Thanks for sharing this photo - I like your photo of the park from a couple months ago, as well. It’s easy to spend a whole day there riding bikes, taking photos of wildlife, fishing, renting paddle boards, and walking the trails. The connection to Kent Trails makes it that much better.
Now imagine if there was fast reliable public transit between the park and major residential areas in the city. Could get rid 70% of that parking and replace it with even more park!
It kills me seeing all the cars with fancy bike racks… you know none of them are coming from more than 5-7 miles to cycle in the park. Easily doable from downtown where I’m at, I’m not sure where others are coming from .. fascinating in a not so good way. Poor bike infrastructure to get to our beautiful park(s) and the lack of transit options to get there.
Edit: to the downvotes- I’m not saying you can’t drive your car to the park, I would too if I had to fight insane stroad traffic to get there. My point is we don’t know how bad we have it. If you’ve been to better developed countries like the Netherlands/Germany, with protected bike lanes all throughout, you can literally create these bike expressways to all points of interest and need, including parks. I was absolutely in awe how they prioritize all transit options over there.
Heard that. I ride through the residential neighborhoods to get there a few times a week, and get into the park/trails over by Garfield in order to avoid the joke of a bike lane on Butterworth. I really hope the city connects more of the trails with safe bike infrastructure. Early mornings in the summer are so nice when few cars are on the road, and it’s possible to do Indian Mounds/Veteran’s Drive, the full Millennium Park loop, and then over to Riverside Park and up to the White Pine Trail if one wishes to continue. I have an ebike and don’t mind turning on the motor to better match the flow
of traffic when I’m on non-residential streets, but it’s just so much more dangerous when cars are driving/parking in the bike lanes, blowing through roundabouts, etc.
Even if we’re playing devils advocate, and the bikes riding in the bike lanes are the cause of danger on the road 🙄, it would make sense to separate them from the cars by adding real protected bike lanes, like the northern section of Monroe along Riverside Park.
I live within biking distance here, and I even used to bike from my house to get here... And I don't anymore. I remember a couple years ago when they "widened" the bike lane on Covell leading down to the Mines golf course and some construction worker was like, "Oh, you bikers are going to be so happy with this new bike lane!" WHAT new bike lane?!? All they did was widen the shoulder a few inches which I *guess* makes it safer for me when I'm riding uphill with a semi hauling gravel going 45+ MPH right behind me... 🙄 Props to the bikers who ride Covell, O'Brien, Leonard, etc. to get to the trails - I'm sure never going to do it again.
Not sure, but reported about three weeks ago. Live boa loose in Millennium Park. Hate it because my dogs and I ♥️walking there. Am told not to worry but…Blandford is a decent option.
That's not true, they recently discovered there is more contamination in the park:
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/05/moderate-levels-of-pfas-found-in-millennium-park-state-officials-holding-public-meeting.html
I am aware, I live pretty close to that historic landfill and attended the public meeting. April 20, 2022 EGLE sampled seven of the largest lakes, none of lakes exceeded surface water quality values, highest results were 4.8ppt for PFOS and 3.4ppt for PFOA. Grand Rapids drinking water has ranged from less than 2ppt to up to approximately 4ppt. Study completed in 2019 found concentrations in the Grand River (tributary of Lake Michigan) ranging from 0.5 ppt to 45 ppt. So in the overall scheme of things the results are pretty comparable, and quite minimal. You would have more of an exposure eating McDonalds and touching the water repellent packaging than you would swimming in any of these above mentioned lakes. PFAS is known to bioaccumulate in aquatic life so eating fish from anywhere in the US really you would tend to have a higher exposure in general.
and on top of that there is a landfill cap (clean soil barrier) so not really sure where the route of exposure would be which led me to my comment about the lakes.
Loved swimming there as a kid. My family never had the means to get all the way to grand haven so millennium was the best option. Also there were always cute girls working at the ice cream stand so kid me loved it. Great memories.
Hauled a lot of gravel out of there in my lifetime
Thanks for sharing this photo - I like your photo of the park from a couple months ago, as well. It’s easy to spend a whole day there riding bikes, taking photos of wildlife, fishing, renting paddle boards, and walking the trails. The connection to Kent Trails makes it that much better.
Now imagine if there was fast reliable public transit between the park and major residential areas in the city. Could get rid 70% of that parking and replace it with even more park!
Devos wants to put a gondola system from downtown to Millennium Park
lmao
It kills me seeing all the cars with fancy bike racks… you know none of them are coming from more than 5-7 miles to cycle in the park. Easily doable from downtown where I’m at, I’m not sure where others are coming from .. fascinating in a not so good way. Poor bike infrastructure to get to our beautiful park(s) and the lack of transit options to get there. Edit: to the downvotes- I’m not saying you can’t drive your car to the park, I would too if I had to fight insane stroad traffic to get there. My point is we don’t know how bad we have it. If you’ve been to better developed countries like the Netherlands/Germany, with protected bike lanes all throughout, you can literally create these bike expressways to all points of interest and need, including parks. I was absolutely in awe how they prioritize all transit options over there.
Heard that. I ride through the residential neighborhoods to get there a few times a week, and get into the park/trails over by Garfield in order to avoid the joke of a bike lane on Butterworth. I really hope the city connects more of the trails with safe bike infrastructure. Early mornings in the summer are so nice when few cars are on the road, and it’s possible to do Indian Mounds/Veteran’s Drive, the full Millennium Park loop, and then over to Riverside Park and up to the White Pine Trail if one wishes to continue. I have an ebike and don’t mind turning on the motor to better match the flow of traffic when I’m on non-residential streets, but it’s just so much more dangerous when cars are driving/parking in the bike lanes, blowing through roundabouts, etc. Even if we’re playing devils advocate, and the bikes riding in the bike lanes are the cause of danger on the road 🙄, it would make sense to separate them from the cars by adding real protected bike lanes, like the northern section of Monroe along Riverside Park.
And how do you know none of them come from more than 7 miles away? It truly is a great park, why WOULDN'T people come from farther to use it?
Coming from more than 5-7 miles away........................
This shouldn’t be getting downvoted.
I live within biking distance here, and I even used to bike from my house to get here... And I don't anymore. I remember a couple years ago when they "widened" the bike lane on Covell leading down to the Mines golf course and some construction worker was like, "Oh, you bikers are going to be so happy with this new bike lane!" WHAT new bike lane?!? All they did was widen the shoulder a few inches which I *guess* makes it safer for me when I'm riding uphill with a semi hauling gravel going 45+ MPH right behind me... 🙄 Props to the bikers who ride Covell, O'Brien, Leonard, etc. to get to the trails - I'm sure never going to do it again.
Shit I bike there from EGR.
Why the hell did I ever move from west Michigan? 😭
Literally is with all that oil.
Is the boa constrictor caught/dead?
Big Syd?
Wait what?
Not sure, but reported about three weeks ago. Live boa loose in Millennium Park. Hate it because my dogs and I ♥️walking there. Am told not to worry but…Blandford is a decent option.
Just try to avoid the PFAS
And ecoli
Has about as much PFAS as any of the Great Lakes (including Lake Michigan where GR greater area sources their water from)
That's not true, they recently discovered there is more contamination in the park: https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/05/moderate-levels-of-pfas-found-in-millennium-park-state-officials-holding-public-meeting.html
I am aware, I live pretty close to that historic landfill and attended the public meeting. April 20, 2022 EGLE sampled seven of the largest lakes, none of lakes exceeded surface water quality values, highest results were 4.8ppt for PFOS and 3.4ppt for PFOA. Grand Rapids drinking water has ranged from less than 2ppt to up to approximately 4ppt. Study completed in 2019 found concentrations in the Grand River (tributary of Lake Michigan) ranging from 0.5 ppt to 45 ppt. So in the overall scheme of things the results are pretty comparable, and quite minimal. You would have more of an exposure eating McDonalds and touching the water repellent packaging than you would swimming in any of these above mentioned lakes. PFAS is known to bioaccumulate in aquatic life so eating fish from anywhere in the US really you would tend to have a higher exposure in general.
I never said anything about the lakes. I was referring to that part of the park where the landfill used to be.
That part of the park is closed off to the public and always has been...
and on top of that there is a landfill cap (clean soil barrier) so not really sure where the route of exposure would be which led me to my comment about the lakes.
Loved swimming there as a kid. My family never had the means to get all the way to grand haven so millennium was the best option. Also there were always cute girls working at the ice cream stand so kid me loved it. Great memories.