Lansing, Michigan

Lansing is the capital and the sixth-largest city of the state of Michigan. Lansing is considered part of the nation's Rust Belt, a stretch of cities and towns in the northeastern and upper-midwestern United States whose economies have historically been driven by the heavy manufacturing industry, such as steel and automobile production. While Lansing still retains its reputation as an auto-industry hub, its more than 112,537 (as of 2022, according to the US Census Bureau) residents are as likely to be employed in education, health care, and government.

Landscape

The lower peninsula of Michigan is often described as being shaped like the left hand of a mitten (the upper peninsula, located just above Wisconsin, is separated from the rest of the state by Lake Michigan). Lansing, situated in the south-central portion of the state, can be thought of as occupying a spot approximately over the middle of the back of the palm, in a region known as Mid-Michigan. Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, is some 85 miles to the southeast.

Lansing's terrain is low-lying, slightly swampy, and—before being developed—covered with dense deciduous forests. The Grand River flows through the heart of Lansing, and its smaller tributary, the Red Cedar River, runs slightly to the east of the city and through the campus of Michigan State University in neighboring East Lansing.

The rivers help to divide the city into its four distinct quadrants: Eastside, Westside, Northwestside, and Southside. The diverse, bustling district known as the Eastside is located east of the Grand River and north of the Red Cedar River. This district contains a mixture of commercial and residential developments. The Westside, which encompasses the downtown business district and several residential neighborhoods, stretches to the north, west, and south of the Grand River. To the north of the Grand River lies the relatively small Northwestside, home to a small industrial district and the site of Lansing's airport. The Southside, known for being the most suburban and greenest district in Lansing, is situated south of both rivers.

Lansing's climate is basically temperate, with temperatures varying significantly from season to season. The westerly winds keep summers relatively warm, with temperatures averaging 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and humid, while winters are very cold, with average daytime highs in the 20s. The city's location—not far from the Great Lakes—increases the chance of heavy snowfall due to lake-effect precipitation. Along with its neighbors in the southern portion of Michigan, Lansing is subject to frequent thunderstorms when spring transitions into summer.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in Lansing has risen 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last thirty years because of climate change. Extreme events, such as heat waves and droughts, have become more common.

People

In 2022, according to the US Census Bureau, the city of Lansing was home to an estimated 112,537 inhabitants. In 2022, an estimated 58.1 percent of the population was Black, 52.6 percent was White, 12.5 percent was Hispanic or Latino, as 5.0 percent was Asian. The remainder of the city's population is made up of small communities of Indigenous Americans and persons of other ethnicities.

Waves of immigration came relatively slowly to Lansing; in 1910, more than fifty years after the city was officially incorporated, almost two-thirds of its population was still made up of native-born whites. The biggest factor responsible for changing the face of Lansing was the establishment of the automobile industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, beginning with the founding of the Olds Motor Vehicle Company (the makers of the Oldsmobile) in 1897. The prospect of securing employment in the city's auto plants attracted a sizeable number of African American migrants to the south of Michigan. Many Mexican American immigrants have also come to Lansing in search of manufacturing jobs.

Among Lansing's most famous residents was African American activist and Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, who lived in Lansing for a brief period during the 1930s when he was a child. His family's former home is now a registered historical landmark.

Economy

For more than a century, Lansing's economy and its overall character were powerfully shaped by its role as a major center for the US automobile manufacturing industry. The revolution that R. E. Olds set into motion with his ingenious moving assembly line—more than a decade before Henry Ford would adopt the same process—eventually transformed Lansing into the single biggest annual producer of cars in the country. General Motors (GM), which eventually bought Olds' company, constructed a huge state-of-the-art auto industry plant in Lansing in 2003, designed to churn out a total of five different models of cars and trucks. GM also opened several other assembly plants in the area surrounding Lansing.

Competition from foreign car makers, a rising consumer demand for more fuel-efficient cars, and the effects of the global financial crisis that began in late 2007 combined to leave GM (along with its fellow American automakers) in serious financial difficulties. The company was forced to eliminate several of its subsidiary brands, including Saturn and Pontiac, and in 2009 it initiated a temporary shutdown of production at its biggest Lansing-area plant, Lansing Grand River. GM dealerships in Lansing were also hit by the automaker's troubles. However, Lansing's automotive industry has been steadily regaining jobs in the years following the recession.

Although the decline of the auto industry posed a challenge for Lansing, the health of other business sectors has enabled the city to avoid economic disaster. The public sector, for instance, is one of the city's largest employers: thousands of jobs in local, state, and federal agencies are located in Lansing, as are positions for educators and administrators in Lansing's public school system, Lansing Community College, and Michigan State University. In addition, health care, insurance, professional services, and information technology are growing industries. Between 2010 and 2011, Michigan ranked third in the United States for high-tech job growth and Lansing ranked as the sixth-top metropolitan area in the United States for high-tech job growth. In 2020, Michigan ranked ninth for high-tech job growth and fourth in state rankings for the number of electrical engineers. During the same year, Lansing ranked fifteenth in Best Cities' 2020 ranking of America's best small cities, largely because of its technological growth, In 2023, the research company Novi announced that it would hire an additional two hundred workers in Lansing.

Landmarks

The R. E. Olds Transportation Museum is not only a treasured local attraction but a fascinating commemoration of the city's history as an automobile town. Among other artifacts, the museum features the first Oldsmobile ever manufactured. The city's other historic and cultural institutions include the Michigan Historical Museum, the Kresge Art Museum, the Abrams Planetarium, and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Lansing is also home to the Michigan State Capitol building, which was officially dedicated in 1879. The building's creator was prominent post–Civil War architect Elijah E. Myers, who was also responsible for designing the Texas and Colorado state capitol buildings. The Capitol's interior walls are embellished with tremendously intricate decorative paintings done in the Victorian style.

One of Lansing's lesser-known attractions is the lush and calm Cooley Gardens, a large public park filled with beautifully landscaped flowers and plants. Cooley Gardens was founded in 1938 and named after the philanthropist who donated the land to the city. When a large highway was built that separated the park from Lansing's major commercial area, it fell into disrepair for some decades. It has since been rehabilitated by a dedicated group of volunteers.

Popular annual events in downtown Lansing include the Common Ground music festival, which draws an impressive collection of nationally renowned performing artists to the city each summer, and the colorful African American Parade and Heritage Festival, which celebrates the culture of the city's African American community.

History

The first people to inhabit Lansing were American Indians known as the Anishinaabe, a collective name for the Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations. At this time, the region was a wilderness covered by thick forests and frequently subject to river floods. The first official survey of the land took place in 1835 and was conducted by two men from Lansing, New York. Having christened the area "Biddle Town," the two promptly returned to their hometown and conned a small group of gullible settlers into buying plots of land in what was described to them as being a thriving township. When they realized they had been tricked, a few of these new landowners decided to stay and make the best of it.

Several years later, Michigan legislators were forced to relocate the state capital from Detroit to somewhere more central and less open to British attacks from the Canadian side of the border. The location they picked—largely for want of any better option—was the quiet settlement of Biddle Town. The settlement was then renamed after New York Constitutional Convention delegate John Lansing.

As the new capital of Michigan, Lansing blossomed. By the time it was incorporated in 1859, the city had gained three institutions of higher education (which would later merge to form Michigan State University), a road connecting it to Detroit, and several thousand new residents. Soon, it would also be served by a new railway system.

Over the next decades, Lansing's economy grew exponentially, with a variety of successful businesses appearing on the scene; among its most popular exports in the 1870s were bobsleds made by E. Bement and Sons. By the turn of the twentieth century, the city's economy was turning more toward automobile manufacturing. The steady growth of this industry—as well as the huge numbers of new immigrants it attracted—led to a housing boom and a significant increase in the physical size of the city, transitioning Lansing into the modern era.

Bibliography

"Automotive History." Greater Lansing Michigan. Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2011, www.lansing.org/visit-greater-lansing/greater-lansing-history/automotive-history/. Accessed 21 Oct. 2013.

"Gov. Whitmer Accounces 200 High-Paying High-Tech Jobs Coming to Novi." Michigan Government, 12 Dec. 2023, www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/press-releases/2023/12/12/whitmer-announces-200-new-high-paying-high-tech-jobs-coming-to-novi. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

"Lansing's History." City of Lansing. City of Lansing, Michigan, www.lansingmi.gov/808/History. Accessed 21 Oct. 2013.

Maclean, James, and Craig A. Whitford. Lansing: City on the Grand, 1836–1939. Arcadia, 2003.

"QuickFacts: Lansing (City), Michigan." US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/lansingcitymichigan/PST045222. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.