That's good to hear about the sidewalk on Dunckel. I'd like to see at least one side of Aurelius with sidewalks between Mt Hope and Cavanaugh next. I remember reading on the city's website that their current funding level only allows for a half-mile of new sidewalk per year.
I've looked for the article I read about the Downtown to Frandor bike path and I can't find it. I remember it went east along Shiawassee and somehow followed Jerome towards Frandor. Not really much help.
Yeah, Aurelius can be pretty scary for a pedestrian, and even for cyclists as there is no way the city can keep the bike lanes clean since there aren't even curbs in some parts. I wonder if that fact about funding levels was formed before the passage of the roads bill? I'm guessing it was. Municipalities will fairly soon have significantly more money for roads and transit. Hopefully, this will mean more money for sidewalk repair/replacement and expansion than is currently allocated. The edges/fringes of town can be a bit spotty when it comes to sidewalks and curbs and such.
Hey there - I've been a long time viewer of this thread but just recently decided to join the conversations. I appreciate the in-depth info and behind the scenes work that is done to keep people in the loop. Thanks for keeping this going!
I ran into a to a local re-developer while walking my dog in the Cherry Hill neighborhood a few weeks ago. It sounds like 2 or 3 of the apartment buildings and a couple duplexes have been bought up by the same group on E. Hillsdale St., just west of River St. Park. You can see from the street that there is already extensive gutting on one apartment building. Does anyone have more info on this project or the long-term plans for that district?
Welcome to the forum MSUFTW! I didn't know about that project before, thanks for sharing! Do you know the addresses of the apartment buildings / duplexes? If you find that, it's possible to look up some of the details on the Assessor's website. I wish it were possible to find work/construction permits online.
Thanks Jared - 326 E Hillsdale St. is the one apartment building currently being re-developed, and then the next door duplex to the west (322 E Hillsdale), and then I believe the apartment building across the street to the east.
I live over in REOtown and I often travel through Cherry Hill. It is great to see that someone is remodeling these buildings. It is a nice downtown neighborhood, I hope someone will also redevelop the big houses that are for sale up the street. They are architecturally significant historic Victorian era homes that represent the neighborhood that was destroyed by 496 just to the south and west. It could be kind of a happening area with enough reinvestment. The shelter? there is a challenge to some I am sure, but I have never seen anything going on, and most folks are setting around having a smoke. Is that the shelter that puts folks out for the day? I guess I'm not sure what the old Cherry Hill School is.
326 East Hillsdale is registered to a Samuel Aibout and a company called Cherry Hill Improvements, LLC which has an address at Frandor. Never heard of the guy or the company, but good to see smaller developers doing work. Particularly glad to see this area continue to improve. I remember when it was quite rough and decrepit, and it's still rougher the closer you get to the river. The problem like so many neighborhoods is that it increasingly all became rentals, and then subsidized rentals, and then the retail failed, so it feels really isolated. Put on top of all of that that the freeway came through and cut it off from the south. Slowly but surely, however, a few small developers began renovating the old homes and then the construction new apartments up at Grand and St. Joseph has kind of made it a places for workers wanting to live closer to their jobs.
I still think the biggest problem is the lack of general retail up along Grand, Kalamazoo and South Washington. This seems to be the last thing to come back in so many areas that have seen their residential base revitalized, though. Those huge surface parking lots that basically eat up the whole block bound by Grand, Lenawee, Cherry and Hillsdale could really be filled in with retail. In fact, everything downtown south of Kalamazoo is basically absent ANY retail. Maybe it made sense when Davenport was down there to have these lots, but they really eat into and isolate the neighborhood. Parking should be consolidated for the business in this area into a garage to give the neighborhood some breathing room. I know we talked about a plan some years ago to put up a parking garage at the corner of Kalamazoo and Grand that was supposed to be for the Michigan State Police when they were thinking about their headquarters, but I mean even further away like at the corner of Washtenaw and Grand to the northwest.
BTW, unless it's changed tenants, the old Cherry Hill Elementary has been an office building probably for as long as I've been alive. Last I was by the area (it's been awhile), it's largest (only?) tenant was a union local.
Also, an interesting fact, Cherry Hill has a neighborhood association, but the boundaries leave out the blocks south of Hillsdale where the vast bulk of the population lives. lol
Finally, just skipped my mind for a minute but something that may affect how much the city wants to invest down here is the fact that nearly half the neighborhood - basically everything downhill from Cherry Street - lies in the 100-year floodplain.
In the LSJ, today. they have a story detailing that while its increasing pension obligations won't preclude the county from a jail improvement project - and a jail is deperately needed before the feds force a solution on Ingham County - that the obligations remove another option for the county. This basically forces Ingham County to partner up with someone and most likely that partner would be the city. Learning this news gives the city a bit more leverage than I originally thought it had, as the county had kind of been balking at the idea. Now it looks like it will be a necessity that they work with Lansing to find a solution.
It looks like 563 Cherry Street is a drop in center for the Justice in Mental Health organization. I thought I saw the school name over the door, I will take a closer look. Parking lots, why so many? Is there ever a time when these lots are full today? There should be some sort of ordinance that requires re-greening a paved property if it is no longer used for surface parking.
Was back by the Quality Dairy Headquarters building on Mt. Hope, today. I had no idea the exterior renovation was going to be so extensive. Aside from the new paint job, they are putting in new windows which look fantastic and they already have for-lease signs up. Can't believe what a little paint and especially what new windows can do to make something look brand new.
BTW, didn't hit the media, but the city is assing 120 bike racks around town. This is something I'd written the city about years ago; I wanted to see them at least on city-owned property. There are a lot of places you go in town and end up having to illegally tie your bike up to a tree or lampost or soemthing.
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I've looked for the article I read about the Downtown to Frandor bike path and I can't find it. I remember it went east along Shiawassee and somehow followed Jerome towards Frandor. Not really much help.
I ran into a to a local re-developer while walking my dog in the Cherry Hill neighborhood a few weeks ago. It sounds like 2 or 3 of the apartment buildings and a couple duplexes have been bought up by the same group on E. Hillsdale St., just west of River St. Park. You can see from the street that there is already extensive gutting on one apartment building. Does anyone have more info on this project or the long-term plans for that district?
I still think the biggest problem is the lack of general retail up along Grand, Kalamazoo and South Washington. This seems to be the last thing to come back in so many areas that have seen their residential base revitalized, though. Those huge surface parking lots that basically eat up the whole block bound by Grand, Lenawee, Cherry and Hillsdale could really be filled in with retail. In fact, everything downtown south of Kalamazoo is basically absent ANY retail. Maybe it made sense when Davenport was down there to have these lots, but they really eat into and isolate the neighborhood. Parking should be consolidated for the business in this area into a garage to give the neighborhood some breathing room. I know we talked about a plan some years ago to put up a parking garage at the corner of Kalamazoo and Grand that was supposed to be for the Michigan State Police when they were thinking about their headquarters, but I mean even further away like at the corner of Washtenaw and Grand to the northwest.
BTW, unless it's changed tenants, the old Cherry Hill Elementary has been an office building probably for as long as I've been alive. Last I was by the area (it's been awhile), it's largest (only?) tenant was a union local.
Also, an interesting fact, Cherry Hill has a neighborhood association, but the boundaries leave out the blocks south of Hillsdale where the vast bulk of the population lives. lol
Finally, just skipped my mind for a minute but something that may affect how much the city wants to invest down here is the fact that nearly half the neighborhood - basically everything downhill from Cherry Street - lies in the 100-year floodplain.
Something to watch for down the road, I guess.
BTW, didn't hit the media, but the city is assing 120 bike racks around town. This is something I'd written the city about years ago; I wanted to see them at least on city-owned property. There are a lot of places you go in town and end up having to illegally tie your bike up to a tree or lampost or soemthing.