Thank you for your interesting thoughts on the subjects I have brought up. Like you said the drive up Turner is really nice, the landscape is nice rolling fields, big old oak trees covering the roads lots of real farm houses on real farms. The flag issue has been in the news so perhaps that is why we happened to see so many. I just returned to Michigan so maybe it is not that strange, I know there are roads you could dive up in Mass. that would have a few of those flags flying. Poverty and ignorance are the enemy of peace and happiness everywhere. They whole township system around Lansing were set up so those places would be apart from Lansing and still are in some cases. Many people who live there have told me out right that is the reason they live there where they don't have to pay taxes for or send "those people's" children to school. Here in Lansing I have found people are pretty much about getting along. That was been a happy surprise for me and I think this will help Lansing to become an even more successful 21st century city, people are nice here!
I can't wait to hear about the next big thing!
The Lansing School Board is allowing the superintendent to enter into negotiations with Sparrow Hospital to eventually purchase Eastern High School (which will move to a refurbished and expanded Pattengill Middle School). They will allow the Lansing School District five years rent free to relocate the school, and then plan to demolish part of the old school for an employee education facilitiy. While a lot of residents support the proposal in theory, most are saying they'd like the district to wait until they've secured their next millage to go into negotiations.
The LSJ this morning has a story on how Lansing is very nearly becoming a national insurance hub. With nearly 9,000 jobs in the sector, when it reaches 10,000, we'll rank among the other bigs like Hartford, Conneticut in terms of the number of insurance jobs.
Saw this a week or two ago, but the old gas station building - which was always well maintained after it closed down - at the northwest corner of Cedar and Mt. Hope has been sold. I would be really interested to see who bought it and what the plan is, and if they plan to reuse the building on site or redevelop the whole property.
That location at Cedar and Mt Hope could be really good for someone. I wonder what the timeline is on the Walter French redevelopment, that could make the corner much more valuable.
There is still technically a connection at the northeast end of the bridge, but it's actually more a connection between the Lansing Center and the River Trail. The wooden stairs at the southeast corner have been removed. And, while the bridge had been closed off at the southwest corner for years from the boardwalk, the actual connection was still present. Is this permanent or are they simple replacing the connection to the River Trail?
I haven't been on the River Trail by there in quite a while, I'm guessing this was done fairly recently?
I'm glad to see them doing something with the dilapidated sections at least. Allowing unusable sections of the trail remain there abandoned with no intention of reopening them was very dumb. Hopefully they actually have plans to do something here, if not at least they have a clean slate to work with in the future.
The picture was kind of deceptive as it didn't really picture what I was interested in. The part that really interested me was them having removed the entrances and stairs from the eastern ends of the bridge. I guess it's not really that unusual that it you can only access it directly from one point, now, since that's how the eastern ends of both the Shiawassee and Kalamzoo bridges have been; but it's really noticeable
I think Michigan Ave could connect with a path that goes through the museum area and down to the river trail. That whole area of the trail could use an upgrade, as I have suggested lighting under all downtown bridges would make those parts of the trail a place you may want to stop, now they are places you want to get through fast. The lit up under side of the bridges could illuminate the structure which can be kind of cool and artistic.[like on Mich. Ave & 127 soon] it might also be nice if they did rebuild the stairway on the southeast side of Mich. Ave with a bike stand there so bikers could just stop there and head over to Washington for work or lunch. I have also suggested the area could be a setting for push cart type businesses. Selling arts and crafts,hats and scarfs, Lansing and MSU souvenirs, food and beverages,renting bikes. That area could be a staging area for pedicabs that offer river trail tours. Businesses could pay fees that would go toward the river trail. A little commercial activity in a few small areas of the trail would not take away from the natural or scenic beauty and might fill otherwise empty areas with people having fun, and spending money.
I think the photo is the other side of the river from the trail.On the east bank you can still see the steal structure for the original stairs. and the 70's sign pointing the way to Michigan Avenue. Looks bad.
They removed the stairs on the north side of Michigan also? That would be a little surprising as they seemed to be well built.
The riverfront in this area will inevitably see redevelopment so I don't expect them to do some full scale rebuilding of the trail until some development happens there, but they could certainly do a better job maintaining it and perhaps even make some modest improvements in the meantime. I think the idea of adding and area or areas that allow for push cart business and food trucks would be a very simple way to add some vibrancy to the trail. In the more distant future I hope that any developments will allow for some retail fronting the trail, but that'll be a ways off.
Comments
I can't wait to hear about the next big thing!
There is still technically a connection at the northeast end of the bridge, but it's actually more a connection between the Lansing Center and the River Trail. The wooden stairs at the southeast corner have been removed. And, while the bridge had been closed off at the southwest corner for years from the boardwalk, the actual connection was still present. Is this permanent or are they simple replacing the connection to the River Trail?
I'm glad to see them doing something with the dilapidated sections at least. Allowing unusable sections of the trail remain there abandoned with no intention of reopening them was very dumb. Hopefully they actually have plans to do something here, if not at least they have a clean slate to work with in the future.
I think the photo is the other side of the river from the trail.On the east bank you can still see the steal structure for the original stairs. and the 70's sign pointing the way to Michigan Avenue. Looks bad.
The riverfront in this area will inevitably see redevelopment so I don't expect them to do some full scale rebuilding of the trail until some development happens there, but they could certainly do a better job maintaining it and perhaps even make some modest improvements in the meantime. I think the idea of adding and area or areas that allow for push cart business and food trucks would be a very simple way to add some vibrancy to the trail. In the more distant future I hope that any developments will allow for some retail fronting the trail, but that'll be a ways off.