Albert Street

With this specific topic there's a lot of improvement ideas I can talk about since chaotic events at "Albert El Fresco" been causing issues. The first issue, which is my main issue is for the business owner to change operating hours to a shorter time. Since Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays are the main days that need heavy security the restaurant should open at 8 a.m.- 2 p.m. They normally would close at 5 p.m., but since most people get off of work around that time it gets busy. After 2 p.m. the police officers should make everyone clear the area around "El Fresco". If they refuse to clear the area, cops should began to tell them that a fine would be charged if they don't get off of the property. Once 2 p.m. passes the restaurant should only be open to pick up. Stated in the article there were only three officers dedicated to work those nights. That is very unfair, and other officers should be forced to help out. Instead of three officers doing all the work, there should be a total of 10 as backup. The Deputy Chief should report any misbehavior, and conflict that goes on with the officers if they don't do their job.
This improvement idea is beneficial because normally when a business close at a earlier time there are less conflicts, especially before night time. When a business tend to be well known it's more likely to attract the wrong crowds of people. This causes surrounding areas near the restaurant to obtain a bad reputation as well. When laws are strictly enforced it causes people to become scared, which would get them to listen. That's why we have officers for a reason to protect us from troubling events that can cause non threatening injuries/ threatening injuries. Even if "El Fresco" wasn't causing problems officers still need to be there, and monitor because small things like fights can break out. Never know what's going to happen, so they always need to be on the lookout.
This can be implemented if the business agrees on shortening their operating hours. If they choose not to the city can just shut it down for a short period of time. A lot of people who own businesses would rather risk shortening hours, than being closed down making no money. The best idea is for the city to present "El Fresco" with a ultimatum.

Improvements to East Lansing can be made by establishing more projects for free parking on Albert Street. Issues brung up from this problem are the busy streets due to traffic. As well as the compacted roads from construction. Making parking spaces crammed and stressful to park at. Owing to the fact, downtown is such a popular area. Finding free parking spots along with garages make it difficult for not only visitors, but workers. Because such issues leave a negative impact on businesses. More issues are aligned, as no free parking destinations make it harder for individuals to enter and leave out of the area. This article I read mentioned “It has definitely slowed things down because we have a lot of traffic that comes through here and the construction has made it harder for people to get in and out of the side streets,” (Minor). From this, the redevelopment of projects (construction) located near or on Albert Street, affect parking, from closed roads, traffic and more. Increasing risks on businesses and other locals. With that being said, the city of EL established a ‘Free Parking Program’ where they offer a half-hour free parking at garages and lots. For which, to this day gated garages and lots limit-to-free-parking is up to 15 minutes. By initiating more of these plans it is to make parking less stressful plus safer for businesses, employees, and the local community. Not only this, but other benefits, for instance projects for more free parking spaces are also created. Including having longer free parking time limits. From the article it states “free half-hour parking will help alleviate that” (Minor). Meaning alleviates difficulty for businesses, traffic, visitors, and more. Achieving this, can benefit those surrounding downtown on Albert St, with building, initiating, and developing.

Some improvements that could be added to Albert street could be the addition of food trucks being able to occupy the streets. The addition of food trucks would most likely require the assistance of the police to either shut the street down or to have a good location that the food trucks could park to which they would not cause any danger for the people purchasing from the food trucks. This would also bring the abundance of new businesses that may be trying to get a start in East lancing but dont have enough money to be able to rent one of the places on grand river. This will promote the creation of new businesses because it will be easier for them to gain a flow of income.
The addition of food trucks could bring about the mixing of cultures within east Lansing. Food trucks make it very easy for foods of any kind of culture to be easily accessible. With the vast amount of races that reside in East Lansing, as it would allow students and citations to experience other kinds of food. This will also bring the community together by having people gather outdoors and creating a very social welcoming atmosphere.

A design idea that came to my mind while reading the article is to expand parking areas. From the article we can see that the main issue is that Albert Street was so congested that the Albert Street would be shut down. My suggestion is to operate traffic control and restriction. By saying that, it means during the rush hours, the cars with some letter at the end of license plate number are restricted to entering the street. For example, on Monday, those cars with the license plate number ending in the digits “1” and “5“ are restricted to entering the street during the rush hours; on Tuesday, those cars with the license plate number ending in the digits “2” and “6” are restricted to entering the street during the rush hours. This kind of measures could relieve the traffic pressure to some degree because the cars with the license number ending in two digits of 0 to 9 would be restricted to entering the street during the rush hours and thus the number of cars would be reduced.
The project of traffic control and restriction can be implemented by seeking opinions for the local residents or around Albert Street. Especially during the rush hours in the afternoon, it’s better to operate the project because being late for home is not so important as being late for workplaces. Under such situation, those residents riding their cars passing by Albert Street in the afternoon could risk making a detour a little bit farther, sparing more spaces to ease the traffic.

In East Lansing there seem to be pro-recycling signs at every turn, but the same isn’t true for recycling bins themselves. Most students, from my experience, consider themselves environmentalists and want to recycle. However, whether this really happens or not comes down to accessibility. Installing recycling bins next to each trashcan on Albert Street would provide this accessibility-prompting everyone to think ‘Can this be recycled?’ before they throw something away.

This idea for Albert Street would see certain days of the week where certain types of businesses would be “boosted” or celebrated and be the main attraction. This could range from food stalls and businesses to other ones such as Flowers and jewelry businesses. The purpose of this would promote the many diverse businesses in East Lansing and give them the attention they deserve, it would also allow people to be able to find and look for things they haven’t thought of or found before.

This idea for Albert Street would see certain days of the week where certain types of businesses would be “boosted” or celebrated and be the main attraction. This could range from food stalls and businesses to other ones such as Flowers and jewelry businesses. The purpose of this would promote the many diverse businesses in East Lansing and give them the attention they deserve, it would also allow people to be able to find and look for things they haven’t thought of or found before.

This would include opening up and dedicating spaces on Albert st. specifically for the local businesses to set up stands as well as food trucks. There would be sign ups where the businesses could reserve a spot for specific days of the week and it would be open to the community of east lansing and easily accessible to students. This would bring the community together and support the local economy.

In East Lansing there seem to be pro-recycling signs at every turn, but the same isn’t true for recycling bins themselves. Most students, from my experience, consider themselves environmentalists and want to recycle. However, whether this really happens or not comes down to accessibility. East Lansing already has some recycling bins located next to public trash cans, but not enough to make as powerful of an impact as is possible. Installing recycling bins next to every trashcan on Albert Street would provide community accessibility-prompting everyone to think ‘Can this be recycled?’ before they throw something away.

Albert Street can be a very traffic filled and crowded space. I believe that it would be a good idea to shut down some part of the road and add some small business markets and/or farmers markets around the area to create more walking space and more availability for the community to come together and for another chance to improve economically with more businesses. I believe that this could also set up an opportunity for people to be more involved in different cultural activities and diversity because people could set up shops coming from their culture and identity and it would open a wide range of diversity in the area and give just another chance to bring the community closer together. Ever since Albert Street has created space for games and activities, many people have given back positive feedback and said that they have felt closer to the community and that they enjoyed the new use of the space. I believe that if people enjoyed games and activities in the street, that we could add to this with markets and also be improving the economy of the community at the same time. Financial markets may seem confusing, but essentially they exist to bring people together, so money flows where it is needed the most. In the photo I have posted for this proposal, it shows the community being brought together in one area on Albert street because of the changed space and activities and life that they have brought to it. I think that it would be very beneficial for the community to experience new culture through the markets and come closer together as a society, while bringing in money to other small business owners and improve the economy as well.

Cities and towns are full of back streets and alleys, and most of these pathways are dark and run down. Our current idea of an alley is an avoidable place. This is creating a waste of current public space. What if we were able to restore them and fill them with art, gardens, lights, and benches. This will allow people to hang out and feel safe in the community. Creating benches where people can eat food, talk, enjoy being in the community. Local artists could paint murals that reflect the community. We’d be able to allow more connection to local businesses and increased foot traffic within the community. Also making way for green space will help promote a healthier community. Many could be raised through community fundraisers and events. It’s really about remaking public spaces for the current community. Repurposing public spaces into safer, more enjoyable public areas.

An example of an Art Fair that brings the community together is the Ann Arbor Art Fair. It annually brings thousands of people to Ann Arbor. Not only are there hundreds of artists to view and shop but the amount of space that the Art Fair encompasses allows shoppers to go to lots of local restaurants and shops. It brings a lot of money to the community and creates a mixing pot of cultures.
One Way to bring this to EL would be to shut down side streets in the downtown area for a week allowing artist, groups and food trucks to open up stalls to entertain the public. This would allow for students and citizens to intermix amongst themselves and learn about the culture that inhabit East Lansing. This possibly could take up space on the campus as well so that it would merge student life with community life.

The idea here is that we make some open space to let people with the ability to make some arts and just let them be free with what they are about to make and everyone will be able to see the results and try to enjoy it, culture can be represented in such manners and can be done beautifully if they actually got some space to make such art.
There's a little to none available area in near downtown that the people who with the love of arts can actually show what they can do and can show their ideas to the people, with that space itself we can let all of them show what they can do with that spaces and will attract people from out of town to enjoy such art spaces and also giving the students have another hotspot to relax and hang out or even just appreciate the arts.

A bicycle sharing system is a shared transportation service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to people around the area for a period of time for a fee. I believe that this will provide people around the community with a convenient and time saving travel mode, along with many environmental and economical benefits. It will decrease traffic, reduce energy consumption, decrease harmful gas emissions, and improve public health around the area along with economic growth because of the collection of fees. I feel as though this could also count as an activity added to the community that even families would enjoy. Among the rest of the benefits these bicycles would provide for the community, I believe that it would also provide an opportunity for the community to come closer together and for it to be another aspect that people enjoy in this area. Decreasing traffic in this area would be very important due to the amount of people that enjoy coming and entertaining themselves.

As the city of East Lansing grows in size, the ideas of the people should be considered with great emphasis; after all, they are the residents who witness and experience the changes to the city first-hand. In the need for residents to express their free speech, a Speaker's Corner like that of the ones in Britain should be added for the purpose of community gathering and connectivity. Public speeches and debates are known to create new ideas under one bubble, in which such propositions can be submitted for better reform in the name of the people themselves.

As the crowd forms in Albert Street for its attractions for a better and greater Lansing, what would be more humbling and sensible than to establish a Speaker's Corner right in the heart of this street, where those regardless of background may participate and discuss together better ways to understand one another's views as well as to benefit the rest of Lansing's residents. Agreements among the masses are the first steps toward advancing a change for the better.

Albert Street in downtown East Lansing is one of the most populated areas in the city for many reasons. The most popular restaurants and shops are located on Albert Street, as well as the famous town square "Albert El Fresco." Many things make this area special, and draw massive crowds every day. In order to improve and maintain the pleasant experience that most individuals have, comfortability should be considered. The addition of public restroom facilities in the area could greatly benefit the economy, publicity, and comfort of Albert Street. When people are kept comfortable, they are more inclined to spend time and money on things they enjoy. This plays perfectly into the Albert Street atmosphere.

Implementation of this plan could be made simple and effective. The facilities could be payed for completely by donors and business owners. In exchange, local businesses would receive advertising and publicity. On the other side, their customers would be more comfortable and incline to stay in the area longer. This ends up benefiting the entire East Lansing community while maintaining a strong economy. This also falls under the principal of smart growth because of increased accessibility to basic needs. Overall the installation of public restrooms would greatly benefit the growth and popularity of Albert Street.

On the Michigan State University campus, there are lots of ways to recycle. As you go further through the city there seems to be fewer places to recycle. On Grand River Ave, they have a couple of trash cans and recycling bins, but not enough. On Albert street, they need to add a lot more green recycling bins. They need them On Albert Street because this is where more of the shops are in East Lansing. Albert Street and beyond is full of restaurants and stores. These businesses give out many plastic and paper items that need to be recycled. So we need to put most of the recycling bins in this location out in the open so the public can recognize them and utilize them. There s also confusion about what goes into which bin. There should be stickers on each bin to show what goes into what. On the green recycling bins, they should put stickers that say what can be put into this bin. The same goes for the black trash bins. To help out this confusion, restaurants on Albert Street should try their best to go green by serving food r items in biodegradable bowls, plates, utensils, and bags.

I propose the idea of monthly community events. Different events could be held every time. There could be live music from local bands which promotes small, previously unknown music groups. There could be also be food trucks/food tents which would allow for small businesses to thrive as well as introducing new cuisine to the public. At these events, there could be games for kids or possibly trivia for adults. These types of events bring people together. By having an activity for all, different groups of people will be interested and willing to come. One of the main goals we have learned about in the East Lansing area is attempting to bridge the gap between the MSU students and the East Lansing residents. I believe that this is one of the ways to do so.

Image taken from similar festival taking place pre-COVID in Ludington, Michigan.
Image: https://www.ludington.mi.us/196/Friday-Night-Live

The bus system on campus can be pretty difficult to maneuver. The time it takes to get from point to another point on campus can take upwards of an hour. As someone who takes a night class which ends at around 9, it is really annoying to have to either take a 15 minute walk back in the dark, or take a 45 minute bus ride back to my dorm. If there are more direct bus routes to the dorms, or even just more busses, it would be safer, and easier for students.

An improvement idea that I have that I believe would benefit East Lansing would be having the CATA buses run on weekends and later in the night. Nightlife in East Lansing is big. The bus system does not run on the weekends and I can speak for many students that as the winter months come, having a university transportation system available will ensure safety for students.

East Lansing, Michigan is a beautiful city with lots of naturally green spaces. However, while greenery is important for creating a calm, breathable, and beautiful community, it should not be the singular selling point for consumers looking to enjoy a day out in an urban area. Therefore, I propose a mural program, or rather the expansion of our current one. East Lansing presently has a mural project “crack art”, which encourages resident artists to create art installations in small spontaneous spaces. While I love this idea, I think expanding on it by encouraging large scale art would have an even greater aesthetic impact on the community. Lining streets and sides of business, murals would draw in foot traffic by stimulating society members’ creative interests. Consequently, social engagement would increase, benefiting the local economy. Additionally, a mural program would not only bring traffic into business areas, it would promote local artists themselves, creating spaces for community members to voice their opinions, telling a unique story that only people in East Lansing could tell. An example of this is the Artist JR from Shanghai. He created a series of art installations, titled “Wrinkles of The City” that captured the experience of the elderly generation of Shanghai residents, representing the community in a beautiful and timeless way. I believe East Lansing residents would benefit from the same representation of their unique community experiences.

One way East Lansing can improve the city design is by establishing more events that include live music, mini activities, food, art, mini contests, donation drives, and more. From this, the open environment and colorful attractions of Albert St can increase awareness. As creating more projects for local/community in-person events allows interactions. Bringing people of multiple differences together. Plus it can be more open for not only residents, but as well as students.
To add on, an additional idea that relates to this can be having local seasonal in-person events. This can also bring more people within the area to come together. Due to such popular times of the year. For instance a fall local event, winter, summer, etc. Attract people to come and enjoy the surrounding area. Along with many things to participate in. It’s seen that a community is livelier and brought together, over outdoor seating, walking, diversity, and mini activities. Overall from all of this it can improve Albert St, EL. By seeing everyone spend time, share laughs, and appreciate each other's company.

How often are you caught in a downpour with no umbrella? You either must deal with it or go purchase an umbrella, which you'll probably forget again. This idea is to start an umbrella sharing program in the community. To collect donated umbrellas or fundraise to purchase umbrellas, which will be in stands around the community. When in need of an umbrella you can easily pick one up and when you're done with it you can place it back in a stand for another person to use. There can be stands placed at every other block for easy access to an umbrella. This creates an interactive community, in which members of the community can work together to create a positive environment of community sharing.

This idea is based on a program run by the Detroit Institute of Art, where the DIA partners with local community art councils to promote local art. They sponsor morals painted in the community as well as placement of artworks around the community. II saw this in my own community growing up. This idea is for MSU to partner with East Lansing Arts Commission to do exactly that. This can even be headed by the MSU Elli Broad Museum. The program would enlist artists currently enrolled at MSU to create these morals or works of art. These morals could be placed on buildings of Albert Street or Grand River. This program is meant to promote community culture and inspire the community. The promotion of local art and culture will bring the community closer together and define the community.

An International Food Court with more diverse cuisines from all over the world with a lot of different choices. Not only through food, they are able to share different cultures and heritage but food also unites people, they can meet each other, having an enjoyable and interesting conversation while enjoying great food from different countries or places.

A shared bike station in East Lansing where anyone could access the bikes and use them in place of more common modes of transportation such as buses or cars. The carbon emissions from public transit causes air pollution, so by implementing a bicycle-sharing station the need to take buses or cars would decrease. With the affordable renting price and easy to access locations, both the economy and the environment will have benefits from this addition.

One way to help improve Albert Street is by creating and providing more accessible ramps and parking for those with disabilities. Mobility is something the majority of the population tends to take for granted. For those with limited mobility, whether they are wheelchair reliant or otherwise, it is important they have access to the things they need. One way to help with this is by providing ramps as an alternative to stairs. Not only is this safer for those with disabilities and people, like the elderly, who are more fragile, but it also makes things easier for everyone. Another way is to provide an increase in accessible parking spots or areas. On Albert Street, there are a lot of parking structures that do have some handicap spots; however, a lot of these spots are in the corners of these structures, which does not allow much space for certain tasks, like getting in and out of the car. These parking limitations cause major challenges for wheelchair users. Plus, this area tends to get extremely crowded, so most of these spots are already taken by those with disabilities who got there first or by those who like to abuse these spots. Lastly, handrails could be of major use and would help increase safety measures by adding stability and support in areas like the bathroom or on-ramps.
Having accessible ramps and parking is immensely important, as it ensures the safety of the person with the disability and allows everyone to enjoy every opportunity Albert Street has to offer.

Throughout the month, members of the community can donate food and other goods, or volunteer at the local food bank. At any time, individuals can stop by and pick up items that have been donated at little to no cost to them. If possible, local farmers or businesses can donate excess goods of theirs or offer a warm meal at a cheaper rate. This will help uplift the community through a friendly connection.

Albert St El Fresco is a lively community space. To bring the community together outdoor activities for all ages are a must. Outdoor seating, cultural foods and narrow streets create an environment full of interactions. Other communities outside of East Lansing should invest in ideas like this that provide areas full of music, culture and fun. Furthermore, investing in creative projects will bring the community together and have not only residents but students involved.

As a student, it is pretty hard trying to live a zero-waste life because some products that you need are always wrapped in plastic in the usual store that is more common and close to campus like Target, Walmart, etc. This idea is to add more zero waste stores that should provide more complete goods, close to campus or accessible by students even by walking.
Not only less food goes to waste since shoppers can decide the exact quantity of things they want to buy rather than buying predetermined portions of food which may be partly thrown out, but also eliminating packaging and encouraging the use of containers from home to fill and refill with bulk wholefoods, natural beauty, cleaning products and much more, this idea can also help to benefit small, zero-waste businesses

We often had cultural fairs to bring everyone together. Individuals would make poster boards of the countries with interesting facts or history. Bring in different objects if cultural importance like mask, and ethnic clothes. Listen to music and learn/ teach dances to the songs. And also partake in large potluck where everyone brings in dishes from their countries. This included entrees and desserts. If we could do this along albert street, I think it would be a good way to bring the international members of East Lansing community with the local community members.

Albert street would be an amazing location for a cultural market. The market would include different foods, candies, products, groceries, artwork, etc. This big market would bring not only people from the Lansing area, but others from nearing cities and places who are willing to check it out. This location is very convenient for most students and residents for Albert street is right downtown off Grand River. Having a display of multiple cultures creates diversity and inclusivity. This market would teach others about different cultures and share their foods and goods. It would also bring economic growth to the small business owners who would also be of diverse backgrounds.

Some improvements that could be added to Albert street could be the addition of food trucks being able to occupy the streets. The addition of food trucks would most likely require the assistance of the police to either shut the street down or to have a good location that the food trucks could park to which they would not cause any danger for the people purchasing from the food trucks. This would also bring the abundance of new businesses that may be trying to get a start in East lancing but dont have enough money to be able to rent one of the places on grand river. This will promote the creation of new businesses because it will be easier for them to gain a flow of income. Like as talked about in Ghanem Alqemzi’s article on “Economic Stimulus: Food Truck Parks” he says how He concluded that setting up a food truck is quicker, cheaper, and less risky, making it an easier business for chefs to break into.”

The addition of food trucks I believe it would be a very quick and easy way for students to be able to grab food on the way to or home from class. Especially if the food trucks set something up with msu to where people could use spartan cash. This could also bring about the mixing of cultures within east Lansing. Food trucks make it very easy for foods of any kind of culture to be easily accessible. With the vast amount of races that reside in East Lansing, as it would allow students and citations to experience other kinds of food. This will also bring the community together by having people gather outdoors and creating a very social welcoming atmosphere.

One idea that would be beneficial for the community and overall improve the livelihood of albert street is the addition of outdoor eating spaces and food trucks. With many bars and restaurants, Albert street is a popular street for college students to go out and have fun. The only problem Albert street faces is space, there's only room for so many establishments to satisfy the 50,000 students of Michigan state. College students don't have the time to have a sit down dinner and don't have the finances to pay for it, which is why food trucks on albert would thrive in business.

The location of food trucks would be between MAC street and grove street. There will multiple food trucks that would serve food from all over the world, Mexican, Italian, Greek etc... there would also be an addition of outdoor eating spaces, like tables and benches, which would provide students an area to come together and enjoy there food. Food trucks and more outdoor eating spaces will help small businesses and increase the overall livelihood of albert street.

This could potentially be a great way to promote the businesses located around East Lansing. Similar to Albert Street, but rather allows for the entirety of the downtown area. Where I have seen this come to fruition is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Street Closures have been allowed since March 15, 2021 and have continued all the way up until August 30, 2021. Originally, this was done in order to create room for businesses and restaurants to spread out to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. While not every street is made for this to occur on the regular, some businesses and restaurants prefer it and want the street closing to remain semi-permanent. Furthermore, the city council in Ann Arbor also passed a resolution that will allow for a “social district” in downtown AA. If approved, this will allow for people to walk around the area with open liquor containers. This has occurred in many other cities around Michigan as well in places such as Battle Creek, Petoskey, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, etc.. While I think that Lansing has a “social district” in some areas, I believe that if we expand this, with the addition of the closure of certain streets, businesses and restaurants around East Lansing and greater Lansing will become much more successful. On top of that, this promotes a strong sense of community. Having the ability to go out with friends and socialize creates a space where people can meet new people. By expanding the closure of streets, much like Albert Street, I think that the overall benefit will result for the people of East and greater Lansing.

A community creative space in East Lansing would afford residents the opportunity to grow culturally and socially. College students and people of the city would be able to interact with each other through means of art. In these spaces people can take classes, create art, music, perform poetry etc. This space could also include a Little Free Library, where people can leave books or grab a new one, a way to share knowledge within the community. Through this space people can collaborate with others, share ideas, and network with like-minded people.

All of the street interviewees who were present during the previous closings of Albert Avenue over the summer enjoyed the events. Shutting down Albert Avenue more often than simply the summers would help to create a place for social gatherings. One infamous example of a successful street closed to cars is Stroget street, which eventually became one of the most popular and busiest pedestrian streets. In cities, pedestrians should become the top priority and to do so would require pedestrianization of streets. This would require public spaces dedicated to pedestrians to enjoy events or for relaxation and socialization and the closing of Albert Avenue would do just that. During its closing, similar activities in the past year such as live music, games, and art should remain, in addition to food trucks and farmer markets. This would create a social space for residents and students of Greater Lansing that is not dominated by cars.

On Albert Avenue, there are a wide variety of shops to enter and restaurants to eat at. However, the area is lacking physical events that allow for residents of Greater Lansing to enjoy that consists of more than just shopping and dining out. Cities should be diverse in the activities it offers. Some interviewees we came across expressed their love of dancing–from ballroom and salsa to batcha and hustle. One aspect that makes the pedestrianization of streets successful are the sports and recreation infrastructure. With the addition of public dance events or lessons, it would create a space that invites people to be more active. This could also be an opportunity for dances from different cultures to be displayed as well. Overall, this would be beneficial to the welfare of residents, as well as the overall creation of social spaces that would add to a stronger connection within the community.