Local Businesses

Photo: An owner-occupied home (currently for sale) between two nonconforming rental houses in East Lansing.

Image: notecards from “True Comics” collection at the MSU Library

Are you having a difficult time finding unique gifts for your Spartan fan this holiday season? Wondering what to get your parent, loved one, or friend who can’t fit one more piece of Spartan apparel in their dresser or closet? Look no further than MSU’s campus for some different gift ideas.

Image: Rep. Lee Chatfield, left, and Mayor Mark Meadows

Representative Lee Chatfield, Chair of the Michigan House Local Government Committee, announced at yesterday’s meeting of that committee that, following a conversation with East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows, he had decided to defer action on HB 5041. If passed into law, the bill would allow East Lansing landlords to make certain kinds of improvements to nonconforming rental properties that are not allowed by current East Lansing ordinances.

As the year comes to an end, parents and loved ones scramble in search of the perfect holiday gifts for college students. Even a semester on campus is long enough to change a person’s taste in music, clothes, and hobbies.

Instead of waiting for the holiday wish list that arrives the day before Chanukah, Christmas or Kwanza, or the “but I don’t know what I want this year,” we’ve compiled some suggestions from East Lansing area college students to help guide your shopping.

Above: rental houses in the Oakwood and Bailey neighborhoods

East Lansing’s City Council voted tonight to withdraw from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, naming as the reason the attack mailers put out by the Chamber against Councilmember Erik Altmann during the election.

Image: Some of the blighted buildings downtown that may be demolished if a new "dangerous buildings" ordinance passes.

The new East Lansing City Council meets for the first time this evening, and their first agenda indicates this Council intends to move quickly on a number of politically hot issues, including blighted vacant buildings downtown, the ethics of campaign contributions, and a question of whether the City or the State should have say over whether landlords can make certain changes to nonconforming rental houses.

As ELi previously reported, the East Lansing Public Library will be closed to the public from December 7 through January 10 to prepare for renovations. Although the Library will reopen in stages starting in January, the Friends of the East Lansing Public Library will be unable to accept donations until the renovation project is completed in May of 2016.

Image: A montage of the latest Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce ads for the East Lansing City Council race

East Lansing residents checking their mailboxes yesterday discovered a new round of glossy campaign mailings from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, including another attacking Council candidate Erik Altmann, and three promoting candidate Shanna Draheim.

Above: Candidates for City Council Erik Altmann, Nathan Tripeltt, and Mark Meadows.

Whether the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce’s attack ad on East Lansing City Council candidate Erik Altmann will affect the outcome of next Tuesday’s election is difficult to gauge. But what is clear is that the ad has caused a great deal of controversy.