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The_Lansing_Magnate

The_Lansing_Magnate

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The_Lansing_Magnate
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  • Yes, from what I've seen the Allen Farmers Market is doing OK, better than The City Market at this point. Bottom line is if Flint can have successful new farmers market, than Lansing can too. I've really been trying to think of what Flint did bet…
  • In bit of mildly positive news, I believe there's new a "coming soon" sign on the Rusty Nail in REO Town, across the street from the cogeneration plant. Looks like progress is being made. Kind of forgot that development was even happening. Sounds li…
  • I wonder if the time has come to open up Park District to smaller scale developments. After 15 years it looks like the market just doesn't want to build up that site the way East Lansing wants. The more I think about it, while Abbot and Grand River …
  • It's really amazing what Gillespie and Potent Potables has done for this community. They've been crucial in creating a critical mass of development of Lansing. Though we're still plagued by the occasional rash of closings, the good news is starting …
  • I live in an area not too far from Eckert. There a lot of good things to be said about it. I don't think the coal plant is one of the good things. That said I'll agree that the situation is rapidly improving. LBWL's gas plant seems to be about as go…
  • Well that's good to hear. I missed that. My apologies.
  • I was personifying the plants rather than the company, but I understand where you're coming from. I think it's good to keep holding the company's feet to the coals and I don't think many people in Lansing take having a coal plant in their backyard a…
  • I can't say how thrilled I am that Eckert is closing. I sometimes wonder if the slow progress of REO Town and Downtown is partially attributable to there being a massive coal plant in what should be in a historically dense residential and business a…
  • Detroit's big problem is that it has way too many neighborhoods that don't generate much tax revenue. Big commercial roads like Gratiot and Grand River are mostly inactive and in need of serious redevelopment, not to mention other commercial streets…
  • Looks like the article was called or "A Complicated Legacy: I-496 Slashed through Key Black Neighborhood in the '60s" or "Looking back: I-496 construction complicated legacy". Wikipedia has a link to an archived version of the first page of the art…
  • I think the biggest problem is that, for some reason, knocking down old, architecturally uninteresting homes in East Lansing is considered impossible. Downtowns grow by redeveloping adjacent residential areas. To give an extreme example, Harlem in M…
  • Ann Arbor got it right. Don't plow a freeway through your historic areas. They avoided that impulse and, lo and behold, cars still find their way to U of M and the downtown just fine. I think if you could erase 496 ever happening and magically mo…
  • For me, critical mass will be when housing values spike and lofts get built. Maybe I've missed something but I don't think that's really happened yet. I'll say again that I think it's mostly a matter of time, though. Lansing has always been a bit…
  • In my experience it's tough to get Americans to walk over freeways. It really seems to kill pedestrian activity. 496 was a big mistake. They should've just built 96 farther north in the Jolly/Holmes area and used MLK to route traffic in and out o…
  • I'm getting excited about REO Town. People are drawn to the neighborhood. I'm always impressed by the amount of visitors on the weekend. People want more reasons to go down there. I feel like it's a matter of "when," rather than "if" REO Town will r…
  • I noticed a lot of talk about linking REO Town to downtown in the articles about the redevelopment of City Hall. While that sounds great in theory, with the freeway, the river and the new substation, there's a lot dead/inactive space between the two…
  • East Lansing's downtown is becoming quite a unique beast. It's building up along a single corridor almost to the exclusion of building out. Most American downtowns the size of East Lansing would have a couple of north-south and east-west corridors, …
  • I'm sure upgrading the existing QDs would probably be better for sales in the long run. But the current QDs are very endearing. People love QD. The logo/signage could be spruced up a bit, but at this point I think staying retro is the way to go, a l…
  • I think QD's image is perfect as-is. It screams, "We're fumpy, sour cream in everything is our secret ingredient and we love to get hand-dipped ice cream from decrepit gas stations! Oh, and I think I have just enough money for another lotto ticket t…
  • I'm very excited about Walter French Junior High School. I bought a house in that area and I keep wondering if I'll see much appreciation in the next ten years. It's hard to say, though projects like that would certainly be a help. I'm hoping that r…