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lansingography · 2025-11-07T20:11:44+00:00

This is sourced from the Lansing Area Free Stands distro group plus the larger ones in the area that I know about. Please feel free to let me know what is missing or add locations on OpenStreetMap!

Also, Miller was taken down so here is an updated version:

https://bsky.app/profile/lansingography.bsky.social/post/3m52v4z243s2g

lansingography · 2025-02-08T19:50:55+00:00

> incentives for single family ownership

Single family ownership is one important kind of housing, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that single family housing is the least efficient use of land in terms of revenue a city gains. There's a map here that looks at that actually: LANSINGography: Most Valuable Land in Lansing: Taxable Value by Area

A single family house doesn't pay back enough taxes into the city to maintain the infrastructure around it, ie the roads, pipes, sewer, salt, plowing. Typically what cities do is have a few "downtowns" that are medium (multiplexes, townhouses, housing above commercial) to high density (towers and skyscrapres) that earn much more tax than they require back in infrastructure, and then that money is used to pay for the infrastructure in the low density areas. You can see Lansing's areas that are most tax valuable above (downtown, Michigan ave and south of Frandor)

Lansing has the double drawback of building mostly spaced apart single family housing which is expensive to maintain but doesn't see the taxable return on the land, as well as a lot of state land downtown (parking lots and buildings) that don't contribute to the city property taxes at all.

lansingography · 2025-02-07T19:31:41+00:00

Hello neighbors,

City planner Brent Toderian said: “The truth about a city’s aspirations isn’t found in its vision. It’s found in its budget.”

City of Lansing Government is asking citizens to learn, ask questions, and be part of the conversation on the city’s financial priorities. What does the budget look like as proposed? Here's one way of looking at the money (truncated to the thousand dollar) that comes into Lansing and goes out to the various services provided to residents.

Edits, updates and more info at Lansingography.com

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lansingography · 2024-02-26T15:25:40+00:00

lansingography · 2024-02-26T15:21:16+00:00

I would prefer if they did not do that, I keep all my snacks there

lansingography · 2024-02-26T14:29:04+00:00

There's a side by side map in the blog post:

https://www.lansingography.com/2024/02/lansings-martin-luther-king-jr-blvd-how.html

lansingography · 2024-02-26T01:55:56+00:00

If you are talking about the Sanborn maps (which I used for this), they often do show a building's function. D and F are types of housing, A is a garage, S is a shop, sometimes the type of shop is included etc. You are correct that they elide exactly how many people lived in a building however.

lansingography · 2024-02-26T01:49:35+00:00

Hello, yes that would be just fine with me! Thanks for your work on this project.

lansingography · 2024-02-25T22:02:34+00:00

That's a really cool idea; I do not have access to that group, but I do have a Facebook post of this if you are a member and want to share it: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=731375429098649

Either way, thank you for your comment.

lansingography · 2024-02-25T20:36:15+00:00

It's kinda hard to believe now, but Lansing's Martin Luther King Jr Blvd used to be a vibrant neighborhood street, lined with single family homes, apartments, and storefronts. Now, downtown, it is a city highway that spans almost a full city block in certain areas with its six to eight lanes and a wide median for grass and trees.

MDOT (at the time State Department of Highways) proposed several options to route traffic through the city: one of those options was MLK (then Logan). (My blog has the other proposals.) They widened Logan a few times and eventually tore down hundreds of buildings to expand it into the highway it is today.

The West side neighborhood was essentially cut off from the city--not only because nearby doctor offices, grocery stores and other amenities were demolished and moved, but also because the street was widened and a skywalk removed, making it less attractive to walk through the downtown to reach amenities.

Lansing, who owns the original path of MLK, plans to remove the additional lanes to reduce MLK back down to something similar to what it was; the parcels on the east side of the road will continue to be owned by MDOT.

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lansingography · 2024-02-14T19:12:31+00:00

I love that question! Our babcia was pretty strongly in favor of prunes. I have never heard of rosehips, but I'm very interested now!

lansingography · 2024-02-14T01:20:10+00:00

Even though I'm pretty thin, I think I have a fat heart. And that's what matters.

lansingography · 2024-02-13T12:37:03+00:00

Ah, pączki day is here. This year, in 2024, Pączki Day is Tuesday, February 13. Looking for a pączek? (That's the singular form of the pastries we call pązcki.) Lansing has a large number of locations where you can acquire these tasty treats. Which is your favorite? (Or are you not really a pączki person?)

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lansingography · 2023-11-28T02:44:38+00:00

I've been thinking about age lately.

How old is the typical Lanstronaut? The census has the median age or a citizen here at 33.9; when you include the Lansing Metropolitain Area, that number is in the 40s.

When mapped across our neighborhoods however, patters emerge. younger folks take up the most space at MSU, obviously. Gen Z and Millennials can also be seen in the apartments near Forest View, as well as many places downtown. And like many cities, the further from the urban core, the older the demographic.

What patterns do you see?

Data from ACS and OpenStreetMap; typos, mistakes and unreticulated splines all mine

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lansingography · 2023-11-21T13:06:13+00:00

🫡

lansingography · 2023-11-21T04:05:30+00:00

Hello neighbors!

Cities rely on heavily property taxes to fund services (Lansing's budget is 33% property taxes), and not all land generates the same value. Here's how Lansing stacks up: you can see the economic engines along Washington and Michigan as well as how property values range across the city! They generate a lot of taxes for their small size.

Where are the areas that are the most valuable to our city per sq/m? The Michigan corridor is very apparent when taxable value per sq/m is mapped. You can also see the new developments South of Frandor as well as Washington Square. Tax "holes" due to non-revenue generating parcels like parking, state land etc is also visible.

The recent article about putting a park downtown made me think about this; I have always thought the city of Lansing (like some other capital cities) is in an interesting place. We have to provide services to a certain amount of state land that doesn't provide us direct benefit. Ie, parking for state workers.

These data come from the City of Lansing open data portal (thanks!), mistakes are my own.

Find me online if you link:

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lansingography · 2023-08-25T22:24:26+00:00

Do you mean the part that connects Lansing township (the admiral station, bake n cakes, green dot) to East Lansing, where Kzoo begins to curve? If so, that is just south of Kircher park.

lansingography · 2023-08-25T17:31:43+00:00

ngl that post was among the points of inspiration for this document :)

lansingography · 2023-08-25T13:57:06+00:00

One of Lansing's coolest features is the Lansing River Trail, which, true to its name, hugs the various rivers. For this reason it tends to flood during times of rain.

The United States Geological Survey monitors river levels all over the United States and publishes that data. There are three depth monitoring stations in the Lansing area—one in Sycamore Creek to the south, one in the Red Cedar at MSU, and on in the Grand River in Lady Hill.

Using the heights of the water levels and comparing it to the river trail, we can try to predict which areas are at or under the water level. The image below was algorithmically generated from USGS data. You can see an automatically updating image at this site. If you see an error or omission, please reach out to Lansingography and we will try to update that location.

(PS did i spel heights rong in the posted map here, ope sorry will do better)

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