Grand Rapids gets some bad press...

[rjk]

...and fights back unlike some cities who just bitch about it.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...ve-music-video

It's been around 8 years since I've been in GR for a running race, but I was impressed with the city.

[Orthophonic]

I was there recently for a conference in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel and DeVos Place conference center downtown. These incorporate some new construction and nicely renovated older buildings.


Fine Arts Building

The hotel rooms and conference facilities are great and the food for large banquet lunches is also great - no rubber chickens. Everyone is friendly and helpful. Granted, this is based on limited interactions in a small part of town over a couple of days, but these kind of impressions can be really important to bringing people back.

The downtown is really clean and international visitors were pleasantly surprised at the walkable and interesting streetscape. On a Tuesday night there was a pretty lively and well-attended outdoor music show a block or two from the hotel in a park/plaza.

To me the main off-putting thing about Grand Rapids is that it really seems like a company town. Amway, DeVos and Van Andel have their names plastered on everything [[except the Gerald Ford museum) The hotel has big oil portraits of DeVos and Van Andel at the main entrance, and there is a creepy Amway mural on the hotel wall, sort of in the Diego Rivera style of the Detroit Industry fresco at the DIA.

[adamjab19]

To me the main off-putting thing about Grand Rapids is that it really seems like a company town. Amway, DeVos and Van Andel have their names plastered on everything [[except the Gerald Ford museum)

It's funny you say that just because the whole Detroit region is plastered with GM, Chrysler, Ford....etc. /insert anything automotive\. The business types are different but without those families doing what they do down i the downtown area there, Grand Rapids would have been at the top of that stupid newsweek article. In our area we could blame the auto companies for the urban sprawl that occured. Not that every factory could have been built in Detroit proper but definetly alot of those office parks could have filled some buildings. And I know those companies are spread out because of a lot of other reasons [[crime, perceptions, attitudes towards the city etc.) that the companies in Grand Rapids havn't had to deal with...anyway....

Grand Rapids is one of my favorite cities to visit and if I had to move and given my career as a nurse I could probably easily find work in Grand Rapids and would be happy to move there. Their downtown buildings and businesses really should be an exercise in urban preservation for all rebuilding cities. Plus my favorite brewery Founders is there and my favorite fast food Mr. Burger as well as some friends!

[runnerXT]

That was a fantastic video. Great job Grand Rapids!

[Dbest]

I think the reason its weird to see that mural is because of Amway. I don't blame anybody for being creeped out by a huge Scamway mural. Most Michiganders run when you mention that name[[we know better lol). I don't look too favorably upon pyramid-scheme structured companies.
Don't jump my shit either because I was born in Grand Rapids and really like what they have done there. I like some of there arteries like Wealthy Street with Yesterdog and it's head shops. Grand Rapids would be wise to embrace the gonga more, their law enforcement continues [[like much of the state) to deny citizens the rights they voted for.

Yes their downtown is nice and VERY intact. Many newer Skyscrapers were located on undeveloped parcels along their riverfront. This has made for dense blocks of old rowed building's that were undisturbed. GR was was pretty shitty Downtown 25 years ago. Give Devos and the other Scamway partner a lot of credit for sure. I think Detroit is going to see a similar progression once regional business leaders know that they aren't throwing good money at bad relocating/investing in the COD.

[danm87]

I just moved to Detroit from Grand Rapids 2 months ago and see here in Detroit a lot of what I saw in GR a few years back. 10-20 years ago GR's downtown consisted of factories and industrial parks, over the past decade a few wealthy people in the area have helped out and started building downtown and trying to attract people there. I know they're wealthy because of a controversial issue, but they have done a lot more good with that wealth than most of similar financial means, so I support them. Anyway after this started the people of the city who had previously had a very pessimistic attitude towards downtown started turning to optimism, which I am starting to see here in Detroit. Once the ball started rolling its only picked up momentum, there are a lot of cool things happening there and I hope Detroit can look to its little brother for some pointers and learn from them. Detroit has 10 times the potential, all we need is some dedication and people who realize this potential and do something about it. Once the momentum starts there will be no stopping it.

[douglasm]

I get the impression the folks at Grand Valley State had a hand in this. They put together a lip dub last year that uses the same basic style as the Grand Rapids one, multiple people dubbing, one long shot, it's very well done, too.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5L3gsCHgQ

[rjk]

I get the impression the folks at Grand Valley State had a hand in this. They put together a lip dub last year that uses the same basic style as the Grand Rapids one, multiple people dubbing, one long shot, it's very well done, too.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5L3gsCHgQ

They're both really well done. I've never been a big fan of the typical music video, but with these there's so much going on visually they're really fun to watch.

[canuck]

Yep, Grand Rapids has managed to attract a lot of attention and deserves kudos for the great job at making downtown a focus for the greater GR. It is a great looking town; not just clean, but has the right mix of older and newer well-designed buildings. The bridges and parkland are very attractive.
It reminds me of a smaller Pittsburgh although flatter. Who wouldathunk Pittsburgh in the fifties would emerge from its smoggy ugly duckling self into the pretty snazzy town it is today. All eyes were on it at the G8 meeting held there, and canadian media were impressed as well as other foreign media also. Detroit busines leaders need to outGilbert themselves in order to help Detroit resurface and more... There is too much wealth in metro D to make excuses... It's down to business...

[Red Devil]

You can never underestimate Carnegie Mellon in its impact on Pittsburgh's ability to diversify its economy and prevent it from becoming another rust belt disaster. It would be nice if some of the Michigan-bred nouveau elites [[the Ballmers, Bill Joys, Larry Pages, Levkofskys, and McNealys of the world) could chip in and build a truly world class technology research institute in Detroit, something which the midwest does not currently have.

[stinkytofu]

Wow - that was great!

[Dan]

Cool video....

""Its culture is growing so rapidly that I think that's what just surprised people. I think Flint was nine or something like that. So to think that we're like just a step away from Flint I think was just ridiculous."

I wish people would learn to stop throwing each other under the bus.

I'm not from Flint, but this kid could have made the same point without bad mouthing another Michigan city.