There's a whole lot of extrapolation in this thread that I don't think makes sense.

Yes, there are people downtown on weekends and evenings and considering that number was zero within memory the increase is enormous. The raw number is most likely not. Yes, retail is shrinking but you can't tell by walking through Somerset or Twelve Oaks, even the second tier malls have plenty of foot traffic whether those people are buying or not.

Divide the hours spent in downtown Detroit by the hours spent at suburban malls, movies and restaurants and downtown might have a single digit percentage. Yes, downtowns are on the upswing but let's not act as if downtown Detroit has the entire metro area crawling all over it every weekend and evening. It does not.

Of course, if you're invested in downtown that's all scarcely relevant because to attract new residents and entertainment dollars you build whatever you think the market will support.