AA city council approves Main Street closure on game days.
AA.com story, by Ryan Stanton:
Seems to have been driven by security imperatives; the threat of a large car-bomb next to the streetside wall of the new West Concourse. Lots of citations to DHS in the runup to the vote. One AA.com commenter had an interesting notion; wondering if a new concourse in the South endzone would similarly require closure of Stadium Blvd.
With the University's election to press for this (the city council vote was 7-4, reflective of lots of local opposition to this inconvenience but the overwhelming influence of the Big U), it once again highlights the persistent lack of good infrastructure around the Stadium. Michigan really needs to keep working on parking and traffic, when they are doing things like building basketball annexes that rob parking places and closing Main Street to choke traffic flow.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
For your information, some of us drive fully-electric cars and shop at the People's Food Co-op.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:18 AM ^
I sneer at you. You have been sneered at.
SNEER!
August 9th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
I also think you're conflating hippie (lounging on Diag) with hipster (sipping PBR).
August 9th, 2013 at 10:55 AM ^
...moderating system that includes "Eye Roll -1".
August 9th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
I would be willing to bet more than a few beers that the law of unintended consequences is going to rear its ugly head with this change. During the game, traffic moves freely down Main Street, both north and south. This is going to shift everything to State Street, and from my experience, State Street, pre and post-game, is no joy to navigate.
If the University really wants a safe zone, buy the houses adjacent to the street and reconfigure Main Stree for a couple of hunder yards. It's great to use terrorism as an argument, and something we should all be aware of, but I'd be more concerned with a private airport capable of landing jets about three miles from Michigan Stadium.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
I'm willing to take a volunteer turn manning the officially santionced UM anti-aircraft battery for one game per year to eliminate potential aircraft threats. It will be kind of like signing up to help at the youth football concession stand, clipboard and all. I just don't want to share the bunker with Peggy and Jerry from Dexter** on my shift. They're insufferable douches and think their son should get more touches per game.
**Figments of my imagination. Sorry if I offended a real-life Peggy and Jerry from Dexter with a youth football-playing son who should be getting more touches per game.
You should never pull this hand-operating lever to the rear. Do not push a clip of ammunition down into the feed rollers here. You never restore this lever to firing position. Do not make sure that this cover is completely closed. Never depress the operator's foot triggers here, here, and at the rear, here.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
Do you know who's committing all these terrorist events? Spend a little time and examine the events of the past 12 years. It will disappoint you.
There's poking the politics line with a ten-foot pole, and then there's zooming over the line tied to a large firecracker.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
Parking is only a problem because people are lazy.
There's plenty of tailgating space between the golf course, Pioneer, and students front lawns. I was talking more the typical couple/family that is using the parking spot just to park in. There's plenty of free spaces around town for those that care to use them.
And my comment was mostly in jest.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
If you want close in parking to accommodate most of the demand you need to get rid of the golf course or get rid of Pioneer High School. Building a new golf course would probably be cheaper but giving the city $100 million for a nice new school may be more popular.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
Or... Dave Brandon can try to explain again why putting a parking structure at the back of the Blue Lot apparently doesn't make financial sense, even though the demand is obviously there and the finances aren't really an issue. It's a no-brainer, and not just for football. The bus system feeds that lot into campus on weekdays, when those lots are at capacity. Basketball parking is a priority, too. And what happens on those days when there's a hockey game at Yost and a basketball game at Crisler?
August 9th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
For those who are not understanding of golf courses and their design, Michigan's golf course is almost as rare a work of art as the Breugel in the DIA.
Fielding Yost personally contracted with the great Alister Mackenzie and his associate Perry Maxwell to design the University of Michigan Golf Course. It is just one of two university golf course designs by Mackenzie (the Ohio State Scarlet Course being the other, and that one has been altered by Jack Nicklaus' design firm to some historic criticism), and just one of a large handful of Mackenzie designs in the United States. (Augusta National, Cypress Point, Pasatiempo are among the classics on that very short list.)
An Alister Mackenzie golf course is a world art treasure, arguably beyond anything in the University's own Museum of Art.
I think I'm gonna have to second the motion for the motion for a new "eye-roll" moderation option.
The good thing for me is that the serious people who count, the decisionmakers in the top echelons of the Athletic Department and Development, know exactly what I am talking about.
You mean like the same Serious People you've been lambasting for giving too many parking spots to disabled people and not enough to your tailgaiting buddies?
August 9th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
We need more, and better, parking. I don't know if we will get it. It helps, I think, to complain about it publicly.
And no; we are not going to get it at the expense of a priceless Alister Mackenzie golf course.
See how that works?
August 9th, 2013 at 12:46 PM ^
To my recollection, only once has Main Street ever been closed off to traffic near the stadium prior to a game, which was UTL two years ago. That may have been a security issue. Who knows? But it was at least a one-off test to see what alternate traffic flow would look like around town.
If they are planning to do this for every game this year, I hope they learned a lot in 2011. If you recall, the street closure didn’t occur in the darkness of early morning. They did it about 3 hours before kickoff, so at least for UTL, fans had a lot of time to make their way into town and tailgate in their favorite location. I understand it may be more of an effort to get to your spot before a noon kickoff if they close the street, but I wouldn’t put it past the University to use the street closure as a social engineering exercise as a way to force fans to arrive to AA earlier in the day, to start their tailgating earlier, and to, perhaps, change the pregame culture just enough so fans get to their seats earlier.
We all know, however, it is the students that need to get their asses in the seats earlier! While shooting from the field, I hate pointing my lens to the north during the height of pregame (including the band entrance and pregame performance) and see all of those empty seats in the student section! Those photos almost always suck. And I know my closing-the-street theory will not help that issue one bit.
And who knows, how much the late student section arrivals are affected by other aspects of Security Theatre.
I see a lot of students, who get to the gates near to kickoff time, only to wait 20 minutes to get through the turnstiles.
August 9th, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^
It pisses me off too much, and I don't really have any need to go in that way. The students sort of are forced to go that way. (Or double back in a 30-minute walk.)
I've made the case many times before; I feel like I've tried to be generous to the slacker students in this case.