I've never posted, don't react to posts and very rarely comment on Facebook but do scroll my feed and keep up with family. It's unfortunate how just about everything gets politicized and divvied up between the left and the right, even moreso in recent years when that's meant dealing with increasingly extreme people at every turn. Everyone seems to agree that polarization is a bad, even dangerous trend, yet the trend continues. I think one of my favorite sayings applies: "No individual raindrop believes itself responsible for the flood"
The Lansing subreddit is particularly frustrating for me. They're very group thinky and often don't see the bigger picture. Any attempt to have a reasonable discussion usually results in downvotes due to wrongthink.
All the threads that get like this seem to have a lot of shares. I think people are sharing certain posts to other political activist-type subreddits or outside forums then people from said forums pile on with likes/dislikes. This also happens to anything homeless related, if you dare suggest that the homeless shouldn't be allowed to permanently set up shop in parks and on the river trail you'll see dozens if not 100+ downvotes.
I almost used homeless-related issues as an example. You're 100% right. They'd be fine with the city setting up a shanty town on the Capitol lawn for homeless people, but god forbid any of the local developers actually build an apartment building.
I saw a report about the huge redevelopment of the Grand Rapids riverfront. In includes a soccer stadium, hotels, retail and housing, a new riverwalk with bridges across the Grand River and has had the State funding approved. Wow why can't we dream big like GR? This could be old news, but I just saw the report today.
It's all been a long time coming. I'm (more than) a bit jealous of GR. Over the years I've reluctantly come to realize the lack of vision around here is a community-wide problem, not just city leadership like I wanted to believe. The lack of any major philanthropists doesn't help either.
I think that if all the projects currently proposed actually happen, especially the New Vision stuff, Lansing will finally have some real momentum. Maybe we'll see a boom like began in GR 15 or 20 years ago or Ann Arbor a bit more recently
I feel like people don't often realize just how much larger GR is in every way (urban population, metro, etc). You stack that on top of it being run by a handful of ridiculously wealthy families, and it's just not comparable to us in any real way. It's in a whole other tier; it's in a whole other tier than metro areas its size, in fact, because of that second point.
Yeah, that's always been something I point out to people. Lansing really doesn't have any major benefactors. We've been doing as well as we have been without any wealthy philanthropists, and I think that says something. I also have to point out all the time how much smaller we are than cities were often compared to.
That said, hopefully some of these significant projects do help move us in that direction like hood mentioned.
We really should have some benefactors though. The RE Olds money was squandered. Larry Page is from EL and has done nothing (to my knowledge) for the area, Magic Johnson hasn't done much either. Multiple large insurance companies based here which hasn't resulted in any great philanthropic projects.The guy building the giant house at Walnut Hills is the billionaire owner of Accrisure, the corporate namesake of that new amphitheatre in GR.
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I think that if all the projects currently proposed actually happen, especially the New Vision stuff, Lansing will finally have some real momentum. Maybe we'll see a boom like began in GR 15 or 20 years ago or Ann Arbor a bit more recently
That said, hopefully some of these significant projects do help move us in that direction like hood mentioned.