60 replies to this topic

[Lmichigan]

This was originally meant to be a small update that would go in the Lansing construction and development thread, but got much bigger than I expected.  It's a repost from the Skyscraperpage.com forums.

I decided to get out update the older photos I have of some of the larger developments going on in Lansing.  Most of these are confined to a pretty small area, and are probably the the more quality projects of the other ones I did not photograph.

While not all that impressive to many, it's impressive for a smaller, declining city.  Some of the infill looks to be decent.

Aerial with key spots:


Prudden Place Apartments and Factory Lofts - Two separate projecst, by two separate developers.  The new construction apartments will be luxury apartments, some of which will be lofts.  The factory is being renovated into all-loft apartments.  The factory's window's probably won't be placed until near the end of completion.

The area along Saginaw Street.  These are older, "working-class cottages."  This is one of the poorer and less maintained areas of the city.






The Factory - Office space lies behind in the other section of the factory, as well as the northside police station.  The factory was built and expanded from 1855 to 1896.

Historical Photo:






Looking north along one of the many rail lines that crisscross the city.


Prudden Place Apartments - Will consist of 120 luxury apartments






Up the street lies and old and modernized office/retail building that now includes a storefront church among other businesses.  What would a poor neighborhood be without a storefront church?


In the park where these photos were taken lies the Neogen Corporations Headquarters.  Once an old elementary school, the company took over the building a few years ago as their headquarters.  Neogen "develops, manufactures and markets a diverse line of products dedicated to food and animal safety," and are active internationally.


East Village - Lansing's first large-scale neighborhood built in decades, this development on the near-eastside will include 177 up-scale condo units.  There are three phases to this project, the 33 individual condos (Park Place), 72 attached townhomes (Chelsea Square), and 72 stacked ranch condos (Hampton Ridge).  There are three schools in the area either existent or under construction along with a growing East Michigan Avenue retail corridoor.  It's too bad the detached condos have garages at the front, but at least they aren't that ugly.  I've seen worse.

Looking south


Looking south east at a lone house soon to be surrounded by others.


Chelsea Square construction


Park Place (phases I and II)












Sparrow Hospital Complex


Pan including the Eastern High School Fieldhouse


Looking up the elevation at Hampton Ridge




The backside of Chelsea Square




An old photo so you remember what the front of Chelsea Square looks like.


Lastly, the brick-tiered walls showing how greatly the site differs in elevation.  Hampton Ridge can be seen peaking through.


East Lansing in next post...

[Lmichigan]

Now to East Lansing...

Spartan Stadium Expansion nearing completion




Lastly, not new, but fairly new.  Two apartment complexes along Michigan Avenue in East Lansing along it's western border with Lansing.

Campus Village - 222 relatively up-scale units built a year or two ago with office and parking on first floor.




The Oak - here's a piece of the rather large, student-geared apartments next door to the Campus Village.  They are slightly older, and less expensive.

[GRDadof3]

Lmichigan, on Aug 13 2005, 10:10 PM, said:

Pan including the Eastern High School Fieldhouse

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow!  I can't believe this development is right by Eastern Fieldhouse.  That is impressive.  I had friends who went to Cath Central, and I went to Holt (back in the 80's), we went to a basketball game there and a HUGE melee broke out.  It was pretty scary to say the least (police showed up and everything).

[Lmichigan]

Why is this impressive?

[hood]

Lmichigan, on Aug 14 2005, 04:26 PM, said:

Why is this impressive?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably because the area has been known for being trash for a very long time , anytime they build something nice and new in a questionable area, it's impressive.

[Lmichigan]

I shouldn't have asked.

[hood]

I just couldn't resist  

[GRDadof3]

It's impressive that someone would invest this much money and resources into an area that was a very downtrodden area.  It was riddled with gang activity at the time, and Eastern High School was the most dangerous Lansing high school.  You wouldn't post so many photos of it if you didn't think it was impressive, now would you?

[wolverine]

Great pics LMich!  

I like how the Campus Village has parking on the ground level.  It looks pretty well hidden too.  It seems like this is done in so many other places except Michigan.  It's healthy trend, which I hope will become more popular in Michigan so we don't have to see so many sprawling parking lots, and we can build up density.

You don't by any chance have a rendering of the Prudden Place apartments?  I'm wondering what the facade is going to look like.  I'm imagining my own design which would look really cool on this building, but for some reason, I have a feeling I'm going to be dissapointed as to how they are going to make this one look.

[hood]

GRDadof3, on Aug 15 2005, 10:17 PM, said:

It's impressive that someone would invest this much money and resources into an area that was a very downtrodden area.  It was riddled with gang activity at the time, and Eastern High School was the most dangerous Lansing high school.  You wouldn't post so many photos of it if you didn't think it was impressive, now would you?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry to dissapoint you but, Eastern is still BY FAR the worst high school in Lansing, in every aspect from income to fights. This area (especially west of Penn) is still the worst in the city, crime has only slowed in proportion with the nation, probably less. I remember hearing the story of when a gang made a "human chain" walking hand-and-hand down the 800 or 900 block of Shiawassee when a guy drove down the street and stopped for the group they pulled him out of his car, beat him to death and took his car. Now this area is not quite that bad anymore, that can be attributed more to a national decline of crime in the late 90's than an improved area, it does look much nicer along Michigan though. All in all this area is still bad, and the most likely to be a victim of a robbery or car theft in the city, but still not an immenent risk of random crime.

[Lmichigan]

The Oak Park area has improved markedly.  It used to be on par with some areas of much worse off cities.  A few years ago prostitution was bad, but the LPD has really cleaned up the area.

And sorry to disappoint Hood, but my brother went to Eastern last year, and outside of literally less than a handful of incidents that made news if this is Lansing's worse than it's really not that bad.  My brother also went to Sexton, and thinks they are comparable.

I frequent Oak Park quite often, and while the area is probably the poorest in the city outside of petty crime like theft you don't have to worry.  In fact, there are organized baseball/softball/basketball games at the park during the summer months, and in the winter is a key sledding area.

Wolverine, this is not that good of a rendering but here is the best they can do.  This is one of the four different styled and shapped buildings of the area.


And the view from the area:

[GRDadof3]

Do I sense some verbal sparring between you two (LMichigan and hood)?  

[Lmichigan]

We both belong to another board.  You haven't seen ANYTHING yet.  We are like polar opposites on almost everything Lansing.  I'm always too optimistic, and he's always too pessimistic.  It balances out well.  You get both sides.  

[hood]

Lmichigan, on Aug 15 2005, 11:16 PM, said:

We both belong to another board.  You haven't seen ANYTHING yet.  We are like polar opposites on almost everything Lansing.  I'm always too optimistic, and he's always too pessimistic.  It balances out well.  You get both sides. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's good to have someone to debate with, it's actually better than agreeing. I'll attempt to be realistic for a second, to the best of my knowledge, prostitiution never really existed in Oak Park itself, I know Pere Marquette St. was a hot spot, with that gritty hotel on the coner of Pere Marquette & Michigan, I think it closed 1 or 2 years ago, the hotel was located on the 2 upper floors of the building and the entrance was a small door facing Pere Marqette, now bricked up. As for improvement in the area, not much, there has been little change that I can see for better or worse. The park itself is relatively safe, but venturing into the surrounding neighborhood can be a risk for the wrong person (of course your safety largely depends how how you look/act/dress/ect...) And when it comes to Eastern vs. Sexton, no comparison, I know several people at Eastern and Sexton, from their stories and stats, Eastern is much worse. Now Everett and Sexton are almost identical as far as income level and fights go, per capita. Most of Easterns troubles were never on the news, until last year when they had two events, a rape and a severe beating where that kid nearly died, but since then nothing. I know of at least one more 1st degree rape at Eastern towards the end of the year, it was labled on the LPD crimemapper. Those two newstories were flukes, those things usually don't make the news.

And what do ya know, there was a shooting in the 900 block of Vine this morning, it appears to be a home invasion aka robbery of a residence. Random crime in this area, and the big suprise is that it was on the news, that I didn;t expect being that there has been at least 4 other shootings in this area over the past year 2 serious ones, none on the news. News Article

Edited by hood, 16 August 2005 - 03:08 PM.

[Lmichigan]

Yes, those two were flukes, and from what my brother tells me the "rape" could have been called something else.  If I've heard enough, I think this was settled, so it probably wasn't a rape.

As for the beating, that went very deep.  My brother new both of the kids, and from what I hear, the two had knew each other long before the fight and the thing had been brewing for months.  It was only a matter of time before something happened.  But it wasn't some random beating.

As for comparing the schools if Eastern is the worst, than it speaks to how well Lansing schools have been able to handle changes in population and demographics.  While other schools across the state are having serious problems with violent crime, with some schools having medical detectors and uniformed officers, Lansing hasn't had to do any of that.

Eastern, by far, has the poorest families in the city for the simple fact of it's location.  As for problems with violent crime, none of the schools have anything on a significant level.  Every once in awhile you'll hear of a brawl or two at a big event.

[hood]

Fights at Eastern average one every 3 days, 66 reportable fights in 2004, 180 schooldays. There were 47 repotable fights at Everett and 32 at Sexton. The rates, from 2.84 per 100 at Sexton, 2.89 at Everett and 4.54 for Eastern. All schools appear to be within the average range of other urban Michigan districts, except Flint, which is exceptionaly high rates, around 11 or 12 per 100 for each high school. Check out SchoolMatters.com, very useful site for school data.

Edited by hood, 16 August 2005 - 04:47 PM.

[Lmichigan]

Thanks.  Though, the only ones I consider significant are ones where law encforcemenet must be called.  A "fight" could be everything from someone getting beat up, to two people pushing eachother and then being apprehended.

Wow, I was just looking at reading and math proficiencies for some of Michigan's major cities and Grand Rapids Public Schools are HORRIBLE.  I mean, worse than Detroit in reading and only slightly better in math.  Just goes to show that Grand Rapids is sometimes unfairly placed on a pedestal.

Edited by Lmichigan, 16 August 2005 - 05:12 PM.

[hood]

Thats not a good stat to go by, at Everett I have seen people get beat with locks to where they are covered in blood and no cops were called (that would justify a felonious assault with a weapon). They leave that descision up to the parties involved, that usually means no law enforcement. Since Lansing schools have a number of security guards, 3-5 at Everett, they don't need to call the cops unless someone wants to press charges or if it is an extreme situtation. Also, Lansing is already leanient and these stats are likely only for physical fights, shoving matches are typically just broken up and left at that.

[Lmichigan]

I understand, but what I'm saying is that fights could also mean something as simple as a shoving match depending on who reports the incident.  I think it's clear that the disparities are too great, and that the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.

[hood]

Thats why stats are usually only good for comparison, these should be good at least within a district, where reporting should be similar. The stats may not be completely accurate, but the in-disrict comparison should be relatively accurate. Also you should remember these stats are probably better info than anyone can tell you, your brother, me or anyone else.

I just noticed your post on GR, it may be important to note that GR has one of the lowest in-district enrollments in the state. I can't find the stat now, but as of a year or so ago GR had like 60% of students in its district actually going to it, I beleive Lansing was like 75%. This can be also be noticed when you see that GR as a disrict is 27% white while Lansing 37% white while both cities are around 65% white as a whole. My best guess is because GR is more conservative, therefore more racist. Or maybe it's just poor leadership. Maybe someone from GR can offer some insight.