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New Construction and Renovations in the Heartside District


MJLO

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Today:

"Grand Opening for Pikositos located at 122 S. Division (tacos and killer salsa) at 4pm.

Followed by a park dedication in honor of the late great Reverend Barb Pekich on the corner of South Division and Cherry at 5pm.

Did i mentioned the free ice cream social to follow the park dedication?!"

(from a FB feed)

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The city finally installed the traffic and crosswalk signals from the Cherry Street alignment project. I was disgusted that it wasn't arranged in a timely manner. The reason the city said it wanted to align the street was for safety of pedestrians crossings, yet it took them many months to align the traffic signal. This is maddening!

Has anybody been in the area this week? The area has been on "stealth lock-down". Once again the Intelligence Community sprung into action sweeping the area of "undesirables" and brought out their agents.

~John

Get the Poisonous Fluoride out of our municipal water!

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The city finally installed the traffic and crosswalk signals from the Cherry Street alignment project. I was disgusted that it wasn't arranged in a timely manner. The reason the city said it wanted to align the street was for safety of pedestrians crossings, yet it took them many months to align the traffic signal. This is maddening!

Has anybody been in the area this week? The area has been on "stealth lock-down". Once again the Intelligence Community sprung into action sweeping the area of "undesirables" and brought out their agents.

~John

Get the Poisonous Fluoride out of our municipal water!

Wow, what kind of drugs are you on, man? Paranoid much?

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The city finally installed the traffic and crosswalk signals from the Cherry Street alignment project. I was disgusted that it wasn't arranged in a timely manner. The reason the city said it wanted to align the street was for safety of pedestrians crossings, yet it took them many months to align the traffic signal. This is maddening!

Has anybody been in the area this week? The area has been on "stealth lock-down". Once again the Intelligence Community sprung into action sweeping the area of "undesirables" and brought out their agents.

~John

Get the Poisonous Fluoride out of our municipal water!

You mean the drug dealers?

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This would be a great addition to Heartside (and I love the name "Pyramid Scheme").

http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/features/061710pyramidscheme.aspx

And may I reiterate from long ago, I'm glad to see the old Maxi's building NOT get knocked down for a parking lot. :)

Joe

Ha! I was thinking the same thing when this story came up. <ahhhem Rockford Construction!>

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right on the heels of the Pyramid Scheme announcement is this tidbit about a brewery/restaurant opening next door in the two-story building (the one that sits next to 38 Commerce) by Hopcat owner Mark Sellers. Second floor would have a miniature bowling alley with 8 lanes. Sweet!

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2010/06/concert_venue_to_open_beside_n.html#incart_rh

If you had asked me 5 years ago, I NEVER would have thought Commerce Ave would become downtown's big entertainment scene. (I would have pegged Ionia Ave for that).

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It is great news. However, I think Ionia/Commerce together will be the undisputed entertainment district (it could trickle up to Division too). Now we just need to get Heartside Manor redeveloped as it'd be an ideal location to live with all these new venues popping up.

Joe

If you had asked me 5 years ago, I NEVER would have thought Commerce Ave would become downtown's big entertainment scene. (I would have pegged Ionia Ave for that).

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  • 3 weeks later...

As part of ArtPrize this year, an artist plans to paint a five story mural on the side of this building, facing the S-Curve. Sweet!

2546023381_b4bb94914f.jpg

Art Prize is sooo great! I think that if it keeps going people will look back at Art Prize the same way we look at the Van Andel Arena now, a catalyst!

Edited by gvsusean
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  • 3 months later...

File that under DUH!

Goodbye S. Division. It looked like it might have been able to thrive, but now it looks like its going to start slipping back into skid row. And that park was just the gas to pour on the fire.

Seriously, how long can Vertigo or Little Bohemia expect hold on if all of these guys are now closing shop? None of those "galleries" are going to survive either at this rate.

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File that under DUH!

Goodbye S. Division. It looked like it might have been able to thrive, but now it looks like its going to start slipping back into skid row. And that park was just the gas to pour on the fire.

Seriously, how long can Vertigo or Little Bohemia expect hold on if all of these guys are now closing shop? None of those "galleries" are going to survive either at this rate.

this has been covered before but I don't think that S. Division ever left skid row. until they can convince all the ministries to disperse that area is always going to be a magnet for bums/drug dealers/addicts etc.

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I agree with the article. Swallow pride, rip out the park and put in some angled parking.

I laughed during ArtPrize as there was a nice little sculpture in the middle of the pocket park. It reminded me of this piece at the Public Museum:

5016029666_63ca91624a_z.jpg

bunny = sculpture, people = homeless people. :)

I think Ted Lott should give himself a high five for forecasting what a terrible idea this was! :)

Joe

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I agree with the article. Swallow pride, rip out the park and put in some angled parking.

I laughed during ArtPrize as there was a nice little sculpture in the middle of the pocket park. It reminded me of this piece at the Public Museum:

5016029666_63ca91624a_z.jpg

bunny = sculpture, people = homeless people. :)

I think Ted Lott should give himself a high five for forecasting what a terrible idea this was! :)

Joe

I don't think the park was a bad idea. those people are just going to stand on the street corner. park or no park. his main complaint if I remember correctly was that it took away some developable property. well, I don't think that the area really needs any more developable property right now. the property that is available isn't being used. and for parking, there is a big garage right around the corner. the twenty spots or so that could go in there isn't going to change anything other than give the homeless on the corner something to charge for. i.e. "Give me 5 dollars to watch your car, I'll make sure nobody messes with it."

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I agree. The whole discussion that the park is the problem is ridiculous, just like Heartside Park is not the "problem." The lack of parking is not the problem. We all know what the problem is. And the solution is not to have more people living on South Division either. Even if you have 200 more people living on S. Division, it's not going to keep a block full of retail viable.

Insert a non-stop flow of homeless people into Rivertown Crossings for one weekend and see what happens to that mall.

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I actually agree with both of you GRDad and Jas49503. My real point is that we should work to start dispersing the homeless shelters into different areas.

I'm sure some people will be in an uproar at the mention of this, but homeless shelters are a complete progress killer. Much like "The Projects" in Chicago were dismantled and dispersed, I think homeless shelters should do the same. And ultimately, 5 homeless shelters in five different areas of town would probably serve the homeless population better.

It's almost blasphemous to talk bad about homeless shelters, but honestly, it needs to be discussed openly as a big issue.

As far as the park not being to blame, it isn't. But you also wouldn't build all sidewalks in alleyways in an area known for muggings. ;) It was pretty obvious this park would fail hard. And we did bring this up early on.

Joe

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