[GaryatMSU]

Old Town is a nice area, mainly art galleries and a few restaurants. 2 or 3 LGBT-oriented bars there. Several festivals in the summertime, as in East Lansing. Two big nightlife areas are downtown Lansing and downtown East Lansing. There are some upscale apartments/condos off Saginaw St, between Larch and Pennsylvania, that puts you close to downtown Lansing, City Market and Old Town. Living in Old Town would is limited to older housing stock and lofts above retail spaces.

[caspper69]

The other thing to mention to the OP is that East Lansing is not all college or undergrad oriented. Students generally stay south of Saginaw between Hagadorn and Abbott, and south of Grand River after Abbott. That leaves all of the northern areas around Lake Lansing Road, pretty much all of the original Whitehills sub, and the Glencarin and Pinecrest neighborhoods. Not much student stuff up here. It also opens up the Groesbeck area, but if you have kids (which I think you don't), you want to avoid Lansing schools.

You can also do the Stadium District, but for me, it's not cheap or safe enough with children. You can also hit the first few blocks down Michigan Ave into Lansing. I wouldn't go too far though.

East Lansing costs more, comparatively, than other areas, but we have 1600 sq ft. and an 800 sq ft. basement and pay just over a grand. And we have an acre lot. We still get food delivery until 4am, and can take a cab anywhere in town for $3/person.

I don't know if any of that is important to you, but we have great schools for our kids with the advantages of a college town. I can't think of anything better. Everyone is different though. The rent is probably 20% higher in EL than Haslett or Okemos. Probably 50% higher than Lansing proper.

But I came here from an incredibly affluent Metro Detroit suburb, and I've now been here for almost 17 years. I like the laid back pace, and the fact that we're 1 hour from Metro Detroit and 1 hour from Grand Rapids. We can make the loop in Chicago in 3.5 hours (sometimes faster). Indy is 4 hours. We have the best of all worlds.

[teachbeach]

Originally Posted by caspper69

The other thing to mention to the OP is that East Lansing is not all college or undergrad oriented. Students generally stay south of Saginaw between Hagadorn and Abbott, and south of Grand River after Abbott. That leaves all of the northern areas around Lake Lansing Road, pretty much all of the original Whitehills sub, and the Glencarin and Pinecrest neighborhoods. Not much student stuff up here. It also opens up the Groesbeck area, but if you have kids (which I think you don't), you want to avoid Lansing schools.

You can also do the Stadium District, but for me, it's not cheap or safe enough with children. You can also hit the first few blocks down Michigan Ave into Lansing. I wouldn't go too far though.

East Lansing costs more, comparatively, than other areas, but we have 1600 sq ft. and an 800 sq ft. basement and pay just over a grand. And we have an acre lot. We still get food delivery until 4am, and can take a cab anywhere in town for $3/person.

I don't know if any of that is important to you, but we have great schools for our kids with the advantages of a college town. I can't think of anything better. Everyone is different though. The rent is probably 20% higher in EL than Haslett or Okemos. Probably 50% higher than Lansing proper.

But I came here from an incredibly affluent Metro Detroit suburb, and I've now been here for almost 17 years. I like the laid back pace, and the fact that we're 1 hour from Metro Detroit and 1 hour from Grand Rapids. We can make the loop in Chicago in 3.5 hours (sometimes faster). Indy is 4 hours. We have the best of all worlds.

The areas the above poster mentioned (I wish I could figure out the creative map) are all excellent. Loads of apartment complexes along Lake Lansing Road, near Frandor (Coolidge Road, Harrison Road north of Burcham/Saginaw), even many along Saginaw might not be student populated (or if they are it's graduate students). As mentioned, the undergrad population surrounds campus fairly tightly~north of Grand River to Saginaw and then south of campus along Jolly Road.

Welcome to the area~check out the Visitor's Center (downtown) for fun things to see and do in the area.

[JoulesMSU]

And as for downtown, it's pretty cool. I like it way better than East Lansing, (and I went to State )...

Tin Can is my favorite - tons of different beers, pretty cheap ($2 or $3 depending on which beer), lots of "specialty" stuff too - pudding shots, faygo bombs, etc. They have a big "party deck" which is a lot of fun when the weather is nice too.

Nut House - good sports bar, decent food, lots of TVs to watch a game, etc. They have the worst parking lot I've ever seen in my life though (it's seriously only big enough for like 4 cars and they try to fit like 10+, plus it is on the intersection of two major/busy roads - I don't understand why ANYONE would even try to park there).

Harem - never been, but heard it's a good "dance club"-type place.

The Loft - they have regular concerts there, and sometimes even get big name performers.

25 Taps - meh, small place and, like the name says, they have 25 different beers on tap. That's about it. Connected to the Tin Can at least, so you can hit up both in the same trip.

Exchange - a cool martini bar, it's a little more expensive than the other places but has a nice atmosphere and usually a live band, also you can get "free passes" here for some of the places that charge cover, like Harem and Omar's

Omar's - standard strip club, meh

Edmund's - nicer sports bar than Nut House, but more people go there for lunch/dinner than for a night out

Rum Runners - this is the other direction, on the other side of the stadium, but it's a pretty cool place. They have a dueling piano bar which is fun to watch. It's a little more expensive than most of the other bars though.

Stober's - is further down past Rum Runners, kinda out of the way from the rest of the bars, but is pretty cool. They have good beer, free shuffleboard (2 boards), and sometimes a live band. There's some other bar next door, an Irish pub I think, but for some reason I've never gone there. lol


Around the corner (from Edmund's) are some more bars on Washington, but the ones on Michigan Ave (the ones above) are my favorites.

[teachbeach]

Also, The Green Door has some of the best live music in town, the crowd is a little older/mature. Theios, Soup Spoon Cafe and Emil's are great places to eat~all on Michigan Avenue. The outside's are not elaborate, but the food is really good at all of them. In Old Town; Meat, Portable Feast and Pablo's. I've never been to the Sir Pizza in OT, but the one in East Lansing is good, so I imagine it would be good as well.

[abstrakkt]

OP here! I decided to live in Lansing and found an apartment in the stadium district that I really like (and it's not too expensive, unlike all the lofts in that area!). I'm excited to be close to all the fun establishments listed by JoulesMSU & teachbeach -- thanks a million for the tips!! And thanks again to everyone for the detailed responses and help making sense of Lansing (and surrounding area) neighborhoods!!

[dragon_fly_12]

Glad it worked out, congrats!

[allredb1]

Will be relocating to Lansing also. Abstrakkt, was this info helpful to you? Any advice you can offer based on your experience? Thank you!

[dragon_fly_12]

This thread is a few years old now. What kind of info are you looking for?

[allredb1]

dragon_fly_12 - Thank you for telling me, I had not paid any attention to the date. I am going to be moving to Lansing (office is in Mason). So was wanting to also know what neighborhoods or areas or whatever that are best to live in. So I came across this thread wanting some info that could help me. Not sure I can get up there to scout out the area before the move, so just was hoping to get some help. Thank you for any info you can provide!