Posted on by bunnyhugger

S. Howard St., new sidewalk but doomed houses

Four houses in a row have been condemned on the west side of South Howard Street between Michigan and Prospect, and I took my camera out there to document them before their eventual demolition. I found a pristine new section of sidewalk in front of them, still marked off with orange cones. Properly speaking this should be a Hall of Shame entry since the sidewalk is unstamped, despite Lansing Township code requiring it, but given Lansing Township’s shoddy record with sidewalks I think I have to consider any sidewalk installlation to be a win.

A sign in front of the houses talks about a hearing to change the zoning for a planned development, and the scuttlebutt is that it is going to be condos. Oddly, the sign gives the current zoning as commercial. The recent sales record sheds some light on this, as until recently they were owned by the Indian Trails bus company. Indian Trails also owns the parking lot at the corner of Michigan and Howard. It was previously a used car lot, and since Indian Trails took it over, it has gotten weedy and overgrown, since all they have used it for is to occasionally park a few of their Michigan Flyer airport buses. In the 2010s sometime all the houses in the 100 block of South Howard were demolished, leaving a vacant lot between the Indian Trails lot and the four doomed houses. I don’t know the full story, but can only speculate that Indian Trails had some plan for these blocks that never went anywhere.

When these 1920s houses are demolished, it will leave only five houses and a couple of businesses remaining on South Howard. The real estate listing cards in the Belon Real Estate Collection from CADL’s digital local history collection reveal that from the early 1960s to early 1970s, nearly every time a house was listed on South Howard it was marked “value in land only,” meaning the houses were worthless and probably best demolished. This was underlined by the way they generally did not bother filling in the year built for the houses, but marked them simply as “OLD.” Yet they kept surviving anyway, until recently.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

S. Homer St., Cioffi & Son, undated

This undated stamp is from the west side of South Homer Street between Prospect and Michigan, in front of A & J Transmission. I previously found a stamp with the name just reading “Cioffi,” dated 2021, in the Sycamore Park neighborhood (near Potter Park). At the time I wrote, “The only Cioffi Construction I can find is based in Akron, and I can’t imagine that one would be doing work in metro Lansing.”

So much for my lack of imagination. Indeed, a Cioffi out of Akron is laying sidewalks in Lansing, but this time it’s Cioffi and Son. Did a son join the business, making this the later stamp? Or did the father retire, making this the earlier one?

Posted on by bunnyhugger

S. Clippert St., M & M Concrete, 2007

Back in metro Lansing (the Township, to be precise): I found this one in front of the Riverwalk Apartments on the west side of South Clippert Street between Prospect and Michigan. I don’t recall ever walking this block before.

For some reason, I like the contrast between the neat typeface of the name and the handwritten quality of the date.

There have been several M & M Concretes in Michigan, including one in St. Clair and another on the opposite side of the state in Fruitport, but I would guess this one was the one that used to be in Charlotte but appears to be defunct.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

New Crosswalk, E. Kalamazoo St. at Mifflin

As part of the recent East Kalamazoo Street construction that also saw a lot of new sidewalk laid, a crosswalk with warning arrows was painted on Kalamazoo at Mifflin Avenue.

Kalamazoo previously had no crosswalks anywhere between Clemens and Howard, a nine-block span. This one is a lot closer to Howard than to Clemens, but it was presumably placed here due to the presence of the Village Party Store. It doesn’t have a light, even a flashing one, but at least it’s something.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

Yes, I know. MacKenzie Co. 2022 is the new Cantu & Sons 1987. Don’t worry, I’m almost done with the new construction. This is a new curb cut at the southwest corner of East Kalamazoo and Charles Streets. There is a corresponding new one on the other side of Charles.

Previously, there were no curb cuts or any sidewalk here, just parking lots for Gerber Collision and NAPA. The Gerber lot, which is the one pictured here, had parking barriers at the edge of it, then a grassy strip, then a curb, so it was not pedestrian friendly. Good for whomever decided that should be changed. It does appear to have cost Gerber a little bit of their parking lot.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

S. Howard St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

I owe an apology to Lansing Township, or at least to whomever is behind all the sidewalk work that is going on in the construction zone on Kalamazoo between Francis and Howard. I wrote with great disapproval (and the deployment of a brand new tag, wtf) about the apparent decision to stop short of joining the new sidewalk up with existing sidewalk on the other side of an unpaved driveway, just north of Dagwood’s parking lot on Howard Street.

The grassy remnant of a driveway on the west side of Howard marks the former site of a house, a very small house in a style typical of the neighborhood, probably built in 1910, if I’m reading the property records right. By the time it was demolished (I think it was last year, or thereabouts) It was in decline so long that my ex-husband and I used to refer to it as “The Scariest House in Lansing,” and we split up in 2007. This is actually a misnomer for two reasons: there are much spookier houses around town, and it’s not in Lansing (this is Lansing Township, remember). We just saw it so often coming and going to the freeway or visiting Dagwood’s that its long, slow deterioration was hard to miss. At one point, Dagwood’s put up a new fence along that edge of the property, and we joked about a dive bar having to put up a fence to block the view of the neighbors rather than the other way around.

Anyway, the poor sad house is gone now. But what’s this?

I went back there last night and I must eat my words, or at least the letters WTF: they have laid sidewalk across the gap, and actually a bit past it, I guess replacing some degraded walk in front of the vacant lot. The sidewalk now stretches unbroken until… the edge of the last lot before Prospect Street. In other words, there is still a strange gap in the sidewalk, leaving just one house of this block of Howard without a front sidewalk. I could understand it if the house faced Prospect, but it faces Howard. I suppose they decided it was outside the scope of this project.

Another interesting note is that they have dug out the area where the curb cut for the old driveway is, suggesting it will receive a proper driveway apron next, even if there is no house for it to serve and it seems unlikely there will be anytime soon. There is actually another house on this same lot, but it’s a bizarre situation. The other house is strangely featureless and looks more like a shed than a house. According to Lansing Township’s property records online it is 480 square feet – which I believe – and was built in 1910 – which I am more skeptical of. It seems to have been maintained reasonably well even as the house up front was left rotting for years. It used to be completely hidden behind the main house and so I didn’t even know it existed until I started poking around the property records. The new driveway probably isn’t there to serve this second house, since access to that one seems to be via an alley behind Dagwood’s.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

E. Kalamazoo St., MacKenzie Co., 2022

Yes, I’m still mining the construction area on the east end of Kalamazoo, in Lansing Township. This new sidewalk is in front of the former East Side Foreign Car building on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Charles and Detroit Streets. Previously, there was none here, just a thin strip of lawn in front of a white picket fence.

This stamp is at the curb, facing toward the road.
A look at the bus stop, currently closed due to the construction.

In addition to the new sidewalk, they have installed a concrete area at the curb (what I have sometimes referred to as a “curb walk” since I don’t know a proper name for it) for people to stand on while waiting at the bus stop. Previously, people waiting for the bus would have to stand on the little strip of grass in front of the curb. This is a much more hospitable bus stop.

The new sidewalk continuing east past the old East Side Foreign Car building. There was no sidewalk here before.
Posted on by bunnyhugger

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.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

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.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

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?