wmrharris

River City was at the corner of Goodrich and Jefferson. The building got torn down I believe for the parking lot for the Orthodox church just to the west. I spent many an hour in those studios recording commercials.

That Janet Jackson wedding would have been when the building was occupied by Bethel Pentecostal.

Formally, the job description is this: The City Manager is the Chief Executive that supervises all departments, offices, and agencies. One can think of the city Manager has covering three different vectors: internally, the task is to have the City government meet its respective goals, particularly the budgetary; second, the office overseas the interaction of the city government with the citizens of the City. Not only is the City one of the larger employers in the region, its various programs touch so many lives. Stated most positively, the Manager then helps the build the City's social capital; or looked at from another angle, the job is to make sure that citizens are harassing the elected about missing services. Third, the City Manager will be in active conversation with the many stakeholders in the City and region. these would include businesses, non-profits and other governments. Equity, accountability, transparency, integrity -- these are all leading qualities for a successful manager. In his interview this afternoon, Mark Washington showed himself to be rather strong on the actual management of city business; he also demonstrated a fair amount of emotional intelligence (as one might expect from some one who came up from human resources). He looks like a solid choice. The internal candidate, Tom Alamonte brought many of these same soft resources coupled with a record of management within the City. The Commission went with the outside voice, but both were well equipped for the larger task of city governance.

Does that mean that their "downtown" project on 28th will actually get built out? One can only hope.

App has been quite invovled in the old City Water building, curating shows for the last two APs. I haven't checked lately with him, but at the time, it sounded as if this was to be his new space.

This weekend also saw the announcement of a Kickstarter campaign to reopen Gaia Cafe in Creston. Address is not mentioned, though there is a building in mind; closing is January 15. From the campaign, they've got bigger things in mind than just restoring the vibe: "With this amount, we will be able to transform the building space with an open kitchen, up to code bathrooms, outdoor seating, and proper parking spaces. We will also be creating a 'grab and go' station with a full juice and self serve coffee bar. " The ask is an initial $30k.

The Rite-Aid is part of the de-malling of Breton Village. It's not a new pharmacy, but the shifting of the existing one that once was inside the mall. Probably should try for a photo of the actual de-malling: they've ripped out a lot.

I don't know if this building has been referenced, but it's a nice infill just east of Lyon Street Cafe.

I saw them the other day -- they have a certain style and being compact, create an interesting mix on the street.

Yes to a cool bridge, like the Ronald Kirk, in Dallas

I think this must have been a 60s thing. Western Michigan University also had a little ski hill in Goldsworthy Valley, to the west of the dorms. Nowadays, I think it's mostly taken up by the business school.

City has been expanding the middle school grades which adds significant numbers overall, but they also get weeded out in high school. This question of attrition has been high in internal discussions. Meanwhile, things are improving as the school gets more set in the IB curriculum and what that demands. The building is to be substantially remodeled this summer and that will likely affect the numbers the school can accommodate. For now, it is pretty close to physical capacity.

Or Site Lab.

Not sure where to put this, so let's just call it "Return from the Dead." MHSDA approved ICCF plan for 501 Eastern Ave: two four-story buildings, 65 apartments for affordable housing, including units for homeless youth. MLive reports http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2017/01/affordable_housing_projects_ge.html

"Twenty Live" has a nice ring.