East Lansing and Lansing competing with each other hurts when trying to build a single solid downtown. Add to that some very fractured governments in the area that are pushing to create their own downtowns (Lansing Township and Bath Township). Having 127 cut right between the two cities creates an easy barrier for students to stop themselves from crossing (I wish 127 would have been built as a sunken and covered freeway for the crossings between Kalamazoo and Saginaw).
Lansing's downtown has been directly hurt by poor long-term development plans that only included office space and failed to include residential. Tons of surface parking lots and failure to incorporate some of the very valuable assets such as the Grand River and connection to MSU.
East Lansing's downtown has been limited by overly restrictive zoning laws that have blocked large scale development from being a possibility. There are too many ordinances that are designed to fight against student housing, which has done nothing but push the students out to the edges of the city.
East Lansing really has Grand Rapids beat when it comes to sporting events (football=70,000; basketball=16,000; etc), but MSU has done a poor job of trying to connect these large attractions to the rest of the city (with the only exception being the new Broad Art Museum). For instance, MSU owns the land across from the Breslin Center, and could easily sell it to a developer who could build a large mixed-use development on the site. Instead the area sits as a surface parking lot now. But it would have been great if MSU had built the Breslin Center closer to Michigan Ave/Grand River.
It's a small thing, but there is a sign on the empty lot west of Grand Traverse Pie Co at Jolly/Okemos saying MSUFCU is going to be building a new branch there.
Good catch, I did notice that too. Interesting is that there is no mention of that location yet on the MSUFCU web site. The new Mason branch is under construction (southside of Mason near Kipp Rd/Cedar St) and is listed in the locations section ('coming soon') on the credit union web site. There also is a second location that opened near Oakland University recently. I wish they would have opened a location in Holt, near Holt Rd perhaps. The nearest locations from Holt are probably the southside/Jolly Rd or Farm Lane branches. Seems like suburbs -- DeWitt, Grand Ledge, Williamston -- would be logical locations for future branches.
Sure Lansing and its downtown has a long way to go and does need work. More mid/high rises are needed, more people need to live downtown, and what about breweries? More shops are needed. More museums and a performing arts center would be nice. The west end of downtown is dull. But along with the critiques we should take pride in its accomplishments. Lansing is home to many of us...
Another small development I noticed is a Family Dollar being built on a large empty lot on the NW corner of Aurelius and Cavanaugh. I almost think it may have something else going in as well because this is a very large lot. It's kind of disappointing as it would have been nice to have a more residential development put in. There is a Dollar General a quarter mile west on Cavanaugh. These dollar stores seem to be popping up all over and I'm not sure how many we need.
I was thinking about this recently and the only other thing I could think of would be for Boji to tear down the Tower parking ramp and build on that lot, parking could become an issue though. He could conceivably do a lease to own on Capitol View, the State is already the largest tenant there anyway.
I've actually grown to like the Farnum building, all the materials seem to be high quality and the interior seems interesting as far as I can see from walking by. I'd like to see a restoration of the building, it shouldn't need anything too extensive as it seems in decent shape.
As for Capitol View I wonder if the senate will need the extra floors? They could put their hearing rooms right at the top since I'm sure they wouldn't want to walk all the way over to Boji.
Comments
Lansing's downtown has been directly hurt by poor long-term development plans that only included office space and failed to include residential. Tons of surface parking lots and failure to incorporate some of the very valuable assets such as the Grand River and connection to MSU.
East Lansing's downtown has been limited by overly restrictive zoning laws that have blocked large scale development from being a possibility. There are too many ordinances that are designed to fight against student housing, which has done nothing but push the students out to the edges of the city.
East Lansing really has Grand Rapids beat when it comes to sporting events (football=70,000; basketball=16,000; etc), but MSU has done a poor job of trying to connect these large attractions to the rest of the city (with the only exception being the new Broad Art Museum). For instance, MSU owns the land across from the Breslin Center, and could easily sell it to a developer who could build a large mixed-use development on the site. Instead the area sits as a surface parking lot now. But it would have been great if MSU had built the Breslin Center closer to Michigan Ave/Grand River.
Lansing downtown
Sure Lansing and its downtown has a long way to go and does need work. More mid/high rises are needed, more people need to live downtown, and what about breweries? More shops are needed. More museums and a performing arts center would be nice. The west end of downtown is dull. But along with the critiques we should take pride in its accomplishments. Lansing is home to many of us...
As for Capitol View I wonder if the senate will need the extra floors? They could put their hearing rooms right at the top since I'm sure they wouldn't want to walk all the way over to Boji.