A record year for the Fifth Third Riverbank Run yesterday morning, with over 15,000 runners in the 25K, 10K, 5K run and 5K walk. HUGE turnout of spectators too, lining Monroe Avenue from Lyon to Michigan St at the start, and then along Ottawa Ave from Lyon all the way down and around Monroe Center at the finish.

I personally bested my Irish Jig time by 1.5 minutes.

thanks alot. that give's me quite a few options. how risky is "risky" to park 4 nights in the Kingsbury area. If i don't leave anything out in view, or in my car period, is it still likely to be broken into? would that are be any more risky than leaving it at a park&ride for 4 nights?

edit; thinking i don't really want to take that risk, do you have any favorite garages/secured parking near the Westin that is near or below $20 day? is that even possible? my hotel is asking $46 per/day(no way im paying that!), but i could do $20 or so, if it's worth it(secured).

also, if i did take commuter rails in from Univ. park, what would the fare be?

THANKS!

I have a question. I'll be visiting the city here in a few weeks, I'm driving up, but plan to leave my car once i get there. I'm staying at the Westin on Michigan Ave. However, the hotel parking is $46 per day! So, where can i find free or cheap parking that i can leave my car for a saturday-tuesday.

I know there is some free street parking, but is most of that time restricted?

help!

Perhaps we should withhold judgments until a decent rendering is disseminated through the ranks of our fine urban planet. Every development walks the tight rope of profitability and feasibility. If we want affordable home ownership in the core (sub $250K range) of this city there are obvious compromises that need to be made. Look at the West Michigan housing market, factor in the price of dirt downtown and couple it with the ever-rising costs of new construction and I'm sure it's not an easy puzzle to piece together.

Condo projects are either failing to sell, scaling back or throwing in the towel. I'm not making excuses for the developers, but let's wait and see what the supposed forthcoming Grand Rapids Magazine article has to say, if anything at all, and hope that it includes something of more substance than what was shared with me!

Cheers-

It's been a year (almost), any word on whether these renovations are still in the works?

With the Marriot done, it would be nice to have a more attractive pedestrian approach.

Perhaps we should withhold judgments until a decent rendering is disseminated through the ranks of our fine urban planet. Every development walks the tight rope of profitability and feasibility. If we want affordable home ownership in the core (sub $250K range) of this city there are obvious compromises that need to be made. Look at the West Michigan housing market, factor in the price of dirt downtown and couple it with the ever-rising costs of new construction and I'm sure it's not an easy puzzle to piece together.

Condo projects are either failing to sell, scaling back or throwing in the towel. I'm not making excuses for the developers, but let's wait and see what the supposed forthcoming Grand Rapids Magazine article has to say, if anything at all, and hope that it includes something of more substance than what was shared with me!

Cheers-

I could see them building a big Grad school downtown but as far as really expanding the undergrad operations down there, I just don't see it beyond the business/engineering/health professions. The school has way too much money invested in the Allendale campus. The Allendale campus also affords them a lot of vacant land they can develop without having to demolish any buildings or having to worry about the tighter scrutiny that comes with building in a city. I'm not saying I like it, I think that is just how it is.

To find them and others, Forbes.com looked at the 75 largest metro areas in the U.S. and evaluated them based on traffic delays, travel times and how efficiently commuters use existing infrastructure, based on data from the Texas Transportation Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey. The worst commutes were those that ate up the most hours and were the least reliable. The best commutes were in cities with short, dependable treks to the office, where fellow commuters efficiently use transit options to reduce congestion.

What's going on around the corner from you? That is a lot of cop cars..

Sounds weird that B&N would move from a location they own to a space that would most likely be much smaller and that they would have to rent at expensive mall rates.

It was a very small addition. It looks like they just took the facade off, added like 20 feet and built the facade to match what it was...

Question: what do you all (including Bill) think will happen when Barnes moves to Woodland? Schuler's is my all time, all time favorite book store and I am an avid reader so I'm concerned whether the move will impact the 28th St. store...

Meijer's produce offerings are so much better than that of Wally World's. Also in some instances Meijer has better prices as well. I saw water melons at the new Wal-Mart for over $6.00 per melon. Meijer had the same melons for $4.98 per melon.

Yumm, sounds delish.

Question: what do you all (including Bill) think will happen when Barnes moves to Woodland? Schuler's is my all time, all time favorite book store and I am an avid reader so I'm concerned whether the move will impact the 28th St. store...

It's not uncommon to take a month (or longer) to review the site plan and proposal of a major project such as this. Twp commissioners typically have day jobs; they might need extra time to visit the site, plans in hand, to see what's being proposed for where. And with a major development, local government might want to allow feed-back from residents. One more month won't matter too much in the grand scheme of things, and Meijer still has to go through county approval.

The article states that an extended chain link fence was requested, as a trash-blowing impediment, and that was suggested by residents. Also mentioned are additional landscaping and a truck route through the site.

Going by the article alone, I don't see this as Acme Twp - The Sequel.

I snap lotsa pics:
...

Summer Berry Stack Bar. Don't question, just get it.

I'm told it's from Jamie's Cheesecakes and it sells out quickly. Can't imagine why...

Welcome charleyhorse. That's what I've been saying throughout this discussion thread is that it will be tough for Evergreen to get a big cadre of high-end tenants in this retail environment. It will more likely be a duplicate of Celebration Village across the street, and it's lackluster tenant list (and vacancies), with a D&W and a Walgreen's.

So the ground-breaking is supposed to be this month. Does anyone know a date yet?

Why? They target different students. Besides, competition is healthy...including, and perhaps especially, in the education arena. It's our culture's acceptance of educational monopolies that is contributing to the delinquency of our entire educational system, IMHO.

But I digress...

It would be nice to see that happen. But for some reason I was always sort of under the impression that GVSU was never going to try to cut into GRCC's presence downtown.

Hey, yeah. In the peacock building. Elegant yet friendly. Good chow too.

Just a thought, and absolutely no basis for it other than a whimsical light-bulb moment, but being that I would love to see GVSU multiply its presense downtown exponentially, and chance at all that all of the land acquisition downtown by the the area's big-money people (specifically the Fulton Street property) is being gathered together to put together a huge "legacy" contribution / expansion for GVSU? Yes, a good majority of the schools' buildings downtown grace the names of our generous philanthrapists, but that area could support a whole new campus. The land is likely for future investment purposes, but I'd love to see GVSU be to downtown Grand Rapids what UofM is to Ann Arbor, MSU is to East Lansing, etc., and it would think it could only happen with a base of property this size...

Come on gvsusean, totally inappropriate.

BTW cheshireguy, Tall House is officially dead. I think it died a few weeks ago.

... that Bobby J's I think it's called? the one on jefferson? that'd be a good place to go

Yeah - as a current Walmart Supercenter shopper - all I have to say is NEVER buy Walmart's produce. Anything that is frozen is okay - some of their meats are okay (the packaged ones)...but I've had 3 strikes with the produce section where I have found bugs in my produce or it went sour the next day after taking it home.

I just go to Walmart to buy the boxed goods - and anything from the frozen section. The rest of my purchases go towards Meijer.

nuff said.

The former designs are officially dead. According to the email posted by Dutch, they are going full bore ahead with the design posted.

The former designs are officially dead. According to the email posted by Dutch, they are going full bore ahead with the design posted.

Or a monument of Campau? Just sayin'....

Awesome pictures GRDad! I think the Aqua tower is awesome except for what you term, "wedding cake architecture." Is that a parking garage that it is sitting on top of? This building would be great if it were not for that.

Come on gvsusean, totally inappropriate.

BTW cheshireguy, Tall House is officially dead. I think it died a few weeks ago.

I've not known of a tunnel under Division, where was that located at? The other set of stairs is in very bad shape. Unmaintained, so bushes and trees are growing out over it, broken beer bottles and bums' clothes all over the place, and sections where the stairs have completely disappeared and the ground eroded away. Near the top I had to climb from dirt back up onto concrete about waist-high, and sections of railing are few and far between.

This project has now been moved to next year. Too much private utility work needs to be done to get it finished before the Marriott and GRAM Grand Openings (apparently).

OK, here they come, from all over the city:
.......


"Aqua" tower in Lakeshore East:

WOW - Great pics Jeff! Thanks for positing these, as many of the projects you included I only see from a distance while riding the train! One note. The EL project above is the Brown Line renovation project that has now been going on for a couple of years. SLOW progress. This was formally called the Ravenswood branch of the EL system. This is the Chicago Ave station serviced by Brown trains to Kimball and Purple trains to Evanston. The CTA is renovating 18 stations along the Brown line lengthening platforms (allowing for more cars) and making the stations ADA compliant, among other things. One nice thing is that they are reusing the 100 year old canopies at most stations.

The little building you see undergoing renovation in the second pic is the station house at Chicago Ave and Wells St. While they have removed some of the old stations houses, they are renovating some too. It's hard to believe that this is the first renovation/expansion of the Brown line in 100 years!

BTW, great south Loop pics too! It you would have seen that area 8 years ago it would have been much different. The residential development in the area has skyrocketed!!! It's like a whole new city.

I have seen Leagues playing at Holland State Park, maybe look there as well.

ironically the guy on here whose related to the project is named dutch...

Hi, I'm new to the site. I don't comment much but thought I'd get your thoughts on this "race is on". It's my understanding that how developers get tenants is by their clout - how big are they and how desireable are their centers. Most deals in today's retail environment are packaged - if you want to go into the Beverly Center in LA that's great but you have to take GR too. So, again, it's my understanding mall development is mostly about who has more leverage. IF that's true can this really be a race? CBL is a big player already well established in Michigan and though they are not a Taubman in the high end quality of their centers (translates to SPSF - the key tenant interest) they plus the other two partners are sure to have more leverage than Evergreen.

What do you think? No matter what though, it's going to be tough to get any major to come here given the economy - a lot of landlord concessions will have to be made I'm guessing and that's expensive.

Thoughts?

Village of Knapps Crossing was approved today according to Fox 17 news. Now the race is on for who get the tenants necessary first to go forward.

Yes, on the previous page. Just a small expansion to the Southwest corner of that end of the building:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...st&p=880548

Must be alot of move-outs lately. My window faces the lot, and I see out it dozens of times a day. Never seen it empty like that. But its probably a combo of day-shifters and not having all units rented.

Well that's my review of the New Wal-Mart

I'm not technology guru, but how can a front projection unit provide better than HD image quality? I thought only LCD or plasma could get to that level of image quality.

I completely agree that we need a retail center in northwest Springfield. I really think the area north of Lowe's on N. Kansas Expwy. would be a great location for some big box stores such as Target and Best Buy.

Costco's are in the St. Louis area and Overland Park,KS and Lenexa,KS and two others are in KC area.
Dick's could be going in Primrose Shopping Center.
Target up by 13 and 44 would be good.
Coming Soon myabe to this Development-Wheat State Pizza
Springfield, MO - February '08

Nothing much going on so continuing

I'm not curious enough to do the research but it could be that the naming of Muskegon's Air Line Highway had nothing to do with it being near the airport. Back around a hundred years ago it was relatively common to use the term air-line to describe a road or railroad that followed a straight and level line especially if it was a new alternative to a more meandering route. There are several Airline Roads around the country that were named this way.

No pics? And whadja buy?

. . . I have no idea why it's named that, it used to be Highway 16 between Muskegon and GR before I-96. My guess is it's named Airline road because it leads to Getty Street where the original Muskegon Airport was in the early 20th century.

As indicated in the last couple of posts, earlier today the Michigan Senate unexpectedly passed a smoking ban in essentially all public places, including workplaces, restaurants, bars, casinos, bingo halls, horse tracks, cigar bars, and smoke shops.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-...,0,371410.story

Since this is actually a more restrictive version of the bill passed by the House back in December there could be a few changes, but I don't think there will be any problems getting the majority of it through, and the Governor has said she will sign it. Looks like a list of smoke-free establishments will no longer be needed! It's about time!