What are Grand Rapids' best assets?

[GVSUChris]

2 minutes ago, RegalTDP said:

TRUTH. I experience the reverse when I visit Michigan from California.  CA has vegetation, but it's still a desert.  Coming from the brown hills of CA, the lush green of Michigan is overwhelming.

This is so funny! We have siblings and friends out in CA and AZ and when they come to visit they're always like "gross, why is everything so green?" It is shocking to us because the lushness of West Michigan is one of the things we've come to love about living here. 

[GRLaker]

41 minutes ago, GVSUChris said:

This is so funny! We have siblings and friends out in CA and AZ and when they come to visit they're always like "gross, why is everything so green?" It is shocking to us because the lushness of West Michigan is one of the things we've come to love about living here. 

Well, I mean...It does give us oxygen, clean the air, provide needed shade on a hot day, look beautiful in the fall, etc. I don't see the appeal of a flat, brown, martian-like landscape over one that has trees.

[Pattmost20]

1 hour ago, GVSUChris said:

"gross, why is everything so green?"

Who.. Who are these people that hate greenery? Do they take issue with oxygen producing, life sustaining flora?

[walker]

Over a hundred years ago a branch of my family did the great migration in reverse, going from west to east, from Denver to Detroit.  A few years ago, while in Denver I went to find the tombstones of my ancestors in Riverside Cemetery, the oldest active cemetery in Denver.  Given that it sits along the South Platte River and riverside is in its name, I was expecting something green like our Riverside Park except with tombstones.  I was surprised that even though the river flows alongside it and the river has even been known to flood it, the cemetery was close to being a desert.  Out west all the river water is accounted for and the cemetery doesn’t have the water rights.

Photo of Riverside Cemetery Denver – borrowed off the interweb: 

 

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, walker said:

Over a hundred years ago a branch of my family did the great migration in reverse, going from west to east, from Denver to Detroit.  A few years ago, while in Denver I went to find the tombstones of my ancestors in Riverside Cemetery, the oldest active cemetery in Denver.  Given that it sits along the South Platte River and riverside is in its name, I was expecting something green like our Riverside Park except with tombstones.  I was surprised that even though the river flows alongside it and the river has even been known to flood it, the cemetery was close to being a desert.  Out west all the river water is accounted for and the cemetery doesn’t have the water rights.

Photo of Riverside Cemetery Denver – borrowed off the interweb: 

 

That's so pretty. No gross green trees or brush to obscure the mountain view. 

[Pattmost20]

2 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

That's so pretty. No gross green trees or brush to obscure the mountain view.

Mmmmmm... Breathe in that fresh morning dust.

[RegalTDP]

3 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

This is so funny! We have siblings and friends out in CA and AZ and when they come to visit they're always like "gross, why is everything so green?" It is shocking to us because the lushness of West Michigan is one of the things we've come to love about living here. 

I get it - I grew up in GR and it's a real shock to the senses when you step off the plane the first time.  No exaggeration.

Not to go further down this rabbit hole, but here's a couple more things you notice when you come back to Michigan from out West:

--CRITTERS GALORE!  So, so, so many small furry animals in MI.  And the birds are chirping like crazy.  So occasionally in LA I'll spot a hare or a coyote, but it's nothing like in MI, where you see animals everywhere, even in the suburbs.  There are plenty of bugs and lizards in CA, but they don't have personality.  And there are lots of birds out here, but they're not as musical.

--RURAL TOWNS & COUNTRY ROADS.  In Michigan, when you leave the city, you're in a rural area - farms & houses & small towns, etc. You cross lots of roads that connect to other roads. Out west, when you leave the city, you are completely separated from all civilization.  There are no other roads besides the one you're on.  It's an odd feeling.

---

To get back to the topic at hand, Denver vs GR is a tough comparison. But I also don't think cities *can* be rated objectively; there's always a personal factor for how one feels about them.  If @GRDadof3's friends loved Denver and miss it now that they're gone, there's really nothing we can argue about.  All we can do is be good neighbors and hope they grow to love GR just as much.

So all that being said, here's what I love about GR.  These are just a couple things I didn't notice until I left, and realized set it apart from its peers.  It's hard to explain, since neither of these are tangible or quantitative, but I'll try.  And they aren't "unique" to GR, but I think GR does do them especially well.

--CONNECTED NEIGHBORHOODS.  To me, what separates a big city from a small one  is that a small city feels like one big neighborhood, where a big city is a collection of them.  For a city of its size, GR has a lot of distinct neighborhoods, and they connect really well.  In a lot of cities, I've noticed the "downtown" area is cut off from the rest of town, surrounded by a ring of freeways, blight, and surface lots that separate it from the surrounding neighborhoods.  Now, that's not to say GR doesn't have its share of blight, surface lots, and inconveniently-placed freeways, but we've done a lot to mitigate them.  I don't take for granted that a person can walk from downtown to Reeds Lake and cross through a mix of neighborhoods on the way.  The Uptown corridor is great.  The Westside & Creston & Madison & Roosevelt Park are all getting better.

--PRESERVATION.  Everyone knows GR did a great job preserving its urban core, and there's a public spirit  of keeping the city's historic look fresh that's special to us and hard to explain to outsiders.  Even in GR's less desirable neighborhoods, I somehow get the sense that the streets are kept up better than in the poor neighborhoods in other cities... They're cleaner, still lined with trees, the sidewalks are new, etc.  I mean, @GRDadof3, if your friends really do have trouble distinguishing GR from the rest of the state, have them drive around Detroit for a while and tell me if they can't see the difference.

All right, now I'm getting all misty so I'll stop there. I hope that contributed something.

[ZAP!]

1 hour ago, RegalTDP said:

Everyone knows GR did a great job preserving its urban core

... Except north of Lyon, and most anywhere that's a current parking lot or structure, and any new buildings.

[RegalTDP]

21 minutes ago, ZAP! said:

... Except north of Lyon, and most anywhere that's a current parking lot or structure.

Didn't mean to say GR was perfect, just that the effort was there and the results have been better than most.  We're not the only city that tried urban renewal.

And by "urban core" I didn't mean exclusively downtown, but all the pre-WW2 neighborhoods in the city.

[Pattmost20]

1 hour ago, RegalTDP said:

To me, what separates a big city from a small one  is that a small city feels like one big neighborhood, where a big city is a collection of them.  For a city of its size, GR has a lot of distinct neighborhoods, and they connect really well.  In a lot of cities, I've noticed the "downtown" area is cut off from the rest of town, surrounded by a ring of freeways, blight, and surface lots that separate it from the surrounding neighborhoods. 

I've made this point to so many people visiting GR for the first time. Especially my friends from Indy, they always remark at how walk-able GR is and how many distinct neighborhoods we have.  

[GRDadof3]

6 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

I get it - I grew up in GR and it's a real shock to the senses when you step off the plane the first time.  No exaggeration.

Not to go further down this rabbit hole, but here's a couple more things you notice when you come back to Michigan from out West:

--CRITTERS GALORE!  So, so, so many small furry animals in MI.  And the birds are chirping like crazy.  So occasionally in LA I'll spot a hare or a coyote, but it's nothing like in MI, where you see animals everywhere, even in the suburbs.  There are plenty of bugs and lizards in CA, but they don't have personality.  And there are lots of birds out here, but they're not as musical.

--RURAL TOWNS & COUNTRY ROADS.  In Michigan, when you leave the city, you're in a rural area - farms & houses & small towns, etc. You cross lots of roads that connect to other roads. Out west, when you leave the city, you are completely separated from all civilization.  There are no other roads besides the one you're on.  It's an odd feeling.

---

To get back to the topic at hand, Denver vs GR is a tough comparison. But I also don't think cities *can* be rated objectively; there's always a personal factor for how one feels about them.  If @GRDadof3's friends loved Denver and miss it now that they're gone, there's really nothing we can argue about.  All we can do is be good neighbors and hope they grow to love GR just as much.

So all that being said, here's what I love about GR.  These are just a couple things I didn't notice until I left, and realized set it apart from its peers.  It's hard to explain, since neither of these are tangible or quantitative, but I'll try.  And they aren't "unique" to GR, but I think GR does do them especially well.

--CONNECTED NEIGHBORHOODS.  To me, what separates a big city from a small one  is that a small city feels like one big neighborhood, where a big city is a collection of them.  For a city of its size, GR has a lot of distinct neighborhoods, and they connect really well.  In a lot of cities, I've noticed the "downtown" area is cut off from the rest of town, surrounded by a ring of freeways, blight, and surface lots that separate it from the surrounding neighborhoods.  Now, that's not to say GR doesn't have its share of blight, surface lots, and inconveniently-placed freeways, but we've done a lot to mitigate them.  I don't take for granted that a person can walk from downtown to Reeds Lake and cross through a mix of neighborhoods on the way.  The Uptown corridor is great.  The Westside & Creston & Madison & Roosevelt Park are all getting better.

--PRESERVATION.  Everyone knows GR did a great job preserving its urban core, and there's a public spirit  of keeping the city's historic look fresh that's special to us and hard to explain to outsiders.  Even in GR's less desirable neighborhoods, I somehow get the sense that the streets are kept up better than in the poor neighborhoods in other cities... They're cleaner, still lined with trees, the sidewalks are new, etc.  I mean, @GRDadof3, if your friends really do have trouble distinguishing GR from the rest of the state, have them drive around Detroit for a while and tell me if they can't see the difference.

All right, now I'm getting all misty so I'll stop there. I hope that contributed something.

FYI they weren't friends they were people I met through work moving here.

About animals and suburbs: I read that there's an explosion of critters in the burbs because the eating is so good, ie perennials, flavorful hostas, etc.. This then draws hawks and other predators, and why bears, foxes and coyotes are spotted in GR burbs now.

Denver to me lacks soul though. Same with Vegas. Sooo many newcomers. We ended up in a high end mall at one point and it was 90% asian and middle eastern teens (mostly). The whole area where we stayed was like that, like Schaumburg in Chicago. There's a ton of aerospace and STEM jobs out there that it draws a way more international workforce. Not that there's anything wrong with that but those workers are very transient. 

That's what you get in fast-growing economies, particularly those that are very tech and R&D heavy. But do you get the soul of a city like Grand Rapids? Heck, even downtown Hudsonville feels like it has more soul than Denver felt, and that's not saying much. 

So critters, green trees and soul. Amen brothers and sisters.

[Guest]

Denver does lack a little bit of character and a collective culture.  When I lived in the mountains in CO, we usually only drove to Denver for a game or concert.  The downtown feels kind of suburban, even places like DT Detroit have a more urban feel.  Colorado is an interesting state... you have the hardcore conservative farmers E. of metro Denver (who have actually tried to  succeed), the hippies, the ski bums, the front rangers, and the more conservative Western Slope.  People are a lot more active and more in shape because there is a lot more recreational things to do and that's why people move there.  It has everything.... grasslands, mountains, desert, etc.  I actually prefer the weather there (no humidity, cool nights).  The lack of swimmable water kind of sucks, the streams and rivers don't get much above freezing, but there's always plenty of hot springs.

[arcturus]

Lots of Metallica fans.  Already sold out next year. 

https://www.metallica.com/tour

[GRDadof3]

So after a week of thinking about this, I think the answer to the question is: accessibility and connectivity. 

Pretty much every amenity that you can think of that Grand Rapids has can be found in many, many other areas. Hip neighborhoods = many cities have them. Recreational amenities = many cities have them. Revitalized downtown = many cities have them. The key is that they are "accessible" in that all of those things are easy to get to, get around, and get back home. It helps that our summer nights are some of the longest in the country due to our location in the EST zone. (I would add to this that our sunsets in West Michigan Northwest Michigan are some of the best in the country. I was at Oval Beach the other day and a bunch of Californians were there just astounded at the beauty of the sunset and the clouds that added so much color to the sunset (!!).)  Again accessibility, anyone in the GR metro area can leave work, pack up the kids/dogs/loved ones and all the stuff, and be on a beach in 30 minutes. Or on a mountain biking trail. Or on a golf course. Or at a drive-in movie.

Connectivity. 2 degrees of separation in West Michigan gives you the ability to get involved quickly in Grand Rapids. If you are passionate about anything GR related there are places to get involved and pretty much everyone is welcome. In my experience/ESHO.