The city has installed a lot of new signs on the River Trail. They look good but there are a lot of them, four just behind my building. No one will be getting lost now! That is for sure.
I noticed some construction going on in southeast corner of Riverfront Park on the River Trail just north of the Shiawassee Street bridge. The parks & rec said it's an "adult fitness" park, which I imagine is just a fancy name for the small outdoor gym. Will be interesting to see what kind of equipment they include.
Across the river in the park they have also started on a new mural over top the one that used to read "Riverfront Park." Looks like a colorful frog mural.
I noticed the signs on the southern parts of the River Trail, South Lansing Pathway, and Sycamore Trail. I agree that they look good. I like that they are quarter-mile markers. Just often enough to be useful but not overwhelming like every tenth of a mile would be.
I just returned from my cabin to find a staging area set up in the parking lot of the Washington Apartments next to the river trail. There has been some collapses of the pavement there maybe they are fixing it.
I think if they constructed better a storm drainage system along the trail by the Washington Avenue bridge they could avoid this problem, the runoff from the paved road behind the apartment building drains right onto the trail and over it into the river causing the erosion of the banks there. The same is true of the area they rebuilt last year by GM, the paved GM road drains onto the trail there during heavy rain, I have noticed there are already areas of erosion of the banks right next to the repaired area. Both areas need storm drains
Speaking of GM Lansing Grand River, a big help all around their property would be reducing the size of their parking and product storage lots. There was some talk maybe five years ago or so taking out some of the parking on the west side of their property along and between Grand River, but it looks like they actually ended up expanding their lots.
I know a corporation wants to spend as little money as absolutely necessary, but putting my planning and environmental hat on, I'd love them to build a product storage garage instead of a surface lot to reduce their footprint. The added avantage for them is that the product would be better protected from the elements during thunder or snowstorms and such while it's waiting to be shipped out.
We need more less impervious surfaces where it's not absolutely necessary. A good example of this was the recent dam-breaks in Midland County. There was fear that downriver front Midland that Saginaw and Bay City would see significant flooding. But the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge ended up absorbing more of the floodwaters than expected and sparing those downriver cities from major flooding.
Mini-rant, but we probably need some stormwater sewers, yet, but we also need GM to "green" their Lansing Grand River Assembly like they did their Lansing Delta Township Assembly across town. It's not that hard; Ford did it with part of the River Rouge plant years ago by planting a green roof. GM could do it, too, if they had the will to do so.
I seem to remember Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar recommending they do something with their parking lots. Maybe it's time to bring this back up with the council...
In my "what would I do, plan for GM" I think they could cover their roofs, product staging lots, and even the employee lots with solar panels like MSU has done at many of their surface-lots. I think they could pull up most of the lots west of MLK and create green belts around the factory plants and parking lots. It would be easy to convert back to industrial use if they needed to. I would like to see GM donate the Olds Administration Buildings[they use them for junk storage now] to the city which could convert and add to them for a new city hall with room for building a new courthouse and police building across the street on the Townsend Street lot next to the river. I would also like to see GM fund Moores Park improvements as a way to make up for taking parkland years ago and turning it into a parking lot. There is one small block of green space at M.X and M.L.K. which is surrounded by seldom-used surface lots. The one with the brick fencing is now only used as a snow dump, think you can see the cement carter around GM from space, yes I think it is time they were asked to do something to improve the area.
Those are all great ideas. There is so much wasted space west of their plant and it's a really bad look for those coming into and leaving Lansing on 496 from MLK.
Comments
Across the river in the park they have also started on a new mural over top the one that used to read "Riverfront Park." Looks like a colorful frog mural.
I know a corporation wants to spend as little money as absolutely necessary, but putting my planning and environmental hat on, I'd love them to build a product storage garage instead of a surface lot to reduce their footprint. The added avantage for them is that the product would be better protected from the elements during thunder or snowstorms and such while it's waiting to be shipped out.
We need more less impervious surfaces where it's not absolutely necessary. A good example of this was the recent dam-breaks in Midland County. There was fear that downriver front Midland that Saginaw and Bay City would see significant flooding. But the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge ended up absorbing more of the floodwaters than expected and sparing those downriver cities from major flooding.
Mini-rant, but we probably need some stormwater sewers, yet, but we also need GM to "green" their Lansing Grand River Assembly like they did their Lansing Delta Township Assembly across town. It's not that hard; Ford did it with part of the River Rouge plant years ago by planting a green roof. GM could do it, too, if they had the will to do so.
I seem to remember Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar recommending they do something with their parking lots. Maybe it's time to bring this back up with the council...