Recipe for "cool" - mix East Lansing with a heaping scoop of housing, a little nightlife and a dash of class. Stir well and serve to people ages 25-34.
In accordance with Gov. Jennifer Granholm's recent "Cool Cities" initiative, the East Lansing City Council evaluated the city's potential for coolness Tuesday night. The council discussed goals for East Lansing's cool cities advisory panel, whose job it will be to brainstorm ways to lure the 25-34 age group into the city.
More than 250 cities were selected to participate in the "Cool Cities" initiative. Each one will create their own advisory panels to draw the younger age bracket into its town. If East Lansing wants to stand out in this statewide war on uncoolness, it has to find ways to be fresh and unique.
The first thing the council should realize is that to have a happening city, the city needs happening people to live there.
The 25-34 age group is usually not looking for luxury condominiums or slummy student housing - it wants a pad that's somewhere in the middle.
A priority of the advisory panel should be to create downtown housing that's affordable but nice.
Before people start moving into this new and attractive housing, they should feel welcome in the city.
City policies such as the new noise ordinance are not a way to make young people feel welcome and want to live in East Lansing.
Another issue is that a university - where most of this age group just came from - will be directly across the street. Therefore, there needs to be entertainment and shopping that is a bit more upscale than the typical college lifestyle.
The routine meat-market bar scene gets a bit old by the time someone has graduated.
This problem easily could be solved by adding finer dining and upscale shops to the city.
There needs to be a few restaurants where people could go to get a nice meal - something other than a burrito and costs more than under-the-couch change.
If the city is willing to give up a few liquor licenses so that people can have wine when they eat out, the nightlife will increase in better ways than just longer lines at bars.
But there also needs to be fun things to do after the nice dinner. A movie theater, outdoor music venue, museum or open art galleries all would be excellent additions to the city.
These would increase the culture and diversity of the city, both of which are important ingredients to a happening East Lansing.
East Lansing already has several fountain and park areas that have the possibility to be hip hangouts once the bars, restaurants and venues close.
Spruced up with benches, planter boxes and street lights, these hidden gems have definite cool potential.
The city council has a lot of work on its hands in its quest for cool. But with the right recipe, enticing ingredients and a lot of elbow grease, we might never again have to ask "What is hip?" - because we'd be living in it.
