"Majority's equipment could be moved into a redeveloped Hollister Building, at Washington Square and Allegan Street, where a new restaurant is likely to open next year."
That implies to me that another resturaunt is going to open in the Hollister Building, and it coul possibly use Majority's old equipment.
"We've thought about putting an additional concept there (in Hollister), putting Majority down there and staying where we are."
"Additional concept" would seem to mean a new, different resturaunt, with the other options being moving Majority "as is" to Hollister, and keeping it in Capitol View.
Really, all these statements contradict eachother and none are very clear. The CIty Pulse and LSJ stories are polar opposites almost, and the LSJ story seems confusing in itself. I guess the Boji's intend to remain tight-lipped on everything they do.
Well, at the very least, we're going to see something interesting in the ground floor of the Hollister. That much seems to be clear. BTW, speaking of the Boji's I've been trying to get the exact height of the Boji Tower out of them for years and tried one more time recently, and they gave me yet another number: 330'. It seems even they don't know, or don't want to take the time out to read the prints which I'm sure they have. lol
Thats one think thats for sure, in my emails to John Truscott he hints that there are several tenants lined up. I can't wait to see what the building will look like.
Written by LALEAH FERNANDEZ
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Group hopes to unveil memorial next September
In 1995, Lansing voters rejected renaming Grand Avenue after migrant rights leader Caesar Chavez.
Eleven years later, Chavez will get his due — this time in the form of a memorial statue in front of City Hall.
The Lansing City Council unanimously approved the plan last month, and the representatives from the Capital Area Cesar E. Chavez Commission said it’s just a matter of time until the statue is erected.
“Cesar Chavez walked from Michigan State University to the Capitol, so this is a good place for it to stand,” said Al Salas, a member of the commission who is leading the effort to memorialize Chavez.
The three-sided copper monument will stand 7-feet-6-inches tall and will weigh 2,500 pounds. One side will face the Capitol, the second facing City Hall and the third side facing the Romney Building.
The structure will feature a three-dimensional image of Chavez and biographical information about his life and accomplishments as co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, later known as the United Farm Workers of America.
The commission hopes to unveil the statue by Sept. 16, 2007, which is the 197th anniversary of the “Grito de Dolores,” the call of Mexican independence from Spain.
The estimated cost is upwards of $41,500. The commission has raised $10,000 so far, Salas said. He said the commission is “very comfortable” that it can raise the remaining funds from private donations.
“We shouldn’t have any problem with the funds at all.” Salas said.
A spokesman from Mayor Virg Bernero’s office said there are still some engineering issues to be ironed out, such as the weight of the statue, which would be situated over an underground parking garage.
“It’s a great idea, but there’s some small details that need to be worked out,” said Randy Hannan, Bernero’s deputy chief of staff.
Hannan said the community should also consider the permanence of the memorial’s location, as city officials have made it no secret that they’d like to move City Hall to a more modern location.
“Should we put a memorial in a place that may be a short-term situation? That’s not necessarily a deal breaker, just something to consider,” Hannan said.
Furthermore, the Council may have to revisit the subject, as it failed to hold a public hearing prior to approving the plan. Lansing ordinance No. 1034.09 requires the Council to hold a public hearing prior to approving any memorial on public property.
In 1995, two years after Chavez’s death at the age of 66, the city renamed Grand Avenue in Chavez’s honor, only to have a petition drive put the issue before Lansing voters, who opted to overturn that action the next year.
In response to the public backlash to Chavez Avenue, then-Mayor David Hollister helped create the Chavez commission. The group consists of about a dozen local business and community leaders.
Local labor leader Art Luna, who sits on the Chavez commission, said he doesn’t foresee public opposition to the statue like there was with the avenue in more than a decade ago.
“I think that opposition was based in money to change street addresses and business cards,” Luna said. “I think people will be more supportive of the memorial, and we expect the mayor to approve it.”
John W. Mehling Jr. was a driving force behind the 1995 campaign to overturn the street renaming. He said he knocked on hundreds of doors with a petition to reverse the name back to Grand Avenue.
However, Mehling said last week that he supports the statue.
“It’s about time,” Mehling said. “He was a great man and should be recognized.”
“I was actually hoping to get the Lansing City Market named after him because he was a small farmer, and without him a lot of these migrant workers wouldn’t
have gotten any money at all,” Mehling said.
He said his opposition to changing the street name was because city officials didn’t get enough public input before doing it.
“I just didn’t like the way they went about changing the street — they changed it real quick,” he said. “But I’m supportive of him getting him some honor.”
(Thomas P. Morgan contributed to this article.)
I saw this a few weeks ago on City Council, I believe, and to be quite honest I think the monument will look very tacky. Perhaps I saw and old proposal, but what little I did see looked cheap. BTW, this is not a statue of Chavez, rather a three sided artsy monument like thing. To put it lightly, I wasn't impressed.
I doubt any memorial would look right in front of city hall, unless it had the look of a modern sculpture. I think one of the downtown parks would be a better fit, perhaps Riverfront park, definately not Durant or Ruetter park though, as they are well designed parks that nothing else should be put into them.
There is no word yet on how extensive the damage is, however, I would think that if the brick exterior remains standing the building could be and should be saved.
Went by the site tonight, the building was still smoldering. The thing is lost. The entire top half of the fron facade and the southeast corner has collapsed.
Thats really too bad, I mean REALLY too bad. Even in this building's severely dilapidated state it could have been nice, and this building was one of the few remaining decent sized warehouse/industrial buildings left in Lansing. Most of the others have been lost to "urban renwewal" or fire. On top of that, this area of Kalamazoo already looks all too baren, especially since they demolished that building across the street. I hope that developer had good insurance so they can do something with the property, but I doubt it, it's virtually impossible to get insurance on abandoned buildings.
Here are some shots from earlier, today, by ktppup on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktpupp/). Like I said, the entire southeast corner collapsed or was brought down as the fighterfighters was having trouble getting their equipment in through the borded up windows. I was by there at around 6:30ish and there were crowds watching them try to fully put out the fire.
Comments
That implies to me that another resturaunt is going to open in the Hollister Building, and it coul possibly use Majority's old equipment.
"We've thought about putting an additional concept there (in Hollister), putting Majority down there and staying where we are."
"Additional concept" would seem to mean a new, different resturaunt, with the other options being moving Majority "as is" to Hollister, and keeping it in Capitol View.
Really, all these statements contradict eachother and none are very clear. The CIty Pulse and LSJ stories are polar opposites almost, and the LSJ story seems confusing in itself. I guess the Boji's intend to remain tight-lipped on everything they do.
Commission plans to build downtown Chavez statue
Written by LALEAH FERNANDEZ
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Group hopes to unveil memorial next September
In 1995, Lansing voters rejected renaming Grand Avenue after migrant rights leader Caesar Chavez.
Eleven years later, Chavez will get his due — this time in the form of a memorial statue in front of City Hall.
The Lansing City Council unanimously approved the plan last month, and the representatives from the Capital Area Cesar E. Chavez Commission said it’s just a matter of time until the statue is erected.
“Cesar Chavez walked from Michigan State University to the Capitol, so this is a good place for it to stand,” said Al Salas, a member of the commission who is leading the effort to memorialize Chavez.
The three-sided copper monument will stand 7-feet-6-inches tall and will weigh 2,500 pounds. One side will face the Capitol, the second facing City Hall and the third side facing the Romney Building.
The structure will feature a three-dimensional image of Chavez and biographical information about his life and accomplishments as co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, later known as the United Farm Workers of America.
The commission hopes to unveil the statue by Sept. 16, 2007, which is the 197th anniversary of the “Grito de Dolores,” the call of Mexican independence from Spain.
The estimated cost is upwards of $41,500. The commission has raised $10,000 so far, Salas said. He said the commission is “very comfortable” that it can raise the remaining funds from private donations.
“We shouldn’t have any problem with the funds at all.” Salas said.
A spokesman from Mayor Virg Bernero’s office said there are still some engineering issues to be ironed out, such as the weight of the statue, which would be situated over an underground parking garage.
“It’s a great idea, but there’s some small details that need to be worked out,” said Randy Hannan, Bernero’s deputy chief of staff.
Hannan said the community should also consider the permanence of the memorial’s location, as city officials have made it no secret that they’d like to move City Hall to a more modern location.
“Should we put a memorial in a place that may be a short-term situation? That’s not necessarily a deal breaker, just something to consider,” Hannan said.
Furthermore, the Council may have to revisit the subject, as it failed to hold a public hearing prior to approving the plan. Lansing ordinance No. 1034.09 requires the Council to hold a public hearing prior to approving any memorial on public property.
In 1995, two years after Chavez’s death at the age of 66, the city renamed Grand Avenue in Chavez’s honor, only to have a petition drive put the issue before Lansing voters, who opted to overturn that action the next year.
In response to the public backlash to Chavez Avenue, then-Mayor David Hollister helped create the Chavez commission. The group consists of about a dozen local business and community leaders.
Local labor leader Art Luna, who sits on the Chavez commission, said he doesn’t foresee public opposition to the statue like there was with the avenue in more than a decade ago.
“I think that opposition was based in money to change street addresses and business cards,” Luna said. “I think people will be more supportive of the memorial, and we expect the mayor to approve it.”
John W. Mehling Jr. was a driving force behind the 1995 campaign to overturn the street renaming. He said he knocked on hundreds of doors with a petition to reverse the name back to Grand Avenue.
However, Mehling said last week that he supports the statue.
“It’s about time,” Mehling said. “He was a great man and should be recognized.”
“I was actually hoping to get the Lansing City Market named after him because he was a small farmer, and without him a lot of these migrant workers wouldn’t
have gotten any money at all,” Mehling said.
He said his opposition to changing the street name was because city officials didn’t get enough public input before doing it.
“I just didn’t like the way they went about changing the street — they changed it real quick,” he said. “But I’m supportive of him getting him some honor.”
(Thomas P. Morgan contributed to this article.)
There is no word yet on how extensive the damage is, however, I would think that if the brick exterior remains standing the building could be and should be saved.