Yeah, basically everything east of Cedar and south of the Red Cedar - save for the major exception of Baker-Donora - has held up pretty well.
Did a streetview and bird's eye view of the Clifton Street entrance to Scott Woods. Yeah, it's tiny, and I can see a significant piece of land owned by the hospital where the parking lot is that they could sell to the city to improve the park.
I use the Clifton Street /Scott Park entrance to the river trail quite often, once in a while the lot is full. The non-wooded part of the park is small as is the parking area. I think taking over some of the old hospital parking lot is a good idea as I would would not want to see them pave over any of the present parkland. The woods in the park look better as they have removed a lot of fallen trees and some live ones for the sewer project, you can see through the woods as there is some open space now through the canopy. It is a cute little neighborhood over there with the small well kept bungalows, I would think they would not really like a larger parking lot at the end of Clifton.
BTW, my Grand Father built his house at 1419 Clifton Street in the late '40s.
I walk through the Scott woods entrance frequently and used to ride the river trail daily when I lived in that neighborhood several years ago. There is plenty of parking all along the street and is quite walkable from the neighborhood. I could see using the hospital parking lot as there is rarely a full parking lot. The sewer pipe through the park really destroyed the park and could have been much narrower of an easement. From the river trail entrance, there is a playground at Mt. Hope elementary that is a 13min walk away and a baseball diamond at Sycamore Park, 18min away. Also, the Hawk island playground is a 20min walk. I wonder what the average walk time to a playground is throughout the city?
They withdrew the request, but someone applied to the Board of Zoning Appeals this month to request a density variance for a 67-unit apartment building on the medical office building property at 1100 West Saginaw at MLK just east of St. Lawrence campus. I suspect that it was the same folks who managed to get through the extension of the West Saginaw commercial corridor authority a few weeks ago, which would allow for more urban development that would be allowed by right.
Anyway, just shows that they seem to be pretty ready to building something on some of these large surface lots on the block. I guess we'll find out more in the coming months.
Just a point of interest, I took a tour of the new Capital View Apartments the other day. It is a very successful renovation, very clean and modern looking. As it is a renovation of a '60s building that was built in the old school brick cement and steel construction style it had a very quiet and solid feel about it. The apartments they had available were too small for us but would be great for a single person, very nice appliances and bathroom with big floor to ceiling windows. On that note I also toured the Knapp's Apartments which were very large and well appointed but the units that they showed had bedrooms and bathrooms with no windows! I have never seen a bedroom with no windows, the leasing agent said it was because of the historic building's former layout. I think they might have come up with some way to have a window in the bedroom but what ever, it was not for me. It also felt a little hunted to me as a boy who grew up going downtown to shop at Knapp's Department Store, I kept trying to picture what department was where as we were walking.
I really didn't expect to see a proposal like that at the St Lawrence Campus but that is a very good sign that they're at least considering it. I really hope to see the historic part of the hospital restored and reused someday, I think it would make sense for Sparrow to move St Lawrence's allotted beds to a campus further west with an emergency room.
Missed this one a few days ago. Park Furniture on West Saginaw near MLK has finally closed. I had no idea that the owner owned five other properties on the block. No wonder the whole block so sh%tty for so long. Hopefully, he sales at a reasonable price so this strip can FINALLY be renovated.
That certainly explains a lot. There's enough nice old buildings over there to give that strip a pretty good chance at success and there's plenty of interesting old houses throughout that neighborhood that will help the cause.
I agree those blocks with the many standing 100 year old buildings could be another "Old Town" center. "West Town" could keep the "town" theme going or maybe "St. Lawrence Town". There are already several anchor businesses like the Rite Ad and El Azteco. If they were to calm the traffic in some way it would help, and perhaps a street and sidewalk makeover similar to REOtown. The current street scape is not funky and old fashion like the walks in Old Town that go up and down the hills there. A new street scape would be a great improvement that would help revitalize this old commercial street.
Comments
Did a streetview and bird's eye view of the Clifton Street entrance to Scott Woods. Yeah, it's tiny, and I can see a significant piece of land owned by the hospital where the parking lot is that they could sell to the city to improve the park.
BTW, my Grand Father built his house at 1419 Clifton Street in the late '40s.
Anyway, just shows that they seem to be pretty ready to building something on some of these large surface lots on the block. I guess we'll find out more in the coming months.
https://www.fox47news.com/neighborhoods/downtown-old-town-reo-town/parks-furniture-in-lansing-closes-after-building-declared-unsafe