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Wealthy Street Mega Thread


joshleo

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Stopped in to see the new owner of 700 Wealthy Street SE. We should see good things happening here over the summer.

Stopped by Wild Bunch or rang the doorbell. I spoke with the owner's wife & at the time there was a private meeting taking place, so my tour is postponed to next week.

It was great to see people out today all over the neighborhood!

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No surprise, they probably needed time to get rid of the evidence........

Maybe they have a few empty beer cans...who doesn't. Nothing shocking in there, it's set up like a lot of bars: pool table, some booths, tables and chairs, openings in the center wall. It was originally a standard Victorian double store front, with apartments above (shopkeepers often lived above their stores). We know a lady who's grandmother ran a restaurant in one side in the 30's and 40's.

Like a lot of under-utilized buildings, it has enormous potential - trade them a pole barn in Allendale and we'll all be better off. ("Nitro's Beverage and Burger Blitz Bistro" ??).

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Granted the construction on the St. Mary's area stretch of the road will cost the area a couple of building, however from plans I've seen. The rebuilt St. Mary's section of the street should look alot more asthetically pleaseing than before. Also there should be some traffic calming measures introduced to make for a safer envionment for pedestrians. As for sections further east, I'm not too aware of to made any judgments.

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What effect do you guys think the road construction on Wealthy that is coming soon will have on the street as a whole?

It should begin to lay the ground work for the Wealthy-Jefferson Development Initiative. The concept of these street improvements and round-a-bouts was first proposed as part of that charrette / initiative.

The south side of Wealthy at this stretch will ideally begin to develop with a series of new mixed use construction and the north side of Wealthy will ideally begin to develop with something other than St. Mary's surface lots. Also at the intersection of Wealthy and Division, the Catholic campus will most likely begin to create a new environment that in concept should create a lot of interest and a quality outdoor destination.

All of this will not be without sacrifices. There will be some building demolition to create the new street, boulevard and round-a-bouts, almost none of which is in the Historic Districts. The buildings on the south side of Wealthy at Division will be torn down, including So-So's and the former rib place. There is also an apartment building that is coming down.

Certainly if buildings get built to define the new street, this could be a great gateway coming into the city on Division and heading east into Heritage Hill and into the Wealthy Street area in general. The risk of course is if nothing gets built here and we have this grand street and huge round-a-bouts with no building definition and a series of "plazas" and parking lots. It could be a huge desolate place.

But I honestly think that with the committment of ICCF with the Wealthy-Jefferson Initiative, that something good will happen here and it could be a really nice place.

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The best news I heard yesterday was that the stretch of Wealthy Street between Division & Lafayette planned for construction this summer, has been moved to the 2008 construction schedule. This is the section of round-a-bouts.

The project is still a go; postponing it until 2008 is good news for many reasons.

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The south side of Wealthy at this stretch will ideally begin to develop with a series of new mixed use construction and the north side of Wealthy will ideally begin to develop with something other than St. Mary's surface lots. Also at the intersection of Wealthy and Division, the Catholic campus will most likely begin to create a new environment that in concept should create a lot of interest and a quality outdoor destination.

I had heard a while back that they were going to be moving the diocese from Burton to there. Any truth to that?

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Postponing the Wealthy Street construction between Division & Jefferson until 2008 gives us one solid east/west connection in the midst of the other street construction projects planned this summer/fall.

Franklin will be jammed as it is the thru-traffic detour for two other street construction projects; Cherry isn't an option to get from downtown to the east end neighborhoods because it will be closed in two sections for the summer. Leaving Wealthy Street open to Lafayette SE will help direct local-access traffic closer to the businesses on Wealthy Street. This summer in order to get to many of the businesses on Wealthy Street between Union & Eastern, local-access traffic will have to take Logan and then head north on side streets.

Here is one list of all the proposed street construction projects planned this summer in Uptown & Heritage Hill:

Fuller Ave Project FTWM #4

  • Fuller from Wealthy to Franklin
  • Sherman from Fuller to Giddings

Cherry Street Project

  • Cherry Street from Warren to Hollister

Other Cherry Street Projects:

  • Cherry Street from Prospect to Jefferson
  • Cherry Street from Division to Commerce

Wealthy Street Project FTWM #5

  • Wealthy Street from Union Ave. to Eastern Ave. (including the Wealthy/Union intersection)
  • James Avenue from Wealthy St. to Donovan Ct
  • Eastern Avenue boulevard removal south of Wealthy

Wealthy Street Project FTWM #2

  • Wealthy Street from Union thru Prospect

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Will the redesigned section of Wealthy be brick or ashpalt? Really hoping for brick.. especially for the roundabouts. Brick seems to handle late winter/early spring a LOT better than ashpalt, as well.

Hell, yes. The old brick has lasted waaaaay longer than asphalt. I was disappointed when they redid Wealthy St. a number of years ago and covered over the brick. People never learn.

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Other Cherry Street Projects:

Cherry Street from Division to Commerce


This is one of the most embarassing streets to drive on downtown. I hope they do the other side of Division as well. I don't see how the city can let a street get in such disrepair and yet sections of 28th street get new paving every few years. I hope brick is done here as well.

I agree, those roundabouts would look awesome in brick.
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The section west of Eastern to Lafayette will not have brick. I was very sad to find out that when they widened Wealthy Street back in the 70's, instead of covering the brick with asphalt, they took the brick out. This pretty much eliminates the City placing brick back in because it doesn't qualify for funding. I don't think I'll ever understand why they took the brick out.

Thankfully the street will be narrowed to 40 feet with asphalt driving lanes and concrete parking lanes. Hopefully the City's application for ornamental lighting and other streetscape amenities is approved by MDOT. We won't know until April 2nd. If it

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What are the cost differences both short term & long term between brick & asphalt?

Asphalt is 1/2 the cost of concrete.

They do concrete in the parking lanes because aspalt is very sensitive to dripping oils and gasoline from leaky cars. It turns the asphalt to mush.

On a side note *Yeah....1000 posts................ :good:*

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That doesn't tell me anything about brick roads, though =p

Half a million bucks for brick center lanes on Wealthy from Union to Eastern.

MDOT turned down request for enhancement grant: no money for 'new' bricks (original bricks were

removed when that stretch was widened aroud 1976).

The asphalt can be removed/replaced when money for bricks becomes available.

Anybody got a spare half-million??

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Half a million bucks for brick center lanes on Wealthy from Union to Eastern.

MDOT turned down request for enhancement grant: no money for 'new' bricks (original bricks were

removed when that stretch was widened aroud 1976).

The asphalt can be removed/replaced when money for bricks becomes available.

Anybody got a spare half-million??

I keep reading references to MDOT denying this or doing that. It is not the only agency which determines what transportation projects get funded in the GR metro area, at least not if federal funds are involved. All federally-funded projects must go through the metropolitan planning organization's planning process and be included in the regional metro plan and transportation improvement program. In the GR area, the GVMC is the MPO. This MPO is also a Transportation Management Area and has a more authority than MPOs in areas of less than 200,000 population, including direct control of metro Surface Transportation Program funds. While money is always insufficient for all the actual and perceived transportation needs and wants, the GVMC should be in a "partnership" with MDOT and have considerable "say so" in what goes on throughout the GR metro transportation system.

An aware and active public that was involved with the activities of the GVMC couldn't hurt either. :shades:

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