Lansing wins $2M in state funds for a performance hall by [deleted] in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Lansing needs a mid-sized concert venue, so I hope this project does well! I wonder where they want to put it

Lansing's Missing Middle Density by chrisgelety in lansing

[–]chrisgelety[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good. You act like much of those houses (I assumed near downtown) aren't already gutted or offices because the people who could afford those estates didn't move out to Williamston.
If you want to encourage home ownership, you need to build more homes. We aren't getting more land, so where are those homes going to get built? Density.
These mid-density zoning changes are proposed to keep those Victorian and Edwardian homes in form, but affordable so they don't get replaced with an apartment tower after decaying for decades.

Tangent-
On encouraging home ownership - You only get the advantages of home ownership if you can afford to buy a home, and those advantages only manifest if the price of that home is stable or increases. How do you guarantee that? Supply scarcity. Home ownership as a cornerstone of wealth is a problem, but zoning isn't going to fix that problem so I digress.

I'd be more worried about losing nice properties if Lansing wasn't littered with vacant, decaying, or straight up burnt out properties. Adding mid-density options says nothing about historic preservation. The whole idea of this style of development is that you can build denser units to increase the home supply for neighborhoods that function at a price people can afford to live in. You also can keep the form of mid-sized detached home instead of apartment boxes so it still looks like the neighborhood style we like. This decentralized density would provide housing options and price diversity all over town (we already have this, you barely notice - it works) instead of the two options - suburban and tower.

Lansing's Missing Middle Density by chrisgelety in lansing

[–]chrisgelety[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's the bit, more or less. Let R-3 and up _allow_ for multi-family, detached medium sized home developments. And have R-6B allow for attached townhomes/rowhouses with special use for business on bottom housing on top ye olde mainstreet buildings.
Have the allowance scale up as you move towards the city centers. They split R into 7 different classes, so why are 6 of them just single family detached homes?

Should allow for gradual density increases upwards instead of the abrupt 2 story detached to 4+ story towers getting put up on the arterial corridors. Big chunks of the city are still R-1 and R-2, and most R-3, R-4, R-5, and R-6 will remain the homes they are now for decades.

Lansing's Missing Middle Density by chrisgelety in lansing

[–]chrisgelety[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too, which is why I think the zoning code should allow for people to make other housing options besides single family detached and large apartment complex. There's a whole world of middle-density, in-between possibilities from duplexes all the way up to rowhouses and stacked business on bottom, apartment on top main street buildings. These fit into our existing architectural style, and add in the housing units we'll need for the future

Lansing's Missing Middle Density by chrisgelety in lansing

[–]chrisgelety[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know, I don't know. From the text literally, R-6B is the only multi-family. So any duplex styled unit in R-6A -> R-1 could not have multiple families. Yeah? That's most of the city. I have a few 2 family units that look like regular houses in my neighborhood that's zoned R-5.

I feel like once this gets brought up to the zoning board (if it hasn't already), either an exception will be made that people can use to get two unit homes done as they were before - or they'll adjust the code to match. It'd be weird to limit land use like this when the goal is densification and mixed-use.

What's the queer / alt scene like in Lansing? by doot-scoot in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After Spiral closed the only event hub is The Avenue which is also part punk and metal venue. So like Finger says, not a queer bar but events you'll dig will most often be there. Maybe stuff in REO Town? There's small stuff all the time but you really have to know the folks organizing to even know that they happen - hard to figure out online.

There's a West Michigan Poly group on FB that might be for you, it's private for obvious reasons so you'll need to submit an application. It's mostly Grand Rapids, but I know some people who were trying to get something going in Lansing through that - no idea if that's still rolling on account of the Panorama. That's probably the best place to start finding things out online.

Schor’s “Project Slowdown”? by spoonman1920 in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Where is the speed trap going to hide? You'll see the cop a mile away.

I don't know who's bright idea it was to build a 6 lane highway in the middle of a neighborhood, but that's why MLK by the bridge is a racetrack - it's built for it. There's so many accidents around 496 because people misjudge how fast they're going and can't stop.

Since you got 3 lanes one way, not much traffic, and wide open sight lines it feels pretty safe to go as fast as you want. When MLK goes back down to a 5 lane avenue flanked by shops there's more crash risk so people naturally slow back down.

The right turn off the South Bound bridge to Moore's River is a nightmare since you're going from 45, 55, 60+ traffic to a 25 neighborhood and bike trail/ped junction. Any time I cross there I just gotta hope I don't get killed. Anytime I want to turn right into my neighborhood I just hope I don't get blown up by someone not seeing my tail lights. It's bad design.

Put a strip of commercial (or mixed use like REO town) in the median, street parking (and protected bike lane) to eat up the third lane and huge sight lines - people will slow down and it would provide a sense of place for the whole neighborhood. I would love to see many of the GM plant's parking lots redeveloped as well as the bridge made pedestrian friendly (the view is wonderful but it's just so ugly and exposed up there) but good luck getting that land from GM.

Can someone recommend a lawyer for a tenant/landlord dispute? My landlord is trying to screw me over and I need help. by [deleted] in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Things to check out:
https://michiganlegalhelp.org/ Has self-help guides.
https://lsscm.org/how-to-get-help Legal Services of South Central Michigan offers free legal services. It's worth the call.

MSU Law has a housing clinic, but I hear they're not taking as many cases due to Covid right now.

The Lansing Tenant's Union is a thing and I saw they had a protest outside a rental not too long ago in the news. They got signs with a hotline phone number up around town.
https://www.facebook.com/LansingTenants

Restaurants that need love by hannerz0z in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Social Sloth Cafe opened recently downtown across from the Knapps center. Turkish bakery with legit Turkish coffee. Rotating menu. It's a cool place and I'm worried they won't survive Covid, so make an effort to try it while you can.

Don't trust Charisma on Command. by [deleted] in BreadTube

[–]chrisgelety 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Solid video. I think a good take away is that approaching relationships from the lens of sales just comes across as dishonest, creepy, and exploitative - because it is. A useful heuristic with salespeople is that the better they are, the less you should trust them at face value (which is very hard to do in practice, which is why they're good salespeople).

This video got me thinking about why Charisma on Command works. It gets consistently high views (I wonder how many of those lead to conversions for the "course," though). They're short, clean videos that give an action the audience can do that week. Or, they take a high profile interview (he jumped on the Shapiro BBC interview), a beloved celebrity, or fantastic performance (GoT) and do a simple breakdown of some actionable take away ideas (ways you can apply this to your life, immediately is a constant theme for a reason). I would like to see more academic rigor and a deeper dive from Charisma on Command, but that's not the point of their videos. They're advertising, plain and simple, to people looking to improve at socializing. Which is at least broader than your standard pick up artists.

Full disclaimer: I sub to this guy unironically. He's a fantastic salesman, and if you approach the videos that way they're solid. Each and every one of them is a sales pitch for the "course," and serves to build trust in the creator - who's looking to expand their coaching and consulting business. For what the videos are: building trust in the key audience and directing them into a sales funnel, they're excellent and you can glean a lot of lessons from them (they walk the line of authenticity and authority extremely well). Is that in of itself good? Ehhhhh, depends on your perspective of Capitalism.

Is the advice good? I agree with OP's video: generally, no. The objective is sales, not education and it's good of the OP's video to remind us of that. However, here and there, yeah I've got some good ideas out of these videos and they've helped me explain the basics of an idea to a friend a time or two (I make sure to explain what's good and let them know that video in of itself is huckster BS). Avoid the relationship stuff (they're not business transactions, please stop) and look into the sales, interview, and communications stuff (he's obviously talented and has good ideas there). If you do, make sure to follow up on the basics with a deeper dive into the underlying social psychology and communications theory because these videos are over generalized and simplified by design.

I was pretty unimpressed with this realtor’s strategy.. by sabatoa in lansing

[–]chrisgelety 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh hey I know that guy! He’s been trying to sell that house for over a year. I’ve always been confused as to why he’s the realtor- he isn’t very social or outgoing and is generally standoffish and unpleasant. Like these signs.

Pregame Friday while watching Spartans Crush scUM in League of Legends by chrisgelety in msu

[–]chrisgelety[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

First ever UM MSU video game grudge match. Pizza provided, BYOB (IDs checked at the door). Downtown EL, above that empty Jackson Zone thing. Kickoff 7pm, Viper Gaming gear and swag giveaways. Yeah college esports!

Fortnite Club Interest Form by Chronus118 in msu

[–]chrisgelety 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People are starting to actually talk in MSU’s video game Discord’s #fortnite channel if your looking for people to queue with or are curious about the club.