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Michigan Street/Midtown Neighborhood Development


fotoman311

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Wait for it .........  GVSU presented plans for the property they now own north of the highway in belknap a few days ago - and in all five renditions presented for this master planning process they had a - wait for it.....  

900 space parking deck ...   yes they want to throw a 900 space parking deck into the neighborhood -  and a few city folk made it pretty clear this is a necessity to help make Michigan street more user friendly .

WTF  is what I said . 

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2 hours ago, Aiga said:

Wait for it .........  GVSU presented plans for the property they now own north of the highway in belknap a few days ago - and in all five renditions presented for this master planning process they had a - wait for it.....  

900 space parking deck ...   yes they want to throw a 900 space parking deck into the neighborhood -  and a few city folk made it pretty clear this is a necessity to help make Michigan street more user friendly .

WTF  is what I said . 

Wasn't a parking ramp always part of GVSU's plan there? 900 does seem pretty huge but what's the alternative? 900 cars parked in the surrounding neighborhood?

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900 space parking ramp was never part of equation .  The building under construction now will have almost 300 spaces -  so the 900 is in addition .  The alternative is smarter more thoughtful planning, which was non existent in any of the plans they presented : 

They are gonna open up college with a road into the neighborhood from that end which will help -  but I like to see more private development opportunities within the property they hold .  They can achieve both there needs and fulfill community goals as well .

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/14/2016 at 7:52 AM, GRDadof3 said:

Scratch that everybody! That property is owned by MSU. I do now remember that they bought up much of that land back when the Secchia Center opened.

 

MSU Parking.JPG

The Design/Engineering team is looking at this parking lot proposal. It would be run by the city but still owned by MSU. They're also talking about the possibility of another lot on the property on Sinclair. 

http://grcity.us/engineering-department/BoardsCommissionAndAuthority/DT Agenda 01.18.17.pdf

 

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Reading that document just made me sick to my stomach.

It just shows that the city will chuck out all the happy talk about urbanism in an instant.

All of their talk about "bike parking", "tree planting" and have a DASH bus go through the lot is frankly embarrassing. It isnt bad enough that this intersection is a nightmare most of the day, but to then add a lot full of over 100 cars that will need to snake in and file out during the rush times? Like how do they plan on pulling that off?

 

And from the looks of it there is zero opposition to the lot by the Downtown Market. In fact it looks like a bunch of people are just negotiating about how much of that sweet asphalt they can use for their bushiness.

This line was a real hoot:

" Three to five year lot with later potential for structured parking "

No, 20 year surface lot minimum, where maybe in some future era someone with a brain may actually see a use for near DT land as something other than to park cars in the open.

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I think we're getting a little worked up over nothing at this point. Parking is a concern, and I don't seeing major development hitting that spot for 3-5 years, maybe once GVSU builds their new building.

It's a storage building and an old suburban style office building. I'm not the least bit worried about this. I have to assume once GVSU gets going, they'll need parking to replace what is lost, even if it is short term. 

Joe

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51 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

I think we're getting a little worked up over nothing at this point. Parking is a concern, and I don't seeing major development hitting that spot for 3-5 years, maybe once GVSU builds their new building.

It's a storage building and an old suburban style office building. I'm not the least bit worried about this. I have to assume once GVSU gets going, they'll need parking to replace what is lost, even if it is short term. 

Joe

Until Grand Rapids figures out a way to do a cost-effective and "friendly" commuter bus system in from the burbs, this is going to continue to happen. Maybe if I keep saying it enough times, someone will catch on. :)

I have to imagine making a left turn out of this lot to get on I-196 is going to be like Death Race 2000

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On 1/18/2017 at 8:27 AM, GRDadof3 said:

Until Grand Rapids figures out a way to do a cost-effective and "friendly" commuter bus system in from the burbs, this is going to continue to happen.

Lots of room for private sector innovation here.  There is a crap ton of spare parking in the neighborhoods and suburbs around the city - which have existing bus service with good frequencies.  Someone could put up some parking gates, a nice simple bus stop that is cleaned regularly and make some money.

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10 minutes ago, whitemice said:

Lots of room for private sector innovation here.  There is a crap ton of spare parking in the neighborhoods and suburbs around the city - which have existing bus service with good frequencies.  Someone could put up some parking gates, a nice simple bus stop that is cleaned regularly and make some money.

Not using the existing bus service. Commuter buses, straight shot from burbs-to-downtown with no stopping every 5 minutes. 

I agree there's probably a market to run it with a private company, but why not include it in the transit system like other bigger cities do? 

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51 minutes ago, thebeerqueer said:

Looks like El Barrio esta muerto.

https://mibiz.com/item/24460-el-barrio-mexican-grill-closes

 

Oops, see that this same story is posted in Restaurant Rumor Mill. 

Bummer. I liked their food, though it always fell off the radar when looking for a place to eat. Really surprised they didn't hang on for a bit to see if traffic would increase with he RISE apartments going up next door. 

Joe

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1 hour ago, HavingAhoot said:

Looks like there is a public hearing to put in a bar and rooftop deck on the old Lords chapel across from Bob's and next to Birch lodge

 

http://grandrapidscitymi.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=3700&MediaPosition=&ID=4596&CssClass=

Hmmm, not sure how the neighbors on either side would enjoy the rooftop bar but good to see this space being re-purposed. 

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The city website notes that the Midtown NA submitted a letter of support for this project. Seems a bit odd. 

12 hours ago, Pattmost20 said:

There was a meeting about it a few months ago. Probably the worst hour and a half of my life.

Do tell? As a participant in our NA for years, I have an idea in my head how that meeting went (teaser: not pleasant).

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2 hours ago, thebeerqueer said:

The city website notes that the Midtown NA submitted a letter of support for this project. Seems a bit odd. 

Do tell? As a participant in our NA for years, I have an idea in my head how that meeting went (teaser: not pleasant).

So the meeting being held was trying to get support for a 2am liquor license. Midtown (I use the collective loosely, it was half and half, but those against were making the most noise) ended up not being in favor of that, but were in favor of the development in general, so long as they closed earlier. Now I need to point out, a rooftop seating area was not mentioned at this meeting, that probably would have caused a fuss.

The meeting in general was just ridiculous. Somebody brought up how a guy was killed in a bar fight 20 years ago and therefore they didn't want any new bars in Midtown. They simultaneously didn't want people driving drunk, but wanted to make sure there was more than enough parking for everyone who would be drinking at the bar.  A couple who bought a house on Crescent behind all the bars were concerned that people were going to park in front of their house or puke on their lawn. Mind you, the place they are trying to open is along the lines of The Winchester, not exactly a party bar, and definitely a bit classier that most of the Michigan Street Bars. Oh and some lady brought up how 7 Monks had no parking and that made her mad, even though it had nothing to do with the guys trying to open the new bar, or Third Coast who was representing them.  

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6 minutes ago, Pattmost20 said:

So the meeting being held was trying to get support for a 2am liquor license. Midtown (I use the collective loosely, it was half and half, but those against were making the most noise) ended up not being in favor of that, but were in favor of the development in general, so long as they closed earlier. Now I need to point out, a rooftop seating area was not mentioned at this meeting, that probably would have caused a fuss.

The meeting in general was just ridiculous. Somebody brought up how a guy was killed in a bar fight 20 years ago and therefore they didn't want any new bars in Midtown. They simultaneously didn't want people driving drunk, but wanted to make sure there was more than enough parking for everyone who would be drinking at the bar.  A couple who bought a house on Crescent behind all the bars were concerned that people were going to park in front of their house or puke on their lawn. Mind you, the place they are trying to open is along the lines of The Winchester, not exactly a party bar, and definitely a bit classier that most of the Michigan Street Bars. Oh and some lady brought up how 7 Monks had no parking and that made her mad, even though it had nothing to do with the guys trying to open the new bar, or Third Coast who was representing them.  

I feel your pain in all of these ways. You've described many of our NA meetings. Obscure and dated references, twisted to fit a slightly similar situation as an excuse to rile up neighbors. It's painful at times. 

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