organsnyder

During our vacation last summer, my family flew out of terminal B and into terminal A. It felt like we were landing in a different city.

The only thing that was actually old was the name: the 28th Street location had no connection (other than the name) to the original brewing company, and IIRC the downtown location didn’t have any connection to the 28th St location.

This was a number of years ago (probably 7-8 at this point). We flew out of Lansing to one of the DC airports. We got a notification a few hours before the flight that it was delayed quite a long time (at least four hours, IIRC) because of (again, IIRC) equipment issues. We delayed going to the airport until closer to the rescheduled departure time, and still ended up waiting at the airport a few hours past that later time. By the time we got to DC we were the last flight in for the night, and the rental car counters were closed. Not too different than other delayed flights, except they operate on such thin margins and sparse flight schedules that any delay has the potential to snowball. It seems to me like an issue with one flight with them can easily lead to an equivalent experience as when one of the major carriers has a system-wide issue.

Same here. My wife and I flew Sun Country once out of Lansing, and it was so horrible we decided we'd never consider them again.

Fair point. What I’m trying to say is that, for the most part, AI will mostly be a discipline within existing tech companies (and other companies with internal software engineering teams) rather than a new industry. I’ve seen the way LLMs and other AI tools have transformed my company (a large tech company based in Canada), and it undoubtedly is many orders of magnitude more revolutionary than crypto ever will be. It’s truly astonishing. But even so, wading through the marketing hype is not easy.

I'm 95% sure that is indeed old Spectrum space. I recognized the furnishings and layout from when I used to work there. AI is mainly a buzzword now—like blockchain, etc. before it. The AI technologies that matter are the ones that are already being seamlessly incorporated in various tools and workflows. AI isn't a standalone skill-set.

I took this picture when I worked in Blue35 back in 2015. It's changed quite a bit.

I was hoping the building could be renovated, but I do think the new building will be much better for the community. Those old locker rooms in the basement bring back a lot of nostalgia for me (I grew up near there and took a lot of swimming lessons in that pool), but they’re not adequate. The King Park Neighbors association is meeting in my church because the lodge recently became unusable due to a ceiling collapse (IIRC).

Exactly. Don’t concentrate the shelters all in one area. Better yet, invest in a housing-first strategy so that the shelters aren’t needed to the same extent.

That would be a great fit for the building and the area. I commissioned a bookshelf from a woodworker who had space like that in an old factory on Godfrey. There was quite the neat assortment of businesses there.

The renderings remind me a lot of Brassworks, and how it was a key component of the revitalization of Monroe North.

I built an ADU as well (whitemice and I were even at the same planning meeting). I have an unusually large lot (0.75 acres) and pro-housing neighborhood association (GPNA), so I could still probably build my project today (with some tweaks) even with the changed regulations. But the changes absolutely made it harder/impossible for most parcels in the city.

I went to Last Mile’s grand opening on Sunday (crazy busy!) and have been back twice since. It’s really good. Their “Last Miel” (made with maple syrup) is delicious. Good wifi, too (appears to be ATT fiber). They’re open every day from 7am-4pm. I overheard them saying that Schuil currently roasts their beans to their specifications, but they’re working on building their own roasting operation.

The CEO of Consumers Energy is on record saying that the cost-benefit calculus for burying power lines is changing. Still probably not true in this case (unlike my house, where we’ve had multiple-day outages each year for the past three years due to trees), but I am hopeful that this becomes a trend.

https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/Our-City/News-Media/GR-launches-Tech-Week-recognized-as-a-best-city-to-start-tech-careers I love this city, but... oof. "Similar vibe" as SXSW? Also, it's been interesting to see how The Right Place and other bigger players have stepped in to reinvigorate local tech networking events. They had never restarted since COVID, and were hit-and-miss before then. But the ones I've gone to, even recently, have still made it evident that this is a very small pond.

My remote team gets together 2-3 times per year for in-person "bursts", which IME make a huge difference in counteracting many WFH drawbacks. So, I'm actually flying more than I did pre-WFH. I wish our rail options were better. My next burst is in Toronto, and I decided to drive to Windsor and take VIA from there. It would have been nice to have an Amtrak option for the first part of the trip.

I don't remember anyone making serious claims that our local connectivity would improve. We have plenty of backbone providers in the area—that's not an issue AFAIK. I find our local internet options to be just fine as a remote worker. I have Comcast's 2000/200 plan, and it's plenty fast for my needs. I'd love to have fiber with symmetrical speeds, but what I have isn't getting in the way of my productivity. I'm not as familiar with the connectivity options for businesses, but I would be surprised if lack of connectivity is keeping any businesses away. My employer (rhymes with Spotify) went full remote in ~April of 2020, to the point of not renewing leases and encouraging employees to move if they wanted to live somewhere else. I think there will always be companies doing both—I actually saw someone at Atomic Object mentioning in-person collaboration as a positive in a job listing—but remote will always be a much bigger part of the market for tech workers, especially when it comes to compensation competitiveness.

Spectrum has had one of the top (if not the top) software shops for some time, but they've been shifting away from custom in-house software toward integrating solutions from their vendors (which, as much as it pains me to admit as a former Spectrum software dev, is probably the right business decision). They still have tons of IS people doing integrations and support work, of course. GFS and Dematic also probably belong on this list. Most of the local "tech first" companies that come to mind are consultancies (Atomic Object, OST...). Michigan Labs out in Ada has been growing like crazy, but they're also (to my knowledge) a consultancy.

Grand Rapids is already a decent place for tech workers to live, as long as they're working remotely. Until Grand Rapids employer culture stops being so worker-hostile, I don't see much success here. Local employers simply can't compete when remote work is factored in. My remote software developer job pays double what the typical local salary is for the same position, and I get more PTO and flexibility than most local companies offer. This is not uncommon, and my employer is not known for being a top payer.

I grew up just a couple of blocks from there, and still am in the area frequently (church and kids' school). That building has been vacant for decades. Excited to see this project!

I don't understand why any road improvements there would be needed. I've never encountered any appreciable amount of traffic out there. Would a five-minute savings in travel time be appreciated? Sure. But it's not like we have any choke points that we need to eliminate.

I've heard that as well. Never heard a sound like that from a roadway before.

Exciting development just north of Hall: https://mibiz.com/sections/real-estate-development/the-candied-yam-to-convert-south-division-eyesore-into-new-restaurant-banquet-hall

Maybe it's as tall as seven stories of fence? That'd be around three real stories by my brief imagined calculation.

WMU is selling their East Beltline campus: https://mibiz.com/sections/real-estate-development/wmu-board-approves-sale-of-grand-rapids-east-beltline-property-for-6-25m