"Grand Rapids Can Be Anything it Wants to Be"

[joeDowntown]

I like this idea. I love street performers and definitely think they enhance the city. Even when they are bad, it still sounds pretty good!

Joe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's my idea. Holland has been doing this for several years on summer Thursday evenings, and last year they added a Wednesday lunchtime series. It's amazing to see the huge crowds it draws.

Street Performer series.

Difficulty to get done: Easy.

There is no city license for street performing [edit: here in GR], just a few minor restrictions about making noise and not plugging into street lamps. Holland's artists run the gamut from professional mime-clowns and fire-eaters to a couple of high school orchestra kids with an Andrew Lloyd Webber book. Would need to schedule the performers into day slots and locations.

Benefit: Bring folks DT into a setting that's very different from BotM. I'd run this the length of Monroe Center.

Cost: very low. Performers work for tips. Per the Press article below, "Promotion and costs for the weekly event are about $10,000 a summer" which seems steep unless they are buying billboards or air time.

People Needed: at least one

[joeDowntown]

GRDad was right, there is a Startup Weekend planned for the 26-28th of February. Get your startup thinking cap on: http://wmi.startupweekend.org/

Joe

[Veloise]

A couple of our neighbors are having ice festivals.

Rockford, Saturday Jan 9, first annual

http://www.rockfordmichamber.com/website/ice%20festival.pdf

Holland, Fri & Sat Jan 8-9, second annual

http://holland.org/events/9828-ice-sculpting-competition

The one in Plymouth (western Wayne county, the 313) goes three days, and is in its umpteenth year. I recall going to it in the 90s. "An estimated 100,000 people are slated to attend the three-day event."

[concretepoem]

Why just college graduates?

That's the fallacious foundation on which GR's desire to become "cool" rests. Suggested/implied/assumed limitations on who is eligible for retention are why such a desire is doomed from the start. True cool cities invite all; not just the ones that dubiously add to the 'bottom line' of inane demographics.

[Veloise]

True, you need a broader appeal than just being 'cool' to the college-educated crowd.' But there are a number of 'college' towns, like Ann Arbor, Austin, Portland and Palo Alto/San Jose, that have been transformed by the population of young people they've attracted to their universities and retained afterwards. Each of those cities was lucky enough to retain one of those rare individuals that's willing to risk spending the next five or ten years of their life on some a crazy idea, like a new pizza concept (Dominos, Ann Arbor, )...

[GRguy]

A city worth looking into might be Asheville, NC. It has a great downtown with restaurants in renovated buildings and a vibrant art and gallery scene. I have taken an art trip and visited studios of artists all around the city and in the outlying areas. The creative class show up and tourists and other urban benefits follow. It is an extremely attractive place to live while not having a major industrial base.

Artist pioneers pave the way for better, more interesting places for everyone to live. It happened in Soho in the 70s and 80's. It continues wherever galleries and inexpensive places to live/produce art, exist. In the larger scheme of things, GR is a very cost effective place to live, you get a lot for the money. My suggestion is keep pushing the arts, advertise in national publications, get artists to give GR a second look. It sounds like it might be starting in Detroit. I have seen several articles in the last year about a vibrant art community where artists are moving in, forming collectives, having gallery shows, etc. Could Detroit be the cool place to live in 20 years?

I hope UICA and Avenue of the Arts can take root enough to help move the community in that direction.

[joeDowntown]

This is a great audio clip from NPR's Dustin Dwyer. A chat with Locus Development. Lot's of exciting little details and interesting information on development downtown (what, how and why things happen).

NPR - West Side Stories

Great stuff John Green and Dustin. Very insightful.

Joe

[andrew.w]

Also interesting that people (on here and local developers as well) seem bent on creating a cozy environment for a out of state company (Trade Joe's, Whole Foods) but don't seem too interested in opening up those types of businesses themselves. Kind of lazy economic development in my eyes. "Eh, let somebody else do it."

[joeDowntown]

I think that is a pretty Utopian view temporary.name. The reason Whole Foods or Trader Joe's are the dominant players in their market niche, is because they are *GOOD* at it. To say a person or company who is good at development should just open a store like Whole Foods (they see the need, why don't they do it?) is a lot like saying I should do my own dental work because I know my tooth hurts.

Your point doesn't make sense in the real world.

Also, I find it admirable (and actually, good business) to try to not cannibalize your own tenants. And, in fact, larger companies (whether your talking retail or finance) will write some sort of non-compete into their contract. I've seen it personally with office space in a 60 story high-rise in Manhattan where we were in the same "sector", and the building had to ask for permission from tenant A before we could move in.

Joe

Also interesting that people (on here and local developers as well) seem bent on creating a cozy environment for a out of state company (Trade Joe's, Whole Foods) but don't seem too interested in opening up those types of businesses themselves. Kind of lazy economic development in my eyes. "Eh, let somebody else do it."

[AlexPKeaton]

Screw Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, I want Jungle Jim's!

[grandrollerz]

The reason Whole Foods or Trader Joe's are the dominant players in their market niche, is because they are *GOOD* at it. To say a person or company who is good at development should just open a store like Whole Foods (they see the need, why don't they do it?) is a lot like saying I should do my own dental work because I know my tooth hurts.

[gunder14]

I watched a news story broadcast by Russia-Today on youtube. My nickname for the news station is Propaganda-Today. But in this video, they ask people who experienced the collapse of Soviet Union what they would recommend for Americans to do to get ready for a complete economic collapse. I believe the first suggestion was to get to know your neighbors. I was taken back by this suggestion because it wasn't something I expect. I don't think many people in America feel obligated to try to get to know their neighbors. If Grand Rapids wants to become a city where people feel welcomed and want to stay, you can't help but take the advice of the Russians this time. The last time I ate dinning with a neighbor was never. It's so funny how we live so close to people now adays, but we live further apart mentally than people 100 years ago in the rural country. And believe me, people would freely and openly brag about Grand Rapids if they had quality neighbors to brag about. Grand Rapids is really only what it's citizens repeatable do everyday.