Ormond Park also had many of its old growth trees cut down to make way for the roadway. Unfortunately these can't be brought back no matter what the courts decide.
I'm pretty upset that Bernero tried to rush this through before he left office. It seems like a big last-minute play to increase LEPFA's control/revenue and take away property from the parks system. Soon LEPFA will probably sell sponsorship rights for the golf course and it will be surrounded by advertising billboards.
LEPFA has eyes on it; the LSJ did a story on them last week or the week before about how he's let them operate in the shadows. Early on I kind of let Virg be Virg and went along with it, and then I saw what the City Market became and I really hopped off the wagon.
I suspect the new mayor will reel them way back in, because it's gotten out of hand. I find the idea that Groesbeck is going to be making money hand-over-first because of a new driveway ludicrous, but it's typical Bernero to push stuff not because it makes much sense, but because he has to show who's the boss. That'll all be over in a few months.
GB, it's funny, because I vaguely remember a QD somewhere along that strip in the early 90's. But, everytime I've brought it up to someone else they don't seem to remember, so I'm thinking it was maybe a false childhood memory.
I am pretty sure there was a retail store where the bottling machines are now. It was the late 70's early 80's when I lived around the corner on Moores River Dr.. I did not go there often my folks still lived on Park Ave. so I went to the Pattengill store, but I can remember buying milk in plastic bags there.
I am not sure why the mayor thinks he should do this right away, but like the sunken garden they cut all those trees down right away so as to say this it happening and there is no going back we already cut down all the trees. There could have been another season in that garden. Any way in regards to the golf course I think it is a great asset to the city to have such a beautiful course, but I am not sure about the demographics of golfers, is that number growing? Should we be subsidizing a game that not that many people in Lansing play? I have written about this before maybe build a new club house off Wood and that building could be part of the LEPFA with function and meeting rooms and leave the golf course under the parks department.
Yes, the idea about building something off of Wood makes a lot more sense to me. But I don't think LEPFA is struggling to find meeting rooms, and I don't think that the city should be in the business of event hosting (excluding the Lansing Center). This is an area where I think private business can handle just fine without subsidies (see Eagle Eye for example).
Well I was thinking that a golf course clubhouse could serve more than one purpose and allow people who are not golfers to enjoy the green space. I'm thinking of weddings, Holiday parties, class reunions not really conventions or business meetings. We have that sort of thing going on in other parks why not at our golf course. I realize that there already private businesses that offer function rooms. It was just a thought on a possible salutation.
I was under the impression Groesbeck has been planning to have a public/community clubhouse for years, but has just never had the money to do it. I'd definitely support something like that so long as the money was funneled directly back into subsidizing the losses on the golf side of things. I can't remember if it ever happened, but they were trying to get a liquor license, and that would definitely pay off. lol
BTW, thanks, GB, for jogging my memory. Yes, the QD was where the bottling plant was just a block or so down from the building that burned. So, yeah, with REO Town having been in a better position it's been in in a long time, I think the area could most definitely support a QD, again.
Saw some things coming back down Michigan this evening.
It appears that workers were busy trying to tip up some treets in front of SkyVue. Also, the traffic lights at the traffic center are fully operational, got caught by the second one. lol Finally, I see the hands are back up on the Boji Tower clock. I've noticed they'd finally turned on the new number markers and hands last night. Anyway, for someone very familiar with it having grown up somewhere where I could look out my window and see them, these new ones are a bit more vivid.
I was reading through the Lansing Planning Board minutes for the first time ever, and got a little more info on the proposed Flats at Prudden Wheel development at Motor Wheels. From reading how it was discussed at their April 4th meeting, it mentions "building_s_" plural. As we know, they are planning them up to a height of 10 stories. Anyway, this confirms they are going for the multiple building approach. They also speak of parking on the first floor and that they are still doing some "modular" development, which makes me think that at least part of this will probably be the container stuff they originally planned for the site. Hopefully, this isn't the high-rise portions. Anyway, found this site already pre-leasing units (https://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Michigan/Lansing/Flats-at-Prudden-Wheel/100033327/). I can't believe Summit Street Partners has not announced this yet. lol
In other news, the planning commission is still drafting and working through the city's proposed changed to Form-Based Code zoning, which is something I'm not sure I remember hearing about. Anyway, FBC is a concept in zoning that focuses less on use and more on massing and appearance. The practical effect of such a switch is that Lansing would become far more mixed-use, as the codes leans towards far more flexibility when considering the use of land. The current Zoning Ordinance is huge, and this would throw it completely out of the window. One of the positives the city brought up at the meeting was that it would prevent anything like Niowave pole barn in the Walnut Neighborhood from having happened. I guess a negative from the perspective of , say, a NIMBY who lived in a detached single family home is that it would likely allow more retail/commercial/businesses uses next to them since it would concentrate more on massing instead of use. On the other hand, it'd likely discourage high-rises outside of downtown since there aren't that many high-rises in the neighborhoods outside of downtown.
The Lansing City Pulse did a great story on the replacing of the clock parts on the Boji Tower. I learned quite a bit. They replaced the old neon tubs with aluminum, which won't rust as quickly so it should last longer. The lands are 10-feet each, and at 25-feet, the clock face is one of the largest in the country and the world, really, for a high-rise building.
The clock is synchronized to the second, using GPS. There will be no need to reset the hands for daylight savings time. If it stops for any reason, the clock will know what time to reset.
This summer’s renovation cost $90,000 — 60 times the clock’s original $1,500 price tag when work began on the face, in December 1934.
At 25 feet across, the Boji clock is the eighth largest in the United States and about as big as they come in the world, Lumichron CEO Ian Macartney said. (The clock face at Big Ben in London is only 23 feet across.)
Also:
Corrosion, rust and brutal weather started attacking the old steel hands as soon as the clock lit up for the first time on Jan. 15, 1935, when the Boji Tower was known as the Olds Tower.
The hands were first removed, repaired and returned to the clock in March 1935, only a few weeks later.
In February 1949, ice jammed the mechanism and the hands came down again. The company that made the original parts, National Time, was already out of business and the owners had to scramble for repairs.
Comments
Ormond Park also had many of its old growth trees cut down to make way for the roadway. Unfortunately these can't be brought back no matter what the courts decide.
I'm pretty upset that Bernero tried to rush this through before he left office. It seems like a big last-minute play to increase LEPFA's control/revenue and take away property from the parks system. Soon LEPFA will probably sell sponsorship rights for the golf course and it will be surrounded by advertising billboards.
LEPFA has eyes on it; the LSJ did a story on them last week or the week before about how he's let them operate in the shadows. Early on I kind of let Virg be Virg and went along with it, and then I saw what the City Market became and I really hopped off the wagon.
I suspect the new mayor will reel them way back in, because it's gotten out of hand. I find the idea that Groesbeck is going to be making money hand-over-first because of a new driveway ludicrous, but it's typical Bernero to push stuff not because it makes much sense, but because he has to show who's the boss. That'll all be over in a few months.
GB, it's funny, because I vaguely remember a QD somewhere along that strip in the early 90's. But, everytime I've brought it up to someone else they don't seem to remember, so I'm thinking it was maybe a false childhood memory.
I am pretty sure there was a retail store where the bottling machines are now. It was the late 70's early 80's when I lived around the corner on Moores River Dr.. I did not go there often my folks still lived on Park Ave. so I went to the Pattengill store, but I can remember buying milk in plastic bags there.
I am not sure why the mayor thinks he should do this right away, but like the sunken garden they cut all those trees down right away so as to say this it happening and there is no going back we already cut down all the trees. There could have been another season in that garden. Any way in regards to the golf course I think it is a great asset to the city to have such a beautiful course, but I am not sure about the demographics of golfers, is that number growing? Should we be subsidizing a game that not that many people in Lansing play? I have written about this before maybe build a new club house off Wood and that building could be part of the LEPFA with function and meeting rooms and leave the golf course under the parks department.
Yes, the idea about building something off of Wood makes a lot more sense to me. But I don't think LEPFA is struggling to find meeting rooms, and I don't think that the city should be in the business of event hosting (excluding the Lansing Center). This is an area where I think private business can handle just fine without subsidies (see Eagle Eye for example).
Well I was thinking that a golf course clubhouse could serve more than one purpose and allow people who are not golfers to enjoy the green space. I'm thinking of weddings, Holiday parties, class reunions not really conventions or business meetings. We have that sort of thing going on in other parks why not at our golf course. I realize that there already private businesses that offer function rooms. It was just a thought on a possible salutation.
I was under the impression Groesbeck has been planning to have a public/community clubhouse for years, but has just never had the money to do it. I'd definitely support something like that so long as the money was funneled directly back into subsidizing the losses on the golf side of things. I can't remember if it ever happened, but they were trying to get a liquor license, and that would definitely pay off. lol
BTW, thanks, GB, for jogging my memory. Yes, the QD was where the bottling plant was just a block or so down from the building that burned. So, yeah, with REO Town having been in a better position it's been in in a long time, I think the area could most definitely support a QD, again.
Saw some things coming back down Michigan this evening.
It appears that workers were busy trying to tip up some treets in front of SkyVue. Also, the traffic lights at the traffic center are fully operational, got caught by the second one. lol Finally, I see the hands are back up on the Boji Tower clock. I've noticed they'd finally turned on the new number markers and hands last night. Anyway, for someone very familiar with it having grown up somewhere where I could look out my window and see them, these new ones are a bit more vivid.
I was reading through the Lansing Planning Board minutes for the first time ever, and got a little more info on the proposed Flats at Prudden Wheel development at Motor Wheels. From reading how it was discussed at their April 4th meeting, it mentions "building_s_" plural. As we know, they are planning them up to a height of 10 stories. Anyway, this confirms they are going for the multiple building approach. They also speak of parking on the first floor and that they are still doing some "modular" development, which makes me think that at least part of this will probably be the container stuff they originally planned for the site. Hopefully, this isn't the high-rise portions. Anyway, found this site already pre-leasing units (https://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Michigan/Lansing/Flats-at-Prudden-Wheel/100033327/). I can't believe Summit Street Partners has not announced this yet. lol
In other news, the planning commission is still drafting and working through the city's proposed changed to Form-Based Code zoning, which is something I'm not sure I remember hearing about. Anyway, FBC is a concept in zoning that focuses less on use and more on massing and appearance. The practical effect of such a switch is that Lansing would become far more mixed-use, as the codes leans towards far more flexibility when considering the use of land. The current Zoning Ordinance is huge, and this would throw it completely out of the window. One of the positives the city brought up at the meeting was that it would prevent anything like Niowave pole barn in the Walnut Neighborhood from having happened. I guess a negative from the perspective of , say, a NIMBY who lived in a detached single family home is that it would likely allow more retail/commercial/businesses uses next to them since it would concentrate more on massing instead of use. On the other hand, it'd likely discourage high-rises outside of downtown since there aren't that many high-rises in the neighborhoods outside of downtown.
The Lansing City Pulse did a great story on the replacing of the clock parts on the Boji Tower. I learned quite a bit. They replaced the old neon tubs with aluminum, which won't rust as quickly so it should last longer. The lands are 10-feet each, and at 25-feet, the clock face is one of the largest in the country and the world, really, for a high-rise building.
Also: