LANSING — “When you tell Lansing residents they live in a sad little town, they don't get offended, they shrug ruefully and look apologetic, because they know it's true.”
Them’s the words of Detroit Free Press editorial page Editor Nancy Kaffer in her latest opinion piece. Fightin’ words. As the kids would say, tell me you haven’t spent any real time in Lansing without telling me you haven’t spent any real time in Lansing. Kaffer actually says as much later in her column, but continued to write it anyway.
Kaffer’s column — with a headline that begins “Lansing, schmansing” — suggests that Michigan move its capital from Lansing to Detroit. It’s not meant to be a serious column. And I can appreciate a bad take. I’ve had a few. This month probably. But the shots fired at Lansing were laced with disdain and BS and, given the size of Kaffer’s platform and how often people ignorantly punch down at us, the column cannot be ignored. I’d be less offended if she took aim at my mother.
Let me tell you about this sad little town many of us happily call home.
Lansing is, correctly, a small town — a big small town is the best way to describe it. And while its population is a modest 113,000 folks, it’s the hub of a metropolitan community of about a half-million people, including surrounding towns with all sorts of charm and independent character that some might argue are more appealing than the sprawl of suburban Detroit, which is where most “Detroiters” are actually from.
Lansing is a place you can get your arms around. Not so small that there aren’t things to do, terrific places to eat, interesting neighborhoods to live in and new friends to be made with all sorts of interests. But not so big that you feel anonymous or unconnected. It’s a place where a middle class family can actually afford a nice home and still have money to live. A place where you don’t have to give up an hour of your day just to commute across town. A place with problems, sure. Like everywhere. But also a place that strives to be more. A place that’s more than lobbyists and legislators passing through. It’s a place full of people committed to improving life and creating a vibrant place to be.
We’re a diverse mix — a college town, a General Motors Co. hub and the center of state politics all in one. A place where you can work in the city and live on a farm. A place with big dreams, some of which may never be realized. No different than any other place worth calling home. We’re a community hit hard by the pandemic. A town still trying to get its footing.
But we are not sad. And we are offended.
To borrow the words of Hugh Grant as the British prime minister in one of the great Christmas films of all-time …
A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend.
We may be a small town, but we’re a great one, too. The town of Magic Johnson, Malcolm X, John Hughes, Gretchen Whitmer, Oldsmobile, the community of Michigan State University, and home to one of the better-looking and classic state capitol buildings in the country.
And some ugly parking areas around it.
I used to write a weekly column titled “Couch counter-take”, where I would tackle the flawed opinions of fellow columnists about Michigan State football. Thank you, Nancy, for the opportunity for a one-time revival.
Let’s go through a few of her points:
Kaffer: Downtown Detroit is a place you can reasonably describe as “bustling.” Driving to Lansing last spring for a meeting, I asked (a colleague) where I ought to park. “You'll be able to find street parking in front of the Capitol,” she told me. "Surely not," I thought, “you can't just drive right up to an important government building in a city’s downtown in the middle of the work day and find parking," except it turns out that you can.
Counter-take: How is this a negative? Some of us enjoy the convenience of Lansing. We value our time.
Kaffer: It's not that much farther for outstate lawmakers to drive: From Gogebic to Lansing is eight hours and 16 minutes. It’s just nine hours and seven minutes to Detroit.
Counter-take: Considering construction and traffic, it also doesn’t take much longer to get from Lansing to downtown Detroit than it does, say, Rochester to Detroit. An extra 30-40 minutes, maybe. So unless you’re going to 40 pro sporting events a year, why not enjoy Lansing’s affordable, relaxed and vibrant-as-you-want-it-to-be lifestyle and take the extra half-hour when you actually want to go to Detroit?
Kaffer: We've got tons of office space in downtown Detroit, beautifully renovated over the last decade, and now too-often vacant thanks to the work-from-home craze, making this the most significant economic development deal Lansing could ever offer Detroit, which is, again, the state's principal city.
Counter-take: Seriously?
Kaffer: On my last trip to Lansing, colleagues offered to take me out for Lansing tacos, which they felt obliged to warn me were not going to be very good. It frightened me, and in southwest Detroit, where I live, we have Mexicantown, with about the best tacos in the U.S. (Also, our neighborhoods have neighborhoods. Does Lansing have that?)
Counter-take: Pablo’s, El Azteco, El Oasis, MexiTreats. Get some new colleagues.
Here’s how Kaffer began her column:
“It struck me again last week, as I drove around downtown Lansing looking for a parking lot I'd been told was right across from the Lansing State Journal, where I planned to work for the day: This is a sad little town.
“I go to Lansing as infrequently as is possible for someone in my position, which turns out to be not very often at all.”
That’s obvious. You should come more often. Your next column might be more informed. We’ll even let you in the LSJ offices to write it. Because that’s the kind of sad, small-town folk we are.
RELATED: Couch: Looking for a savior for downtown Lansing? Look in the mirror
You can find Kaffer's column on LSJ.com. Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
December 12, 2023 at 04:27AM
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Couch: Let me tell you about Lansing, this 'sad little town' many of us happily call home - Lansing State Journal
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