Mt Hope from Aurelius to 127 is one of the worst major streets in the area, the only other main street I can think of that's as bad is Jolly from MLK to Waverly (I don't go on the north side much so I can't really speak for roads up that way.) Road maintenance is one thing where Lansing, and Michigan as a whole, lag extremely far behind.
We're coming up to the 10-year anniversary of this site. I can't believe it!
The oldest comments I can find on the site are dated July 30th, 2006. I'd like to organize a couple "walk-arounds" to celebrate.
We can meet up in downtown Lansing and East Lansing, and spend a couple hours walking around the downtowns looking at the buildings, traffic, travel, and talk about what has and hasn't changed in the past 10 years.
I'm thinking of doing these closer to the 10-year anniversary date. Anybody interested?
While I'm not the most enthusiastic person when it comes to social events, if you can get at least a few people on board I'll show up as long as the date/time works for me.
The talk in the Red Cedar Renaissance thread got me thinking about how many of the recent developments were built on land that was previously owned by a municipality.
Of the major developments that come to mind:
* Red Cedar Renaissance
* Accident Fund Headquarters
* Lansing's East Village
* Stonehouse Village III (built on a public parking lot)
* The Outfield
* Stadium District
* Market Place
* Sparrow Expansion on Bingham Elementary
Meanwhile, there have been a fair number of developments on privately owned property.
* Knapps Building
* Eastwood
* SkyVue
* The Arbaugh
* Midtown
* Chandler Crossings expansions
* 504 E Michigan Ave and other mixed-use retail/residential developments on Michigan Ave and Grand River in East Lansing
Do you think the developments on publicly owned land are necessary for our continued growth? Most of the land was sold below market value along with other incentives to developers. As this land runs out (also with no new parks coming online), how do you see the growth of metro Lansing changing? Or, will this be a non-factor?
I think this a good question. I think re purposing already developed urban land is were we will find space for future development. I think there is still a lot of open private land we could develop. I do not think we should sell any park land, in fact should be turning large areas like on the east side in the flood plan back into parks.
I don't have anything inherently against public land being sold or leased for private projects, it depends on all the various circumstances of a particular deal. I also agree with the sentiment that selling parkland is generally a bad idea, but there are exceptions. The Waverly Golf Course was outside the city limits so that's essentially a non factor and a large chunk of Red Cedar will remain a park while the land being sold is all but certain to be more beneficial to the city than the additional parkland would have been.
When it comes to parks, I just want them better maintained, I would love to see a fully improved and well maintained Moores Park in particular. Comstock Park is another that intrigues me, it has a neat old building that's all boarded up, it'd be great to see things like that restored and put back to use. Just about every park in the city could use some significant repairs, improvements and most importantly more reasons for people to use/visit them (I think gbinlansing touched on some of the great amenities in the past at Quintin Park in one of his first posts, bringing back things like that could do amazing things for the city and it's neighborhoods).
While walking in our woodland parks I have noticed great blooms of several different kinds of wild flowers. I think it is the first time I ever saw these little yellow and orange ones called trout lilies. There is also a lot of trillium with big flowers and these little white flowers that smell like gardenias, among other more colorful wildflowers. The verity and size of the flower patches was very impressive and beautiful, check them out before it gets hot again. Also does anyone know a good spot to hunt for morel mushrooms? I have always wanted to find just one!
I "found" two really nice Ingham County parks that I had not visited before. Burchfeild Park in Holt has well marked trails through mature woodlands next to the Grand River. There is a really nice boardwalk along the river on the high bank. Over on the other side of the county Lake Lansing Park North has a surprisingly diverse landscape. lots or rolling hills and ridges then down to swamps and marshes that are crossed with several boardwalks and bridges. We saw a sandhill crane in the marshes, I had never seen such a large bird here and really had to take a double look at it to figure out what kind of bird it was. I really love stuff like that because 50 years ago when I grew up here, there were no sandhill cranes, eagles, or blue birds, white egrets, or blue herons in our parks and rivers. It is notable and a good sign that the environment has improved a great deal.
I am really happy to hear that the rats have moved on. I have never seen one down there. I use to see them all the time in fancy Boston and NYC, and that would always freak me right out, people out there are very "yeah so?" about them. I have seen these little critters that I had to do a double take on because they kind of look like a rat, I think that they must be muskrats,they have otter like features and with a long bodies and tails. One little animal that seems to be doing well are the black squirrels, they were once only found in East Lansing, now I see them all over town. People on the West side have been seeing coyotes, the empty lands over there are prefect for coyotes. Again out east I would hear and see them all the time, the ones that live on Cape Cod are a high breed of red wolf and coyote so they are big and have full coats, not scruffy. They once had a large feral cat population in town but no more.
I was wondering about how and when certain street where rebuilt. South Washington in REOtown is so nice, it is such a relief to turn down that street now framed by green trees and great looking street lamps,the smooth pavement feels and looks great. Also Holmes Road on the south side is also so nice to drive on. Were these projects part of the federal stimulus program, or a state funded programs. Also on some neighborhood streets like Barnes Ave, there was some effort taken there with rotaries and street islands and new curb lines, but there and other neighborhoods it seems they stopped at the curb. Why did they not rebuild the street as well? I guess I am wondering how we can get this road work started around here again. Does the city ever take on road building projects on it's own anymore? Last year they paved six blocks of W. Mt. Hope when the whole of that street from the river to East Lansing needs repaving, why did they stop? Has anyone heard about how the state is going to spend the money [next year] for roads? Let's do it already.
Comments
The oldest comments I can find on the site are dated July 30th, 2006. I'd like to organize a couple "walk-arounds" to celebrate.
We can meet up in downtown Lansing and East Lansing, and spend a couple hours walking around the downtowns looking at the buildings, traffic, travel, and talk about what has and hasn't changed in the past 10 years.
I'm thinking of doing these closer to the 10-year anniversary date. Anybody interested?
Of the major developments that come to mind:
* Red Cedar Renaissance
* Accident Fund Headquarters
* Lansing's East Village
* Stonehouse Village III (built on a public parking lot)
* The Outfield
* Stadium District
* Market Place
* Sparrow Expansion on Bingham Elementary
Meanwhile, there have been a fair number of developments on privately owned property.
* Knapps Building
* Eastwood
* SkyVue
* The Arbaugh
* Midtown
* Chandler Crossings expansions
* 504 E Michigan Ave and other mixed-use retail/residential developments on Michigan Ave and Grand River in East Lansing
Do you think the developments on publicly owned land are necessary for our continued growth? Most of the land was sold below market value along with other incentives to developers. As this land runs out (also with no new parks coming online), how do you see the growth of metro Lansing changing? Or, will this be a non-factor?
When it comes to parks, I just want them better maintained, I would love to see a fully improved and well maintained Moores Park in particular. Comstock Park is another that intrigues me, it has a neat old building that's all boarded up, it'd be great to see things like that restored and put back to use. Just about every park in the city could use some significant repairs, improvements and most importantly more reasons for people to use/visit them (I think gbinlansing touched on some of the great amenities in the past at Quintin Park in one of his first posts, bringing back things like that could do amazing things for the city and it's neighborhoods).