Metro Flint developments

[VeeFan]

I've only been to downtown Detroit once, and that was to go to Orchestra Hall, but I remember how bad the potholes were.

Fifth Avenue can be one of the worst, if not the worst in Flint when it comes to potholes. Every year around this time of year they all start opening up, and they're huge enough to lose entire wheels in. This is when I start taking 475 to get to U of M and FIM.

Although, Pierson Road ranks up there too, and I'm so happy it's finally being repaved.

[dnast]

I think I was on I-96 in Detroit 4 or 5 years ago. I was amazed at how bad it was. There were so many huge pot holes on the onramp that I was probably going only 20 by the time I had to merge in traffic.

I thought 5th was supposed to be repaved last year but nothing happened. Third Ave. is going to be redone soon, but it's no match for Fifth Ave. Pierson definately needed it too.

[Allan]

VeeFan, the roads downtown have been all redone for the Super Bowl, so they're nice & smooth now. Now it's just all the other roads that need to be redone, lol. It's really hard to get downtown quickly when I have to go around massive car-sized potholes in the freeway.

Dnast, I remember that I-96 used to be a nightmare. I think they've finally fixed it...it wasn't that bad the last time I went on it. Then again I was paying more attention to the massive traffic jam than anything else.

[dnast]

I hate to take this too far off topic, but have they finished all road construction downtown? I haven't been down there since the holidays, and it was too cold to do a lot of walking around. And what about the streetscape improvements?

And yeah, I'm pretty sure I've read that 96 was fixed since then.

[Allan]

We're more on topic here than we are over in the GR forum, where we've been discussing Southfield. LOL. Besides, Flint & Detroit have practically merged into one sprawling mass anyway.

As for your question, the construction is far from finished. The worst of the roads have been repaved, but there is still a lot more to come.

There is construction on Michigan, between Washington & Shelby, with one lane closed in each direction.

Bagley is a mess because of the Statler Demolition.

Broadway also has lane closures because of the Opera House Parking Garage Demolition & reconstruction.

Clifford has lane closures north of Bagley.

Fort has lane closures west of Griswold.

Lafayette is closed between Griswold & Shelby.

Washington is still under construction. It is also a mess because of the Statler demo.

Woodward has a southbound lane closed in front of 1001 Woodward.

Also, there is construction on Cass between I-75 & Grand River.

Finally, the Lodge is closed at the Cobo exit...I'm not sure why, since I always get off at Bagley & park for free in front of the Broderick.

That's all I can think of, but I know there's more. It's easier just to park for free & walk, since downtown isn't that big.

As for the streetscape improvements, they are winding down. Washington is getting there, except in front of the Statler & Book Cadillac. Woodward is also getting there. A lot probably hasn't changed since you've been down here last. I think they are waiting for it to warm up before they do much more.

[dnast]

I forgot to mention that I went by the Starbucks on Court & Center the other day and it has a "drive-thru", lol. It's weird though because the Starbucks is in a new strip-mall that has only one aisle of parking. It seemed like they were attempting to bring those stores closer than usual to the street and make it somewhat walkable, but they lost all hope with the drive-through window.

[dnast]

They're putting vinyl siding on the townhouses in Rosewood Manor

I should've known, though. Practically the whole neighborhood is all vinyl and aluminum siding, and I'm sure this project is considered risky. I'm sure it'll be better than what was put on the old Northern HS site (if anyone is interested in seeing the worst looking development in the state, it's between Pasadena and McClellan, just east of King Ave).

[VeeFan]

There was an article in tonight's paper saying that the old Montgomery Ward site could be ready to be handed over to Barnes and Noble as early as 2 weeks.

[dnast]

LOL, I had to re-read the article. They plan to have the building leveled in two weeks, but they aren't turning it over to Barnes & Noble until August. It's planned to open next spring.

I was about to get very jealous of Flint Twp. That would be record time for the development process.

[dnast]

I finally saw where the Starbucks on Miller Rd. is located. It's just west of I-75 and on the south side of Miller Rd. That seems like a really bad location, even for Miller Rd. The only reason I noticed the place was because there was some poor soul wearing a Quizno's costume doing jumping-jacks or something to get people's attention.

Rosewood Manor is still coming along quickly. I would guess that all of the buildings will be topped out some time next month. Some buildings even seem to have their exteriors finished already. They might catch up with the Riverside Townhomes at this rate.

[VeeFan]

Riverside Townhomes? Where are those? You don't mean the Rosewood Townhouses in Carriage Town, do you? Or do I dare hope there's another residential project in the works?

[dnast]

Those are one and the same. They're called Rosewood Riverside Townhomes; I left out the Rosewood because I guess I didn't want to just keep saying Rosewood.

Didn't mean to get anyone's hope up , but speaking of Riverside I really hope a developer is looking at all that vacant land that is gonna be left by the remains of Delphi West. It's wide open space and they could actually do what they want and get it right this time.

I don't know if anybody saw the article today about MTA getting a fuel cell bus and Kettering a fuel cell refill station, but hopefully a few fuel cell startups can set up shop near that area, as well. I think Kettering already has a couple new businesses in their incubator already.

[QC704]

The location on miller was the one I mentioned a few weeks ago...it has a drive thru but will be nearly impossible for traffic heading toward the valley to get to..doesnt make much sense.

[VeeFan]

I was in the Valley today for the first time since they finished the remodelling, and the interior looks like it's a brand new mall! It looks great and very elegant. I like the light arrangement that is in the foray (is it a foray? Maybe a vestibule? lol) outside of Marshall Fields.

Also, I think they expanded the height of the ceilings or maybe it's just an illusion, but the corridors look more spacious. I did notice at least that there are skylights periodically in the corridors.

It looks like the old Montgomery Wards is almost entirely gone at this point.

[dnast]

I haven't been there in a month or so, but the mall is almost unrecognizable in the interior. They did a great job with it.

Speaking of malls, even Courtland has gotten a facelift on the exterior. It looks a lot more inviting, now, but they'll still need to redo the inside and attract a better variety of tenants.

And since Ward's is almost gone, I hope they're coming up with a real name for "Outdoor Village", lol.

[VeeFan]

There is an article in today's Journal that says Salem Housing has proposed a new housing project for the MLK, Garland, and Wood St. area on a 3 acre section of land. The project would include 8 single-family houses as well as 16 townhouses. With the Rosewood Manor going up, and now this project, the northside of Flint could be getting a huge boost if this goes through.

Also, I'm fuming after reading the article too. I've volunteered with Salem Housing a few times in the past year, and it's a great organization. It's a bit unheralded, but they do a lot of good work for helping to revitalize Flint. I had heard in the fall that they were having financial problems, but I hadn't heard any other details why. Today's article says that Williamson has taken federal funding away from Salem Housing recently, and that's been the source of their financial woes. There was one incident in which a $2K loan was used to help a former employee's son pay for an attorney. But regardless of that (and who knows, it could be that the former employee is trying to sue Williamson), this really makes me doubt Williamson now as being a competent mayor. There's one person in particular that I know had to quit because of the funding problem, and that really infuriates me because she did a lot of Salem Housing.

Supposedly he wants to start his own non-profit agency that would do the same work as Salem...but honestly we all know that it'd be a half-assed effort from his group. Salem Housing has been around since the 1980s, and is redeveloping a 132-block area of Flint. For him to think he can do a better job than them is ridiculous. They're already doing a better job of cleaning up the city than he is! Every summer they also hold a community fair, so they're actually getting involved with the neighborhoods and developing a relationship with them. I don't see Williamson being able to do that same thing.

[dnast]

That's the reason the city council is letting the county handle community block development grants (I may have worded that wrong but you get the point). In his "valiant" effort of getting the city financial problems straightenend out, Williamson has put a hold on basically all grants since the financial manager left. Other than Salem, this has affected programs such as feeding needy children and just about every other local charity group in the city.

I'm glad the council got their way on this one. Williamson seems to be trying to do the right thing, but he doesn't seem to realize who he's affecting when he holds out funding to figure things out. It's not something you can sit on without really hurting certain individuals.

I didn't know Salem Housing was working to fix up a 132-block area in the city. Do you know exactly where that is? I'm glad to hear they're working to fix the Garland, MLK, Wood St. area. It is definitely in need of help. That was exactly the area I was thinking of when Wyattt brought up the neighborhood north of Carriage Town. It's not so crime ridden, but it's vacant and neglected on the scale of worst-case Detroit. It's funny that there are some nice-looking homes scattered throughout that neighborhood.

[VeeFan]

Pasadena on the north, Saginaw on the east, Dupont on the west, and Wood and Begole on the south.

Salem is located just off the corner of Pasadena and MLK.

Two other things on the project: tax credits needs to be secured from the state, as well as a tax break from the city (unless the city council can override Williamson, this could be near to impossible).

I'm contemplating writing another letter to the editor to fire off about Williamson trying to take things into his own hands when he was no right to do so.

[dnast]

I haven't heard anything new about the development near Thread Lake.

About Williamson - I think when he first got his power he was trying to take over too many things and fix them at the same time. His holding up the funds for charities happened not too long after the state-appointed financial manager left. More recently he seems to be willing to bend a little bit on some decisions.

I've noticed a number of streets have recently been repaved and while he's not sending out a task force to clean up neighborhoods anymore, dumpsters are still freely available for residents to do their own cleaning up.

I decided to take a drive down MLK yesterday coming south from Carpenter Rd. and was pleasantly surprised to see that almost the whole stretch from Pierson Rd. to Welch had been repaved. The reason I was so surprised wasn't just the fact that it had been repaved, but it had been only two weeks since I drove down that street and there were no signs at all of construction coming there.

Hopefully the city council can give up their grudge and start working with the mayor instead of against him (and hopefully he'll continue his recent trend of giving a little slack to them). They all will have their pet projects, of course, but it shouldn't come down to lawsuits on every other disagreement. We'll never get anything done if this keeps up.

[Pachuco]

Veefan I think you underestimate the mayor, I don't know if you remember but when gm planned to build and expand the shop on Vanslyke the mayor and council quickly gave it a tax break and he even offered to put 1 million dollars into fixing the roads near the shop and council quickly approved that too.

Also he upgraded the sewer and electircal downtown for all the renovations. The Don seems like a crook, but he really is getting things done. He does deserve critisism, but the council deserves just as much becuase of namecalling, not approving his proposals over anger and not in the best interest of the people and trying to remove him from office, that is up to the citizens(which 3 recall efforts failed,s so the people obviously want him).

Oh yeah by the wayany news on the development that was suppose to happen at Thread Lake ?

[VeeFan]

I tried posting this yesterday, but I kept getting flood control, even though I hadn't posted in hours...

But projects like that are much easier to accomplish when you're only interacting with business leaders (GM) and infrastructure, and not the people who will be affected by it on a daily basis. Just think of all the regular citizens and community leaders Williamson has alienating because he thinks he can do things better on his own...how long has it taken for some of the redevelopment projects to get underway because he was butting heads with Uptown Redevelopment (or whatever the name is ) and the like?

[dnast]

Who knows? I'm sure he's alienated a lot of people, but it looks like he's slowly coming around. Hopefully Salem will present a well laid out plan and can get some abatements (I'm surprised if that area is not a Renaissance Zone or something similar). When he decided to put a hold on grants he should've put more resources into studying these groups and finding out if the grant money was spent correctly so that not everyone suffered.

I'm just trying to leave it in the past because Williamson seems to be learning the difference between mayor and king. He has some good ideas and goals; most of the bad things seemed to come from power trips. Hopefully he'll get completely over that.

Although pressure was involved, he recently went from fining people for painting the "rock" to awarding $500 semi-anually for the best paintings and providing trash bins for painters to throw away their paint buckets and spray cans. If he can accept the fact that he isn't always right about everything and do a better job of appointing, he might be the first good mayor Flint has had in a long time.

[Allan]

I tried posting this yesterday, but I kept getting flood control, even though I hadn't posted in hours... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry about that...you weren't the only one. The server died on Friday night, and when it came back online a bunch of forumers were locked out & couldn't post. We don't know how many people were locked out, or if anyone still is. The site owner is in Chicago and won't be back on the forum until Tuesday, so things weren't fixed as quickly as they would have been otherwise.

[Pachuco]

Oh yeah by the way any news on the development that was suppose to happen at Thread Lake ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was just browsing through the East Village site and it mentioned the condos by Thread Lake have been aproved.

[Pachuco]

Veefan, by chance is your name Randy and if yes, is that who wrote to the Flint Journal titled " Mayor Wrong About Agencies" ?