Wow! As someone who used to live just south of 496 and still a westside resident (further north), that would be a huge win in my mind. I know its just planning, but that seems promising. Just trying to go for a decent walk from that section of neighborhood was such a task and unpleasant.
Going back to Washington and it's potential. I saw this on LinkedIn and it made me thing of possibilities for Washington. I knows it's still vehicle heavy but it seems like a nice way to soften it up. It's such a wide ROW. It used to be five lanes across like the "before" photo so it seems like the space is there. I forget what city this was but I've been in cities with similar conversions and the added vegetation and breaking up of the street is a lot more pleasant as a pedestrian. Just curious what people's thoughts are.
That's fair. It's too bad though. That section could really use at least additional pedestrian crossings with some sort of traffic control to cross St Joe/Malcolm X. A covered section with park space there would be amazing though. Even if it was just a block or something. I've visited Boston plenty, as I had relatives out there, and I know something like the "big dig" isn't something that's happening in Lansing lol. I get the smaller scale but hope they can do more than just downtown areas. Honestly, I don't think I ever took talk of this seriously just because I couldn't see there ever being a budget for it. I guess the funding for a concept has me optimistic to some extent.
It is California...I could probably reverse image search to find what city. When I say 5 lanes, I mean "back in the day", so the lanes were probably narrower. The old photos I've seen show 5 lanes I'm pretty sure and still parking I feel like. Some images look like 4, others look like center turn lanes. The sidewalks were probably narrower but maybe that's okay with more pedestrian space in the "boulevard". Maybe reduced sidewalks might help it feel less desolate? I've attached some photos of what I'm referencing. I always though it's crazy to think there's that much space there. Definitely could be something better than it currently is though...
Wow these pics take me back. I Remember these views very well. Note there is no greenery anywhere! another East Coast refinance for a pedestrian and vehicle use street is in Provincetown where the main street Commercial Street is a narrow one-way street with sidewalks on one side. The street scape is kind of European is the way the buildings are packed together very closely on both sides of the street. the street is also packed with tourist now during much of the year. There is even some parking and up until the '60s was a two-way street! They way they finally came up with a way to handle the needs of the businesses for vehicle traffic and the reality of way many too many people for the sidewalks to handle was to allow large truck deliveries until 11am. then with the trucks off the street regular traffic could easily slowly pass through the town center. After 6pm in the summer they close the street to through traffic allowing the tourist to take over several blocks of the street. It took a long time for this arrangement to come about as old town folks wanted the street open at all times, so the cops would spend each night trying to get thousands of people to stay on the sidewalk. So dumb! I guess my point here is that such a small street can accommodate all this activity the wide street of Washington Avenue has a lot of space that really could be there for pedestrians, vehicles, green space and sidewalk cafes. I do not remember this, but the center lane was a trolly track route which is perhaps why it is so wide. In the '40s through the "60s on the north and south sides of downtown there were rows of parking spaces in the middle of the street in each direction they called the gut! again, the point being there is so much space that could be beautified and made more useful for residents and tourists. I also think the idea of reconnecting the 496 neighborhoods is a great idea. The dig part is already done we would just have to top off the blocks.
GM made sure to put an end to the reasonable and reliable street trolleys and street cars, my dad used talked about taking the Inter-urban out to Lake Lansing [Pine Lake].
The possibility of capping any portion of 496 is huge. Just seeing a fully thought out concept plan will be great, seeing even a block or two actually get capped would be beyond anything I expected to ever see happen here.
Seeing a freeway cap between Grand & Washington would certainly be a boon for my neighborhood, I'd prefer to see a building over the freeway facing at least one side of Washington but it's hard to argue against park space. I think having another cap along part the sunken portion west of MLK would be key to reconnecting that neighborhood south of 496, a couple pedestrian bridges would be at least something though. The eastside is where they could really use a few pedestrian bridges across 496 imo.
Perhaps you meant Sec. of Transportation!
We have talked about topping 496 for a while now, maybe someone has been listening! My dad's service station at Logan and Main was one of the first properties they took over and destroyed. It was very traumatic seeing this process of destruction, it took almost my whole childhood years to complete, they would tear everything down no matter what it was, a little house, a church, a mansion, dig a hole and build a bridge over it. When it was finally done the feeling was very much "this is it! this plain looking highway is what we have all changed our lives and city to build!" I think the whole thing from Grand Ave to the west side at Everett Drive should be covered and also reclaim the huge parking creators along the river from GM where there would be room for replacing that scar, building a new neighborhood of parks housing and businesses that I am sure would spur growth on the west side. Then again, this new regime may have a grudge against Lansing, and Pete B. so I am not holding my hopes too high for this project! it is fun to dream about!
I'm a little worried from the tone of the article that the city is just aiming for a cap over on the west side. While I get their point on feeling that there's some duty to reconnect that neighborhood off Olds/Malcolm X, it's not the most impactful location to focus such an effort imo. This is going to be one of those wait-and-see things.
I don't get down to Detroit often and I did not know that they had covered some of the freeway downtown, or was that the concept drawings, it really looks like grassier version of the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. It may be expensive but not impossible. I would like to see Lansing cover more than just one block for the project to be successful, I would also rather see something like newly developed side streets, rather than something lame like one block cap with some trees and grass. The bridge at S. Washington has more foot traffic than any other and should be the starting point for the capping. I have very rarely seen anyone crossing at MLK as there at this point are not many people left in that area so I think a one block project would not be used much and would be kind of waste. When they "mall-ed" N. Washington it was really not well thought out as to who and where the people would come from that would sit and stroll around the mall when there were few shops and no restaurants no housing, mainly it was just a brutalist cement concept with some office buildings that everyone left as soon as they could via 496 that I think was never going to work. So, let's not do that again!
@MichMatters When we're talking caps, just realize that we're most likely talking a few blocks at the eastern end of downtown (Grand, Washington, Capitol); it'd definitely won't be a full tunnel, which requires a complicated ventilation, drainage, emergenecy...systems. There was a mock-up by Dymaxion somewhere on the forum here some years back showing a concept of this.
Comments
Going back to Washington and it's potential. I saw this on LinkedIn and it made me thing of possibilities for Washington. I knows it's still vehicle heavy but it seems like a nice way to soften it up. It's such a wide ROW. It used to be five lanes across like the "before" photo so it seems like the space is there. I forget what city this was but I've been in cities with similar conversions and the added vegetation and breaking up of the street is a lot more pleasant as a pedestrian. Just curious what people's thoughts are.
It is California...I could probably reverse image search to find what city. When I say 5 lanes, I mean "back in the day", so the lanes were probably narrower. The old photos I've seen show 5 lanes I'm pretty sure and still parking I feel like. Some images look like 4, others look like center turn lanes. The sidewalks were probably narrower but maybe that's okay with more pedestrian space in the "boulevard". Maybe reduced sidewalks might help it feel less desolate? I've attached some photos of what I'm referencing. I always though it's crazy to think there's that much space there. Definitely could be something better than it currently is though...
We have talked about topping 496 for a while now, maybe someone has been listening! My dad's service station at Logan and Main was one of the first properties they took over and destroyed. It was very traumatic seeing this process of destruction, it took almost my whole childhood years to complete, they would tear everything down no matter what it was, a little house, a church, a mansion, dig a hole and build a bridge over it. When it was finally done the feeling was very much "this is it! this plain looking highway is what we have all changed our lives and city to build!" I think the whole thing from Grand Ave to the west side at Everett Drive should be covered and also reclaim the huge parking creators along the river from GM where there would be room for replacing that scar, building a new neighborhood of parks housing and businesses that I am sure would spur growth on the west side. Then again, this new regime may have a grudge against Lansing, and Pete B. so I am not holding my hopes too high for this project! it is fun to dream about!
This is the concept you might be remembering, halfway down under "Mid Town Concept"
https://www.lansingoz.com/theproject