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Hall of Shame: Eureka St., Worst Sidewalk on the East Side

Is this the worst piece of sidewalk in Lansing? Probably not, but it is the worst one I can think of on the east side, and I’ve walked all over the east side. It’s worse than no sidewalk at all since it’s an outrageous trip hazard. It looks like the rubble left after a Godzilla attack.

Of course, the culprit is not Godzilla or even Godzilla weed (though eventually I think the east side is going to be destroyed by the latter), but the usual suspect: a big old tree. These things happen and I’d rather have trees and busted sidewalks than perfect sidewalks on barren avenues. It’s the length of time this has been broken that lands this in the Hall of Shame. It has been this bad for at least the time I’ve been walking this stretch regularly (that is, around three years) and probably longer, and the most the city has done about it is spray fluorescent paint on all the edges. That doesn’t help much with my night-time mountaineering expeditions over it.

Anyway, in case anyone wants some advance warning, it’s on the south side of Eureka Street between Rosamond and Clifford.

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Hall of shame: Horton St. mostly gone sidewalk

Today’s is the result of another to-do list failure. I had this in my notes: “East side near end of Horton – 1924? DPW (may need to be wet).” Being wet sometimes makes faded marks a little more legible. Yesterday the weather got significantly above freezing for the first time in a long time, so I thought it might be my chance. I walked up there and found that the sidewalk was wet, all right. In fact, the stretch of sidewalk near the end of Horton was under an inch of water. There would be no finding the stamp under that.

Walking back from there on Horton Street, I saw what looked like a grassy square with no sidewalk at all, which didn’t make sense. I stopped to look and realized it did have the remnants of a sidewalk, but it’s more than half gone. It has to have taken some time to let it get this bad. I am (a little) surprised the city will let sidewalks get this bad before requiring them to be replaced. This one gets entered into the Hall of Shame as maybe the worst sidewalk block on the east side. It’s on the east side of Horton between Michigan and Jerome.

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Hall of Shame: S. Francis Ave., removed sidewalk

Following Monday’s entry, the theme of Urbandale shrinkage continues. Here is the end of the sidewalk on the east side of South Francis Avenue, the last block before the dead end. The sidewalk that until recently served the east side of the 700 block has all been dug up. There are no houses left on this side; the land is now an urban farm.

Looking over the property records, I can see that there were still five houses south of here in 2010. That year, four of the five seem to have taken the buyout from the city. That left one house on the very south end, which fell into tax foreclosure in 2016 and was demolished by the county in 2017.

The other side of the street, the west side, still has two houses left. I note that another house on that side took the buyout in 2010 along with their east side neighbors. It’s hard not to imagine a vulture standing there, waiting patiently for the two holdouts to succumb from death or taxes. I understand that the city has its reasons, and I don’t mean to attribute malice or wickedness. It’s just that there’s something very sad about looking at doomed houses. It’s just a matter of time. Sooner or later, there will be no 700-plus addresses on South Francis.

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Hall of Shame: Allen Place Project

The sidewalk in front of the Allen Place project (on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street between Shepard and Allen) continues to develop, and (as threatened in a previous entry) I think I can now formally induct it into the Hall of Shame. There is no sign any of the new sidewalk is going to be stamped, despite it being required by ordinance in Lansing. What would Alderman McKinley say?

I’m curious about the new jog in the sidewalk. It was previously a straight path here. I wonder what the swerve’s purpose is. I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.

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Hall of Shame: New sidewalk on S. Magnolia Ave.

On Wednesday evening I walked past a spot where the bed for a new sidewalk had been prepared. I hoped it would be my chance at last to see a brand spanking new stamp, hours old. Instead, I returned on Thursday evening to the disappointing sight of a completed and unstamped sidewalk. I really need to have a word with the Director of Public Service about the proliferation of scofflaw contractors.

The new sidewalk is in front of a vacant lot on the east side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. If I’m judging this correctly, this stretch of walk originally fronted a small 1914 house that was demolished in May 2021. A similar one was also demolished one lot north, in 2015, and the gap is occupied by one of the ubiquitous urban farms that serve as the Ingham County Land Bank’s favorite all-purpose hammer.

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Hall of Shame: E. Grand River Ave., unsigned new sidewalk

I wanted to get a photo of a stamp in front of Westlund’s Apple Market (on the north side of East Grand River Avenue between Hayford and Foster). Unfortunately, there were no visible stamps on either the Grand River or the Foster side of the property. There was, however, a stretch of clearly new sidewalk with no stamp. For shame. Alderman McKinley is turning in his grave.

Westlund’s is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but it wasn’t always in this location and it wasn’t always Westlund’s. It started as Mike’s Market at on Washington Avenue downtown, then became Mike’s Shop-Rite, part of the former local consortium that also included the lost, lamented Goodrich’s Shop-Rite. Mike’s moved in here, at the edge of the Groesbeck neighborhood, in 1957. Timothy Bowman has a scan of their grand opening advertisement.

Westlund’s, photographed as context for a sidewalk blog entry.

According to their page on Nextdoor.com, the transition to the new name happened when Mike Wickenhiser Jr., son of the original owner, decided to retire, and sold the business to longtime employee Gerald Westlund in 1986. Westlund continued to run the store as Mike’s until 1998, when it was renamed Westlund’s Apple Market. Gerald Westlund’s kids run it now. When I moved to town in 1999, I remember seeing circulars for Westlund’s Apple Market in my mailbox. At the time I had no idea the name was so new. I wondered then, and still don’t know, why it’s called the Apple Market.

Since Goodrich’s and the L&L Food Centers went away in the 2010s, Westlund’s is the last old-fashioned grocery store in town. They have the best potato salad in town and the third best I’ve had (after DelGrosso’s Amusement Park’s and my mom’s, in that order). They also have a spaghetti salad that always goes over well when I bring it to potlucks. I like going in there just for the old time, homey vibe, with the bonus that it’s always easy to park and easy to get in and out when I only need a few things.

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Hall of Shame: Unstamped sidewalk on Allen St.

I’m inducting this unstamped stretch of new sidewalk into the Hall of Shame. It’s located on the east side of Allen Street north of Kalamazoo, in front of the new Allen Place development. Contractor, your name is not upon the walk.

Strange that this one is unstamped, when the new sidewalk on the Shepard Street side of the building, laid late last year and earlier this one, is very neatly marked by Leavitt & Starck.

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Hall of Shame: new sidewalk behind Eastern HS

This stretch of sidewalk is new, but unstamped and undated, which is why it has been filed under “Hall of Shame.” The fact that it is not adjoining a public street probably exempts it from the city’s code on sidewalk marking, but I wanted to catalogue it for the historical value of recording when it was created.

The south end of the new sidewalk.

It branches off from the previously-existing sidewalk behind Eastern High School and the Armory, heading to the east along the edge of the Eastern grounds, eventually meeting up with Saginaw. It passes by a small sidewalk that cuts over to North Clemens Avenue at Fernwood Street. That sidewalk has been torn out (don’t worry, it had no stamps on it; I had checked in the past). My understanding is that it will be reconstructed to serve as part of the East Side Connector, a bicycle route between the east side to downtown.

The north end of the new path. The dirt area is where the old sidewalk from Clemens was removed (it heads left/east from here, through the fence) and I am standing on the asphalt path that continues north.

The sidewalk stops at the point where the link to Clemens was (and will be) and past that the path becomes asphalt. I don’t know, but I am guessing that this is the point when it becomes part of the East Side Connector.

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Hall of Shame: unstamped new sidewalk at Foster Park

The City of Lansing is, in one respect, more powerful than God: the City is not compelled to obey its own laws.

Looking east on Kalamazoo with Foster Park on the right.

This new stretch of sidewalk was laid as part of the installation of a new bus shelter in front of Foster Park, on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Francis and Hayford. The new shelter is a welcome amenity, and looks sharp in its shiny red paint and decorated windows. But I disapprove of the absent sidewalk stamp, and that is what lands this in my Hall of Shame.

There is a similar new shelter, with a different decoration in the windows, at Hunter Park.

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Hall of Shame: New Sidewalk, Prospect St.

This is certainly the newest sidewalk I have featured here. It’s in front of an apartment building on the south side of Prospect Street between Bingham and Pennsylvania.

How do I know it’s the newest? Because yesterday I walked past it and it looked like this:

I was delighted by this discovery. It meant I could walk back again the next day and see the freshest stamp yet. Who would it be? One of the contractors I already know like old friends, or a new kid on the block? I could hardly wait to find out.

Imagine my disappointment when I returned to find a beautifully smooth and fresh new sidewalk – unstamped. Into the Hall of Shame with you!

The previous sidewalk was straight, and heaved up severely by the tree’s roots. Looks like the tree sustained a little bit of damage in the battle, but won the war: the sidewalk has ceded the territory.