Alley? Oops!

[XLFD]

As our city leaders wait to receive word on whether they will qualify for a $2.1 million block grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) in order to dress up a downtown right of way into a 'Legacy Park', let's go back to the summer of 2017 to look at how well they handled another downtown right-of-way renovation-- and see what it looks like now.

At a June 5, 2017 DDA meeting, Ryan Reed (owner of 115 W Ludington) proposed to the board a redo of the alley that stretched behind Luciano's on the east to the back of the old Michael's on the Avenue to the west. John Henderson, chairman of the DDA at that time, told him the DDA would let one of their committees do research on the issues involved with such change.

At the August 7, 2017 DDA meeting, Reed would clarify his hopes that the alley would be closed to vehicle traffic and turned into a 'pedestrian plaza', much like the City of Howell did with one of their downtown alleys. The DDA decided it would be best to form a special ad hoc committee to concentrate their focus on the project assigning Mike Lenich, Councilor Brandy (pre-Miller) Henderson, and a pre-mayoral Steve Miller to the task.

Nothing else is heard of the project outside this committee until the next June 4, 2018 DDA meeting, when Reed informs the DDA that enough signatures of property owners have been obtained to move the project forward. Councilor Brandy moved during the public comment period to send the issue to her city council and recommend a trial closure of the alley for one year, which is approved.

It first was discussed at a Public Safety/Utilities Committee on June 21, 2018, where Reed and other property owner Dave Johnson made some extra points on the necessity of redoing the alley (redoing water lines) and blocking it. Repaving was conditional on blocking the alley. The committee voted to recommend to the full council temporarily blocking the alley until September/October 2019, at which point it would be reevaluated.

As noted in the June 25 meeting LT recap and the June 25, 2018 Council packet p42, owners would repave the alley and closure would occur until 10-31-2019 and be evaluated at that time. It was understood that business owners would be constructing a plaza environment and In the long range, they wanted to replace the asphalt eventually with concrete and have streetscape designs be implemented. They included 3D drawings of their concepts:

Time passed. At points in that time, the alley would occasionally be blocked, but the rest of 2018 passed; 2019 passed, including Halloween, which was the point where the City was to decide whether the closed alley would continue that way. Four months later, there are only February crickets making noises. The new TIF Plan indicated that some money may find its way eventually to this project, but that's unlikely if they cannot secure that aforementioned grant from the MEDC which can't be used for this project.

Below are pictures of the alley. These may look to you like a 'before' picture, but they aren't, it is a (much) 'after' picture taken yesterday (2-27-2020). You may notice the alley's pavement still has not been touched, the additional need of having a common dumpster hasn't been addressed, the water lines are assuredly still untouched. There is no hint that the alley was used as a pedestrian plaza this summer (it wasn't). It just got another year older.

The City will not likely ever receive a grant to fix this alley up. Just like any other alley in town, the adjacent owners need to pay the bill. Several adjacent property owners supported this project, the DDA formed a special committee for it, the city council passed the alley closure expecting to see great things. But it went nowhere. Ryan Reed's ambitions changed and went towards short term rentals and marijuana dispensaries over the last couple years and his supposedly-supportive neighbors have chosen apathy over ambition since the council allowed them to close off the alley, but this has reached anything other than closure.

Alley? Oops!

[Willy]

These ideas may have some merit  but taxpayers should not foot the bill. And that really is the problem. There are just to many of these entitlement minded people in charge of Ludington's politics. If all projects required adjacent owners to chip in most of the money I doubt we would see anymore wasteful projects. Projects located on or adjacent to public property should require a vote of the people. Just think of how much time was wasted just considering this proposal when that time could have been spent on figuring out how to take care of infrastructure problems. Ludington needs leaders who have the right priorities.

[AQUAMAN]

I believe you hit the nail on the head again Willy. Between wasted efforts on wrong priorities and wasting more time and public taxpayer monies on funky projects, we have a council that is in total disarray and not serving the public's best interests at all most of the time. And it doesn't change from year to year with the same faces in charge. Sad for Ludington's present and dead end future.

[Willy]

And a hard head it is Aquaman. I think the so called movers and shakers and their wanna be's who hold sway over Ludington's politics need to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror. This misbehaving cronyism has been evident for many years now. Until the new Mayor, Manager and at least i brave councilor showed up things have been running as usual. I can't imagine how bad it would have gotten if X had not been ticketed at that stop sign. It would be very interesting to know who the people are who are really controlling Ludington. I have an idea but I don't want to name anyone on a public forum. It would be nice if these people cared about the citizens instead of their own self interest. 

[Freedom Seeker]

I've also been analyzing who the real shakers are and I think they are a leftover of a previous regime which focused on renovating the downtown to the detriment of the rest of the city, itself a good goal, but when rebuilding the downtown is done to the neglect (or ignorance) of the real services and real purpose of a city--that to service its citizens and provide utilities (water/sewer), roads, infrastructure and their maintenance to the best of their prudent abilities, that neglect is what will lead to the dead end, imo (a sad dead-end, I agree, Aquaman).

We seem to have no real purpose now, no goals, except dragging on the past administration, and that run by a cronyism which has neither the wisdom to discern the big picture, nor the humility to accept the involvement of the community. And that hard-headed approach, I think, is because they are self-serving for their personal glory and advancement, without naming names (thanks Willy).