In that e-mail, he wrote of the skybridge, "This would be disastrous for our downtown. Instead of an authentic downtown streetscape, this is becoming one big mall, segregating people within the malls and keeping them off the street."

The sentiment is shared by many in the city's urban-planning community, many of whom spoke against the bridge in public hearings. The one council member who voted against the amendments was S�ren Simonsen, an architect.

Council members who supported the amendments countered that the project will be an economic and social boon to downtown. When Taubman officials said several retailers had threatened to pull out if there was no skybridge, the council members worried that denying the amendments would kill the project.

Although Anderson's attempts to sell the air rights to the Trust for Public Land have apparently fallen through because of the nonprofit's lack of resources and precedent for the idea, he is still looking for buyers, either to purchase the air rights or to secure a conservation easement.

He's open to any ideas on how to stymie the bridge, he said: "I'll look at anything."

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com