God Bless You Grand Rapids
I don’t like doing stories about lists. Lists are generated by publications like Newsweek, which are dying, and they try a cheap list like “top dying towns” to get people like me to write about their stupid lists and then prompt more people to read their dying publication.
That’s exactly what Newsweek did to Grand Rapids, Mi. Clearly they screwed with the wrong city. Watch this video. It’s incredible. And it shows a town that IS NOT DYING. It’s not dead. It’s not close to being dead. It’s very much alive. And if I ever make it to Michigan, I’ll visit Grand Rapids just to see this wonderful city for myself.
I’ve always loved this song since I was a little kid… (yes, I’m old enough to remember when it first became a hit)
And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
And they were singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
There’s nothing like a bad ranking to get a city good and pissed off! We’re proof that can lead to great things! YEAH Grand Rapids!
Makes me proud. A few of my undergrad classmates are in this video. GR, and most of West Michigan, aren’t dead. Love my hometown roots. I have much to say about the area, but that’s for another day…
When it comes to community pride, this video is proof positive of what should forever be called the Grand Rapids standard.
Incredible.
Wow. Thanks for posting Steve. It really is a remarkable community effort. Flipping a negative into a positive…that is something OKC can relate to (i.e. United Airlines).
Wow Wow Wow….You can really see the Organic growth of that city’s downtown. Something I wish OKC had paid more attention to.
so steve what would you call cities that are losing young people at a very fast rate and are getting smaller in total population? growing? cities that are losing jobs? and have high unemployment? thriving?
i’m sure that detroit, cleavand and the rest of the “rust belt” have lots of areas with civic pride but the reality is that these cities are “dying” they are not growing.
A.J., dying is more than just numbers. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a rose bush or a beloved plant is to trim it back, give a chance for some great new flowering to take place. Dying and stagnant are two different things. I see a Michigan that may have been stagnant in recent years but is fighting back.
To be honest though, my perception is through a reading of stories, viewing of videos that go beyond the “Robocop” portrayals. I’ve got a couple of good readers on this blog from Michigan, and I’m counting on them to go deeper in details on this.
Grand Rapids itself has lost population in the last 10 years, that is a factual statement (down almost 5%, around 10,000 person loss). However, that hardly depicts the whole story.
Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located, gained 28,000 people from 2000 to 2010, and Ottawa County, just west of Grand Rapids, gained 25,000 people. Yes, Michigan has suffered a massive loss in population, but it’s not all negative.
People love the west side. There’s life; there’s heart; there’s love.
I don’t have hard economic numbers on-hand, but I’m fairly certain that Grand Rapids has itself had nearly $2 billion in investment in its downtown in the last 10 years, nearly all private. Rundown neighborhoods just outside the urban core are exploding with new business and residents. I hardly recognize some areas since I left there in 2003.
Mike, sad to say, had the cameras gone north instead of south and then west, you’d see the area where Urban Renewal reared its ugly head back in the day; a beautiful City Hall torn down for a Modern tower, amongst other things. That said, GR does have a high regard for its history. One of the best rehabbed Frank Lloyd Wright homes is in Grand Rapids, Meyer May.
I could go on about the strengths of Grand Rapids. However, I’ll suggest people just search for these three things to get a start on learning more about Grand Rapids: ArtPrize, Frederick Meijer Gardens, and the Gerald R Ford Museum.
I just watched this video again. I’m awestruck by its brilliant defiance of the naysayers. I really do want to visit Grand Rapids someday. I love what I’m seeing in terms of urban design, public spaces and connectivity. I love the diversity, I love the creativity and passion that, quite frankly, can’t be “faked.” It’s an emotional response, for sure, one born in my love for not just vibrant downtowns but also for small town Main Streets.
It also makes me wish that OKC could have a “song” that could bring us together like this – a song we all know, a song we all love … is this crazy?
My pick? Gotta be “Sweet Caroline”
I’m sure that detroit, cleavand and the rest of the “rust belt” have lots of areas with civic pride but the reality is that these cities are “dying” they are not growing.
Wow, literally teared me up, that was amazing.