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Transit Updates for Greater Grand Rapids


GRDadof3

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I noticed the Popeye's in the picture above is being replaced by a new Popeye's building next door. Are they knocking the current location down? Will it be used for BRT parking?

 

Joe

 

Somebody told me something about that Popeye's and I don't remember what it was. I'll see him again tonight and ask. He jokingly called it the first transit-oriented development related to the BRT (something small scale).

 

And apparently the Amtrak station finally got the go-ahead. They're even starting on it already.

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I noticed the Popeye's in the picture above is being replaced by a new Popeye's building next door. Are they knocking the current location down? Will it be used for BRT parking?

 

Joe

No. They are considering a party store for the current building. They said that the SilverLine did influence them on building the new building.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/08/popeyes_chicken_to_build_new_i.html

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Wow, and more good news, just learned from the MLive article with photos that they moved it to the North side of Wealthy Street. :)

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/06/work_begins_on_grand_rapids_ne.html#/2

 

Edit: Arg, I've been told that the area North of Wealthy Street that has been cleared for the parking lot as planned.

Edited by John E
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good news. I was wondering when this would happen, as comments posted on mlive indicate, there is a need for a tunnel under 131 for better access to the mult-transit station and if it truly becomes a hub, will there be sufficient parking very close? The ballet and founders takes up a lot of street parking in the area and of course most people riding buses wont be driving there, but there could be some demand for parking with Amtrak riders and it should be close. 

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Amtrak parking will be between the Wealthy overpass and Central Station.

Better than a tunnel, much better, would be to bring Wealthy to grade with 131 going over top. The tunnel would get much use and bringing Wealthy to grade would really open up the area.

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Amtrak parking will be between the Wealthy overpass and Central Station.

Better than a tunnel, much better, would be to bring Wealthy to grade with 131 going over top. The tunnel would get much use and bringing Wealthy to grade would really open up the area.

 

Interesting idea, but they probably did it the way it is because of the rail tracks in the area and bringing Wealthy to at-grade would probably mean the tracks would cause traffic stops and not to mention trains in the station might stick out past Wealthy just sitting there. Wealthy has to be elevated unless the tracks can go underground to the station?

I noticed the Popeye's in the picture above is being replaced by a new Popeye's building next door. Are they knocking the current location down? Will it be used for BRT parking?

 

Joe

always wondered why there was such an old popeyes and not any new ones built in the metro area?

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Interesting idea, but they probably did it the way it is because of the rail tracks in the area and bringing Wealthy to at-grade would probably mean the tracks would cause traffic stops and not to mention trains in the station might stick out past Wealthy just sitting there. Wealthy has to be elevated unless the tracks can go underground to the station?

Lowering Wealthy would not interfew with Amtrak. The tracks end at the station which is South of Wealthy. The only disadvantage would be for the passengers to cross Wealthy with their luggage from the parking lot or the Rapid Central Station.

Edited by John E
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  • 3 weeks later...

Got this photo moments before the sheet of glass for the skylight window broke at the SilverLine Green St. Station just North of Hall Street.

9268709323_00383aae45_c.jpg

 

They have installed the canopy frame at the Cottage Grove station between Hall and Burton along with a bike rack and the emergency phone.

9268709037_d4dd21f20e_c.jpg

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johne777/sets/72157634480312007/with/9268709037/

 

Edited by John E
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  • 2 weeks later...

It's not that surprising if you're talking about a nationwide, 50-year trend.  So many new houses were built in Forest Hills and south of 60th Street in the past twenty years alone.  Naturally, mass transit doesn't exist (yet) in such remote neighborhoods, but the sprawl also makes carpooling harder.  And the highest concentration of jobs in our area isn't within the city limits, it's massed in the office farms east of Broadmoor.  Reinvestment in the city has been great, and I don't doubt it will continue, but there's still a long way to go to reverse the longstanding trend.

 

And that's just GR... Think about all the Sun Belt cities during this period that grew way faster and way more dispersed.

Edited by RegalTDP
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The pendulum is swinging back quickly towards urbanity in first tier cities. It soon will occur here as well. I think we have only begun to see the beginnings of urban revitalization in Grand Rapids. Look at the single family sales prices in the Heritage / East Hills areas. They have increased dramatically in the last 6 months. List prices for homes are now approaching $200k in areas that were closer to $75k 10 years ago (despite the Great Home Value Implosion). 

Edited by Jippy
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There's a ton of suburban to suburban commuting embedded in those statistics I believe.  From a regional viewpoint I don't see the GR metro area changing the tide anytime soon nor will the urban core, even with its improvements, make any dent in the larger overall transit picture.  Put it into perspective ... maybe 1 out of 200 jobs and/or residents in the region are downtown or near-downtown?   It doesn't stop us from mentioning downtown in what seems like half our posts however.

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Before 2011, the most recent statistic shown on that graph is 1980.  That's a 30 year gap, and the transit ridership increases really began in the early 2000s / late 90s, yes?  Perhaps the percentage dipped further through the 80s and has been increasing since then (but not yet matching what it was in 1980.)  1980 is the tail-end of the 70s, before the suburbs really began to become ridiculous and before the exurbs really began to explode.

A more detailed-by-year graph would be nice to see.

Edited by tSlater
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There's a ton of suburban to suburban commuting embedded in those statistics I believe.  From a regional viewpoint I don't see the GR metro area changing the tide anytime soon nor will the urban core, even with its improvements, make any dent in the larger overall transit picture.  Put it into perspective ... maybe 1 out of 200 jobs and/or residents in the region are downtown or near-downtown?   It doesn't stop us from mentioning downtown in what seems like half our posts however.

 

You are right, but the great thing about fixed transit is once it is switched on, you have dramatically increased the land area that can develop around transit. When the Silver Line opens, both downtown and everything within a quarter mile of S Division becomes a transit destination. GR Metro will take longer to swing back, but Chicago, NYC and Washington DC now have more building permits issued in urbanized areas than the suburban portions of the metro area. It will take time, but these trends are just beginning to occur here as well. 

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There's a ton of suburban to suburban commuting embedded in those statistics I believe.  From a regional viewpoint I don't see the GR metro area changing the tide anytime soon nor will the urban core, even with its improvements, make any dent in the larger overall transit picture.  Put it into perspective ... maybe 1 out of 200 jobs and/or residents in the region are downtown or near-downtown?   It doesn't stop us from mentioning downtown in what seems like half our posts however.

 

That's because this is an urban forum arcturus. :) But you're right, it's not going to be a major shift any time soon.

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