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GR Inner City Job Losses


GRGridGirl

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In some recent community input sessions I was facilitating for the West Michigan Strategic Alliance in urban GR, the major concern of residents was local employment and public education. Although many people like the small business development in our emerging districts, it usually is creating 1-3 jobs for people. Many times these people are friends and family. I think the central city is hit harder by manufacturing job loss. In general, the stats show that people have less educational attainment and work in less service jobs in the city. Education, especially post-secondary ed, could be considered a financial asset. Here's some Census 2000 stats using a couple "inner-city" neighborhoods for comparison.

People with No Highschool Diploma:

Kent County = 15%

Grand Rapids = 22%

Belknap Lookout Neighborhood = 28.9%

Baxter Neighborhood = 36%

People with a Post-Secondary Degree:

Kent County 25.7%

Grand Rapids = 22.7%

Belknap Lookout = 16.2%

Baxter = 5.9%

From a youth perspective. When I used to work in youth employment in urban GR, this was always a problem. It was very difficult to find internship/apprentice entry level jobs for youth that they could get to. Most kids were unable to find jobs that could build up their resume, so then when they turned 18 and went for other jobs, they had no work history. They were competing for these jobs with suburban kids that already had 3-5 jobs on their list. If you think about entry level work (grocery, fast food, cleaning, etc.) the majority of these jobs are outside the city.

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So I guess the real question here is what can be done to bring traditionally suburban businesses back to the downtown area? Of course safety is a concern especially with the string of robberies as of late. Location is also a huge factor. You'd have to be able to find locations which are both convenient and could produce viable profit. Money is obviously not the only problem, the government is been throwing a lot of it at this problem and it has not solved it. Perhaps a re-evaluation of policy and plan of attack is in order.

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So I guess the real question here is what can be done to bring traditionally suburban businesses back to the downtown area? Of course safety is a concern especially with the string of robberies as of late. Location is also a huge factor. You'd have to be able to find locations which are both convenient and could produce viable profit. Money is obviously not the only problem, the government is been throwing a lot of it at this problem and it has not solved it. Perhaps a re-evaluation of policy and plan of attack is in order.

In regards to the robberies, they have been mainly happening in the suburban communities. This goes to prove that the suburbs are no safer than a lot of the inner city neighborhoods.

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