I’ve been watching this sidewalk being replaced in front of the Allen Place (née Allen Neighborhood Center) development, on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street between Allen and Shepard. I’m pretty sure it’s going to end up being a Hall of Shame candidate, since even more has gone in since I took this photo and there is no sign of any stamp yet, but I suppose until it’s completely finished I can’t say so definitively. Anyway, it’s still interesting to get to see a new sidewalk slab from the side. I wonder if they’re always this thick.
Spots like this, where the sidewalk curves in to avoid an obstruction that is no longer present, are fairly common, but I notice them every time. I always wonder what was there and how long it’s been gone. I usually figure it’s a tree (because I have seen spots where the sidewalk does curve just like this for a tree), although this would be a somewhat odd placement for a street tree.
The driveway apron used to be narrower, as I can see from an old tax assessor’s photo, so apparently when it was widened the contractor added a little piece to fill in part of the semicircle.
This bit of sidewalk is on the north side of Hickory Street between Pennsylvania and Euclid. I walked this block for the first time this evening, so get ready for several days of Hickory photos.
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.
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.
I ran across this date without a name on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Clifford. The placement of the date at the lower right is reminiscent of a BWL stamp, but they usually stamp their name at the lower left. I don’t see any remnants of a name at the lower left corner, but it’s worn, so I can’t rule it out.
Here is a curiously unsigned date stamp from the north side of Prospect between Bingham and Pennsylvania. Most of the 1940s stamps I find are from the Department of Public Works, so I am inclined to suspect their hand in this. If so, I am sorry they didn’t complete the marking, as I have no 1949 DPW stamps recorded, and I am trying to figure out when they switched to stamping DPS instead. The latest 1940s stamp I have found is a 1945 which probably says DPW but that part is worn enough to be unclear. The next prior one I have is a clear 1944 DPW stamp. After that it skips to 1950, at which time they were now identifying themselves as the Lansing DPS.
Looking west at the corner of Prospect and Pennsylvania. The house here faces Pennsylvania.
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.
This mysterious stamp is on the east side of Horton Street between Jerome and the northern dead end. I can’t see anywhere that a name would have been stamped; it appears to be just a date. There is no paired stamp to explain it, either. The stamp is small and easy to overlook, almost hiding in the weeds.
Facing south on Horton. The stamp is right at the bottom of the nearest (full) block.
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.
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.
