Last week, I read a bizarrely mean-spirited and pointless editorial in the Detroit Free Press, bemoaning the fact that Lansing is the capital of Michigan and generally expressing how terrible our city is. Obviously, I disagree vehemently. I don’t feel like the editorial in question should be dignified with much more of a response than what has already been written by my friend and Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch, but it did make me ruminate on something that has been on my mind: the state of downtown Lansing.
Downtown has gone through so many changes in a short period of time. When I was a Cooley Law School student around 2010, downtown was in a heyday. Thousands of young adults packed downtown restaurants and bars most nights. Now Cooley enrollment has plummeted, the pandemic sent many state of Michigan workers into permanent home or hybrid workspaces, and downtown needs time to pivot and recover.
Of course, we all want to see that recovery and help facilitate it. To that end, I have redoubled my focus on supporting downtown businesses. My 6-year-old son loves to visit downtown to look at the giant Christmas tree, eat fries at Weston’s Kewpee Sandwich Shop and select a few treats from the Peanut Shop. I recently relocated my law practice to the firm of Foster Swift, a cornerstone of downtown Lansing, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s incumbent upon all of us to put our money where our mouth is and spend at least a fraction of our time and money in downtown Lansing. I can give you a list of favorites, but the cream of my crop are Sultan’s Express, the New Daily Bagel and my new obsession, Veg Head.
For those of us who care, Veg Head’s online ordering system is intuitive, user-friendly and sends you a text when your food is ready.