I recently found out of one my friends is involved with Artists Avenue. The lofts are small and hipster-ish. Looks like a great place for young trendies.
Yep, they appear really bare-bones, which is why I guess the rent is relatively cheap. It's good to have this kind of price point; not everything can or should be upscale, and I'm glad we're still at the point where all kinds of people can afford the greater downtown area.
Has anyone the old used car lot at the northeast corner of Larch and Saginaw (right in front of Prudden Place) seems to be empty? I've noticed this for a few weeks. I thought that maybe they had moved the cars to shovel out the parking lot or something, but no new cars have been put on the lot in a few weeks. I haven't got close enough to the small building on the back of the site to see if the business is closed and I don't see any for sale signs. I've always hoped these prominent corners would eventually be opened up. Speaking of which, I grew up around this area. The area in between and around the ones ways of Cedar/Larch and Oakland/Saginaw in old planning documents was known as the island. I'm interested in knowing what you guys think of how this area should be redeveloped? Particularly Saginaw has been an absolute eyesore after the bridge and up to the underpass. No street trees, tiny sidewalks that no one feels safe walking on, no uniformity to the street lighting, etc...The problem for the city is that this is a state highway so the city can't just take over the streetscaping, here.
I'd always wanted to see Saginaw go on a diet, here, but that may be a bit unrealistic. What I'd love to see are some uniformally spaced trees and decorative streetlighting. I'd also like to see the state buy some property (from Burger King on the north side of the street and QD on the southside) to widen the sidewalks. I've also really wished QD would put the back of their lot up for sale since the only use it gets is from LCC students who don't want to pay to park on campus. Other than that, it is a complete dead space.
Other than Saginaw, I know the the owner of the property where Arby's used to be on Oakland is trying to make a food court work, but this would be a perfect spot for a small multi-story building spanning the whole block along Oakland with some ground floor retail, maybe something even just two or three stories since its surrounded by a more residential, single-family home neighborhood.
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
Larch Park is an odd park. It's really just a collective backyard for the neighbors on the block, though, the city does regularly perform upkeep there. I guess as a public park, technically, anyone could use it, but I'd bet the neighbors would give you looks as I doubt many (any?) outsiders use it. I never went. I'd be interested in its backstory.
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.
I think the whole one way system of streets was done at a time when fifty or sixty thousand more people lived here
Just a quick correction, Lansing proper is "only" down around 16,800 residents since its peak (and is actually slightly growing, again), and the metropolitan area is bigger than it ever was. The one-ways were put in to move commuters in and out of the downtown area as quickly as possible and was an urban planning trend many cities at the time.
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.
I was thinking about turning Larch and Cedar to two-way, and you really wouldn't need both streets. You'd only need Larch. In fact, I'd maybe keep it one way for automobiles, but maybe add in a transit and/or non-motorized lane. You could even widen the sidewalk on one side of the street or the other. Saginaw is a bit different as it's a state highway, so you'd basically have to keep it the same size, but it could go two-way. Actually, way back at the turn of the milennium, I remember there was actually a proposal to do that and turn Oakland into a pedestrian street for the neighborhoods along it, since it really wouldn't be necessary. That's the thing about these paired one-ways, there isn't enough traffic to justify all four if you decide to go two-way. In this case, Larch and Saginaw would be what you'd use as the new primary traffic routing and then you'd have to decide what exactly to do with Oakland and Cedar.
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.
Comments
https://www.facebook.com/Eastmichiganave/?fref=ts
Has anyone the old used car lot at the northeast corner of Larch and Saginaw (right in front of Prudden Place) seems to be empty? I've noticed this for a few weeks. I thought that maybe they had moved the cars to shovel out the parking lot or something, but no new cars have been put on the lot in a few weeks. I haven't got close enough to the small building on the back of the site to see if the business is closed and I don't see any for sale signs. I've always hoped these prominent corners would eventually be opened up. Speaking of which, I grew up around this area. The area in between and around the ones ways of Cedar/Larch and Oakland/Saginaw in old planning documents was known as the island. I'm interested in knowing what you guys think of how this area should be redeveloped? Particularly Saginaw has been an absolute eyesore after the bridge and up to the underpass. No street trees, tiny sidewalks that no one feels safe walking on, no uniformity to the street lighting, etc...The problem for the city is that this is a state highway so the city can't just take over the streetscaping, here.
I'd always wanted to see Saginaw go on a diet, here, but that may be a bit unrealistic. What I'd love to see are some uniformally spaced trees and decorative streetlighting. I'd also like to see the state buy some property (from Burger King on the north side of the street and QD on the southside) to widen the sidewalks. I've also really wished QD would put the back of their lot up for sale since the only use it gets is from LCC students who don't want to pay to park on campus. Other than that, it is a complete dead space.
Other than Saginaw, I know the the owner of the property where Arby's used to be on Oakland is trying to make a food court work, but this would be a perfect spot for a small multi-story building spanning the whole block along Oakland with some ground floor retail, maybe something even just two or three stories since its surrounded by a more residential, single-family home neighborhood.
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.
Just a quick correction, Lansing proper is "only" down around 16,800 residents since its peak (and is actually slightly growing, again), and the metropolitan area is bigger than it ever was. The one-ways were put in to move commuters in and out of the downtown area as quickly as possible and was an urban planning trend many cities at the time.
This picture from Water Winter Wonderland shows just how wide Washington Sq actually is.