Downtown Detroit used to be full of buildings. But then the auto industry jobs began to disappear, and after a while, so did the buildings. Where there used to be buildings, there are now parking lots. Every lot has a parking attendant booth. Like this one, at Adams and Cass.

Or this one on Cass across from the Leland Hotel.

Or this one on Larned near Beaubien.

Some of these parking lots do okay during the week, thanks to the office workers. But most have to wait for a Tigers game or for the weekend, when they finally fill up with suburbanites who come downtown for the bars or the clubs or to catch a show at the Fox Theater. People park in the lots because parking on the street in Detroit can be iffy. Then again, the lots have dangers of their own. Secret histories. Hidden plot lines that might read like an episode of "Starsky and Hutch" or "The Rockford Files," as the sign hanging on this booth suggests. Lafayette, across from the court house.