I took the walk towards Potter park on the river trail Sunday. I was interested to see the progress on the "old Knapp's warehouse", down by the Red Cedar. They gutted and cleaned the whole area, and are starting to put in some nice looking windows and the beginning of the inside walls. It looks really good, are they including housing in this building? It would be kind of a cool out of the way but in the middle of everything place to live. The other thing that I noticed on my walk was the utility clear cuts that they have done in this old neighborhood. I may be wrong but they seem more radical then in other areas that may have had someone overseeing how much they were cutting. I know we can't "live" without electricity, no one would ever pay the cost of putting lines underground and all of that, but it looks and feels like they were getting paid by how much they cut down. They also left a mess of limbs and dead vines in the park there. You sure can see where and how the power lines go if you are into that!
No, the warehouse will be reused as a warehouse from what I understand. I'll try to find the time we talked about it on here when they proposed the renovation.
BTW, I think the LSJ did a story on BWL's tree trimming a week or two ago. I didn't read it all, but I think it was basically a story about the balance between keeping the lines clear and not not damaging street aesthetics. The BWL has been way more aggressive than in the past, because they caught a whole lot of hell after the ice storm a few years back, people whining about why they didn't keep the trees trimmed. So, they are basically damned if they do, and damned if they don't. DTE Energy in Metro Detroit had this same debate in recent years.
Seems like the BWL listens to tiny minorities of people,[ the people who said why didn't you cut more] and is a bit thin skinned when it comes to criticism of their actions. I don't see any balance in most of these cuts. Over at the Main Street Apartments they cut down to the stump a whole row of trees, maybe the owner wanted them to, I don't know, but it sure looks drastic. Most streets that had an archway of branches over the street now have half of that and half a line of power poles and lines. It takes a while but I guess one day they trees will fill in.
With the striping finally completed, I got a shot of the block of Shiawassee between Larch and Cedar, which was easily one of the most deteriorated blocks in the entire city. It's so beautiful I nearly cried. lol This street was responsible over months and years tearing up my car's suspension.
A fairly major change? They used the extra space on the sides for bike lanes. Seems like the someone doesn't care, though, and decided to just unload their supply at Riverfront Cycle this morning as if there was still parking out front. lol
Nice, great to see bike lanes put in. The road looks really good. Next step would be to clean up the sidewalks (at least sweep them) and add more placemaking elements like benches.
Those are new bicycles in the truck blocking the bike lane. :-)
If I remember right that was part of the route that was under consideration for the River Trail to Frandor segment instead of bike lanes on Michigan. Hopefully this is the first step towards that. It should help Riverfront Cycle if it is.
It's like a political commentary piece at a modern are museum, isn't it? lol
What was the route to Frandor? I've always wished Shiawassee way back in the day could have been a through-street to the eastern border. It would have made auto traffic on the east side so much better as it'd have picked up some local traffic off of Michigan like Kalamazoo does for the lower eastside. For instance, if you're coming from the west going east and trying to look for parking on the northside of Michigan, you have to do some pretty funky maneuvers, either going all out of the way up to Saginaw and then trying to remember the right north-south street to come down on, or on the other side of the hospital trying to utilize Jerome Street which is supposed to be a quiet residential street.
When I look at googlemaps I can see there could be a bike/pedestrian path to Frandor crossing the green space behind Eastern and LCC HS hooking up with one of the streets like Vine St over to Frandor. It would be a route bike commuters would more likely take to get to downtown from EL as it would be more direct than the river trail. I think that is a great idea and maybe it could have a branch that hooks up with the Fairview Park, Grosebeck, and Bancroft Park.
That pavement is so nice, sometimes when I am on one of the newly paved streets I think how enjoyable and relaxing it would be to drive around Lansing, if all the streets were smooth and newly paved. The new pavement itself really improves the look of the neighborhoods they run through. Be on the look out for utility digs in your favorite new pavement, and report them, like on W. Mt Hope where they repaved about six blocks west of MLK and then dig into the new pavement in about ten places. It was really nice for about 4 or 5 months now it's full of bumps and holes.
I was so mad about that when I was over that way last week. They did the same thing on Kalamazoo in front of the courthouse downtown years ago, now, and haven't fixed it sense. It's bad enough that if you don't know it's there it could mess up your car. I don't know whose responsibility it is, the city or the utility, or if the city does it themselves or contracts out the work, but either way it's a disgrace.
Speaking of street repairs, the city is constantly updating its construction map. Some new projects I see scheduled for next year include reconstructions of (I hope I'm not repeating any of these):
- Michigan Avenue: between Bingham Street in from the Sparrow Hospital to Charles Street where the avenue turns into a boulevard.
- Fairview and Hayford south of Kalamazoo in Urbandale. This seems to have been part of the poject which also did Clemens south of Michigan.
- The extension of the bike lanes on Kalamazoo from Larch west and up the hill to Washington Square.
- A pretty big one is finally the addition of a sidewalk on Dunkel between Jolly and Trappers Cove Trail.
Lots of small and large projects that aren't street reconstruction including some utility work and sidewalk replacements. One of the biggest projects they did this year that wasn't a street reconstruction was actually connecting all traffic signals along Michigan Avenue. Apparently, they will be able to operate the signals from city hall.
Comments
BTW, I think the LSJ did a story on BWL's tree trimming a week or two ago. I didn't read it all, but I think it was basically a story about the balance between keeping the lines clear and not not damaging street aesthetics. The BWL has been way more aggressive than in the past, because they caught a whole lot of hell after the ice storm a few years back, people whining about why they didn't keep the trees trimmed. So, they are basically damned if they do, and damned if they don't. DTE Energy in Metro Detroit had this same debate in recent years.
A fairly major change? They used the extra space on the sides for bike lanes. Seems like the someone doesn't care, though, and decided to just unload their supply at Riverfront Cycle this morning as if there was still parking out front. lol
If I remember right that was part of the route that was under consideration for the River Trail to Frandor segment instead of bike lanes on Michigan. Hopefully this is the first step towards that. It should help Riverfront Cycle if it is.
What was the route to Frandor? I've always wished Shiawassee way back in the day could have been a through-street to the eastern border. It would have made auto traffic on the east side so much better as it'd have picked up some local traffic off of Michigan like Kalamazoo does for the lower eastside. For instance, if you're coming from the west going east and trying to look for parking on the northside of Michigan, you have to do some pretty funky maneuvers, either going all out of the way up to Saginaw and then trying to remember the right north-south street to come down on, or on the other side of the hospital trying to utilize Jerome Street which is supposed to be a quiet residential street.
That pavement is so nice, sometimes when I am on one of the newly paved streets I think how enjoyable and relaxing it would be to drive around Lansing, if all the streets were smooth and newly paved. The new pavement itself really improves the look of the neighborhoods they run through. Be on the look out for utility digs in your favorite new pavement, and report them, like on W. Mt Hope where they repaved about six blocks west of MLK and then dig into the new pavement in about ten places. It was really nice for about 4 or 5 months now it's full of bumps and holes.
Speaking of street repairs, the city is constantly updating its construction map. Some new projects I see scheduled for next year include reconstructions of (I hope I'm not repeating any of these):
- Michigan Avenue: between Bingham Street in from the Sparrow Hospital to Charles Street where the avenue turns into a boulevard.
- Fairview and Hayford south of Kalamazoo in Urbandale. This seems to have been part of the poject which also did Clemens south of Michigan.
- The extension of the bike lanes on Kalamazoo from Larch west and up the hill to Washington Square.
- A pretty big one is finally the addition of a sidewalk on Dunkel between Jolly and Trappers Cove Trail.
Lots of small and large projects that aren't street reconstruction including some utility work and sidewalk replacements. One of the biggest projects they did this year that wasn't a street reconstruction was actually connecting all traffic signals along Michigan Avenue. Apparently, they will be able to operate the signals from city hall.