My memory could be fuzzy, but wasn't there a storefront operated out of their factory? Also, is this mural we talking about on the factory building, itself (were would it be?) or are we talking where the old REO Town mural was up on the warehouse nearer the railroad tracks?
In the 60's we would wait for my Dad to get off work at REO we would wait next to the Quality Dairy plant there was not a store there then, I could be wrong but I think the mural is on one of their buildings, it is QD's employee parking lot in front by the tracks. I live in REO town and it would be great to have a store here.
In response to your earlier statement gbinlansing, I would love for more landscaping in the area but I wish Lansing would also maintain some of the landscaping it already has. The rivertrail by the City Market and along Accident Fund is an absolute mess. I think the weeds outnumber the plants. The worst is right before the Shiawasee bridge on the rivertrail where they're about 5 ft. tall.
I feel like they need to address this now more than ever with all these new apartments going up.
I haven't been down that way in awhile, but you do know that the point of redoing the river's edge was to make it more natural, right (replanting natural plants and such for filtration, wildlife habitat)? It's completely possible this particular thing you're talking about is planned and not the result of lack of maintenance.
I don't really care for the way they designed the the waterfront by City Market, and if you can mistake their landscaping for unmaintained, overgrown weeds, many others will also. It's not bad but they could of done better, I'd of preferred they kept the trail closer to the river, like on the Accident Fund side.
This is the thing about the river walk that has been since they built the first one is way did they build that? The first one had huge cement circles under the Shiawassee St Bridge that were suppose to serve what purpose? Now in this version they have a band stand [I guess] that looks OK but did they ever use it for anything? When they show a shot of that area on the channel six weather report it looks like a cement empty area. When you walk through there it's very hot the plantings are minimum and many left to weeds. Why? The area under the bridge is often occupied by what may be homeless men asking for a hand out. I think that could be a bit frightening to women and families. Perhaps we need a conservancy to help with river trail and maybe all Lansing's Parks.
In Boston a charitable conservancy takes care of The Public Gardens and that area looks great with nice plantings no litter good security, across from there The Boston Commons although better lately, has a neglected look about it scruffy grass litter kind of scary looking folks hanging out there. The difference is that the city of Boston only maintains the Commons. There is also a conservancy for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. You often see groups of volunteers there planting flowers and doing maintenance.
Here in Lansing you can see a similar situation on Washington were LCC takes care of the grounds and farther south the city takes care of the grounds. LCC has nice well tended plantings healthy trees that are looked after. Washington Sq the plantings and rain gardens of often neglected some of trees have more bare branches the green. On farther south they planted about one little flat of flowers for each of the green areas on the street. One than two feet over one more in this desert of bark mulch, it looked bad to start and then they let the flowers die. Why even do it if it's done like that?
If we had a charitable friends of the parks group it could help the city beautification of our parks and trails. People could get a tax deduction and maybe volunteer to work at their favorite park. The group could independently hire people to help maintain the parks. Perhaps the city could reopen it's greenhouses and people could help grow next seasons flowers. Maybe offer internships and college credit for working at city parks and gardens. It may never happen but perhaps the city could give people credit off their property taxes for money or time spent beautifying the parks,boulevards and curb sides.
The river trail goes through beautiful wild forests that we are so blessed have right in the middle of our city, the trail is truly a great jewel of a thing that needs to be maintained over every inch. The pavement should smooth and a pleasure to ride on, the fencing also needs to be maintained. I know that tourist would come here just to ride the trails and visit our parks and gardens. If you make nice for tourist you are making it nice for the residents as well.
The same goes for our streets. We build the coolest cars in the world, shouldn't we have the best streets to drive them on?
There is a group that recently started. The Friends of the Lansing River Trail. I believe that their first meeting was earlier this year. One of the points brought up during their initial meeting was how to best allocate the money that was earmarked for trails in Ingham County.
We actually have a lot of bike riders on the trails in the area. You can view the data accumulated from riders on the National Bike Challenge website. There is a map of all miles logged since May. The impact that the river trail has on the Lansing bike scene can be easily seen.
Yeah, there is little wrong with the River Trail, and it's been nationally recognized. There are ways to improve everything (I'd like to see a northward extension that's been talked about for years), and there have been lots of improvements to it beyond extensions. But, really, off the things in danger of falling behind in this town, the River Trail is not even close to being among them. In fact, a lot of the neighborhood parks complain about how much attention the River Trail gets. Cities our size would kill to have the kind of trail we have, with grade seperation through the inner-city.
Anyway, a month or two old and maybe not a major thing, but has anyone else seen Preuss' new signage on its building at night? It's a letter "P" sort of made to look like an abstract fish. It's attached to the northeast corner of the building and slowly changes colors at night; you can see it while driving if you're coming in from the north along Larch or from the east along Grand River. It's really a neat little place-making thing I'd like to see more of.
Yeah, between the Friends of the Rivertrail group and the new $3.5 million per year trails millage, things are looking up for the Rivertrail. That northward expansion is important, as is a westward expansion from Moores Park. I think they claim 20 miles of trail now, it will really get interesting when/if it ties in with the statewide trail system.
Comments
I feel like they need to address this now more than ever with all these new apartments going up.
In Boston a charitable conservancy takes care of The Public Gardens and that area looks great with nice plantings no litter good security, across from there The Boston Commons although better lately, has a neglected look about it scruffy grass litter kind of scary looking folks hanging out there. The difference is that the city of Boston only maintains the Commons. There is also a conservancy for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. You often see groups of volunteers there planting flowers and doing maintenance.
Here in Lansing you can see a similar situation on Washington were LCC takes care of the grounds and farther south the city takes care of the grounds. LCC has nice well tended plantings healthy trees that are looked after. Washington Sq the plantings and rain gardens of often neglected some of trees have more bare branches the green. On farther south they planted about one little flat of flowers for each of the green areas on the street. One than two feet over one more in this desert of bark mulch, it looked bad to start and then they let the flowers die. Why even do it if it's done like that?
If we had a charitable friends of the parks group it could help the city beautification of our parks and trails. People could get a tax deduction and maybe volunteer to work at their favorite park. The group could independently hire people to help maintain the parks. Perhaps the city could reopen it's greenhouses and people could help grow next seasons flowers. Maybe offer internships and college credit for working at city parks and gardens. It may never happen but perhaps the city could give people credit off their property taxes for money or time spent beautifying the parks,boulevards and curb sides.
The river trail goes through beautiful wild forests that we are so blessed have right in the middle of our city, the trail is truly a great jewel of a thing that needs to be maintained over every inch. The pavement should smooth and a pleasure to ride on, the fencing also needs to be maintained. I know that tourist would come here just to ride the trails and visit our parks and gardens. If you make nice for tourist you are making it nice for the residents as well.
The same goes for our streets. We build the coolest cars in the world, shouldn't we have the best streets to drive them on?
We actually have a lot of bike riders on the trails in the area. You can view the data accumulated from riders on the National Bike Challenge website. There is a map of all miles logged since May. The impact that the river trail has on the Lansing bike scene can be easily seen.
Anyway, a month or two old and maybe not a major thing, but has anyone else seen Preuss' new signage on its building at night? It's a letter "P" sort of made to look like an abstract fish. It's attached to the northeast corner of the building and slowly changes colors at night; you can see it while driving if you're coming in from the north along Larch or from the east along Grand River. It's really a neat little place-making thing I'd like to see more of.