Downtown offers different culture, though parking, housing among suggested improvements

For Edmond Wu, the best thing about living in downtown Mount Pleasant is the peace and quiet.

“It’s not always the same crowd as there is on campus,” the New York senior said. “It’s not that it is not busy, but it is just quieter here because it is not all students. There’s a good mixture.”

Wu lives near the corner of University Avenue and Michigan Street. He said living downtown has the added advantage of nearby eateries and shops.

“We like to walk to Stan’s for breakfast on the weekends, and we also go to Jimmy John’s a lot too,” he said.  “Both of those places are just down the street.”

Gross Point Park senior Justin Sparkman is roommates with Wu and said his favorite part of living downtown is a given.

“We are really close to all of the bars down here,” he said. “I can walk to the Bird and the Blackstone.”

The location of Sparkman and Wu’s apartment still is close to campus, which both said is an added advantage.

“It’s only about a 20 minute walk to campus from here so I try to do that as much as I can, even when it snows,” Wu said. “It’s nice to have all of what the downtown offers around you, but at the same time you are right next to CMU.”

Wu and Sparkman said there is one clear disadvantage to living downtown. Parking.

The two have assigned spots but, often, they are taken by others.

“It seems like there is always people parking in our spots, and it gets annoying,” Sparkman said.

A business perspective

Tim Brockman, owner of Max and Emily’s, 125 E. Broadway, said being downtown has a lot of advantages as a business owner.

“I think the downtown offers a unique perspective,” he said. “It is out of the hustle of Mission Street.”

Being close to other businesses is also an advantage, Brockman said.

“It makes it really nice because of all the places are so close together which makes it really easy for people to walk from place to place,” he said.

Downtown Development Director Michelle Sponseller said downtown offers things no other place in Mount Pleasant can.

Sponseller said the downtown caters to CMU students and residents living in the area. But she would like to see more student housing.

“We would like to see a high density of students come live here,” she said. “We are a college town. We’re not a town with a college in it.”

Although Wu said he likes the quiet of downtown Mount Pleasant, he said he does not know why more students don’t move downtown.

“I can’t really think of too many things that are bad about living there because it is close to everything, and it is cheap,” he said. “It’s really cheap actually, and that is always a good thing.”