Found this posted at the front of my building this morning. Not sure how to interpret.

I will soon start a new job. I need transportation from my door to the building's door. Sadly, bus routes don't drop me off where I need to be.

So, I'm considering using CATA's other services like Spec-Tran, Redi-Rides, and the Rural Service. What are your thoughts and experiences with these services? Are they typically on time, tardy, and so on?

I'm especially interested in Spec-Tran, since that may align more with my needs than others.

I am a recent college graduate (23M) and I have applied to so many brick walls! Is anyone hiring young people with a little bit of experience? Like at all? I can’t even name 3 references outside of family and employment. I feel so hopeless and I just want a simple job. I have 4 years in janitor service (I’ve given up on applying to cleaning jobs) And experience as a photographer and video editor. I have very strong skills in audio production and visual art as well. Is there anything out there for me? All I can find are jobs that I’m either not qualified for or over qualified for. What’s going on?

Are There Any Shelters With Childcare? Been Homeless The Last Couple Of Weeks And Im Trying Not To Lose My Job. Currently Staying At A Hotel But I Can't Afford To Pay It Every Week And Take Care Of My Children Since My Check Usually Goes Towards The Room

where can i find places to sit in nature along a creek or body of water. i have a car so im willing to drive off msu’s campus.

interested in being in nature and bone hunting! so preferably places where humans are not usually around

TLDR If you are thinking of moving into MWL, here's why you shouldn't. If you have already made that mistake, here's how to get your deposit back by suing in small claims. The small claims process is not specific to MWL and I hope it can be helpful to any aggrieved tenant in Lansing.

It's been about a year since I moved out of Motor Wheel Lofts, but given how bad my experience was I wanted to do my part to let others know what to expect. I've seen it come up here sometimes when folks are asking about apartments in Lansing, so I would like to do my part to share my experience and allow others to make an informed decision. Not wanting to speak for others, I will describe only and exactly what I experienced and how I managed to get DOUBLE the withheld deposit money returned to me.

I suppose it's important to state upfront that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but you don't need to be a lawyer to defend yourself against predatory landlords. And maybe they wouldn't take so much advantage of us if they thought we would actually fight back!

Are you thinking about signing the lease? Don't! If the lease says you should move out 2 weeks early you need to know, this is not standard - I have had a dozen leases in my adult life and never seen this. In retrospect, I wish I had known before I applied and once I did learn about it I really shouldn't have signed it.

They have over 4 stars on google reviews! That's unheard of for an apartment. I obviously can't speak for every review, but they gave me a discount on my lease renewal for giving a five star review. I've since taken it down, but take the reviews there with a grain of salt.

But I already signed the lease! How do I get my full deposit returned to me? Over half my deposit was withheld upon move-out for "damages." Although they declined to do a final walkthrough with me on move-out, they sent both a video and numerous photos of small marks on the walls (which they called "gouges") and charged me hundreds of dollars to repaint essentially the entire unit. I called/emailed to try to work something out. Although they were always very responsive when I lived there, suddenly they were like ghosts and nobody would get back to me.

At this point, I decided I was going to start writing everything down and plan to follow exactly what the law says in order to sue for a return of my deposit. Did your landlord illegally withhold your deposit? I found this guide from the MSU College of Law, Housing Clinic helpful.

The basic steps are:

1. Contest the withholding of your deposit in writing within 7 days (MCL 554.612). In my case, they itemized the "damages" (as required by law) so I disputed every single item on their list.

But what if the photos do show damage? For reference, according to state statute, the landlord can only withhold damages "that are the direct result of conduct not reasonably expected in the normal course of habitation of a dwelling" (MCL 554.607). If you lived somewhere for a year or more, there's a good chance small marks on the wall are a normal part of living! Is the carpet worn in the high traffic areas? NORMAL! Was your bed pressed against the wall, leaving a mark? NORMAL! The landlord may try to claim that it's "in the lease" not to touch the walls but not everything in a lease is legally enforceable.

1. Wait 45 days from termination of occupancy for the landlord to respond. If they want to keep the deposit, they must sue you (MCL 554.613). I will specifically note that the "termination of occupancy" means the day you actually agreed to move out and were out. In the case of MWL this is obviously 2 weeks before your actual lease end date.

2. If they do not respond to your letter, you can sue for double the amount withheld. From the MCL statute: "Failure of the landlord to comply fully with this section constitutes waiver of all claimed damages and makes him liable to the tenant for double the amount of the security deposit retained." I did eventually hear back from the landlord, but they did not offer to return the deposit or commence a court action as required by law. Instead, they claimed they could have withheld even MORE money because I left so much damage behind.

OK I'm ready to sue my landlord to get my deposit back! At this point you will need to go to the relevant district court (54-A in Lansing for this example) and file a suit in small claims. You do not need and in fact are not allowed to have a lawyer in small claims. I used Law Help Interactive to find the forms I needed to fill in and print out and took them to the court. I included a detailed timeline of the events and cited the relevant Michigan Common Law statutes where applicable. There's a small cost to filing in small claims, which will be returned to you at the end of the suit.

Once you have filed a suit, you will need to find someone to service the landlord. The court had a list of people who do this so I just called and dropped the paperwork off at the first one that picked up. As far as I could tell, they all charged the same - some nominal fee plus mileage.

Now this is where MWL gets pretty scummy (as if they weren't before). You have to put an actual person's name. In the case of MWL that person is HARRY HEPLER. In my experience, he evaded service. Just flat out ran away from the servicer. After he was unable to service Harry multiple times he gave me a form to take back to the court to say he was evading service and I had to pay to get "alternative service" which is basically where they paste the documents to the door of the building because the person is intentionally avoiding the servicer. This whole service thing took WEEKS and presumably landlords hope you just give up, but I was obviously pretty miffed. Eventually, once the alternative service was complete, the court reached out to require mediation.

Mediation I don't know what to say about mediation. The mediator can't force anyone to do anything and the lady who was "representing" MWL in my case obviously had no power and wasn't going to return my deposit. But it's required by the court, so go ahead and do the mediation. In my case they offered to "split the cost of the damage" but everything I read suggested I was entitled to double what they withheld so I declined to accept anything less than that.

Court date I had to reschedule because of travel which proved to be a little tricky but they allowed it, so definitely ask rather than just caving after months of waiting. When I went to court I brought a folder with a very detailed timeline, copies of the MCL statutes, the photos of the "damage" (what I took and what they took), the lease, and pretty much every other document I thought might be useful. It ate up a whole afternoon for me and I had to use personal time but it was incredibly rewarding to finally have the magistrate affirm that the landlord (1) broke the law and (2) had made up their own fake new definition of "damage." The court awarded me double the withheld amount, as I had requested, as well as the filing and service fees I had paid. The landlord had 30 days to pay me, which they did. Overall, this was about 9 months from when I actually moved out.

So I apologize for how long this saga is, but after years of being treated badly by landlords who refuse to repair things or just flat out steal my deposit, I finally wanted to try to stand up for myself. I honestly think MWL probably does this to ALL of their tenants on move out, but maybe they wouldn't if we all stood up for ourselves. I hope this can be a useful roadmap for anyone who has been wronged but isn't sure how to get started in small claims or thinks they need a lawyer to get what they're owed. You can do it all on your own! I believe in you!

I noticed that the reviews and star ratings for the Lansing Police Department are no longer showing up on Google. It used to have public feedback visible, but now it's completely gone. Has anyone else noticed this or know why it might have been removed? Is this happening with other departments too, or is it just LPD? Curious if this is part of a broader policy or something specific. Would love any insight—thanks!

Does anyone who what that noise is downtown? It sounds like a vacuum cleaner and hasn’t stopped in the week I’ve been at this apartment. I moved from a place next to the freeway and was hoping I’d be able to have the windows open but that noise is almost worse than the constant traffic of the freeway.

Looking for friends in lansing area Hobbies i can pretty much get into anything, I’m open minded. Just want to connect with since i’m new in the area.

Anyone want to play pickleball with my boyfriend (30M) and me (27F)? We are new to the sport and would love to have some competition!

First picture is for the upcoming meeting, while the second is general information!

Anyone know what’s going on in South Lansing? I was just on Miller Road near Cristo Rey Community Center and saw five Lansing police cruisers race by at high speed headed west on Miller.

If you’re exiting 127 N in Frandor and need to turn right onto Saginaw, please for f*cks sake just take the Kalamazoo exit. No need to cut across 3 lanes in heavy traffic and back up the exit. It’s difficult enough to get around with all of the construction.

That’s all, thanks for listening to my rant🫶🏻

If heading over there, just wondering what to expect to plan around - time of day things to do things to eat… thanks!

What's going on under greywall hall tonight?

My husband was laid off due to redundancy 3 weeks ago and now we are royally fucked. We JUST moved to Grand Rapids from California in hopes of a better life and because of this awful situation, we are now in dire straits.

We don’t know anyone here, but we need help finding him a job again. He has applied to dozens and dozens of places all over GR and hasn’t heard back from anyone, it’s gotten to the point where we are looking for jobs further out as well, whether that be WFH/Hybrid. If we can’t find anything in the next week or so, we may just be out on our butts with nowhere to go.

Can anyone please help point us in the direction of somewhere that pays at least $20/hr? He has his BA from UC Davis and was working for a CPA firm prior to his layoff. My DM’s are open if you don’t feel like publicly posting the position 🫶🏻

I am getting my old car ready to sell so I have been cleaning and doing paint touchups. I have found SO MANY little scrapes and dings on my cars paint that I know I didn't cause. Part of my profession is driving cars every day so I am always super careful while driving and I never have problems like this on cars at work...

Hi all, I’m a new student at MSU. Looking for a safe, quiet apartment in east lansing area, closer to the university. Budget: ideally under $1500.

Currently looking at: - Lakewood (looks nice but a bit far away) - Knob hill (convenient location, looks nice but heard bad things about dtn) - Walden woods - cedar creek - Hamilton trace

Any opinions on those or other suggestions?

Herbana has them, but not super convenient. Anything on the south side have something similar? Not looking for gummies or thc syrup.

Thanks!

Anyone know what’s going on in Frandor?? Driving to work and saw 7+ Police cars blocking the road and 4 more barreling their way to that location. Any insight????

Friend sent me this while he was doing his mail route. 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀