live in the US
• Expansion Management magazine rated Ann Arbor is the #1 Knowledge Worker Metro in the Nation as well as one of the Top 10 Metros for College-Educated Workers
• Ann Arbor is 11th on Contry Home Magazine's Greenest Places in America list

• Ann Arbor was 3rd on Forbes.com's list of the Top Ten Smartest American Cities
• American Style magazine ranked the Ann Arbor Art Fairs 7th in the nation as well as one of the Top 25 Arts Destinations in the US
• Money Magazine's Best Places to Live list ranked Ann Arbor at 25th

• Ann Arbor ranks 6th on Sperling's BestPlaces due in part to the high per capita income, low unemployment rate, and well educated population.
• Ann Arbor is named the #2 city for healthy pregnancies according to Babyfit.com
• The Concoran Group, a leading east coast real estate firm, rated Ann Arbor as one of the Top 5 Cities to Retire
• Forbes.com ranked Ann Arbor 16th among The Best Places to Start a Business

• In its April issue, Food & Wine Magazine named Zingerman's Delicatessen to its list of the 25 best food markets in the world. San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmers Market was the only other U.S. name on the list. The common factor - the high quality of their products.
• The U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks the University of Michigan as the second-highest ranked public university in the country, following University of California-Berkeley.
• Ann Arbor's Huron High School is among top 100 public high school music programs in the country according to Grammy, the organization that awards recording artists.
• Sperling's Best Places, rates Ann Arbor as the 8th best city for dating because it ranks high in dining out and scores in the 98th percentile for percentage of singles.
• Sperling's Best Places also rated Ann Arbor as the 6th lowest stress city in America.
• The Ann Arbor area ranked as the 6th Best Place to Live according to Frommer's travel guides

• Money magazine rated Ann Arbor as one of the best cities to retire in 2003

• The Media Audit ranked Ann Arbor third in the nation for Internet usage with 70.2 percent of its citizens saying they went online at least once a month. Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin tied for first with 73.4 percent.
• The University of Michigan was second in leading the nation's top 100 research universities in Research and Development spending, according to the Science Foundation report. Private and public-sector investments at U-M totaled $509 million in 1999. This amount helped push the state's spending to more than $18.7 billion, second only to California.
• Ladies Home Journal rated Ann Arbor its #3 city based on crime rate, lifestyle, public school quality, job opportunities, quality health and child care and the number of women in local government.
• AAA Michigan Living magazine readers voted Ann Arbor's Main Street the "Best Main Street in the State"

• Zero Population Growth, the environmental organization, gave Ann Arbor an A+, 13th out of 140 independent cities, for its kid-friendliness. The criteria included safety, unemployment rates, parks, air quality, class size and grades, population growth and good health care
• Ladies Home Journal rated Ann Arbor its #2 city based on crime rate, lifestyle, public school quality, job opportunities, quality health and child care and the number of women in local government.
• The January issue of ING (a financial services company) listed Ann Arbor as the 3rd best place to earn and save money (out of the largest 125 metro areas in the US).
• Ann Arbor was named the 10th Best College Town in the nation by the Princeton Review
• American Style magazine named Ann Arbor 22nd in the nation for Best Arts Destinations

Resources

• Agenda & Minutes
• Data & Reports
• Downtown Links
• Maps