This Michigan Beach Town Needs Ozempic

Ludington — What makes a lake town a great lake town? As someone who grew up in a lake town, lives in a lake town, and spends a lot of time visiting other lake towns, this question has been on my mind a lot.

It’s got to be on the big lake, it has to be bustling in the summer, and it must be walkable. A lake town isn’t a suburb where you spend all your day battling traffic in an SUV. It isn’t a city with bus stops and perpetual litter. A great lake town is one where you want to stop the car, get out, and walk around so you can look at the little shops and bars and then later, after dinner, mosey off (on foot) to watch the sunset on the beach.

I’ve been dispassionately evaluating some of our great towns on the big lake this past year. Considering their zoning, the proximity of the downtown to the shore, the greenery, the parks, and just how it feels walking around. There are some amazing towns on our west coast, and there are a few that aren’t quite living up to their potential.

Ludington is one of those towns. It’s a great place in an often overlooked area: Far enough north to escape a lot of the Chicago people, but not as far a trek as the Leelanau. It’s in a real sweet spot. Touristy, but not packed like some of the other towns.

The beach is fantastic—really long with soft sand and nice big waves. The SS Badger, the car ferry across the lake to Manitowoc, leaves from the harbor. It’s got big-box stores out by the highway, a nice marina near the downtown, and an abundance of quiet streets full of real homes filled with real people.

But downtown Ludington is bad, real bad. It’s so bad it’s genuinely confusing how it remains as bad as it is, and it’s such a tragedy because there is no good reason for it.

Ludington Avenue, the main drag, runs from Downtown right to the water. Crossing this boulevard and looking west you see the glistening waves from the big lake sitting beyond a tall American flag waving in the wind near the famous House of Flavors.

It’s an idyllic location and a beautiful scene. But it’s all for naught because the road is too big and fat.

Ludington Avenue is simply too ridiculously wide. There are two lanes running in each direction plus a turn lane in the middle and parking lanes for cars on either side. That makes Ludington Avenue a full five lanes across plus the parking lanes on either side! It’s this big fat bloated road that’s holding Ludington back.

A road of this size is not welcoming or conducive to leisurely foot traffic. It doesn’t feel cozy or quaint. Five full lanes feels like a road in Detroit and less like a street in a lake town with a population of around 7,000. Even if no cars are passing, it’s not relaxed.

It’s too much concrete. It feels like walking in a big parking lot. For parents with kids, it’s nerve-wracking. Even if no cars are coming, every parent reflexively holds their kids’ hands tighter when they are next to a big road with a bunch of lanes.

This isn’t an empty philosophical critique without real world implications. The road isn’t conducive to a vibrant downtown. When it comes to lake towns, downtown Ludington is slow. Businesses are not that busy, people are not really walking around that much, it’s comparatively dead because no one wants to hang around a big fat thoroughfare.

The good news, however, is there is a solution to the Ludington’s big fat road problem: a downtown renewal project.

They need to slim Ludington Avenue by eliminating three full lanes. They don’t need the turn lane in the middle, and they don’t need two lanes running in either direction. Cut them. Keep the parking lanes on either side, those are fine.

West of Washington Avenue the lanes need to diverge with greenery in the middle. By eliminating three full lanes of concrete and separating the lanes to the north and south of the road, thirty feet of grassy parkway can be built right in the middle of the main drag. There could be chairs, benches, tables, shady trees, and bushes lining the edge by the road.

The crosswalks will remain in tact, tracking through the new grassy area. Imagine exchanging 10 blocks of concrete for 10 blocks of mini-parks on the way to beach. 

This renewal would make downtown Ludington an absolute joy to walk, relax, and enjoy summer in. If done right and made lovely with choice trees, bushes and flowers, Ludington Avenue might end up being one of the nicest downtowns in any of the lake towns on Lake Michigan.

If you are about to protest that the current lanes are needed, I am going to stop you there. They are not. The traffic is not that heavy downtown. I have been to Ludington during all seasons and the number of lanes that currently exist are, without a doubt, overkill.

After the downtown renewal and grand slimming, traffic will move slower toward the lake. That’s the point. You are supposed to practically idle through the downtown of a lake town. You are supposed to drive slowly, have your attention grabbed by a bar or some shop, pull over, get out, and walk around because it’s beautiful.

That’s the point.

Charlevoix sees tons of traffic every year. US-31 cuts right through downtown and traffic can end up moving pretty slowly in the summer. But it’s fine, it’s more than fine. Charlevoix’s downtown is beautiful. People are walking around, the shops are busy, the restaurants are full, it feels close and intimate. It’s human and very walkable. It’s exactly what a lake town should be.

Ludington has already made good moves in this direction. James Street north of Ludington Avenue has been converted into a walkable area with places to sit and relax. There is a parking lot around the corner so people can park and walk around downtown if they like. These are good steps, but they aren’t enough.

Ludington could have one of the best downtowns on the big lake. The great downtown transformation would be written about all around the state.

Others would follow suit. Moving from a giant concrete road to a picturesque postcard is more than possible in Ludington. All they need to do is cut the fat on Ludington Avenue.