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Downtown Midland


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The circle district was basically a very dense suburban retail district that had this sort of traffic circle in the center of it all. What was cool was the stores facing it had their frontage follow the curve of the road. A good portion of it all has been leveled. What replaced it was buildings that sit in the middle of a parking lot. It is no longer unique or impressive as it used to be. A couple buildings are still there though. I hope they dont get torn down. In fact, I hope they someday rebuild it like it used to be.

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My mother just moved to Midland after living in a small farming community south of Grand Rapids for 72 years. She bought the 2nd home built by Alden Dow - right across the street from the Center for the Arts and Dow Gardens. It's like living in a piece of modern art. Her old victorian back home was prettier but the Dow house has something that's hard to quantify. Each room feels like the gardens outside never end and the room never begins - organic architecture. It's quite fascinating.

I spend many weekends in Midland now and it's really growing on me. It's a charming little town, the people are very friendly. I live in the Heritage Hill historic district in downtown Grand Rapids and will never leave because it's the coolest neighborhood on the planet and actually affordable for a single person with what I consider a "normal" office job. However, Midland definitely has a nice feel to it. It would be a perfect place to raise a family. There is virtually no real crime - my mother can walk around at night without having to worry about being mugged.

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Years ago, US 10 went from Saginaw directly to Midland along the Tittabawassee River (great name, huh?) and bypassed what was then the city. Where the main street to downtown hit the bypass, a large roundabout was built known as Ashman Circle. Nowadays, the streets cut through the Circle, but at one time the interior was a large grassy area. The Circle Merchants had a carnival inside of the Circle called "Paul Bunyan Days", where the draw was buffalo burgers.

When the Circle was first built up in the late 40s (with a theater that was pulled down for a Rite Aid) locals thought it was too far out to ever prosper.

In the 70s, I worked in a wonderful space age looking drug store, which is now empty. Another drugstore, Nugent's had a soda fountain, and I bought my first legal beer at Solosky's next door. (All gone.)The Circle was the head of a shopping district that used to be the retail center of Midland. Most retail has now moved north of US 10, and the Circle is past its glory days.

Midland has many things for young people to do, including Gilbert and Sullivan, Teenage musicals, Theater Guild, Music Society, as well as world class soccer and skating facilities.

Midland lines all its main streets with bright annuals, and provides doodoo bags for walking dogs in Barstow Woods!

It was a great place to grow up, but it gives a child a view of a world that is much more benevolent than the one I've met as an adult...

(I met my first cockroach in Lansing, Lmich, in my sister's apartment on S. Cedar.)

Sorry for rambling ...

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How don't apologize. I eat this stuff up. Hopefully, someone will be able to get some pics before I actually get up there. :) I've actually never been to any of the tri-cities. Having come from Detroit and even now in Lansing they just seem so distant in more ways than one.

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I went to the Tall Ships event in Bay City on Saturday, so I was able to get over to Midland as well. I hadn't been there is quite some time. I use to spend a few weeks there with my cousins each summer when I was growing up.

In all fairness and honesty, I was holding Midland pretty high, and though I still do, this recent trip really opened my eyes. I'm still impressed with the city and all that it has achieved, but a lot of the established business strips looked excessively tired. The core residential mirrors that of Bay City and Saginaw in many spots, but I was always aware of that. The rest of the city's residential is still very well-off and intact.

I always come into town off of US-10 and onto M-20. The moment the freeway ends, I couldn't help but wonder where the vibrant town I remember went. On the contrary, when I reached downtown, I wondered where all these shops and buildings came from. It may just be my own ignorance because downtown Midland isn't obvious...you kinda just have to sit back and let IT show you around.

So, anyway, I drove around the city a while and was going to go to Dow Gardens for the first time, but was running out of time, so I passed.

I remember Ashman Circle. I really think that the city should try and bring it back as an effort to reinvent its uniqueness. Maybe this could help improve the "tired" business strips that I felt many thoroughfares had.

Anyway, I'll post my photos hopefully sometime this week after I have a chance to obtain them.

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Oh, and the agriculture land...I'm not sure how much of a role this plays in that, but Midland has an urban growth boundary, brought upon by its water system utility. Off the top of my head, I don't remember what the policy is for areas surrounding the city to grow, but it might have something to do with annexation onto the city and taxes. I know it isn't that, but the legislation dances around that somehow with related dialogue.

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Well, here's the Midland photos: :thumbsup:

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Great streetscaping.

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The Santa House

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The infamous Tridge.

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Midland's Pierre Marquette Rail Trail is one of Michigan's premier examples of the Rails-to-Trails program. Midland's cultural assets and parks and recreation is among the best in the state.

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The Tridge was built where the Chippewa and Tittabawassee Rivers meet.

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The city's largest employeer. If you ever meet anyone from Midland, you can almost be sure they work, in some way, for Dow Chemical.

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Midland has the home campus of Northwood Univesity

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Midland Center for the Arts.

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Nice pictures Michi! You've made Midland look a lot better than what it seems like. Dow Gardens is beautiful, and there is some excellent contemporary architecture there mostly due to Frank Lloyd Wright. But Midland just has never felt right to me. I guess I'm too used to old industrial cities.

Although, I have to admit, I've always loved that freeway bridge with the paint and landscaping. I really think other cities should follow suit.

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