RegalTDP

I was thinking the same… If I had contributed money for this, I’d want it back.

As a counterpoint, here's a list of 20 restaurants that opened in GR & Muskegon this year from MLive: https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/12/20-restaurants-in-the-grand-rapids-and-muskegon-areas-that-opened-in-2022.html LOL, #20 is Muskegon's first Chipotle It's a good thing for chains to be expanding there though.

How can you be suspicious with a byline like "user"? You don't trust user's reporting? This whole article is literally copy & pasted from MLive. I don't know how you came across this site, but it seems to just be a blog that reposts news from other organizations.

Commune is the home goods store that's at the corner of Lake & Robinson. Looks like they're moving to a new location. Here's a post they put up on Instagram about the move. Thanks for the pics, good update

I wonder how marshy it was back then? Does anyone remember? The flat landscape there now is artificial from the clay cap they made to seal it off. I think it was swampland before that, probably considered unusable for development. And people used to like dumping garbage in water, we assumed it washed away and no one would see it again. Unbuildable land + adjacent to river + downstream from settlement = perfect dumping site. Genius!

The sky's the limit when you've got an AAA ball team!

Speaking of unsexy education, GRCC is an asset to the region and will be a key component of this. It won’t bring in companies like a research university will but it will adapt when they come and train the workforce. We saw this with Medical Mile, their nursing and medical programs are first-rate. Not every city invests in their community colleges but GR is lucky that it does.

They have to change that name. Rapid City? Like, as in the town in South Dakota? Why would you put a different city’s name in your team name? Why wouldn’t you name it after Grand Rapids? You’re supposed to represent YOUR city, don’t you get how this works? I’m deadly serious - that name is a hard fail. Why not call it “Big Rapids FC”? “Big” and “Grand” mean the same thing, right?

Here:

I saw the headline out here and thought “please don’t be west MI… please don’t be west MI… dammit.”

That was a napalm bomb.

Really neat to see the work they are doing to restore this old building! Here's a Google Street view of this site in 2020. From the pictures in the article, it would appear Last Mile is taking the stall on the left side of the white building. Here's Street view from February 2022, apparently after they started working on the building. Here are pics from the article that show the interior. Looks like they are opening up the boarded-up storefront and replacing it with windows. I bet it looks great when it's done.

All of Ottawa County is in Grand Rapids-Kentwood MSA. The CSA adds Muskegon and Allegan counties. So, your friend lived in the MSA if they were on the Ottawa side of Holland, and CSA if they were on the Allegan side.

Maybe they're trying to say "We want Royal Oak but without the D-bags"

I'm sorry to keep beating this horse but this is just not a true statement. You may have a different definition of "direct connection," but I would define it as a direct limited-access road from the expressway to the airport entrance without interaction with a surface street & local traffic - I mean, isn't that what you're pining for at GRR? Well, that does not exist at LAX. The "tunnel" you're talking about is CA-1/Sepulveda Blvd, which is a major surface road. It's over a 1/2 mile from the entrance to the airport, which is not my idea of a direct connection. Plus it's backed up with local traffic between 7:00am and 9:00pm, so unless you're going in outside those hours, you're better off using alternate exits. And if you're coming in from the north (like I have to) you're not even using the 105 anyway. The closest exit from the 405 puts you on La Cienaga Blvd, which is over a mile from the airport entrance.

LAX and San Diego don’t directly connect to freeways. Not that anyone should model their airport after the horror that is LAX I wouldn’t mind a direct connection to I-96, I just don’t think it’s worth the cost of tunneling over to it. It’s already pretty easy to get to GRR from the freeway.

It actually does rain sometimes in California, in Winter and Spring. Having lived in both SD and LA, I agree SD's climate is better. Less smoggy and the ocean breeze carries farther. Downtown SD > Downtown LA too. California water is cold b/c ocean currents circulate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, so Pacific currents hit the West Coast from the Arctic, whereas the Atlantic currents come up to the East Coast from the Tropics. But, I don't think the Pacific is any colder than Lake Michigan. I'm going to re-up my old postings in the "GR's Best Assets" thread to reiterate what it's like to come back to Michigan after living out west. I have to admit since posting this though, I find myself getting less and less tolerant of cold weather like I used to. I think it's an age thing.

My wife is from Mesa and visiting her family in June was a terrible experience weather-wise. Her family is great, but the heat was oppressive. Opening the door and stepping outside is like exposing yourself to sniper fire. You dash to the car, slam the door and crank the AC full blast. You relax while you drive to the mall. Then, once you park, it's a mad dash to get inside and into that sweet, sweet AC. I've really tried to like Phoenix. I believe every city is unique and has something to offer but I've really struggled with this town. There is no aesthetic beauty to the landscape whatsoever. It's just brown, rocky and dusty. It doesn't have the sweeping desert sands or dramatic vistas like you would imagine when you think of the Southwest. The desert there is more like a vacant lot that goes on forever. The downtown areas - even Scottsdale, which is supposed to be the swanky suburb - don't evoke much personality. And it's not like you can casually walk around downtown anyway - you're always dashing to get inside. Other parts of Arizona, like Flagstaff, Prescott and Sedona are much prettier. Here endeth the rant.

Some food for thought: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/10/us/census-undercounted-population.html Just my own gut opinion, but I believe the city of GR actually does have 200,000+ people.

You see that in LA as well. Giant complexes are going up along the wide boulevards that criss-cross the San Fernando Valley, over what used to be retail corridors. The buildings go right up to the street with parking underground. It makes sense, brick & mortar retail isn't as viable as it used to be outside of a few really thriving areas, and the city needs housing more. Kinda the same situation in suburban GR? Properties along 28th Street waste so much space on big surface lots, long driveways, and landscaping; you could fit a lot of new buildings along that corridor and still have enough green space to make it livable. 44th Street too in some places too.

Bumping this two-year-old thread to bring this article on how WFH trends will change work culture and what it means for downtowns: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/work-from-home-revolution/622880/ (FYI The Atlantic only gives you a few articles before there's a paywall) It's interesting these trends are happening when we're having some high-profile offices being built in Downtown GR (Spectrum, Perrigo, Acrisure). But I wonder what it means for the office buildings already up. And even when Spectrum/Perrigo etc. are completed, they may not have all their employees working downtown at once, and that may dampen the positive effects for downtown retail. I know we've talked about this on other threads at times. But that said, I've worked in LA for close to ten years now and can't really speak anymore to the work culture in GR. But here in LA, there are some companies are giving up their office space entirely and going fully remote. For me and many of the companies I work with, I'm definitely seeing hybrid emerge as the dominant model for a while. For us it feels like the five day work week is giving way to a 24/7 week with less emphasis on working within set hours. Anyone else have thoughts about GR?

I was really fascinated learning more about the Trust Building in your post on the other thread - I did not know it was one of the first steel-framed skyscrapers before. At the time it was built, it was the second tallest building in the state after the Hammond Building in Detroit. Since they tore down the Hammond Building in 1956, the Trust Building, as GR's oldest standing skyscraper, is actually older than Detroit's oldest standing skyscraper. Are you talking about the old A&P warehouse that they tore down to make way for GVSU's new building?

Are you talking about the ICCF plan or the Bethany expansion? For the ICCF project, I kinda like the facade, how it fronts Division, and that access to parking is in the rear from Sheldon. And even with the greenspace it still leaves room for more on that block. I'm not seeing what's so bad about it.

We brought that up on this thread here. Incredible to see neighbors opposing single family housing of comparable density in a single family housing neighborhood.