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In 2023, Lansing benefitted from political good fortune in the state Capitol. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an East Lansing Democrat, found herself with the first Democratic Legislature in 40 years. And Lansing found itself with newly elected Sen. Sarah Anthony, a native of our “sad little town,” in charge of the Appropriations Committee, and Angela Witmer of Delta Township as her counterpart in the House. They helped fashion a budget that was being orchestrated by the governor’s legislative liaison: former state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing, who shepherded it through both chambers quitting to run for Congress. The result was a record state budget with likewise record local funding that, among other notable gains, will transform Lansing’s skyline and allow Mayor Andy Schor to not only finally move City Hall into much-needed new digs but to renovate one of downtown’s prime historic sites as local government’s new home.
But at street level, gun violence made Lansing sad indeed. The community was shocked at the death of political worker Ted Lawson, shot on a Sunday afternoon in October as he canvassed doors on Lansing’s west side, allegedly by a 15-year-old youth who had asked Lawson for money. It was part of a national trend of youth violence. Just a few weeks later, a Lansing toddler killed himself with an unsecured weapon in an automobile. And they were followed in November by five more fatal shootings — a five-year record for the most in a single month in Lansing.
Local development and fatal shootings are among our choices for this year’s Top 10 stories. That still left important developments, events and milestones by the wayside. They include the announcement by the Lansing Housing Commission that it intends to build affordable housing in downtown Lansing and CATA’s news that it hopes to construct a facility on the site of the old Center for the Arts that will include space for homeless services. The city cracked down on troubled Logan Square in south Lansing after a late-night shooting outside a club. The principal of East Lansing High School resigned amid an investigation into an apparently fake doctorate degree. And as the year wrapped up, Carol Wood ended a 24-year career on the Lansing City Council.
Journalism is purportedly the first draft of history. Here’s a local snapshot for 2023’s chapter.
Top 10 stories of the year
A resounding tragedy struck the area on Feb. 13, when Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, of Lansing, shot and killed three students and injured five more in a mass shooting on the Michigan State University campus. Hours later, he took his own life.
Arielle Diamond Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner perished in the assault, while Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, of Immokalee, Florida; two Chinese international students, John Hao, who was paralyzed from the chest down, and a second who has not been identified; Nate Statly, of Hartland; and Troy Forbush, an Okemos High School graduate, were all severely injured.
In the aftermath, classes at MSU were canceled for the remainder of the week, and they were relocated from the two buildings where the shootings took place for the remainder of the semester. On the day classes were set to resume, some students skipped classes to protest gun violence at the state Capitol.
MSU returned to the top of the news cycle in the fall, when it fired head football coach Mel Tucker on Sept. 27 for alleged sexual misconduct stemming from 2022 phone call with sexual awareness advocate and speaker Brenda Tracy. Earlier, Tucker had arranged for Tracy to speak with the team, which developed into a working relationship. Tucker came to MSU in 2020, signing a 10-year, $95 million contract that made him the second highest paid coach in college football.
On Nov. 25, MSU announced that Oregon State University coach Jonathan Smith, 44, will replace Tucker as the 26th head coach in program history on a seven-year, $7.25-million-a-year deal.
More turmoil came in late October, when Trustee Brianna Scott sent a seven-page letter to her colleagues accusing Chairperson Rema Vassar of ethical violations. She called for them to join her in requesting that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer remove Vassar if she didn’t resign. Days later, the MSU Faculty Senate voted 52-4 to call for Vassar’s removal. Vassar denied the claims outright and refused to resign. Vassar was elected as MSU’s first Black woman chair in January.
On Dec. 8, the Trustees hired Kevin Guskiewicz, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina, to become MSU’s 22nd president beginning March 4. Guskiewicz, 57, a neuroscientist and leading concussion researcher, will become MSU’s sixth president in as many years. He had been at UNC since 1995 and its chancellor since 2019. The hire came 14 months after Samuel Stanley Jr resigned his presidency in controversy, and about four months after interim President Teresa Woodruff announced that she wouldn’t seek the permanent post.
Through November, Lansing had already matched its total fatal shootings count from 2022 and 2020 at 13. Five of those happened in November, the highest single-month tally in at least five years. In that same span, the city recorded 62 non-fatal shootings, passing last year’s total by four, but still a notable improvement from 2021 and 2020, when there were 85. Fatal shootings in Lansing peaked at 23 in 2021.
The year began and ended with fatal officer-involved shootings, with two in just the first few days. On Jan. 2, the Bath Township police fatally shot a man at Dutch Hills mobile home park at 16400 Upton Road. On Jan. 5, Lansing police officers killed 35-year-old Nicolas Micko near the 2000 block of Irene Court in southeast Lansing. The most recent happened on Dec. 1, when Stephen Luis Romero was shot and killed by Lansing Police in response to a domestic violence call on Massachusetts Avenue in north Lansing.
An alarming trend of youth shooters began Feb. 5, when 18-year-old Makhi Williams was found dead in his car following a shooting around Osband and Lenore avenues. Two teenagers, Keif Chatman, 17, and an unnamed 13-year-old were later charged with homicide. Last Friday (Dec. 22), an unnamed 17-year-old Lansing girl was killed in a Lansing Township shooting at a residence in the 1400 block of Ravenswood Drive.
Among the other fatal shootings were the October deaths of political figure Ted Lawson and a toddler who killed himself with an unsecured firearm.
Lawson’s case was perhaps the most shocking example of a rising trend of youth violence. On Oct. 8, Lawson, a 63-year-old Ingham County Democrats official, was out canvassing for Trini Lopez Pehlivanoglu, an at-large City Council candidate who was later elected, when he was approached in the 1100 block of North Jenison Avenue and allegedly shot in the back of the head by 15-year-old Lamar Kemp. He died just a few blocks away from his home. Kemp was arrested and awaits his legal fate at the Ingham County Jail. He was charged as an adult.
On Oct. 24, as the community was still reeling, 2-year-old King Muhammad got ahold of a handgun and fatally shot himself inside a parked vehicle at the Sunoco gas station on Dunckel Road. The child’s mother, Emma Huver, 26, was in the car at the time, but the weapon allegedly belonged to Avis Damone Coward, 44, who had exited the vehicle to go inside a gas station. Both were arrested on multiple charges.
In early August, Lansing announced a $215 million, three-building proposal from the Gentilozzi family dubbed “New Vision Lansing.” The project includes the Tower on Grand, a 25-story, 300-unit glass apartment and retail complex on Grand Avenue that would become Lansing’s tallest building; the 10-story, 70-unit Capitol Tower, 110 W. Michigan Ave.; and a conversion of the historic former Michigan Court of Appeals building, 100 S. Washington Square, that would add 70 units. The state has budgeted $40 million and another $10 million in tax breaks for the project, which the developers want to finish near the end of 2024 or in 2025.
In September, after three years of work, the Red Cedar Development project, on the east of Michigan Avenue in Lansing, was completed. The privately funded, $260 million, 36-acre mixed-used site featured two hotels, market-rate housing, student and senior-living apartments, restaurants and services that included Hooked, a physical therapy practice, Toscana Kitchen and Wine Market and Old Bag of Nails Pub.
That same month, Mayor Andy Schor announced that the historic Masonic Temple, 217 S. Capitol Ave., would become Lansing’s new City Hall, pending Council approval, thanks to $40 million in state funding. Schor said he expected the project to cost around $40 million and that the city would look to move its operations there by March 2025. Schor also said that he and Chicago developer Paul Beitler had resumed talks about turning the current City Hall into an upscale hotel.
On Aug. 24, an EF-2 tornado touched down in eastern Ingham County and followed a path through Williamston and Webberville at maximum wind speeds of 125 miles per hour before crossing over into Livingston County.
It proved to be one of the most destructive storms in recent memory, with two Ingham County deaths: 84-year-old Vernita Payne, who died in her bedroom in Fabulous Acres when a tree fell on her house, and Robert Russell, 41, of Hartland Township, who was killed on Interstate 96 when when his truck was lifted off the highway. The tornado also destroyed power lines, damaged properties and snapped trees throughout the region, leaving some without power for several days.
Another dangerous storm hit Lansing’s east side on July 13, reaching wind speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour, causing notable damage.
Air quality was another concern, with smoke from a chain of Canadian wildfires enveloping the areas in late June and early July.
The City of East Lansing terminated longtime City Manager George Lahanas in January, tapping retired Lansing and East Lansing Fire Chief Randy Talifarro to serve in the interim. In August, City Council voted 4-1 to hire Robert Belleman as his permanent replacement. Between those two events, at least 10 upper-level city employees also departed.
In July, both Mayor Ron Bacon and Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Gregg announced they wouldn’t run for reelection, while partial-term appointee Noel Garcia Jr. would be unsuccessful in his own bid as East Lansing voters chose former Mayor Mark Meadows, former Councilmember Erik Altmann and newcomer Kerry Ebersole Singh, the wife of State Sen. Sam Singh, from a field of eight.
Less than a week after the election, the new Council was sworn in and unanimously chose incumbent George Brookover as mayor. Then on a split vote, the Council passed over incumbent member Dana Watson, who is Black, for mayor pro tem in favor of Ebersole Singh, who is white, causing some residents to accuse the Council of racism.
The city was most recently hit with an $825,000 settlement following a long dispute with Country Mill Farms owner Stephen Tennes, who sued in 2017 after the city moved to ban him from its farmers market because he said he wouldn’t host same-sex wedding ceremonies at his Charlotte farm.
Overwhelmed and at capacity, the City Rescue Mission of Lansing got approval from City Council in October to rezone two properties at 415 and 421 W. Kalamazoo St. for new shelters. The projects will double the mission’s current capacity.
Also, the city committed $800,000 in state funding to contract with the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries for a warming and cooling center at Letts Community Center, which opened this month. Because of an inadequate fire-suppression system that prohibits beds, the center’s focus was shifted from families with children to single adults.
Senate race
Just five days into 2023, fourth-term Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow confirmed that she would not seek reelection after her current term ends on Jan. 3, 2025. opening the floodgates for others to announce their intent to run for her seat next year.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, whose 7th District includes Ingham County, is the leading Democrat among five contenders for the nomination to replace Stabenow, including actor Hill Harper. On the GOP side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is considered the leading candidate in a field of nine Republicans that includes former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost his seat after one term because he had voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Former Democratic State Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., of East Lansing, and former GOP State Sen. Tom Barrett, of Charlotte, are seeking their parties’ nominations to replace Slotkin. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor briefly and Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and others explored running for the House seat but opted out.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s record-breaking $82 billion state budget proved quite favorable to the Greater Lansing area.
In addition to $800,000 for Lansing’s new warming center, $40 million for a new City Hall and another $40 million for the Gentilozzi project, the state awarded $9.4 million to the Capital Region International Airport, $6.2 million toward restorations for Moores Park Pool, $6 million to area organizations through the state’s second annual Revitalization and Placemaking Program, another $6 million for local prevention and treatment services, $5 million for improvements to the Lansing Center, $1.7 million for riverfront efforts, $900,000 to maintain and expand three local trails and $900,000 more for the Lansing Police Department. The state also appropriated $2.5 million to turn the former Walter French school into mixed-income units and $800,000 for city apartment renovations.
The Lansing School District saw its first enrollment increase in three decades, highlighting a plethora of improvements taken up by the district under Superintendent Ben Shuldiner. Two came in August, when the district broke ground on the new Mt. Hope School and opened Lansing Technical High School for its inaugural semester. Funded by a $130-million tax proposal approved by voters in 2022, the Mt. Hope facility is expected to be completed by 2027.
The district wasn’t exempt from criticism, however. In October, over 60 of its former Black educators accused the district of forcing them out of their jobs.
For the first time since the City Charter took effect in 1978, Lansing residents voted on Nov. 8 to establish a charter review commission. The commission, which was approved by 51.6%, will consist of nine members to be chosen in a special election on May 7. From there, the group will have three years to propose revisions, which would be subject to approval by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and voters before they could take effect. Some of the motivation appears to be coming from residents who want to switch the city from a strong mayor system to a city manager.
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