Not sure how feasible it is, but I guess I'd like to see Cedar and Larch converted back to two-way streets through this portion of the city....and then push for more pedestrian oriented development along those corridors from Old Town down to the stadium and Kalamazoo st. Then again, I would probably eliminate every one-way in the city if I could....
Curious what other people think. Also, in looking at the google map of this area I noticed a park that I never knew existed "Larch Park" ???
Btw, Jared - I loosely remember being in the spaces above Stobers 8-9 years ago and it was in good shape and inhabited - it felt like a loft (similar to the style of Artists Ave) with decent materials
I think the whole one way system of streets was done at a time when fifty or sixty thousand more people lived here. Now we see many former four lane streets doing just fine with two and a left turn lane. I could see both Larch and Cedar Street being boulevards. Make the center lane a grass and tree lined median with safer left turn lanes like on Michigan and MLK. The trees could be cedar trees extend those trees and median right trough downtown. That would look so cool to have lines of tall green cedar trees all the way through the city. Build wider sidewalks with those rain garden drains to help separate pedestrians from the traffic. Put in the Lansing style street lamps like on S Washington in REOtown. Even though there are several empty store fronts, S Washington itself looks really nice as a street, and I think that encourages businesses to consider moving there. That could work the same way on Larch, maybe plant larch trees there. They could both be two way streets. Downtown that corridor seems like the perfect place for more mid to high rise buildings. That little slop and high bank at Cedar and Oakland would offer great views of the river and skyline. Perhaps of some sort of incentive to improve business and residential properties. Take down derelict sub standard housing, build new housing. Build a small park in front of the VOA shelter were people could sit and be off the street
On both the Cedar, Larch and Saginaw, Oakland corridors the speed limit could be lowered in the center city area at least. Why does the traffic have race through Lansing at even the posted limit of 40 let alone 50 of 60 mph many travel at.
Yeah, much of the mindshare back in the day was that "wider streets = bigger city", which is part of the reason why Washington Sq is so wide. Washington Sq could actually fit 6 lanes of traffic if the perpendicular parking was converted to lanes. The streets weren't widened to fit capacity or usage, it was more of a "build and they will come", which isn't exactly how it works for roadways.
There aren't any simple answers when it comes to the one way portions of Saginaw/Oakland and Larch/Cedar. It's obvious that making them two way would be best for the neighborhoods and the businesses in the area, but accommodating the traffic is ultimately the most important thing for the community at large. The ability to efficiently move tens of thousands of people in and out of Downtown should be a key selling point to any large companies looking to locate their employees in the area and those two corridors, coupled with 496, are key to quickly moving all those people. There's simply no way accommodate the traffic volume those streets have with a three lane road and I don't see any way that any of those streets could become wider than three lanes at most points, I think even a five lane road may not be adequate for Saginaw.
The problem is that from Seymour to the Oakland-Saginaw junction there's no room to make Saginaw five lanes, much less allow room for right turn lanes or bike lanes, the exception being if you're willing to tear down one side of the street like on MLK, but I think there may be too many valuable structures in the way to do something like that on Saginaw. However, looking at the south side of the street west of Seymour there's not too much important, it wouldn't be totally unreasonable to tear down or move the houses to make way for an expanded street. It kinda makes me curious to know what sort of houses were along MLK where they expanded it to a boulevard.
Thank you for the correct population figures. I was thinking Lansing was up to about 147,000 at the the highest. Still taking 16,000 people off the streets is a lot. The traffic I have found since returning to Lansing just seems to be lighter than I remember in the 60's and 70's. It is an anecdotal observation based on driving around these past 8 months. I do not get out and drive around at five pm but I can see that the traffic is heavy on 496 but moves along and does not really back up unless there is a accident. The traffic on the main streets here seems to travel in packs because of the traffic lights, in between there is often no traffic at all which is great for making lefts. That seems to indicate less cars on the street to me. Of course I know that none of what I have suggested will be done.
Out in Mass. most roads are over capacity all the time except the middle of the night. One thing happens in the wrong place and the system comes to a halt. It is nice to live were the roads [however bad] are under capacity most of the time.
Over On MLK [Logan] they took out the first row of buildings on the west side from the bridge south. There were many small businesses and some of the oldest homes in the neighborhood along the west side of Logan. At our corner at Hammond and Logan there was our local market called Czoback's which was a full service grocery market and a Sonoco gas station. Up the street was what we called the skywalk overpass, it was built in memory of a little boy, Billy MacClintoc[spelling?] who was killed by an auto transport truck at Barnes and Logan, the Barnes Ave School crossing. His family owned the Cadillac dealership and paid to build the pedestrian overpass[the first one]. At Barnes and Logan there was a Bay gas station, another grocery, a hardware, and Probste"s drugstore, then a dinner, a barber, and up the street by Mt. Hope was the Casa Nova restaurant [the pizza taste exactly the same today the best!] at Goodrich,and a big wooden apartment building that housed one of the first Baskin and Robbin's 31 flavors ice cream shops in Lansing. From there on it was little cape and ranch style houses like you see now. So yes they took out the whole neighborhood.
It could also be that in 30 some years driving around Mass., I have a different prospective on heavy traffic. Out there it was rarely fun or relaxing to drive. Here I have found that relaxed feeling just driving around the city, and minuets out of town you can be the only one on the road for miles. That to me is so great.
The urban sprawl along Lake Lansing Road is just the most recent version of the same. I wonder why people love this kind of development so much. Of course I have wondered that since they opened the Lansing and Meridian Malls.
There is a very interesting video posted on today's online LSJ from the 30's dramatically telling the story of the Michigan State Highway Department snow removal efforts "The Roads Must Be Kept Open"! There are some really cool snow plows and shots of winter fun in Michigan 30's style! No I don't remember those days!
The Potter Mill site by Potter Park Zoo on the south side of the river between Pennsylvania and Cedar St is getting reused. It will include 14,500sq ft of retail on the first floor and 23,000sq ft of commercial space on the second floor.
This is a building that I would've never expected to see a renovation, yet here it is getting a new facade and it will occupied by a tenant(s) that makes total sense for the area. It's very good to see an off the beaten path building like this get a new life.
Comments
Curious what other people think. Also, in looking at the google map of this area I noticed a park that I never knew existed "Larch Park" ???
Btw, Jared - I loosely remember being in the spaces above Stobers 8-9 years ago and it was in good shape and inhabited - it felt like a loft (similar to the style of Artists Ave) with decent materials
On both the Cedar, Larch and Saginaw, Oakland corridors the speed limit could be lowered in the center city area at least. Why does the traffic have race through Lansing at even the posted limit of 40 let alone 50 of 60 mph many travel at.
This picture from Water Winter Wonderland shows just how wide Washington Sq actually is.
Out in Mass. most roads are over capacity all the time except the middle of the night. One thing happens in the wrong place and the system comes to a halt. It is nice to live were the roads [however bad] are under capacity most of the time.
Over On MLK [Logan] they took out the first row of buildings on the west side from the bridge south. There were many small businesses and some of the oldest homes in the neighborhood along the west side of Logan. At our corner at Hammond and Logan there was our local market called Czoback's which was a full service grocery market and a Sonoco gas station. Up the street was what we called the skywalk overpass, it was built in memory of a little boy, Billy MacClintoc[spelling?] who was killed by an auto transport truck at Barnes and Logan, the Barnes Ave School crossing. His family owned the Cadillac dealership and paid to build the pedestrian overpass[the first one]. At Barnes and Logan there was a Bay gas station, another grocery, a hardware, and Probste"s drugstore, then a dinner, a barber, and up the street by Mt. Hope was the Casa Nova restaurant [the pizza taste exactly the same today the best!] at Goodrich,and a big wooden apartment building that housed one of the first Baskin and Robbin's 31 flavors ice cream shops in Lansing. From there on it was little cape and ranch style houses like you see now. So yes they took out the whole neighborhood.
The urban sprawl along Lake Lansing Road is just the most recent version of the same. I wonder why people love this kind of development so much. Of course I have wondered that since they opened the Lansing and Meridian Malls.
There is a very interesting video posted on today's online LSJ from the 30's dramatically telling the story of the Michigan State Highway Department snow removal efforts "The Roads Must Be Kept Open"! There are some really cool snow plows and shots of winter fun in Michigan 30's style! No I don't remember those days!
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2016/02/05/25m-project-rehab-former-knapps-warehouse/79870372/