People talking about Grand Rapids

[Gorath]

I don't think there is anything wrong with being "conservative" and/or "churchy". Are you trying to imply that it's a bad thing?

[OneSweetWorld]

I don't think there is anything wrong with being "conservative" and/or "churchy". Are you trying to imply that it's a bad thing?

It's a stereotype that has long been a part of West Michigan's culture, but it's also one that has driven many people away. As a college student, I can think of so many high school classmates of mine that chose to move out of West Michigan because they were frustrated with the seemingly overwhelming amount of theoconservatism in the area. I think it's really hurt the area, even though I consider myself a occasional church-going person.

I don't think the writer of this article even came to Grand Rapids. Most neighborhoods in the city of Grand Rapids I would consider quite progressive. It's the suburbs (like any other metro area) that are conservative. She doesn't know where Cherry Street is, even though she went there, and she called the Southeast side "gritty" even though the area she was in apparently has cul-de-sacs and "forest with turkey and deer".

At the end of the day, an article named "Grand Rapids is ahead of the game" on the front page of a nationally-read newspaper can only be good. Thank you, Freep.

[highwayguy]

Note the article placement, too.

http://media.freep.com/documents/freep10192008/index.htm

Wow, above the fold! Nice!

I don't think there is anything wrong with being "conservative" and/or "churchy". Are you trying to imply that it's a bad thing?

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with either. I go to church most Sundays myself. It's just this idea from those that don't live here that everyone in Grand Rapids is conservative and "churchy", and if someone doesn't fit that category that they somehow won't fit in here or will be looked down upon, that really bothers me. I don't think any of those things are actually true about the Grand Rapids area, in fact I think we actually live in a rather diverse and accepting community that is, for the most part, welcoming of all. I'm happy that this article highlights lots of positive things that are going on in Grand Rapids, and that it's even on the front page, I just think they could have left political views out of it and focused on the projects themselves.

[gymguy2k]

Wow, above the fold! Nice!

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with either. I go to church most Sundays myself. It's just this idea from those that don't live here that everyone in Grand Rapids is conservative and "churchy", and if someone doesn't fit that category that they somehow won't fit in here or will be looked down upon, that really bothers me. I don't think any of those things are actually true about the Grand Rapids area, in fact I think we actually live in a rather diverse and accepting community that is, for the most part, welcoming of all. I'm happy that this article highlights lots of positive things that are going on in Grand Rapids, and that it's even on the front page, I just think they could have left political views out of it and focused on the projects themselves.

v

There's no better example of this than in today's Public Pulse in the GR Press. There is a letter titled "In God We Trust" by a Jane Scholtens. Can anyone tell me if the Press is obligated to print every single letter they receive? If not, then what possible purpose would printing her letter in the largest paper in west Michigan have? Could the GR Press have a hand in perpetuating this perception of our area? When I read the Public Pulse I often wonder how many business executives visiting town read our paper and shake their heads.

[OneSweetWorld]

v

There's no better example of this than in today's Public Pulse in the GR Press. There is a letter titled "In God We Trust" by a Jane Scholtens. Can anyone tell me if the Press is obligated to print every single letter they receive? If not, then what possible purpose would printing her letter in the largest paper in west Michigan have? Could the GR Press have a hand in perpetuating this perception of our area? When I read the Public Pulse I often wonder how many business executives visiting town read our paper and shake their heads.

No, they aren't. I don't even read the Public Pulse anymore. It's the GR Press' equivalent to Fox News.

Edited October 19, 2008 by the_grand_raggidy

[aowwt]

Okay I am currently reading this article and plan on commenting on what is being said. For me this article screams that neoconservative areas like grand rapids is normally set can also be very eco friendly. Its more of the line of even though this area is traditionally an extreme conservative area it is also a progressive area in that we do more for each other than most would think. As for the cherry st goof, well maybe they were thinking 28th st was our downtown hehe.

[Veloise]

...I don't think the writer of this article even came to Grand Rapids. Most neighborhoods in the city of Grand Rapids I would consider quite progressive. It's the suburbs (like any other metro area) that are conservative. She doesn't know where Cherry Street is, even though she went there, and she called the Southeast side "gritty" even though the area she was in apparently has cul-de-sacs and "forest with turkey and deer".

At the end of the day, an article named "Grand Rapids is ahead of the game" on the front page of a nationally-read newspaper can only be good. Thank you, Freep.

Reading the hard copy (it appears on my doorstep on Sundays), it looks like this article was in the works for several months. A Freep photog caught George wearing a green necktie, and the caption indicates April.

Can't imagine what sort of Detroit-area front-page news might have delayed publication until now.

[Veloise]

In my mailbox:

I work with the public relations firm for Travel Michigan (www.michigan.org) and we produce "Thumbs Up!", a monthly tip sheet that is e-mailed to the media. It offers story ideas and tips, and I would like to include a mention of your TUBACHRISTMAS concert in the November issue.

Rob Bliss ain't got nuthin' on moi!

[GR8scott]

I though this thread was suposed to be about "National/International Exposure" not local and regional.

About the Pistons game....come on... its great that they play here annually, but those games are way over priced....I could see MAYBE $10 as a reasonable price but they shold almost be free to help build the W MI fan base...its exibition....they don't count....they don't try their best, and there is no way that this would be some national expoture outside of the Detroit and San Antonio markets that may be following their team.

About the sports town....iits pretty good. sure there could be more attendance but that comes with fair prices and winning as well as doing promotional things to keep people interested. I mean how many people actually follow the IHL enough to want to buy season tickets every year...not too many.

The best bet for any sort of natioal exposure on the sports level is having the white caps be AAA and renamed GR. An NBADL team would help a little because tey would move a lot of players through to he NBA and they don't generally draw large crowds. And have a D1 college program. GVSU is not known very well outside of MI and maybe Il.

It would be great to see the rampage come back...arena league is slowly gaining natioal exposure and GR was lucky enough to land a team in the top division playing teams in all bigger markets. IT would be nice to see the team start to be acontender instead of weak crowds showing up to the smallest arena in the league..maybe that means more natioally televised games...highlights on espn ect.

[fotoman311]

I though this thread was suposed to be about "National/International Exposure" not local and regional.

Here is some for you:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_ele...008/7692731.stm

The Grand Rapids Press was mentioned as endorsing John McCain at the end of this article about the Anchorage Daily News endorsing Obama. Not great, but it's something.

Edited October 29, 2008 by fotoman311

[MJLO]

Haha not really sure if it's news worthy, since it's more of a print error than exposure. Didn't know where to put it.

CNN has a story about Fifth Third taking over a bank in Florida. They mention Fifth Third as a Grand Rapids Michigan based bank. Am I missing something? Has Fifth Third secretly moved from Their big huge box building in Cinci, to full time ops in GR? Do the GR operations handle aquisitions? I think more than anything, someone in New York was writing a story and did a quick google check on some obscure midwestern bank, and saw GR somewhere in there, just went with it.

[fotoman311]

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/10/up...-less-hope.html

The "giant red recumbent man-eating sperm in Grand Rapids" that was in the zombie walk got a mention (and a photo) in one of the most popular bicycling blogs, Bike Snob NYC. This is not a major media outlet, but each of his entries gets a few thousand or more pageviews and almost always gets 200-300+ comments.

[GRDadof3]

Governor Granholm is front and center right behind Obama in his press conference right now:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6046305

He spent a lot of time talking about the problems the U.S. auto industry is facing, and specifically mentioned Granholm.

[Veloise]

I though this thread was suposed to be about ...

Grand Rapids.

Seriously, thanks, good to see some friendly faces on the toob.

ETA: Seven grey suits, five white men, and the gal who hugged me on 7/4/06.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Veloise

[GR8scott]

Not significant but I picked up a USA today in Boston and read this in the sports section

its a good read on the Muskegon football program and also features Lowell. It mentions that the Grand Rapids area have recently dominated football state championships winning 17/42 since '02

[dragt]

was catching up on some auto industry train wreck news and saw this piece from CNBC live from GR:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/pop...php?cl=10747099

Not exactly thrilled to be at the center of this one...

[GR Jackson]

was catching up on some auto industry train wreck news and saw this piece from CNBC live from GR:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/pop...php?cl=10747099

Not exactly thrilled to be at the center of this one...

Could someone explain to me the difference between AIG and GM?

[GRDadof3]

Could someone explain to me the difference between AIG and GM?

Sure, it's simple. AIG is a fine upstanding financial institution that used sound business principles and bought up $Billions in toxic mortgage securities, and now gets $180 Billion for it:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081110/ap_on_...zK7jbXvbkCWwvIE

They're like Enron of the financial/insurance world, and now you have part ownership of AIG as an American taxpayer.

GM, you get nothing because you sold too many SUV's and got us into this financial mess.

[Libertarian]

Sure, it's simple. AIG is a fine upstanding financial institution that used sound business principles and bought up $Billions in toxic mortgage securities, and now gets $180 Billion for it:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081110/ap_on_...zK7jbXvbkCWwvIE

They're like Enron of the financial/insurance world, and now you have part ownership of AIG as an American taxpayer.

GM, you get nothing because you sold too many SUV's and got us into this financial mess.

Nice try at hyperbole Dad. If AIG is the Enron of the financial world then GM is the Enron of the Auto world... which in both cases is false. AIG did not do anything illegal that we know of. Buying and sell derivatives was never illegal, and as a matter of fact, was essentially endorsed by Greenspan.

Obviously if GM were to fail it would be a pretty bleak scenario, but nothing compared to if AIG failed. GM makes cars. Americans can do without cars (or should I say gigantic gas-guzzling SUVs). The Japanese and Koreans would take up the slack in a heartbeat. If AIG were to fail the whole medical, auto, commercial, catastrophic, and life insurance model in the US would be called into question. Not to mention millions of people losing their entire retirement savings that are held by AIG. No one would be there to take up the slack except for the US government, if that is even possible. Essentially, the loss of AIG would be way more devastating than the loss of GM.

[GR Jackson]

Nice try at hyperbole Dad. If AIG is the Enron of the financial world then GM is the Enron of the Auto world... which in both cases is false. AIG did not do anything illegal that we know of. Buying and sell derivatives was never illegal, and as a matter of fact, was essentially endorsed by Greenspan.

Obviously if GM were to fail it would be a pretty bleak scenario, but nothing compared to if AIG failed. GM makes cars. Americans can do without cars (or should I say gigantic gas-guzzling SUVs). The Japanese and Koreans would take up the slack in a heartbeat. If AIG were to fail the whole medical, auto, commercial, catastrophic, and life insurance model in the US would be called into question. Not to mention millions of people losing their entire retirement savings that are held by AIG. No one would be there to take up the slack except for the US government, if that is even possible. Essentially, the loss of AIG would be way more devastating than the loss of GM.

I've heard that if the big three go under it could mean millions of lost jobs. Not to mention people's pensions, if there is anything left. I guessing that politicians just don't have their personal investments in the auto industry.

[jas49503]

I've heard that if the big three go under it could mean millions of lost jobs. Not to mention people's pensions, if there is anything left. I guessing that politicians just don't have their personal investments in the auto industry.

2.5 % of the population directly or indirectly rely on the auto industry for thier livelihoods. it would be quite a blow to lose that.

[Prankster]

Nice try at hyperbole Dad. If AIG is the Enron of the financial world then GM is the Enron of the Auto world... which in both cases is false. AIG did not do anything illegal that we know of. Buying and sell derivatives was never illegal, and as a matter of fact, was essentially endorsed by Greenspan.

Obviously if GM were to fail it would be a pretty bleak scenario, but nothing compared to if AIG failed. GM makes cars. Americans can do without cars (or should I say gigantic gas-guzzling SUVs). The Japanese and Koreans would take up the slack in a heartbeat. If AIG were to fail the whole medical, auto, commercial, catastrophic, and life insurance model in the US would be called into question. Not to mention millions of people losing their entire retirement savings that are held by AIG. No one would be there to take up the slack except for the US government, if that is even possible. Essentially, the loss of AIG would be way more devastating than the loss of GM.

The economy cannot rely on the financial and insurance sector jobs to keep it afloat. If manufacturing goes, say hello to another depression.

[GRDadof3]

Nice try at hyperbole Dad. If AIG is the Enron of the financial world then GM is the Enron of the Auto world... which in both cases is false. AIG did not do anything illegal that we know of. Buying and sell derivatives was never illegal, and as a matter of fact, was essentially endorsed by Greenspan.

Obviously if GM were to fail it would be a pretty bleak scenario, but nothing compared to if AIG failed. GM makes cars. Americans can do without cars (or should I say gigantic gas-guzzling SUVs). The Japanese and Koreans would take up the slack in a heartbeat. If AIG were to fail the whole medical, auto, commercial, catastrophic, and life insurance model in the US would be called into question. Not to mention millions of people losing their entire retirement savings that are held by AIG. No one would be there to take up the slack except for the US government, if that is even possible. Essentially, the loss of AIG would be way more devastating than the loss of GM.

No way. The Japanese and Korean plants could not take up the slack. The Detroit 3 still sell a little more than 1/2 of the 15 Million or so cars built every year in the U.S.. The foreign automakers don't have the capacity to take up that kind of slack, nor do their suppliers. And how? A lot of those sales are trucks. Who would build them? It takes at least 5 - 6 years to bring a truck or car from concept to the showroom floor. It takes just as long to site select and build a new assembly plant. We'd suddenly be looking at waiting lists for cars, any car, in the U.S.. Prices on foreign cars would skyrocket.

Let's not also forget that Americans had, and many still have, a big appetite for big SUV's. SUV's in and of themselves are not illegal nor are they unethical to drive (to most people). Many business owners rely on trucks and SUV's.

As far as AIG and Enron, don't count AIG out of the scoundrel club yet:

http://www.advancedtrading.com/blog/archiv...bailout_sp.html

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articl...08_FORTUNE5.htm

So far, GM has only been guilty of giving too much to its line workers and fighting CAFE standards. Not quite Enron-esque.

[Libertarian]

No way. The Japanese and Korean plants could not take up the slack. The Detroit 3 still sell a little more than 1/2 of the 15 Million or so cars built every year in the U.S.. The foreign automakers don't have the capacity to take up that kind of slack, nor do their suppliers. And how? A lot of those sales are trucks. Who would build them? It takes at least 5 - 6 years to bring a truck or car from concept to the showroom floor. It takes just as long to site select and build a new assembly plant. We'd suddenly be looking at waiting lists for cars, any car, in the U.S.. Prices on foreign cars would skyrocket.

Let's not also forget that Americans had, and many still have, a big appetite for big SUV's. SUV's in and of themselves are not illegal nor are they unethical to drive (to most people). Many business owners rely on trucks and SUV's.

As far as AIG and Enron, don't count AIG out of the scoundrel club yet:

http://www.advancedtrading.com/blog/archiv...bailout_sp.html

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articl...08_FORTUNE5.htm

So far, GM has only been guilty of giving too much to its line workers and fighting CAFE standards. Not quite Enron-esque.

Dad, you should probably read your links before you post them. Again, there is no comparison between Enron's financial dealings and how much executives are getting paid at AIG. While paying executives large amounts for little performance is disgusting, it is not illegal.

As far as prices “skyrocketing” on foreign cars, there is more than enough excess capacity. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business...amp;oref=slogin

By the way, who said anything about filling demand with some new concept car? Currently there is a panoply of vehicle offerings out there. Do we really need all these different car companies. What is the difference between an Escalade and a Yukon anyways?

You are trying to compare whether Dale from Greenville can get a brand new F150 versus the entire financial system of the Western world tumbling down. It really is apples to oranges. You at least need some limited knowledge of finance before you make some of these claims. Watching Wood TV at 11 every night probably wont do that for you.

Let the auto industry rot and bailout the workers who didn’t have all that much to do with their companies downfall.

[Khorasaurus]

Let the auto industry rot and bailout the workers who didn