Tourist pics

[Veloise]

As mentioned in the stadium thread, I am here for a business trip. Despite Corp's relentless attempt to keep us confined and indoors, I brought my folding bike, and shot these pics riding around DT.

I'm from Grand Rapids, Mich which seems to have many similarities to LR: presidential museum, DT river, struggling DT retail (we have an active task force working on that), mass transit issues (likewise). Also we have one of the most prolific forums on the Planet.

Maybe next time I'll make it out to the Big Dam.

I'm a fan of DDA flags and banners. These show a map!

Main Street shopping district...or it will be once the LR DDA ramps up. Presently there is an Army surplus store, a liquor store, and not much else besides the pretty twinkling lights.

Trolley car.

Interesting rehab (hotel) across from the schmancy duck place.

View out my room windows

Views from the Arkansas Queen river boat ride. (The Grand River is not deep enough for navigation of this sort...maybe we could have a floating flat-bottomed party boat.)

There was a cyclist in this last pic, or was before I pushed the button...

More to follow...

ETA: spent a l-o-n-g airport layover (don't fly Northwest!) editing and enhancing some pics.

[Architect]

As mentioned in the stadium thread, I am here for a business trip. Despite Corp's relentless attempt to keep us confined and indoors, I brought my folding bike, and shot these pics riding around DT.

More to follow...

[Veloise]

Thanks Arch! Many's the time I've made a trip into a "biathlon," taking one visit and adding a special interest. Too bad y'all didn't have a meet-up going on. GR is a great place (I selected it when expatriating myself from Detroit).

More pics. (We do this all the time on the GR forum.)

Guess who?! (To access my superhero capabilities, I often wear clothing with an urban skyline print.)

One more batch...uploading in two places.

[Aporkalypse]

Thanks Arch! Many's the time I've made a trip into a "biathlon," taking one visit and adding a special interest. Too bad y'all didn't have a meet-up going on. GR is a great place (I selected it when expatriating myself from Detroit).

More pics. (We do this all the time on the GR forum.)

[Architect]

The Grand Rapids forum has lots of interesting pictures. It sounds like it has an active and vibrant downtown.

[Veloise]

I checked out the Grand Rapids forum as well...lots of major projects downtown there as well! Its a sizable town - same city population, but over 1M MSA...impressive.

[Veloise]

Last batch.

(Some of the duplicates are from fiddling with the camera settings. Tweaking and descriptive text to follow.)

Nice town here. I am very envious of the market, the outdoor movie pavillion, and the Old Statehouse.

[johnnydr87]

Nice town here. I am very envious of the market, the outdoor movie pavillion, and the Old Statehouse.

[Aporkalypse]

The outdoor move pavillion is a multipurpose pavillion, normally used for music shows/touring bands/festivals. You probably saw it when they were having the "Movies in the Park" event, which occurs every Wed. (I think) during summer.

Nice pics.

[Veloise]

The outdoor move pavillion is a multipurpose pavillion, normally used for music shows/touring bands/festivals. You probably saw it when they were having the "Movies in the Park" event, which occurs every Wed. (I think) during summer.

[Architect]

We presently have something like 7 construction cranes working on new tall buildings. And our Planet group has meet-ups on an irregular basis.

If you run across the acronym KIAS, that's a sarcastic reference to the DT "marketing strategy" come up with last year. Stands for Keep It A Secret.

I am not making this up.

[Veloise]

So Veloise, how would you compare GR and LR?

[Aporkalypse]

My gut-level reaction is: I'm not renting a U-Haul anytime soon. (Backstory: I grew up in metro Detroit, eventually realized that, just because my great-uncle worked in a bomber plant there, didn't mean I had to live there...so I did much research and landed in GR. Also I am a city planner by training...see my UP profile...and I love living in this small city with a lovely DT where I feel comfortable and safe, and where I can make a positive impact.)

However. LR and GR seem to face many of the same challenges (or should I say "opportunities," since that's what they kept saying during my meeting). New modern office buildings DT adjacent to interesting vintage rehabs. Lack of supportive retail DT. (On my previous trip I hit some of your suburban strip malls...Good Will-aholic!) I did not see evidence of as much condo development around Markham; we have many condo projects coming on-line.

We are working to get a trolley line. (Don't get me started on the Detroit mentatlity of "our own safe, comfortable cars" and Henry Ford and suburban sprawl and Detroit-area honchos who have publicly stated that Sprawl = Money...whoops!) We are working on mass transit (major health care project area getting built up, no place to store private autos for all the future workers/visitors).

We also have a river and some nearby converted rail-trails. I want all my GR UP'ers to see the outdoor pavilion/movie theatre pic! (We have several DT gathering spaces which could easily add this use.) Several months of our year are not conducive to outdoor fun, so we pack as much into April -- October as we can.

Regrettably, business trips don't afford as much wander-around free time as a DT junkie needs. (More pics coming; I rode shotgun heading to the airport and tooks several more.)

If y'all get the chance, do attend a conference or expo or other event in GR. And feel free to wander our UP board some more. We just hosted a visitor from Canton (sprawlville) Twp (near Detroit) and he looved taking pics of our DT. Also look up the "parking porn" threads that show our surplus of DT car storage space.

Oh! I was having chain trouble with my foldie bike (chainring bent by baggage gorillas) and a local recumbent rider stopped to help out. I'd mentioned that I was headed to Harvest Foods out Main St. He rode home, got in his pick-up, and drove out to HF to check on me. (Cyclists are like that.)

[Veloise]

OK, I lied...final final batch. Here's the trip to the airport.

Trolley map

[theman]

However. LR and GR seem to face many of the same challenges (or should I say "opportunities," since that's what they kept saying during my meeting). New modern office buildings DT adjacent to interesting vintage rehabs. Lack of supportive retail DT. (On my previous trip I hit some of your suburban strip malls...Good Will-aholic!) I did not see evidence of as much condo development around Markham; we have many condo projects coming on-line.

[Yankee Fan]

Hi LR! I am another one of those people from Grand Rapids who has spent some time in Little Rock. I truly love the area and the people. There are so many similarities between our cities- you should come up here sometime and I think that you will feel at home the same way that I feel at home down south.

[Veloise]

Hi LR! I am another one of those people from Grand Rapids who has spent some time in Little Rock. I truly love the area and the people. There are so many similarities between our cities- you should come up here sometime and I think that you will feel at home the same way that I feel at home down south.

[Aporkalypse]

Hi LR! I am another one of those people from Grand Rapids who has spent some time in Little Rock. I truly love the area and the people. There are so many similarities between our cities- you should come up here sometime and I think that you will feel at home the same way that I feel at home down south.