Still Struggling with Lansing

When we went to the Apple store we drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan’s second largest urban area (after Detroit).

Grand Rapids has a completely different feel than Lansing. People seem relaxed, happy. There’s real prosperity in Grand Rapids. We went to a wonderful restaurant called Bella Vista where I had lamb and risotto.

Lansing looks like news footage out of the former Soviet Union looked in the 80’s. Everyone is cold. All the time. Nobody smiles. People are walking on unfriendly, unplowed sidewalks when they’re not forced to walk right in major roads to wait for buses and the like. People don’t nod at one another or smile in public places like a gas station. There’s little space for chit chat or getting to know anyone. It’s strict, solitary business. The greeter at Meijer’s is always a little bright spot. I know they’re just cutting down on theft but it’s one of the few places you’ll get a geniune howdy in town nowadays.

It doesn’t help that I still drive by the abandoned and now torn down factory to and from work every day. They finally took down several sets of street lights that existed for the factory only that had been set to blinking yellow for years. That’s a little better now. A little less of a reminder that there used to be meaningful Lansing activity there along the Grand River.

So, I still struggle with living in Lansing. I love my home and my neighborhood but beyond those boundaries this town feels so very, very dead. I feel like I’m missing out on a key ingredient of life. The Rust Belt indeed.