I was kind of surprised when I saw this building seemingly jump up over night from the car on 127, so am glad to be reminded of what it is going to be. It does look large but it also sits on kind of a high ridge on that side of the street so it maybe looks taller than it is.
The photo illustrates really bad [organic perhaps] zoning and street planning of this area. Is this area in Lansing or Lansing Township? I did not really know the 2016 area [it looks a lot different] and I really got lost just trying to get to that roasted chicken place across from Frandor, What a mess of one ways and lights and traffic. It is nice to get a bit down the street in Lansing were the streets have curbs and sidewalks.
The LSJ did a piece on the Lasing School District finally having decided to put the last remaining vacant and underused school buildings it has on the market. Specifically, they want to unload the vacant Otto Middle School and the education center downtown next to the district's headquarters is also up for sale. Originally planned for demolition, the district is now looking for it to be redeveloped. They also want to sale the transportation center, though, I'm not clear on where in the city that is.
Full population figures are out later in the morning, but it appears metro Lansing continues its accelerating growth. For the July 2014 to July 2015 period, the Census is estimating the population having grown to 472,276 (from 470,322) a 0.4% increase and a 1.8% since 2010, which would place it on the level of growth exactly it saw over 2000-2010 (+3.6%).
What's something of note is that unlike in the previous decade, the growth is almost entirlely driven by Ingham County, which added 1,822 (0.64%) last year. Numerically, only five counties in the state gained more population and of Michigan's 83 counties, it ranked 7th in growth. Clinton County - the fastest growing county in the state in the previous decade - has basically continued to stall out only adding 37 people last year. Eaton County's stall also seems to be continuing only adding 95 people. What's really surprising is that Ingham even beat out Washtenaw (Ann Arbor) last year posting nearly the same amount of raw growth and beating it out in percentage growht since it's a smaller county. When the sub-county populations are released this summer, it's going to show continued growth in Lansing proper making it the third year ina row to show population gain for the city, which would be the first consistent gains in years.
Of course these are just estimates and they've been wrong before. For instance, the Census Bureau completely missed the growth in Clinton County during the 00-10 period until the actual count showed it the fastest growing county in the state. But, just anectdotally, the kind of growth that was happening in Bath Township (which drove the county's population) with all of the student apartments has definitely slowed way down. As for Eaton, they were pretty much on the money. I guess its good the growth is now happening in the core county, which means sprawl has slowed down considerably over the 90's and 00's. It'd be nice, however, to see a place like Delta Township for instance start finally filling in the areas around the mall.
We'll just have to wait and see what the second half of the decade holds.
The Census Bureau just posted the information to their website. From what I can see, for the 2014 to 2015 period, natural increase (births minus deaths) was +1,211, domestic migration was -1,428, but that was partially offset by +2,059 international immigration for a total population change of +1,822. This is fairly unusual as most of Michigan (and a lot of places in the north in general) does not have enough international immigration to offset what is almost always net out-migration. Washtenaw County's out-migration, for instance was 2,176 slightly offset by 2,389 in international immigration. Kent County did better having a net positive in-migration, but it's so tiny to be almost inconsequential. The places that are growing in Michigan (and much of the north) are growing from a combination of natural increase and immigration.
BTW, maybe should have saw this coming, but I was a bit surprised to see that Ottawa County, a suburban sprawl county outside Grand Rapids, is poised to pass Ingham County as the 7th largest county in the state before the end of the decade unless patterns change. Shows just how quickly Grand Rapids is sprawling towards the lake.
This is just an observation from my first trip down M-99 to Eaton Rapids. First the road itself is really bad, and the sprawl down that corridor is not really of the quality you see north and east and west. Eaton Rapids looked kind of left behind with unkempt houses and empty mills. Downtown was bit nicer but there was not anything that made me want to get out stop and check out. Just looking at the surface it does seem like southern Eaton county is not growing like Clinton or Ingham.
Yeah, great info and analysis. That +2,059 international immigration number is interesting to me. I wonder how many of these are related to the university....or what other things that are attracting international immigrants (jobs, resettlement programs, family connections). It seems like a really great trend and a significant number of people. In a few years time this could really change the face of the region and in my opinion, make it a more vibrant place.
The last time I was in Toronto I was blown away by how diverse it was, I'd really like to see that here on a smaller scale.
I just received a notice that the feds. approved American Airlines coming to Lansing for a non stop flights to Washington DC and to their Chicago hub. That's great news!
Great, great news. I've been watching annual passenger numbers for the airport, and they keep going up and down and are nowhere there near recession peak. Lansing just can't figure out its airport for some reason. The big culprit is the lack of regional support despite it being a regional asset. I hope they figure it out. There are plenty of smaller city airports that have been able to redo themselves and operate successfully, but Capital Region still hasn't figured it out. I get that the often cheaper Bishop, Detroit Metro, and GR Ford International are short drives, but there is no reason Cherry Capital up in tiny Traverse City (even if it's become more a tourist destination than it used to) has now grown to have over 100,000 more passengers a year than the airport for the capital city of a state of 10 million people. Capital Region has half the numbers it had in 2000 and 2004 despite the region having grown sigificantly since then.
/rant
Anyway, it looks like they are flying straight to Washington National instead of Dulles, which is nice. It looks to be a commuter service as it leaves in the morning and comes back in the evening. This flight has always made sense given that D.C. is the top market for Lansing by far given, but everyone has to make connecting flights, most out of Detroit, I'm sure. I hope the proposal to get a flight to NYC comes back up; we nearly got that one the last time it was around. NYC is the second largest market out of Lansing.
BTW, the LSJ article says that this plan comes with three future flights to Chicago, though the scehdule for those is still in the works. Currently, Lansing sends around 64,000 passengers apiece a year to Detroit and Minneapolis for connections, with Chicago a distant third. This is American Airlines way of virtual Delta monopoly at Capital Region. United is the only other airline out of Capital Region at the moment and they go to Chicago, too.
I travel a fair amount and 9 times out of 10 it's significantly cheaper to fly out of Grand Rapids, cheap enough to justify the extra 40 minute drive. I want to fly out of Lansing, but I'm not willing to subsidize it with excessive airfare. I do check both GRR and LAN when booking, so I give Lansing a chance.
Comments
The photo illustrates really bad [organic perhaps] zoning and street planning of this area. Is this area in Lansing or Lansing Township? I did not really know the 2016 area [it looks a lot different] and I really got lost just trying to get to that roasted chicken place across from Frandor, What a mess of one ways and lights and traffic. It is nice to get a bit down the street in Lansing were the streets have curbs and sidewalks.
What's something of note is that unlike in the previous decade, the growth is almost entirlely driven by Ingham County, which added 1,822 (0.64%) last year. Numerically, only five counties in the state gained more population and of Michigan's 83 counties, it ranked 7th in growth. Clinton County - the fastest growing county in the state in the previous decade - has basically continued to stall out only adding 37 people last year. Eaton County's stall also seems to be continuing only adding 95 people. What's really surprising is that Ingham even beat out Washtenaw (Ann Arbor) last year posting nearly the same amount of raw growth and beating it out in percentage growht since it's a smaller county. When the sub-county populations are released this summer, it's going to show continued growth in Lansing proper making it the third year ina row to show population gain for the city, which would be the first consistent gains in years.
Of course these are just estimates and they've been wrong before. For instance, the Census Bureau completely missed the growth in Clinton County during the 00-10 period until the actual count showed it the fastest growing county in the state. But, just anectdotally, the kind of growth that was happening in Bath Township (which drove the county's population) with all of the student apartments has definitely slowed way down. As for Eaton, they were pretty much on the money. I guess its good the growth is now happening in the core county, which means sprawl has slowed down considerably over the 90's and 00's. It'd be nice, however, to see a place like Delta Township for instance start finally filling in the areas around the mall.
We'll just have to wait and see what the second half of the decade holds.
BTW, maybe should have saw this coming, but I was a bit surprised to see that Ottawa County, a suburban sprawl county outside Grand Rapids, is poised to pass Ingham County as the 7th largest county in the state before the end of the decade unless patterns change. Shows just how quickly Grand Rapids is sprawling towards the lake.
The last time I was in Toronto I was blown away by how diverse it was, I'd really like to see that here on a smaller scale.
/rant
Anyway, it looks like they are flying straight to Washington National instead of Dulles, which is nice. It looks to be a commuter service as it leaves in the morning and comes back in the evening. This flight has always made sense given that D.C. is the top market for Lansing by far given, but everyone has to make connecting flights, most out of Detroit, I'm sure. I hope the proposal to get a flight to NYC comes back up; we nearly got that one the last time it was around. NYC is the second largest market out of Lansing.
BTW, the LSJ article says that this plan comes with three future flights to Chicago, though the scehdule for those is still in the works. Currently, Lansing sends around 64,000 passengers apiece a year to Detroit and Minneapolis for connections, with Chicago a distant third. This is American Airlines way of virtual Delta monopoly at Capital Region. United is the only other airline out of Capital Region at the moment and they go to Chicago, too.