Lansing Mid-Michigan Trails

An update to all the trails in the Lansing Mid-Michigan area.  Includes: Paved,  unpaved, and water trails in Mid Michigan area.

Trails include info about future proposals
Public River access points includes distance/time to next access point.

 

Missing I-96

For those that know the area, Google maps has completely removed 96 expressway.  Even roads get stolen in the D.  

Officially, Google probably remove the road while its under construction for wayfinding purposes.

Double Vision Map Projection

Weather pattern over MSU looked a bit like North America this afternoon

Trails in the Greater Lansing, MI Area

View Trails in Metro Lansing, MI in a larger map

Corrections/Comments, please leave in comments.

Lansing River Trail

Lansing really lacks in anything great these days.  In a time of budget cuts, most everything is either falling apart (like the housing market), or being pieced apart (like the police force).  However, the River Trail is one thing residents can enjoy as it still sees improvements via donations.  Below is some footage of my commute into work.  Its really amazing the amount of green along the way.

Michiganders forced more Lies.

The new business oriented Michigan Governor, Republican Snyder, has recently passed his new budget plan for the state. Within that plan, he lowers taxes for businesses, and raises taxes on some pensions, cuts grade school education funds, and cuts higher education funds to compensate for the loss of revenue. Basically he's pushing an agenda he never mentioned while running for office. Where have we heard that before? Really, this is no surprise, the dude is gonna make millions for his own personal portfolio with the new budget plan.

He uses the usual canned speech about how these are hard decisions, for hard times in Michigan. Doom and gloom, the state is in dire straits, etc. Classic Chicken Little material that scares the crap out of the masses. Yet, shortly after everything had passed successfully for the Governor, the state magically found several hundred million dollars, laying around. I believe that's called a surplus.

So I yell Bullshit! The state of the state is fine. Michigan auto industry (Ford and GM) both are in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 club. Overall Michigan has 22 companies in the 500. Breaking it down by state, Michigan ranks 7th in the amount of fortune 500 companies (22). That's a total of 530 billion in revenue for those companies.

Sure the state's census has dropped. But the majority loss was from non college educated folks leaving for non union jobs in the south. In fact the tech and insurance sectors (along with other higher educated positions) are desperate for qualified workers.

[EDIT: Additional sources about Michigan]

• Michigan has a higher tourism income, then Louisiana.
• Not on the slowest growing state list.

Snyder vs Bernero

Thought I 'd keep this plain and simple. Michigan seat for governor is wide open, as our current gov has hit her term limit. So the quick summary of the two men running for the seat. I've already talked about Rick Snyder in February and highly encourage the read again.

Now the basic break down:

Rick Snyder
~ Head of Gateway computers during the time they outsourced jobs.
~ Sat as a Gateway board member when company was sold to the Taiwanese. He made his millions for that sale. When was the last time you've heard of Gateway computers?
~ Headed two companies that fund start-up companies, claiming creation of 420 jobs in Michigan. Course, no one really knows what those jobs are, and if they're even are around still. Doesn't really count if that's the case. 420 really isn't that much either.

Virg Bernero
~ Resume includes State Rep & Senator, currently Mayor of Lansing.
~ Given credit for "Under Bernero's leadership, Lansing leveraged more than a half-billion dollars in new investment that created more than 6,000 jobs. Even in the face of serious revenue losses and rising costs, Bernero erased more than $40 million in city budget deficits without raising taxes by making government more efficient and more accountable"
~ For more about Lansing, see my past entry, and Lansing's Economic Development site.

Good news, Snyder isn't a extreme right winger (believes in gay marriage & stem cell research), nor is Virg a extreme leftist (has made government smaller). So it looks like Michigan will have a moderate governor either way.

Now, go and decide for yourself.

Is Unemployment a Myth?

You can tell when its election season. The lies are thick in the air, well more then usual during this time. With Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in the running for governor, it seems there's an all out attack on the city of Lansing. Basically portraying the city as another Flint; another run down shit town. As a resident of the greater Lansing area for over 10 years, I can truly say, the city seems better then ever. Which drives me to wonder how much of the unemployment is a myth?

Some examples:
Eating. Went to a no-name $10 a plate restaurant today at 1:00pm (after lunch crowd), it was waiting room only. In fact if you go just about much anywhere around town during peak hours, yep your waiting. This isn't the sign of a dead city, its a sign that when you go out, plan on a wait.

Traffic. Its everywhere. I love this city because the lack of a rush hour. Been more like minutes. It seems lately though, there are more folks on the road, at the gas pumps, or I'm parking farther from the grocery store entrance. Again, are these signs of a poor economy?

Building again. That's right, housing zones that froze 3-4 years ago are moving again, and the houses are being bought. Its not just residential, commercial seems to have never stopped. Tech jobs are way up. (Below: new Delta Insurance building in Okemos)

Contractors. Okay, this one is personal. I'm trying to get some tree trimming done, an no one wants to take the job. Its nuts, because there are a several dozen tree trimming services listed in the directories. Folks don't show up, or keep postponing. I'm just too small time for them to care. That's certainly not a sign of a bad economy. Also got a estimate on my house to be painted...they'll do the job...next month...arrrgh.

The list goes on and on. More bike trails, festivals, etc ...its a great place to be. As for that horrible economy, read this Free Press article from today.

Enjoying the Abandoned Beaches

Enjoying the abandoned beaches ...of Lake Michigan!

Picture this, its a 85 degree day, the dry sand is piping hot, the surface water temperature is 70 degrees, the fishing still has native species, and the water doesn't taste like a salt lick nor oil slick. The beach is not private, but rather a public state park land. And there's only about a dozen folks within eye sight.

Welcome to Michigan's Great Lakes.

Its probably bad PR for the state to push tourism to the Lakes as an alternative to the oil covered shores of the gulf region. But for years now, Michigan has made progressive decisions, not to drill in the Great Lakes, to the point, we've lobbied it into Federal Law (Canada does drill though). I feel bad for Florida, who's made the decision not to capitalize on the oil industry, yet they now get to suffer the consequences of a oil hungry society. As for the tourism industry hurting around the states that do rank in the monies from oil, time to lobby against the norm. Yeah, I know oil industry is 5x greater then fishing, so you'll loose that battle but at least ya tried. The country should realize, states playing with fire will get burned eventually.

Now back to relaxing...