How I Learned to Love Lansing Part Two

Lansing is also taking some serious steps to revitalize the downtown. A year or two ago it was more like a ghost town. Friday night at 5pm everyone would clear out. There was nothing that stayed open on the weekends except for a pizza place, and a club that never had very many patrons. But it's starting to pick up. There's some nicer restaurants that stay open late. The club seems to have picked up a bit. There are people living in the lofts that were recently built, and one Saturday night when I drove by on my way home from work there were cars lining the streets. It's still not a city like Chicago or Ann Arbor, but it's not a ghost town either. They've been working on rehabbing some of the buildings downtown too. Mostly to spruce them up, new paint, a new facade, better signs. It really has made a difference. They also repaved Michigan Avenue and re-did the sidewalks when they separated the sewer and storm drains this summer. It looks so much better. They also changed the traffice flow at Michigan and Washington with a really well done traffic circle. It not only looks nice, it seems to flow well.

They are in the process of building new condos across from the ballpark, with stores on the lower level, and three stories of condos to be bought or rented. The building looks fantastic and the prices are fairly reasonable. They might not work for a struggling family of 4, but for a young professional couple, it's well within their means. Which is actually who they are marketing them at. Younger people with good jobs who have money to spend downtown. In the past few months there has been some huge news about upcoming development.

I'm not always a fan of developers. In the area my parents live in, they're running rampant and destroying the natural areas. But Lansing needs development. It needs to take the areas downtown and make the population more dense. It's a way to stop the urban sprawl. I'm not sure that every development that's been proposed is necessarily the best choice. But for the most part they do seem to be well thought out designs and plans that will help bring Lansing back to life. There is talk of a bandshell built along the river to hosts concerts and the annual Common Ground Music Festival. The hospital I work at is undergoing a huge renovation project to be opened in stages over the next several years.

One of the plans recently announced was for a major rehab of the old power plant building, to be turned into office space for a major insurance company, which would bring tons of people to the downtown area. There's even talk of a cafe on the river as part of the building. All along the river there is talk of development, but in a good way. To encourage people to walk along the river for shopping and entertainment. There's a proposal for a huge development along the river with underground parking, retail space and residential living. It would also have a new city market, which there is a lot of debate over. I'm rarely in favor of tearing down historic buildings and putting up new ones, but in this case it seems like it might be a good idea. The market isn't doing well, and from everything I read it's in very bad shape. A new market closer to the river and new residential areas seems like it could bring in new customers and vendors and really revitalize it.

There's also talk of another development by the ballpark for retail and residential space that looks promising. The one that excites me the most is just south of the new condos going in. It's a plan for an environmentally friendly building with apartments and condos. It would have a green roof, environmentally friendly building materials and a new path the the river trail to help encourage people to walk to the downtown/riverfront area.

I'm hugely excited about these projects. There hasn't been this much going on in Lansing for YEARS. There hasn't even been this much talk about anything possibly happening. If even half of them happen, it could have a major positive impact on Lansing. If they all happen Lansing might actually become a living breathing city in the next 5 years. It has so much potential and it's really nice to see that some people are taking steps to actually make it happen.