Blog: Nikki Schippel

With only a year and half until I graduate from college, I constantly hear the buzz between friends and classmates discussing their plans to move to New York City, Los Angeles and especially Chicago. What is interesting to note is that they are not moving to these great cities solely in search of a better job market.

They’re moving to these cities because they have a city design that suits the lifestyle they wish to lead. My generation is putting off having kids, parking their cars with a sense of permanence, and searching for a great nightlife to enjoy after work.

Planners realize this, and so do companies engaged in the knowledge economy that are looking to offer careers to some of the nation’s brightest.

Revitalization in the form of place-making—or creating a sense of place—is imperative for Detroit and Lansing if the state wishes to rebound from the loss of manufacturing jobs that built our once great cities. With the idea of manufacturing having a greater presence in our history books rather than our urban communities, it is important for Michigan to look at ways to attract the creative class and the younger generation that bring knowledge economy jobs, including but not limited to biotechnology, health services, etc.

Place-making is happening right now in Lansing. Anyone that has been keeping up with the progress of Lansing’s new master plan may have heard the term “road diet” used in regard to the Saginaw/Oakland corridor.

A road diet is urban planning jargon that means reducing the lanes of an existing road that are operating under capacity. This creates space that can be retrofitted to create a comfortable place for pedestrians, bicyclists and community activities. A road diet is a tool used in place-making.

Project for Public Spaces described the situation like this: “If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” The car-centric planning of the past 60 years has used our streets merely to connect our communities. Transportation planners passed up the opportunity to use road design as a method of creating places people want to be and shaping our communities for the better.

The Westside neighborhood of Lansing is trying to cut down the number of lanes on the Saginaw/Oakland corridor to remake the thoroughfare that rips through the center of the neighborhood, turning it instead into the heart of the community. Streetscape enhancements might include planting of trees, investing in planters and trash receptacles, installing small street lamps and allowing for on-street parking.

A successful road diet includes making space for bike lanes and widening sidewalks. Multi-modal traffic supports variation in activities that can be done along the road. It supports the transportation needs of all income levels and encourages a healthy lifestyle because people have the option of walking to destinations.

Interestingly, studies have also shown that, in most cases, reducing one-way streets down a lane has not inhibited the flow of traffic.

So place-making creates an area for the current surrounding community to enjoy. And it also supports the recent trend of migration to urban areas across the country.

With strong, cohesive community action and research into options available that make infrastructure improvements less expensive, advocating for place-making tools like road diets are certain to work toward better satisfying current residents, attracting the new working class and bringing new jobs.