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just something that I was told that is nothing related to the BRT. Just something I found pretty cool. I hope that I prove correct in my policy of standing firm in not saying anything, besides giving that nod. In anycase the real story is that even though this is 4 years off for the BRT the property is getting grabbed pretty rapidly. BTW I was looking at the street grid north of 50th and uhm I see that Division Ave is going to be very difficult to create a good walkable crossings ie Boulveboard running down the Line. As for the M-11 the reason is as I stated in the prevous post is that it would nearly impossible for a BRT line be successful with a 5 lane Airport street scape without a boulvebard. 4 lanes is not much better. Mdot has been over the course of many years been relectant if not impossible with giving cities better control of the commerical districts that get created with the introduction of state routes that were initially designed to move people from Point A to Point B.

Well if they put the BRT running East to West, I think 28th would be the most logical. I know I just caused a bunch of gasps now. Lets look at a possible route. Start at Metro Village, run south on Byron to 44th then west to Wilson then south to 28th. Take 28th east to Kraft then south to 36th then west to Patterson and finally to the airport terminal. This route would by and large be very long, 22 miles in fact if not a bit longer. That would need at minimal 23 but more than likely 40 some spots for pick up. I figure the entire strech of 28th would need a stop every 1/2 mile. The station at Division and 28th would need to be rather large and redesigned from the previous BRT line. This also would allow rather fast transport from downtown to metro and downtown to GRR. The only other line I can see them doing after the 'wave I' would be to make a spur from Division and Michigan up Division then to Plainfeild all the way up across the River. That would give you about a 9.5 mile run. A very easy system to use to see and probally one that could be of concern for MDot as they would need to convert CONN M-44 to a boulvevard as they tend to balk at such ideas. An urban street like that for MDot is supposed to be 5 lanes to make travel faster although they do not understand that people walking make a diffrence. If given a preference I would like to see the Phase II to be 28th as this would connect existing commerical districts to GRR and the current line along with helping the cities in developing 28th into the urban center they would like to see. One thing people do not understand is that this would also connect several entertainment venues together as well. overall I would like to see Phase III be several lines like the North extension, a southern line linking Division to 68th then east to Caledonia, another line extending the line from Michigan west to Alpine then North all the way up to 6 mile Rd then south to 5/3 Ballpark during the spring to fall. Another line could be an extension from the Main Station to Hudsonville running along Chicago Drive. The one problem as I stated before is that Wyoming has been pestering Mdot to convert M-11 to a boulevard which it should be considering the development on that street. The problem is that Mdot is so wrapped up with getting people from Point A to Point B with cars that they forget not everybody including my generation hate traffic and hence would prefer a public transit if going on shopping trips, errands, and entertainment venues.

Just stop by tommorrow before 6pm starting at 9am. Or show up at the Church come 7pm. The final design looks impressive. There is some change in the plan that as I said occured mainly on the 60th st terminal. I also learned a secret that I wont share. But overall though I think this may just be on the smaller scale of whats going to happen on this line. If it succedds here I would love to see Mdot turn control of M-11 to the cities and a BRT line ran on it. BTW I think the symbol for the line should be this ~ with the name being 'the Wave' since this is part of the Rapid transit system and since waves are formed from rapids. hehe okay I am thinking a little off but I do like that name.

The current layout for that charrett is the following: 54th St- Southwest: internal bus depot with additional parking for about 200 park and riders. Additional streets with on street parking and two lanes of traffic on internal streets. Northwest is pretty much the same street setup but also an extension of the Kentwood bike trail across Division to the current Bike Path running to Kellogg Park. Northeast, not much in new streets but the current light industry in the area is to be kept but development is placed around it to keep it nicely covered up. The Southwest is different, it includes a slightly larger Kelloggsville park on the west side of it, along with a front road that curves on that side. The apartments do stay as they are doing nicely. Also a small civic park to be placed after the apartments but about 1/4 mile before the intersection to help with the eyes. It would allow some green space so the entire developement in that area does not get overwhelmed. The buildings in the 1/8 radius around the intersection is to be 4 to 5 stories in height with the bottom level being higher ceilings ie 16ft and office/residential on floors 2 to 5. The next 1/8th is to be buildings from 2 to 3 stories with mostly townhouses, condos, along with some commerical. The total amount of commerical should be around 60k to 120k sq ft depending if they classify the stop as one or two. The area between 54th and 60th: Pretty much 40ft to 35ft wide lots for single families with a green space around it. Mostly for trails and walking. More broken up than currently. The 60th section is actually going to be moved north about 1/16 of a mile. The reason is that Townline on the Southeast side makes placing it as the focal point would not work. As a result development is based slightly north with the stops more than likely on Division south 60th for the turn around and the one running north would be north of 60th. The key thing is to allow the people living in the Mobile home park in Byron Center Township, southwest, to get on the BRT line. Their is no plan right now to put a park and ride for that area although one probally should be placed of a smaller amount for the apartment complex thats a mile away on Eastern and 60th. It might be possible to just use the current parking thats on street for that type of park and ride. The kentwood side is pretty small for redevelopment in fact it has shrunk a little bit since Monday at 5pm. The Wyoming Planning Commission was shown the latest version last night at 7pm. That version showed the complex being cut off about 1/8 mile or so on the east side. The northwest side shows a nice funnel designed park opening into Ideal park west of the power lines. The goal is to allow biking and walking from the trail into the BRT redevolement area. Well if you have any questions I may be able to answer them. There is a final design meeting come Thursday night at 7pm at the Grace Lutheran Church, 150 50th St SW. Its on the south side of the street just after the consumers power line and bike trail. If you want input before the meeting you can go to the office suite, 88 54th St Suite 103.

hmm trees on 28th. I guess most you guys dont travel on the West side of 28th. Shameful, shameful, you are missing out on the Wyman and all of his downtown he calls home.

Well according to the BRT people they seen some major improvements with this system. I think what people are forgetting is that the BRT line will be given primary usage of the street vs the current cars over the busses. This means that it will be given dedicated lane to travel at times plus be given the ability to extend the green light. Another item is that the BRT line will have hybrid vehicles as a rule along with better access into the bus with multiple entrences and exits. Another item is that each station will have bus tickets on site so no need for change needing to placed into the machine as you get on. Thats why I like this system. Btw I like to see this be named the 'Wave' with a ~ as its logo. I think it would tie into the entire transit system in grand rapids. We have the rapid like the river rapids as a result a wave is part of the rapids. okay maybe I am a little strange to think that. But this BRT line is a good start and hopefully not the end of the transit ideas.

Update from the Fisher Station design: Well as some of you know I been getting involved in the BRT line that is being run from 60th and Division to Medical Hill and then to the Bus Depot. At present there has been one design meeting finished for one station, the other is currently being held for the 54th and Division Station aka Fisher Station. The first thing I would like to say is that the meeting was quite educational and rather fun. One thing I was dissapointed was the lack of community support. For an area that was lets just say rather bland and needing help seeing only half of the Kentwood Planning and one of the Wyoming Planning is pathetic. Yes I am upset with them. Frankly not even seeing one of the council members of Wyoming was even worse. Of course I was a little peeved that the residents in the area did not show up. I could count on my hands and toes the number of actual residents that had land in the 1 mile area around the stations that showed up. The ones that did were great and frankly benifical but it should have been better. I myself do not live in the area and will end up over a mile and quarter away from the nearest station but I still attended. Now that my rant is over here is what was disscussed. First one design did propose to put more emphasis on the 60th and Division area, the other 3 designs worked more along 54th and Division. Next I do hope they take our groups proposal of a boulevard to heart. Those style streets are much easier to cross than any other. Next background on the initial work was slightly lacking in the aspect that the number of lanes on Division that would be for traffic and the BRT. I do hope they take serious consideration of a more organic appearence of the street grid that should be built than a square design. I also think a traffic calming measure like bump outs should be used initial off division. My thoughts along these lines will be addressed come Tommorrow. From what I heard is that will have two presentations one at 5pm for the Wyoming City Council and one at 7pm for the Kentwood City Council. In anycase there is another meeting for the final picture on Thursday at 7pm. One final note is that the current numbers are looking at 120 acres of land available in this plan for development with a 400% return of investment. That should provide a lot of emphasis in creating a vibrant area versus the present ambadoment area.

Okay I am currently reading this article and plan on commenting on what is being said. For me this article screams that neoconservative areas like grand rapids is normally set can also be very eco friendly. Its more of the line of even though this area is traditionally an extreme conservative area it is also a progressive area in that we do more for each other than most would think. As for the cherry st goof, well maybe they were thinking 28th st was our downtown hehe.

Just so everybody knows the meeting for the South Division BRT line is happening tonight @ 7pm. Hope to see a lot you guys there.

Just pulled this off the city website from the minutes at the last planning meeting.

Well I think I will make a point to get to this meeting. I will find out more info shortly on when it is. I do know its at a Lutheran Church on 56th St.

There is a huge meeting coming up pretty soon in the next month at the Southern Lutheran Church on 56th Street off Division Ave. This meeting is to come up with a plan for the Avenue that involves the RAPID. Its being chaired by the entire city councils of Wyoming, Kentwood, and Gaines Township. The Planning Commisions are also to be there as well. On top of this the RAPID board is to be there. Outside of that the FHWA, MDOT, and others have been invitied. From what I gathered this is more or less a planning session on using a good portion of money to set up a plan for the Avenue. This plan is going to use a huge grant of money from the feds. By mean huge I heard in the range of 50 to 100 million dollars. I am waiting for planning commission minutes to come out to let me know exactly when it is.

The issue with GRCC is this. You have 28,000 students going to the school. I would venture you would need to tripple the size of the main ramp to even get close to serving all of the students that drive there. The other thing I would suggest is to move all instructor parking to the corner ramp on lyon and crescent. That should make the parking there better. The only other solution would be to have GRCC and DASH come up with a parking ramp structure in several locations to bus the students to the college. Doing the second solution you could put one near Burton and Division, one at Michigan and East Beltline, one for the west side of GR, and a final one near the North Monroe hotel. Have it where the students can use their pay card to pay for the parking at a low rate and it would be solved. Not sure how big each ramp would need to be but GRCC does have the numbers to give it a shot.

yeep i noticed. It also looks like Clyde Park from 36th to 44th is gonna get torn up pretty soon.

my uncle is an architect. I was talking a little bit about fees and costs with him. I believe he said something like 90% of the fee the architect recieves is just the Construction Documents ( CDs ) The other parts are like models and color drawings of the building. So if you are trying to get a contract to do those CDs you have to put forth a little expense to get the job. You also have to consider that Gilmore is wanting to get an idea what could be built there. It would be a huge expense for him to go and purchase property and find out oh I can't build what I want. By having these conceptal drawings done it would allow him a general idea for what could be built.

looking at the long term is nice and all but when you are short on money now you need to get land being taxed higher. As for the Health Village PUD the KFC is not even being built in that land. Its the simple fact that only restraunts will be able to fill that land or banks where kfc is being built at. The simple fact is the planning commission messed up the zoning where it should have been zoned diffrently than what it was. Right now there is very little land that is available for those style bussinesses in that area. So with the metro PUD it limits what could be put there. Could KFC buy land in the metro village, yes but i do not know if there is any land left that could be developed for them.

Because the planning commission has its head up its behind to put it bluntley. The council is more or less telling the commission to start working with the developers and get things accepted instead of black balling everything. Its quite hurtful to see companies try to get in wyoming and other areas and get turned flat down without any means of discussion. The planning commission I think is not acting in the best means of the city. It kinda of reminds of the Gaines first group from a few years ago. That group had no standing IMHO considering the facts. In anycase I think the council is also looking at the bottomline. They need tax money and having the city completely built out allows more money into the city considering the state keeps on slashing the budget.

Honestly that sign thing is the biggest killer. Not having a sign is almost going to kill that store before it opens. Frankly if I were KFC I would just say skip it. Wyoming got the better deal out of this IMHO. The lighting and wall is nothing new and very typical. Overall I think both sides bent over backwards. Also this is north of Gezon Parkway and not south of it.

That reminds me of the Good Eats episode on Coffee. I believe it was titled, True Brew III. I love Alton Brown BTW I do think that over time that once a few known businesses get moving more diversity will follow up. Its a matter of getting a group of consumers that will always be there and then other people will see who is visiting and setup a business that could serve those people. Coffee shops are something that will get the movement started.

some thoughts on DT business. First I work in the QSR (quick service restraunt) industry. I will not name who and dont guess since I like to keep my personal life away from my business life. Now about the industry they tend to have diffrent styles of business and each one has time frames for speed at the drive thru. That standard tends to be around 2 minutes overall. That allows for most fresh product to be cooked for just one order. Now here is the kicker although 2 minutes is fine for one or two meals, if people start ordering multiple meals the ability to get that order out goes down a lot since it causes a lot time to be wasted. First the amount of time to order increases since hey you are speaking longer, second it takes longer to make all of the food since uhm you are making more food, third it takes longer to pack since you tend to tripple check the order to catch any over glances, lastly it takes more time to get the food out the window. So if you are ordering a lot of food the best and most efficant way is to order inside. Now getting to the KFC issue. They are correct in that they have a lower DT percentage. The issue is that they also have a longer wait for food. Although the wait for most people is not an issue here are some things I seen happen while people wait. First people talk on cell phones, uhm can we ban cell phones in DT anybody. Next they tend to start puffing cigs and causing litter. Another bad habbit is cleaning out thier cars and uhm cig ashes are not fun to clean. The last thing is two fold, first is just the noise, and if anybody who has heard a deisel in a DT knows, you go deaf and then agian some cars just should be parked and folks walked inside with mufflers that are not working or non existant, that means a lot of noise. This also means a lot of pullition and for some cars I noticed a lot of heat in the summer. For me though the DT is an awesome idea for people ordering small to grab and go. I do think though that KFC in the end just should be that close if they can not block the DT. Stacking is a non issue unless you have bell or mc in your name.

I went and graduated with Cole back in 99. How interesting but actually considering what I know of him back then this is nothing new for him. BTW I think the problem with pay is not so much the starting but how raises are handed out. Thats what bugs a lot of people in the service industry.

I hate to say this but I wonder how long it will take for that webcam to go private hehe.

Uhm europe only has those high gas prices because of taxes. In fact it cost more in the states to refine gasoline than it does in europe. They just tax the heck out of the autos to build a quality public transit system. Not to mention when you have 400 million living on less land and have streets designed for horses and not autos you have to redo your thinking and thats why they did what they do. I have quite a few friends in the EU and we compared notes and what not.

Well they do have the road construction page on their. The thing is that it is 2007's. That is just the proposed list of work. I believe it needs to be approved by the city or something. In anycase since the map is not out just yet I said it was proposed. My guess on Burlingame is they will just spot pave it. They did it last year in one spot. But I dont think that will do any good this year. Well I was happy to see that they at least have something about 2008 posted though.

Well for those of you guys that live in Wyoming, here is there proposed list of reconstruction work. Please note that they have not posted the new construction list yet. I am still hoping that Burlingame from 36th to Parrie gets repaved.