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Michigan Street/Midtown Neighborhood Development


fotoman311

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Tomorrow night is the first public forum in the Michigan Street Corridor planning process.

6:30-8:30 at Central High School, on Fountain between Prospect and College.

Results from some of the preliminary research into housing demand and analysis of employee and student data from the core institutions within the corridor study area will be presented.

There will probably be dot voting, too. :) Seems to be popular at these things.

www.michiganstreetcorridor.us

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Tomorrow night is the first public forum in the Michigan Street Corridor planning process.

6:30-8:30 at Central High School, on Fountain between Prospect and College.

Results from some of the preliminary research into housing demand and analysis of employee and student data from the core institutions within the corridor study area will be presented.

There will probably be dot voting, too. :) Seems to be popular at these things.

www.michiganstreetcorridor.us

Aye carumba, why are all these interesting things going on tonight! Drat.

Push for a dedicated bike lane, at least on the uphill side!

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Aye carumba, why are all these interesting things going on tonight! Drat.

Push for a dedicated bike lane, at least on the uphill side!

Yeah, Amy and I were disappointed that we'll be missing the Rapid Growth panel on schools. We want to do both as well.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Deadline of March 2nd is looming if you were planning to play "Quality of Life".

I walked both north and south sidewalks from College to Fuller and back on Sunday evening. Here are the photos:

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

There are a lot, but you can scroll through them pretty quick if you click "slideshow" in the upper right.

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6910773731_050f69ede8_b.jpg

Couldn't find the trees in the banner. Maybe they were cut down when the street was widened from the two lanes in the illustration. :P :P

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6908047367_0d3c6de048_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6908442909_a4b7cc1278_b.jpg

No, I did not walk around to the rear of the funeral home.

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6912181681_6334516b99_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6911948263_9b9d49d042_b.jpg

And one of my favorites...ooops, forgot something. This is really inexcusable in a project that is less than 5 years old.

http://www.flickr.co...157629396197943

6914132111_5cda00b18d_b.jpg

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  • 5 months later...
  • 9 months later...

Fun stuff happening on Michigan: that hot % now is a "Donk's"

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/11/taco_boy_owners_will_open_new.html

 

the old walgreens on diamond is becoming a good will

 

and a building just popped up on the north side by Grand Coney - can't remember what the sign said at this moment.

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Fun stuff happening on Michigan: that hot % now is a "Donk's"

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/11/taco_boy_owners_will_open_new.html

 

the old walgreens on diamond is becoming a good will

 

and a building just popped up on the north side by Grand Coney - can't remember what the sign said at this moment.

 

 

That's probably the redevelopment of the Miller Zylstra site. I've seen they are moving pretty far along:

 

http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/devnews/MillerZylstra1011.aspx

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The one next to Grand Coney is a pet grooming shop.  They tore down an old gas station.

no that is across the street, there is a new ophthalmology place where the Miller Zylstra building was.

 

here: 

8979494363_8c14f51415_c.jpg

 

and here is the old walgreens:

8980688802_bf6edba137_c.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

So these are interesting goals for Michigan Street.

 

• 95 percent of people in the Medical Mile use single-occupancy automobiles; by 2035, that number should drop to 45 percent, with another 20 percent carpooling

• 1 to 2 percent of people in the Medical Mile ride transit; by 2035, that number should increase to 20 percent

• 3 to 5 percent of people in the Medical Mile walk there; by 2035, that number should increase to 12 percent

 

I wonder how that's actually possible? 12 percent walk there? Like that guy in Detroit who walks 21 miles to work every day? :)

 

I definitely think more employees of Spectrum could be shuttled into the area.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/02/how_youll_get_to_grand_rapids.html

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The only way this will happen is if a large parking ramp is built to the east (around Plymouth) and west (somewhere along Bridge on the west side), with a tram that runs both ways with stations at both locations, and at various points along the way, that are heated in the winter.

 

Short of that, no one is going to really abandon their cars just because, nor are they going to use the same setup with the Silverline, where you freeze to death to wait for a bus.

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When given sufficient options and adequate financial incentive, mode shifting will occur.

 

Question: if you worked on the Hill but continued to live where you do today, what would be the minimum payment  you would need to receive in order not not to drive separately to work? 

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When given sufficient options and adequate financial incentive, mode shifting will occur.

 

Question: if you worked on the Hill but continued to live where you do today, what would be the minimum payment  you would need to receive in order not not to drive separately to work? 

 

People are going to be paid not to drive? I can see the anti-tax websites already popping up. :)

 

Unless you mean Spectrum paying people not to drive? Or providing incentives to take alternative transportation.

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I wonder how that's actually possible? 12 percent walk there? Like that guy in Detroit who walks 21 miles to work every day? :)

 

None of this is possible, or grounded in reality.  The primary reason the "level for service for autos won't get much better", to quote Suzanne Schulz, is because they have decreed war upon them, and refuse to make it better.  In fact, they have made conscious decisions to make the situation worse.  Viable automobile transit lanes have been replaced in favor of bike lanes and bus lanes which carry far fewer people.  Even when the "road diet" experiment failed on Division, they refused to believe the results, and decreed that more study was needed. By simply reversing those foolish decisions, much of the so-called "problem" could be ameliorated. 

 

Funny how easy it is to fix self-induced problems.  This smacks of the fat kid complaining his hand is stuck in the cookie jar when he refuses to let go of the cookie. 

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Poorly written on my part. Yes, I meant employers paying their employees to not pay as an effort to reduce their need for paying $25k per new parking space.  

 

Yes, that makes sense. Not only is it $25,000 per parking space, there's no more space left. Might have to be more than just Rapid vouchers though, unless The Rapid really starts ramping up its park-n-ride system.

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When given sufficient options and adequate financial incentive, mode shifting will occur.

 

Question: if you worked on the Hill but continued to live where you do today, what would be the minimum payment  you would need to receive in order not not to drive separately to work? 

 

Well, I live all of a mile away, if that, and I wouldn't agree to walk or take a bus for far more than the amortized cost of a parking spot.  If my employer required it, I would probably considering changing jobs.  Just about the only people who would agree to be paid to take public transit are people who are broke and don't have options.  Now, a private shuttle bus without the general public on it that stops at my door at a defined time?  Sign me up.

 

The problem is this:  People who live in the suburbs will be even more obnoxious about this than I am.  What I predict will happen is that parking will either get built, and Schulz will stop fragging the traffic on purpose, or the Medical Mile will start expanding elsewhere.  Sorry if I sound like an mLive commenter, but the truth sometimes is not pretty.

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Well, I live all of a mile away, if that, and I wouldn't agree to walk or take a bus for far more than the amortized cost of a parking spot.  If my employer required it, I would probably considering changing jobs.  Just about the only people who would agree to be paid to take public transit are people who are broke and don't have options.  Now, a private shuttle bus without the general public on it that stops at my door at a defined time?  Sign me up.

 

 

It seems like you're making a lot of assumptions based on your own personal feelings. Depending on the circumstances, i would absolutely ride the bus in exchange for a pay increase bump and I am neither poor nor out of options. Some extra dollars and freedom from the hassle of trying to find parking, I'd be all about it. If it is going to double my commute time and be a negligible payout, then no, obviously not. Rubbing elbows with bus people and the less off wouldn't even factor into my thinking, though I do concede that there is probably a big divide on that sentiment between younger and older commuters.

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When given sufficient options and adequate financial incentive, mode shifting will occur.

 

Question: if you worked on the Hill but continued to live where you do today, what would be the minimum payment  you would need to receive in order not not to drive separately to work? 

A nickel, but I do live a block away!
 
I do fear what was said elsewhere though, about expansion taking place elsewhere.
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The reason I ask is that for most folks, a financial boost is worth the consideration. At a past employer, we were offered $45/mo to not use the parking garage. Saves the company on paying for the parking space and I got a few extra bucks (my coffee money) to ride in with a friend that lived close by. 

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A nickel, but I do live a block away!
 
I do fear what was said elsewhere though, about expansion taking place elsewhere.

 

 

 

There's a lot of space in Monroe North, when you think about it. And Spectrum has already dropped its flag at the Brass Works Building. Not all of Monroe North is owned by MSU yet. There's still riverfront land left, the lot behind Brass Works, that big warehouse next to Icon, all of those ratty buildings along Ottawa (old body shops and small tool and die makers, etc..). You could build all the way up North Division to Mason, practically. Might be 20 years down the road.

 

I can't really see Butterworth remaining Spectrum's main hospital forever. You can really only update a building of that vintage so much.

 

Maybe we'll see a healthcare campus in Monroe North. Wouldn't that be crazy. Health sciences stretching from The Boardwalk all the way around to College Avenue and Michigan.

 

Without doing some serious demolition of residential neighborhoods, Michigan Street is getting landlocked.

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There's a lot of space in Monroe North, when you think about it. And Spectrum has already dropped its flag at the Brass Works Building. Not all of Monroe North is owned by MSU yet. There's still riverfront land left, the lot behind Brass Works, that big warehouse next to Icon, all of those ratty buildings along Ottawa (old body shops and small tool and die makers, etc..). You could build all the way up North Division to Mason, practically. Might be 20 years down the road.

 

I can't really see Butterworth remaining Spectrum's main hospital forever. You can really only update a building of that vintage so much.

 

Maybe we'll see a healthcare campus in Monroe North. Wouldn't that be crazy. Health sciences stretching from The Boardwalk all the way around to College Avenue and Michigan.

 

Without doing some serious demolition of residential neighborhoods, Michigan Street is getting landlocked.

 

That was the whole reason that Monroe North was identified in the corridor plan as the likely spot for institutional expansion.  Parcel size.  Some of the early draft maps showed expansion at east end of Michigan, near Fuller.  There is some space out there, and it would make for a good bookended corridor that could fill in with a density of residential and retail services between, and easily be served by transit that could also service other existing destination (like Spectrum's satellite lots).  But I think the proximity to the existing developments, downtown, and size of the parcels makes Monroe North more attractive.

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  • 3 months later...

Apparently Meritage wants to rebuild the Wendy's on Michigan. I'm not really thrilled with the overall project, especially because they think they are offering a "pedestrian friendly" design that doesn't seem much different than a suburban one with parking all around it. 

 

BUT...

 

There is an interesting bit in the narrative about working with Brad Rosely. Apparently he is working on a project for the neighboring parcels, and the Wendy's would be giving him their air rights for a parking structure behind the restaurant. 

 

You can read about it on pp. 42-43

http://grcity.us/design-and-development-services/Planning-Department/PlanningCommission/PACKET%20PC_5_14_2015.pdf

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