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Third Avenue could get face-lift, name change


Allan

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Third Avenue could get face-lift, name change

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index....ll=5&thispage=1

A face-lift is great, but why the need for a name change? It is very expensive to change all the street signs. Not to mention the fact that all the businesses along there will have to spend all kinds of money to change the adresses on all the business cards and letterheads with their names on it. Plus it'll be confusing for out of towners when the street sign says "University Blvd." while the map still says "Third Ave."

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Indeed, a name change can do more harm that good. Really, no one gives a crap about what the name of the street is unless it's something really creative.

As far as business, an address change is a big expense. When the place I work for moved down the street, with just a number change, we had to redo all of our packaging labels, business cards, call up hundreds of suppliers to make the correction (which gave us a lengthly long distance bill), and suffer the losses of shipments that never made it to our location.

Speaking of name changes, I remember when the North-central portion of Saginaw county became a city called "University Center" They named it this because of Saginaw Valley State University and other surrounding colleges. It was done bascially to give the explosive northward sprawl of Saginaw some identity. Really, no one who lives there says they are from University Center, and it doesn't make strip malls and shopping centers seem any more interesting.

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Yep, exactly. It took years and a lot of money to change Detroit Street to MLK. Heck, I know of some maps that still refer to MLK as Detroit Street.

Since it goes from First Avenue to Eleventh Avenue, why break the sequence? The only benefit I can see is that it would eliminate confusion for some people unfamiliar with the fact that there is a Third Street and a Third Avenue. As far as I'm concerned, the negatives far outweigh the positives.

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While the name change may incure some short term financial loss to businesses the overarching goal of the city in moving forward in the development of a micro college town will have outweighing benefits, if it gets off the ground. I live downtown and attend U of M here and I have to say this cities downdown is in desperate need of development which will not only temp people to live downtown, as in the First Street Lofts, but also work here, with the development of research parks and shopping centers. Flint is the third largest city in Michigan and I see the move towards development geared towards the education sector, Kettering, Michigan and Mott College, as a positive sign that the leadership of Flint realizes that the Flint of old, GM and manufacturing, is dead and that in order to survive the city needs to strike out in a new direction. Flint has a lot to offer and just needs people in leadership willing to pick the city up and dust if off.

I think the streets are being targeted first because of the pork Rep. Dale E. Kildee slid into the transportation bill. Nothing wrong with that as long as the rest of the Third Avenue boulevard project also gets started. Things look good for Flint in my opinion.

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I don't know. There aren't really that many businesses located on 3rd Ave. anymore. I'm not sure how much business will hurt because of this. I do hope that the current business owner have a say in whether the name change occurs, though.

As far as that area, I hope the city has thought out how they will bring more redevelopment. The streetscape is a good start, but I hope they don't take a wait-and-see approach. It might not be too difficult to get some developers on board for the portion of 3rd closer to downtown, but further west there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I'm not sure there will be many people willing to take a risk investing there unless there are a large number of renovations going on.

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