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E. Kalamazoo St., unsigned (MacKenzie), 2022

This particular stretch is unsigned, but it’s part of the construction on East Kalamazoo Street that I’ve been cataloguing for the last several blog entries, which is peppered with plenty of MacKenzie 2022 stamps. On my previous foray into the area, I had noticed that they appeared to be preparing to lay sidewalk in front of Dagwood’s. When I returned, I was eager to see how that had developed.

The new sidewalk at the edge of Dagwood’s parking lot.

Previously, the sidewalk on this, the north, side of Kalamazoo had petered out in front of a house a little west of Detroit Street. A well-trodden path across the grass led the rest of the way east to Dagwood’s. In front of Dagwood’s, there was (and still is) a little stone wall, presumably to stop drunks from stumbling straight out the front door into the street. To pass by Dagwood’s on foot, one would have to walk up a couple of shallow steps onto the bar’s little front porch and down the other side. Then, on the other side, one would be in the Dagwood’s parking lot, which was separated from the curb with a metal guard rail. From the position of the steps, my guess is that the wall was a later addition.

I previously wrote about the fact that a curb cut had been made at the corner of Dagwood’s parking lot, meaning the corner of Kalamazoo and Howard, despite the fact that it made no sense because it pointed straight at a guard rail. I wondered at the time whether it was there in case they ever installed a sidewalk in the future.

The curb cut at the northwest corner of Kalamazoo and Howard.

The big news here is that they have put in sidewalk in front of Dagwood’s, both on the side as noted previously, and now in the front too. The guard rail is temporarily gone, but when it returns it will have to be further from the road than it was before, meaning that Dagwood’s has apparently been obliged to give up a bit of its parking lot. The curb cut is now much larger and has a traction plate. The previous one had been installed in vain, since it’s gone now that there’s actually a sidewalk to use it with.

The new approach to Dagwood’s.

Perhaps the biggest change is that the steps in front of Dagwood’s have been removed, at least as far as passing traffic is concerned. There is still a small step up into the bar from the porch area, but the steps that passersby had to traverse are gone.

A closer look at the area in front of Dagwood’s, showing where the step used to be.

I am genuinely impressed that this stretch of Kalamazoo is getting so much sidewalk work done, and doubly so that they were clearly thinking about accessibility and safety in this case.

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E. Kalamazoo St., unsigned (MacKenzie 2022)

A few days after the last batch, I walked through the construction area on East Kalamazoo Street again to see how things had developed. This short stretch of walk on the north side of Kalamazoo between Detroit and Howard lacks a stamp, but it is part of the work being done by MacKenzie Co.

What’s interesting to me about this spot is the little jog in the walk. This is one of the intermittent areas in the Lansing Township stretch of Kalamazoo that did already have sidewalk. The stretch of walk in front of the the two buildings here hugs both buildings, but as the building to the east is further forward on its lot, the sidewalk jumps abruptly a few feet on either side of the driveway. What has changed is that it now follows a defined curving path through the driveway. I’m not sure that there’s any functional difference – nothing stopped one from walking across the driveway before – but I greatly appreciate the aesthetic improvement and I’m impressed that they bothered.

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S. Howard St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

Come with me, won’t you, as I continue my exploration of the construction zone on and around East Kalamazoo Street?

Nice. I should start rating stamp impressions. I give this one 4.5/5 Oscars.

This healthy-looking impression heralds something exciting: a new run of sidewalk where no proper sidewalk was before. In Lansing Township. I previously commented on this block, which is the west side of South Howard Street north of Kalamazoo, saying that the sidewalk on it is incomprehensibly intermittent. This spot is actually next to the parking lot of Dagwood’s, which, as noted in another entry, previously left no room for a meaningful sidewalk. The parking lot barrier went nearly to the street, and the narrow margin was filled with some crumbling asphalt, hardly anything one could call a sidewalk. The barrier is now (I assume temporarily) gone, and there is a proper sidewalk in place.

Standing at the north end of the new walk, looking south toward Kalamazoo.

The sidewalk runs along Howard only as far as the end of Dagwood’s lot. After that, there is a frustrating gap before it picks up again. The gap is actually where the (unpaved) driveway of a recently-demolished house was. I don’t know why there is no sidewalk there. Perhaps cars coming and going crumbled it so badly it disappeared. Perhaps there was never a sidewalk there, and the spot where the sidewalk picks up – in front of the now-gone house – was its original extent. This is just part of the mystifying unpredictability of sidewalks in this neighborhood.

Standing near the northwest corner of Kalamazoo and Howard, looking north. You can see that the sidewalk doesn’t quite join up with the one in front of the vacant lot.

I’m delighted they are putting in a new sidewalk here. I’m also very frustrated that are getting so close to joining it up with the existing sidewalk and not putting in those few extra blocks. Come on.

Guys, WTF is up with this?
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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

This is another one from my recent exploration of new sidewalks in the construction area on East Kalamazoo Street. These are going to start getting more interesting, I promise. (More interesting to anyone sufficiently interested in sidewalks and the east side of Lansing, anyway.) This one is at the southeast corner of Kalamazoo and South Howard Street, in front of the Amoco station.

What’s notable about this bit of pavement is that there didn’t used to be any sidewalk here. Past the gas station parking lot on Kalamazoo, there was just a bit of grass ending in a blind curb, and likewise on the other side of Howard. Strangely, despite being so hostile to pedestrians, there is a crosswalk signal here to allow crossing Howard. (I can’t recommend it. There’s no marked crosswalk and usually a lot of traffic turning onto Howard, which becomes a feeder lane for 127/496.) The newly-laid walk is a new curb cut, leading pedestrians across Howard. It remains to be seen whether they will do anything else to make this corner a bit more inviting to cross on foot.

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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

This stamp is across Mifflin Avenue from Monday’s, just over the border into Lansing Township on East Kalamazoo Street. Unlike the last one, this one is not a very deep impression, which is a disappointment to a sidewalk observer such as myself. It’s in front of the Village Party Store, a well known convenience and liquor store with its own coin laundry. It’s a staple of the neighborhood, but to the best of my recollection I’ve never been inside.

I was curious about the history of the place and a quick search of old State Journals turned up that from at least 1939-1955 it was the Ellis Food Market as well as the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Ellis. Their advertisements in the 1940s promote their “Special Designated Liquor and Beer Store Hours 7 A. M. to 2 A. M.” These days, the Village Party Store has a bit of a reputation for being in a tough area (though I walk past it at night all the time without incident), so it’s amusing to note that it was already the victim of shenanigans in the 1950s. On July 17, 1954, the State Journal reports that a trio of people from Detroit were “accused of breaking into the Ellis Food market, 2601 E. Kalamazoo st. The burglars were surprised in their car while leaving the establishment after stealing a quantity of liquor but escaped in a wild chase in which several shots were fired at them.”

On June 23, 1967, the State Journal reports that Mrs. Lynell Ellis of this address pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Uniform Housing Code: “In a warrant signed by housing inspector Ted Tycocki, Mrs. Ellis was charged with not having hot running water and with having improper fuses, hazardous switches and defective electrical fixtures in a house at 521 W. Lenawee St.” I don’t know whether the Food Market was still in operation at that time. By 1983, the address belonged to the Village Party Store.

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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

I walked into the construction area on East Kalamazoo Street again to check out other sidewalk changes. This time I went to the north side of the street, and found this stamp near the northwest corner of Mifflin Avenue, just inside Lansing city limits. This is a particularly crisp impression and should last a good while, which of course is what I like to see in a sidewalk stamp!

A nearby trailer also confirmed the identity of the contractor. As I previously guessed, it is indeed E.T. MacKenzie, headquartered in Grand Ledge.

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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

This is across Mifflin Avenue from the one posted in the last two entries. It’s on the southeast corner of Mifflin and East Kalamazoo Street, in other words, just outside the border of the city of Lansing, making it a rare example of a stamp in Lansing Township. As part of the recent construction on Kalamazoo, they have put in a new curb cut on this side with a single block of pavement. No further sidewalk has been laid yet and I am guessing it won’t be, since there wasn’t any there before, just a ramshackle parking lot that seems to belong to University Foreign Car across the street.

This is upside-down because I’m standing at the curb cut and looking east to show where the tiny bit of sidewalk ends.
This stake is actually back on the west side of Mifflin, but I photographed it to show that what I keep calling a “curb cut,” they apparently call a “sidewalk opening.”
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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., RIP

Last time I posted the blog’s newest stamp to date, a MacKenzie 2022 stamp from the southwest corner of East Kalamazoo Street and Mifflin Avenue. Today I am posting the fastest stamp removal I have ever seen. Last night I walked past to discover that the brand-new slab bearing the remarkably short-lived MacKenzie stamp had inexplicably been removed.

Why would they put in new sidewalk during a construction project that hadn’t finished yet, only to tear it right back out? I have no solution for this mystery.

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E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

Here it is, the new title holder for newest stamp in the blog, from the southwest corner of East Kalamazoo Street and Mifflin Avenue. This piece of sidewalk has been installed recently as part of a construction project on Kalamazoo; I think it is related to upgrading the sewer there. Across Mifflin there is a newly constructed curb cut but, as yet, no further sidewalk. This is consistent with how it was before; the curb cut on the other side of Mifflin has always led only to a parking lot, but it’s a much more substantial curb cut now, at least.

It’s interesting to see MacKenzie pop back up, since the only other stamp I have collected from them – I assume it’s them – is from 2003 and in a different style. I like how huge the date is in this one, although I worry it’s a bit too shallow to ensure enduring readability. At least city sidewalk projects aren’t all failing to put names upon the walks lately.

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Happy Belated Bum Walks Day

My husband recently wished me a “happy Bum Walks Day,” reminding me that August 11, 1914 was the anniversary of the publication of my all-time favorite State Journal article, the city council meeting report in which Alderman Oscar McKinley accused Alderman McKale of having laid “a lot of ‘bum’ walk in the city.” It was McKinley’s accusation that McKale had “violated the ordinance, undoubtedly, and failed to put [his] name upon the walks” that led me to canonize McKinley as the patron saint of Capital City Sidewalks. It is his picture that currently serves as the banner image for the blog.

I like the idea of making “Bum Walks Day” the official holiday of the blog, but I want to choose the correct date. Since August 11, 1914 was a Tuesday, and the article refers to “Monday night’s session of the city council,” it seems somewhat ambiguous what the date of the Council meeting actually was. I tend to think it was August 10, though it seems odd to me not to write “yesterday” in that case. On the other hand, if it was a week ago from yesterday, wouldn’t it say “last week’s meeting”? Anyway, I’m going to tentatively set Bum Walks Day as August 10 unless I find information contradicting that.

How should one celebrate Bum Walks Day? My husband thinks it should be celebrated by pointing at sidewalks and declaring that someone’s name is not upon the walk. I was thinking it should be celebrated by casting disapproving looks at bum walks. Perhaps there are other celebratory traditions that will emerge organically over time.