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Lansing MI

Old 06-24-15, 06:32 PM
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Lansing MI

Lansing MI you have a nice town.
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Old 06-24-15, 06:46 PM
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Well still cant fix upsidedown pic problem.
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Old 06-25-15, 07:13 AM
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On behalf of Lansing, thank you very much. Did you visit? From the photos, it looks like you were by one of the rivers on a rather cockeyed day!
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Old 06-25-15, 02:45 PM
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Yep, Im a truck driver and stayed night at Meijer DC. Saw on map a park by the river not far away. Turned out to be a cemetery park but found that little of heaven by river. Cant understand upside-down pics off phone. Only does when I download BF.
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Old 06-26-15, 06:26 AM
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Originally Posted by hillyman
Yep, Im a truck driver and stayed night at Meijer DC. Saw on map a park by the river not far away. Turned out to be a cemetery park but found that little of heaven by river. Cant understand upside-down pics off phone. Only does when I download BF.
There is also the Rivertrail--now more than 18 miles of separated trails that originally followed the rivers, but now are creeping out into other areas. I like these trails because they are scenic and totally carfree for recreational use, but they also serve destinations that commuters and transportation cyclists need to go to. I hope you're able to come back and check it out!

lansingrivertrail.org | Lansing River Trail
The map on this website really sucks!
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Old 06-26-15, 06:06 PM
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Hope I get a chance to check that out. Sounds great. But to Colorado I go now
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Old 06-26-15, 07:04 PM
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That reminded me of the Little Rock River Trail. Not because we have a spot like that, but because the big hangup in getting our River Trail to be contiguous is that the Dillard's headquarters is on the river and they want no part of a trail. All proposals of making a trail that skirts the edge of their property have been turned down. I like how simply Lansing has done it.
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Old 06-26-15, 08:45 PM
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Artkansas, maybe you should start a petition on change.org. Just looking at their headquarters, looks like they have tons of useless lawn.
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Old 06-26-15, 09:05 PM
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Originally Posted by gerv
Artkansas, maybe you should start a petition on change.org. Just looking at their headquarters, looks like they have tons of useless lawn.
It's already a pretty big hot potato locally. As I recall, even the Mayor is siding with those who want to run a path along the perimeter. Time will tell.

Here's a video of the current path through there. It was shot by BF user Pscyclepath.

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Old 06-27-15, 05:42 AM
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That is one crazy path. But I may have to check it out if I get a chance to be in Little Rock.
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Old 06-27-15, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by Artkansas
It's already a pretty big hot potato locally. As I recall, even the Mayor is siding with those who want to run a path along the perimeter. Time will tell.

Here's a video of the current path through there. It was shot by BF user Pscyclepath.
It's a shame when one intransigent business is allowed to hold up progress like this. You can tell them about Lansing's experience with our Rivertrail.

It's considered a "gem" in the city and is often featured in promotional material. They do surveys periodically that show that many people from the suburbs and nearby cities come to Lansing specifically to use the Rivertrail and drop a lot of money while they are here. Marketing the trail as transportation infrastructure is fairly new, but obviously a well planned trail can be a valuable (and relatively cheap) addition to the transportation system. The newest extensions of the trail take it away from the rivers. While less scenic, they provide a carfree corridor for everyday cyclists in the more populous areas of the city.

It sounds like Little Rock is missing an important piece of the trail system around this Dillard building. It will cost a lot (almost 3 million) to finish up. However "completing the network" is known to add a great deal of value to what has already been built. It's poor financial planning to spend millions of dollars to build a system, and then to leave it barely unfinished.

Why is Dillard against the completion of the trail? What (if anything) do they have to lose? Is this a fear they have? Are they afraid the trail will attract, ahem, "the wrong sort of people"? That's a common concern, but in most cases turns out to be unfounded. Dillard should understand that a completed river trail will actually give them bragging rights. "Our beautiful riverfront HQ building is the anchor point of Little Rock's River Trail, attracting tourists and business to the city from all over the region."

A large insurance company invested $182 million to restore a power plant as their headquarters on the banks of the river in downtown Lansing. One reason they chose the site was because of the river location and the Rivertrail that was on the opposite shore. While building their new HQ, they put another trail cantilevered over the river, snug against their showpiece HQ building. So now the Rivertrail is on both sides of the river in that segment. I mention this to point out that to many companies, a river trail location at their prestige HQ would be considered a valuable asset.

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Old 06-28-15, 02:41 PM
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I think that the general attitude is that "Yes" Bill Dillard is being a jerk, but that completion of the River Trail is just a matter of time. Dillard's can see what the River Trail looks like across the river. It runs directly across from them. They can see the new marina and the new apartments that have sprung up on the North Little Rock side.

In some ways, North Little Rock was fortunate that they were pretty much undeveloped before the River Trail. The only major thing along the river on the North Little Rock side was a big park. So putting in a bike trail there was a no-brainer. It wasn't until North Little Rock got their side done that Little Rock realized the potential.

It's another battle. Bicycle advocates have been working at it a section at a time. The last big struggle was getting a railroad bridge next to the Clinton Library converted to a bicycle pedestrian bridge. The Clinton Library had agreed to doing it as part of the package to get the library built in the first place. But they sat on their hands for the longest time.

When push came to shove though, the community united, and Bill, Hillary and Chelsea were very proud to stand up for pictures on the day the renovated bridge was opened. And it is the best way to pedal across the river.

It will take time, but it will happen.
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Old 06-28-15, 02:43 PM
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Originally Posted by hillyman
That is one crazy path. But I may have to check it out if I get a chance to be in Little Rock.
Do the North Little Rock side. It's wonderful.
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Old 06-28-15, 10:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Artkansas
It's already a pretty big hot potato locally. As I recall, even the Mayor is siding with those who want to run a path along the perimeter. Time will tell.
Eugene had a similarly incomplete trail system along the river. A large retirement home and a Catholic High School along the river led the opposition to finishing the bike path. When our last mayor was nearing retirement, he began riding his bike with his grandchildren and the long-stalled project suddenly became personal for him. Two years later it was completed and is extremely popular, particularly for the bird watchers.
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Old 06-29-15, 06:23 AM
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I don't know much about the trials and tribulations of building the Lansing Rivertrail because the main section was largely finished by the time I moved here in 1988. Most of the river banks had been factories and warehouses at one time, but most had closed when transportation shifted from the river to the the highways. There was one section of less than 100 yards that wasn't finished for a long time. There was a small metal shop there. They didn't want the trail to go through because of liability concerns. Finally the city just cantilevered the trail over the river, as was done in several other sections. Now the shop employees like to fish out there on their lunch breaks.
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Old 06-29-15, 03:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Roody
Now the shop employees like to fish out there on their lunch breaks.
I like that. Kind of an expensive solution to the problem but kind of a naw-naw-ni-naw-naw to shop. Was also glad to see so many using bikes to go fishing there.
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Old 07-01-15, 07:13 PM
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Well, I put up a link, to the The Lansing River Trail .org site, on the Little Rock bike/ped facebook page. Maybe people will see it.
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