I'm just hoping the 150th anniversary opening date is a typo and that they actually mean 100th. Unless um misunderstanding when the park was created lol.
Looks like the park was opened in 1878 as Third Ward Park, so it is closing in on 150 years old, it was actually reserved as a public square in the original 1847 plat so you could argue it's actually older. The fountain itself was donated 1929 so that's closing in on 100 years.
I'm very happy to see the fountain finally being restored, I hope Reutter can become a little more welcoming to all the new residents in the area.
Ah, I wondered if the park itself may have been older. It definitely has that old public square vibe. It reminds me of the public square parks in the south end of Boston. Obviously a "lite" version lol.
Same about the fountain and the hopes that the park can become a little more welcoming and used by more types of people.
I hope that the park can be a renewed peaceful place for all the people of Lansing. I have written many ideas in the past of how they could make this park a place for everyone including lighting, tree trimming to let in more sunlight and larger flower gardens. Removing the tiniest skating rink and unused playground equipment which detracts from the formal city square park.
While I'm not a fan of the the playground or that stupid skating rink, I will say the formal city park squares in Boston's South End managed to pull off modernization eith play equipment and things. I don't think giving people and families living down there things to do is bad. I think it could help activate the park if they could get other populations to stop making the park so unattractive with their presence and disrespect for it. Anytime they have some event there, the trash cans are overflowing and surrounded by garbage. That skate rink just needs to go though.
You do make a good point about the tree trimming though. It's hard to get a good sightline into the park which makes it also less welcoming. I think more light and better visuals would help a lot. Overall, the city just needs to do better with maintaining its parks.
I've never been to Boston but I think those public squares you speak of are probably a great model to aim for with Reutter Park. I imagine part of that is both more landscaping in the form of flowers and what not, and also more hardscape like those decorative cast iron fences. Another obvious part is getting the people drinking, using drugs, or panhandling out of the park. I think a lot of big cities get pretty aggressive about this, don't they?
I hadn't considered tree trimming there but that's a good point, and it's so easy. I think the underside of the tree canopy in a park like that should feel sort of cathedral-like, I can't imagine that's be hard to achieve there.
I do think having a downtown ice rink would be a great thing (I think reopening Washington Park's ice rink is more important, but that's another argument), but I think it would be best in the Capitol lawn or, more realistically, in the front parking lot of the ballpark along Michigan Ave (I'm partial to the NW corner of Larch & Michigan, it would be high visibility with a nice setting). Being in Riverfront park is an option but you end up further from businesses and street traffic, which probably ends in the thing not being used much.
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I'm just hoping the 150th anniversary opening date is a typo and that they actually mean 100th. Unless um misunderstanding when the park was created lol.
I'm very happy to see the fountain finally being restored, I hope Reutter can become a little more welcoming to all the new residents in the area.
Same about the fountain and the hopes that the park can become a little more welcoming and used by more types of people.
You do make a good point about the tree trimming though. It's hard to get a good sightline into the park which makes it also less welcoming. I think more light and better visuals would help a lot. Overall, the city just needs to do better with maintaining its parks.
I hadn't considered tree trimming there but that's a good point, and it's so easy. I think the underside of the tree canopy in a park like that should feel sort of cathedral-like, I can't imagine that's be hard to achieve there.
I do think having a downtown ice rink would be a great thing (I think reopening Washington Park's ice rink is more important, but that's another argument), but I think it would be best in the Capitol lawn or, more realistically, in the front parking lot of the ballpark along Michigan Ave (I'm partial to the NW corner of Larch & Michigan, it would be high visibility with a nice setting). Being in Riverfront park is an option but you end up further from businesses and street traffic, which probably ends in the thing not being used much.