Bay City, MI (Part I)

[wolverine]

Bay City is located near the Saginaw Bay, although its urban center is on the Saginaw river.

City Pop: 37,000 (y 2000)

Urban Pop: 75,000

Metro: 108,000

I should mention that these were taken on Sunday of memorial day weekend which is the most dead weekend of the year for this town. So everything was closed. Usually it's packed with people, so don't judge. The next installment will show more life.

These photos will be the last for my camera. Something's wrong with it so I'm either getting a Nikon D-40 or D-50 next week.

Looking toward downtown

Again looking toward downtown from Vets. Park

Riverfront Doubletree and City Hall

Midland Street District is across the river from downtown. It caters to the local college crowd at Saginaw Valley State University

Water Street. Most of the upper floors on the buildings here may be converted to lofts

View from Waterfall Plaza

Center Ave

Center Ave

Center Ave

Wenonah Park

Water Street. Finally, some pedestrians!

New townhouses

Random Retail

Post Office

Washington Ave

Washington Ave

Washington Ave

Looooooong:

Washington Ave

Looking toward City Hall

New loft development

Part 2 coming soon!

[RustTown]

Very nice and relatively intact core. Bay City, given the location, seems like it should have been much larger, and the same goes for Saginaw.

[dtown]

Nice pics. Id like to spend some time in Bay City myself.

[nofunk]

Your "city hall through the alley" shot turned out really well.

[Rybak 187]

Very nice and relatively intact core. Bay City, given the location, seems like it should have been much larger, and the same goes for Saginaw.

[wolverine]

Speaking of Chicago, there's a loft building in the near South area, very close to the EL line that looks exactly like the lofts in the hold hardware building. Same yellow brick and green accents, same windows and balconies, and it had additional levels added as well. I should get a photo of it next time I'm around there.

Part II is on the way, I was just waiting for the fireworks to happen so I could get some shots with some more people.

[RustTown]

Yes, someone told me that it was at one point suppose to be the Chicago of Michigan. Then when they were done cutting the trees the city wasn't diversified enough so the city stagnated then started to decline.

[Rybak 187]

That, and the relatively isolated location. Michigan suffers from the fact that unless you're talking trade between the U.S. and Canada, there are no reasons, economically, to go through Michigan. Chicago is at an excellent location, and a major logitics gateway. It's amazing that a city like Detroit got as large as they did. It's growth really defied conventional thought when talking of trade and logitistics. As trade swtiched from river to rail, it really should have never gotten as large as it has, where as a much more economically isolated region like the Tri-cities isn't so hard to imagine declining once the lumber was used up.

BTW, where did Bay City's shipyard(s) used to be? I always found it very interesting that Michigan had some pretty major shipyards, simply because you never heard much about them.

[mgman]

That, and the relatively isolated location. Michigan suffers from the fact that unless you're talking trade between the U.S. and Canada, there are no reasons, economically, to go through Michigan. Chicago is at an excellent location, and a major logitics gateway. It's amazing that a city like Detroit got as large as they did. It's growth really defied conventional thought when talking of trade and logitistics. As trade swtiched from river to rail, it really should have never gotten as large as it has, where as a much more economically isolated region like the Tri-cities isn't so hard to imagine declining once the lumber was used up.

[RustTown]

Rail transportation made Chicago important. As rail took over quite a few water routes, Chicago grew along with it and made itself a logitics center stealing away alot of St. Louis's economy, the dominant city in the area at the time. I think you may be overstating the importance of waterways after the commercialization of railways. Rail made quite a few waterways nearly obsolete.

What I had forgot about Detroit is that it was not cross-country logisitics that fed its boom, so that means rail didn't hurt it like other river cities. It was fed by the ore in the north, and water travel was still the best way to get the raw materials down to Detroit. From there it was shipped out to the different parts of the country, so I guess it's not a surprise it got so big. This is not to even mention that even before rail, the Erie Canal opened up Michigan to the rest of the nation, at the time, and the world.

Yeah, I'm surprised that any inland cities made it. But, I guess it shows the ingenuity of the people, here. In fact, beyond being the state capital, my city of Lansing's whole history centers around it being a joke of a settlement, and it was not until much later when a new technology was developed, here (the automobile) that it had any chance of being anything other than a local agricultural center. A lot of Michigan's cities exists as they do because of technology. I wish Michigan hadn't forgot this fact, or we'd been much better of, today. It was technological advance and innovation that made up.

[mgman]

Rail transportation made Chicago important. As rail took over quite a few water routes, Chicago grew along with it and made itself a logitics center stealing away alot of St. Louis's economy, the dominant city in the area at the time. I think you may be overstating the importance of waterways after the commercialization of railways. Rail made quite a few waterways nearly obsolete.

What I had forgot about Detroit is that it was not cross-country logisitics that fed its boom, so that means rail didn't hurt it like other river cities. It was fed by the ore in the north, and water travel was still the best way to get the raw materials down to Detroit. From there it was shipped out to the different parts of the country, so I guess it's not a surprise it got so big. This is not to even mention that even before rail, the Erie Canal opened up Michigan to the rest of the nation, at the time, and the world.

Yeah, I'm surprised that any inland cities made it. But, I guess it shows the ingenuity of the people, here. In fact, beyond being the state capital, my city of Lansing's whole history centers around it being a joke of a settlement, and it was not until much later when a new technology was developed, here (the automobile) that it had any chance of being anything other than a local agricultural center. A lot of Michigan's cities exists as they do because of technology. I wish Michigan hadn't forgot this fact, or we'd been much better of, today. It was technological advance and innovation that made up.

[RustTown]

I didn't bring up the point of agriculture being so important for Michigan. Actually, compared to other surrounding states, because only a part of Michigan can be used for good farming (i.e. the lower half of the Lower Peninsula), I think agriculture played (and plays) less of a role in comparison. I also think that because of that Michigan's only economic hope is in technological innovation. Without that, Michigan would have ended up (and will end up) like a Minnesota or Wisconsin in terms of size both economic and population. Without technological innovation, Michigan has no business being as large as it is (10 million). If we want to maintain our current size (economic and population) and grow, that is the only option. Trying to fall back on agriculture or manufacturing isn't an option for a state as developed as Michigan.

[LA Dave]

That, and the relatively isolated location. Michigan suffers from the fact that unless you're talking trade between the U.S. and Canada, there are no reasons, economically, to go through Michigan. Chicago is at an excellent location, and a major logitics gateway. It's amazing that a city like Detroit got as large as they did. It's growth really defied conventional thought when talking of trade and logitistics. As trade swtiched from river to rail, it really should have never gotten as large as it has, where as a much more economically isolated region like the Tri-cities isn't so hard to imagine declining once the lumber was used up.

BTW, where did Bay City's shipyard(s) used to be? I always found it very interesting that Michigan had some pretty major shipyards, simply because you never heard much about them.