Quote:
Originally Posted by LMich
It blows my mind how off-limits Lansing seems when it comes to development in the Lansing-East Lansing border region. I could understand if Lansing had as many problems, as say, Flint. But there are perfectly livable areas on the eastside that could be so much better with better connection to the two city's cores.
I hope this is slightly remedied with the BRT line down Michigan, but that's still years off. It's just so strange. There really isn't any rivalry between the two cities, or any kind of deep-seated antipathy to the other. There is nothing that happened in the past that you can single out as some kind of event that changed the relationship. Everyone just seems to accept that Lansing is the government and industrial town, and that East Lansing is the college town, and that there is no reason to mix them despite them literally bordering one another. US-127 is a significant physical boundary, but even that doesn't really explain the psychological disconnect.
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I've definitely seen an uptick in more students on the Eastside in the last few years. I've lived here for awhile now and have never seen so many cyclists commuting down Kalamazoo daily (both directions in fact). They seem to be the more hipster/bohemian students. However, many students seem to still think of Lansing as "the ghetto". I guess that's to be expected from 45,000 naive suburban Detroit kids. Generalization, sure, but not too far off.
I agree, and hope the BRT can change the image of at least the Eastside and spur more development.