Ask ELi to Investigate

Image: Hannah Community Center, courtesy City of East Lansing

This week, an ELi reader asked us to investigate the usage of the Hannah Community Center. Our reader was particularly interested in the question of whether City-run programs are given adequate priority over external groups that use Hannah. (Hannah is getting busy enough that space is sometimes tight, including in the parking lot.)

Image: East Lansing DPW worker clears a sidewalk along Grand River Avenue last Sunday

The question: This week, we received this question from an Eli reader: “Who is responsible for keeping the sidewalks, curb, ramps, crosswalks, parking lots, and streets around schools clear and passable?” She added in her email that “various people—both parents who have called to complain and city or school district employees—say it's different: It's the school. No, it's the ELPS grounds people. No, it's the city.” She says she has “never gotten a consistent answer.”

Image: Example of a poorly maintained sidewalk at the corner of Evergreen Avenue and Valley Court.

A reader asks: Does anyone really get ticketed for failure to clear ice- or snow-covered sidewalks in East Lansing?

The answer: Yes, although it varies substantially by date and neighborhood.

Image: The Avondale Square development, where the City continues to own many parcels; courtesy City of East Lansing

At next Tuesday’s City Council work session, City staff is planning to ask Council to put a City Charter amendment on the ballot for May 5 that would change how City land is sold. (Like all “work sessions,” this public meeting of City Council will not be broadcast or video recorded for accessible public viewing.)

The question from a reader: Who can legally ring your doorbell to peddle or solicit business if you live in East Lansing?

The answer: Representatives of commercial businesses must have a permit from the City of East Lansing to appear at your door. No one is allowed to come to try to sell you new windows, gas contracts, or anything like that unless they have an active permit. The person at the door should be able to show you the permit if you ask to see it.

This week, our Managing Editor suggested that ELi investigate “whether it's possible to develop and, in fact, die from Seasonal Affective Disorder in the space of two weeks, and whether those of us unable to afford fancy sun lamps could just get really close to our desk lamps for an hour a day.”

The sun didn’t come out in time for me to feel energetic enough to investigate that question, so instead this week I’m answering a question I’ve gotten from a number of people in East Lansing over the last year:

Last week, ELi took up the question of why some East Lansing residents are fearful of the City trying to work with PDIG, the development company proposing to redevelop the blighted corner at Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue.

Photo: Strathmore Development's unfinished project in Ann Arbor

Image: East Lansing DPW crews fix a sewer problem. Courtesy of City of East Lansing.

A reader asks: "Why does East Lansing keep having all these water main breaks—this summer, Grand River Avenue; last winter, Forest Avenue; and recently Harrison Road?"

Each week at ELi, we take a question from a reader, investigate the answer, and bring you the result on Friday.

This week’s question from a reader: Did the failure of the parking lot sale authorization on Election Day cause Hotel Indigo to pull out of its plan to be a tenant in the proposed “Building A” in the Park District?

This week’s “Ask ELi to Investigate” is a follow-up to last week when we looked at why people voted “no” on the question of authorizing City Council to sell three parking lots. Today we’re looking at why 4,858 people (about 56.6% of those who voted) voted “yes.”

What were the 3,728 people who voted “no” thinking? That’s the question we’re tackling this week in “Ask ELi to Investigate”—why enough East Lansing voters said “no” (to authorizing City Council to sell three parking lots) to cause the measure to fail. We think gathering answers to this question could help citizens, City officials, and developers understand what happened as the City goes forward from here.

This week's Ask Eli tackles a question we've gotten in conversation with several readers one that can be summed up this way:

Does redevelopment of the blighted area at Grand River Avenue and Abbot Road depend on the parking lot sale ballot question passing?

The answer: The answer is an unequivocal "no." That is simply a different project.

Our Friday feature here at ELi is called “Ask ELi to Investigate.” We take a question from a reader and assign a citizen-reporter to investigate the answer, and then we bring you the results. If you’d like to submit a question for “Ask ELi to investigate,” use our contact form.

A reader asks: Is East Lansing really $185 million in debt? How did it get so large?