The goal of the MOBL NOBL (Neighbors of Belknap Lookout) initiative is to restore our neighborhood’s rich tradition as a live-work community, encourage healthy lifestyles, and enhance neighborhood connections to adjacent jobs, entertainment, and commercial centers.
 
Quick Facts:
 
• 12.6% of Belknap residents travel to work by foot or other means (grand rapids = 5.5%, kent county = 3%)
        Census 2000
 
• 77% of new economy companies rate access to mass public transit as an extremely important factor in deciding where to locate
        Jones Lang LaSalle
 
• Grand Rapids residents can expect their average travel time to double by the year 2015.
         Long Range Public Transportation, Grand Valley Metro Council, March 1998
 
• Freeway congestion will increase 1000% by 2015 under current development patterns
        Grand Rapids Area Transit Authority Report, 1996
 
• Roughly 47,000 people a year are killed in auto accidents, including 5,000,000 injuries and 1,800,000 of those disabling. The same study quantifies the cost of all accidents at $358 billion dollars annually.
 
• The average car costs its owner $6,100 a year to keep on the road.
 
• The United States spends nearly $200 million a day constructing, improving and rehabilitating streets and roads.
        “The Going Rate: what it really costs to drive”
by James MacKenzie
MOBL NOBL
connect    relate    transition    access   circulate   enhance   sustain
Concept Drawings of
Newberry Stairs and Lookout Park
Funding for the MOBL NOBL design charrette was provided through a grant from the Dyer-Ives Foundation.  Administration was provided through a partnership between the Neighbors of Belknap Lookout and New Development Corp.
 
Neighborhood & Local Mobility News:
 
  1. •MDOT’s I-196 redesign solicits community input on January 24th, 2008.
  2. •Monroe North Completes Neighborhood Area Specific Plan, includes stairs
  3. •MOBL NOBL participates in panel discussion about MDOTS’s Context Sensitive Design at annual GVMC Growing Communities Conference, June ’07
  4. •MOBL NOBL team participated in Michigan Bridge design work, Winter 07
  5. •Safe Routes to School training session completed on Wednesday, March 21, 2007, at Coit Creative Arts Academy
  6. •“What’s Healthy for Health Hill? Michigan Land Use Institute
  7. •“Remaking America’s Medical Districts” New Urban News
  8. •“Medical Dev’t Sparks Land Speculation” GR Press
  9. •“Bridge Construction to Snarl Michigan Street” GR Press
Getting Involved:
 
There are currently several projects envisioned or under way.  Contact us to learn more about:
 
  1. •The Safe Routes to School  committee looking at programming and infrastructure improvements around Coit School
  2. •Green Grand Rapids Master Planning process
  3. •Coit Overpass Enhancement Grant for 2010 reconstruction of I-196
  4. •Newberry Stairs and Lookout Park redesign feasibility study
  5. •Exploring Renewable Energy potential for a more sustainable Belknap Lookout