Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » Rapid Growth « Previous Next »
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Detx
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Username: Detx

Post Number: 56
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 11:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not sure how many of you are aware of this e-zine, as I just discovered it myself, but Rapid Growth is Grand Rapid’s and Western Michigan’s version of Model D and Metro Mode.

There are quite a few large-scale projects happening on our West Coast. Sadly, I’ve never even been to that area of the state…

And yes, I know this isn’t a Detroit topic, but if we can discuss museums being built in East Lansing in the Detroit section, then this should be ok.

http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.co m
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Mind_field
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Username: Mind_field

Post Number: 854
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 11:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

meh, grand rapids feels small. It has a nice downtown area that is pretty vibrant, but to me it just didn't have any urban "spark".
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Detx
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Username: Detx

Post Number: 57
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 11:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What do you mean by "urban spark?
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 783
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 12:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Urban spark huh? Well urban isnt just built area but how you manage it. GR are is much smaller in population and size but they are working towards building Michigan's largest transit system.
http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.co m/developmentnews/BRT0117.aspx
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 1679
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 12:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Love Holland! Long live the Dutch!
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 1393
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Grand Rapids is already looking 50 (maybe even 25) years into the future as the new hot spot in Michigan (economically that is) if they're building a decent transit system with the snap of a finger.
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Mind_field
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Username: Mind_field

Post Number: 855
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 7:56 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm aware of Grand Rapids transit plans, developments like the River House condo tower, and the new hotel. I guess i just expected a larger (looking and feeling) city for an area with a metro of a million people. I always compare it to Indianapolis, which has a 1.7 million metro. Maybe it's apples to oranges, but Indianapolis feels many times larger and more urban than Grand Rapids does. GR feels more like a slightly larger Ann Arbor, or even a larger Pontiac to me. Although i haven't been there in about 3 years, so a lot can change in that amount of time.

I really like what Grand Rapids is doing with sustainability, trying to be a greener city. It and Ann Arbor seem like the state leaders by far in this area.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 6990
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 8:00 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not bad for a city of 197,000 folks.
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Artistic
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Username: Artistic

Post Number: 84
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 8:25 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm originally from Detroit...love it best, I now live along the lakeshore south of Holland. There is quite a few projects going on over here that I think are exciting and interesting. Grand Rapids continues to move forward with bold architecual design in its downtown buildings. It is smaller and gets less coverage than Detroit and I also feel that the local media here has an issue with Detroit. They cover negative issues only and never any large scale announcements that would put Detroit in the spot light.
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Rfban
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Username: Rfban

Post Number: 248
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 9:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^Sounds about right. We are divided as a state, and a region. How do we ever expect to get anything done?
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Bob
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Username: Bob

Post Number: 1643
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 10:04 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Grand Rapids is a wonderful city that has taken some wonderful steps to help its future. Its downtown is very vibrant and seems to be thinking about taking smart steps to work towards the future. They also have some big names like DeVos and VanAndel who open their pocketbooks to help create this. They did everything right with the DeVos Place convention center, and it brings in quite a few small to medium sized conventions. I will be there next week at the Michigan Music Conference and love how the city is laid out. There are lots of places to eat and enjoy yourself downtown when not attending and event.
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 369
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 11:07 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"They also have some big names like DeVos and VanAndel who open their pocketbooks to help create this."

Enough to get their names on the major projects at least. That's a bone of contention for many taxpayers who contributed to those projects but don't get their name on the buildings.
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 1395
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 12:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't think that's much of a plus. We also have big names and wealthy families in SE Michigan such as the Karmanos Family, The Penske's, the Illitch's, the Patterson's, etc., etc.
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Detx
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Username: Detx

Post Number: 58
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitrise... Having civic boosters such as DeVos and VanAndel are HUGE pluses for that part of the state.

Perhaps I misunderstood your post...
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Rocket_city
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Username: Rocket_city

Post Number: 533
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Grand Rapids is very urban-minded and a very diverse, progressive, forward-thinking community. Yes, it's small, but it is compact, and like someone else said, it is very manageable and that's how they are able to impliment so many of their projects that fall in line with what is understood as the new economy, new cities, new innovations, creativity, knowledge, and so forth. In fact, Grand Rapids leads the country in terms of sustainability and green initiatives (for a city of its size).

For Michigan or Detroit to undermine GR would be a huge disservice to that region and our state. Who better to understand that than Detroiters?!
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 1398
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yeah, you did.

In other words, I meant SE Michigan also has huge pluses like Western Michigan. We just refuse to utilize them properly.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 6173
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitrise... who are the Patterson's?? They seemed to have slipped thru my philanthropic radar...
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 1399
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 2:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well either L.B. Patterson is a wealthy lawyer in Oakland County with a family to inherit his wealth or he's just a poor old lonely man filled with greed.
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Crew
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Username: Crew

Post Number: 1395
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 5:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Grand Rapids is very urban-minded and a very diverse, progressive, forward-thinking community"

I guess it depends on your definition of 'progressive' and 'forward-thinking'. Those are two adjectives I would never use to describe GR. No disrespect to GR residents but most are not progressive in my mind.
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Rocket_city
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Username: Rocket_city

Post Number: 534
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 6:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You're probably referring to the conservative "Bible Belt" that surrounds it...particularly Ottawa County. But the city itself, from my experiences and studies is everything I said it was (to me).
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 377
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 - 10:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Most of the GR area is very conservative. The city itself is not:

"However, despite Grand Rapids' reputation for conservatism, the city tends to elect Democrats. Both of its representatives in the Michigan State House of Representatives are Democrats, and in the past two presidential elections Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry won the majority of votes in the city of Grand Rapids. (The city itself hasn't elected a Republican candidate for President since George H W Bush in 1988.)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G rand_Rapids,_Michigan#Governme nt_and_politics

Even with the political differences between city voters and their suburban brethren, the area has been much more "progressive" than Metro Detroit when it comes to issues involving regional cooperation and coordination. The work done by their Metro Council and in areas of mass transit are head and shoulders above what little has been accomplished in SE Michigan.

That's one of the reasons that GR has been able to come through the current economic times better than SE Michigan. They are more diversified and less reliant on the auto industry than SE Michigan. But they are also working together and recognize the importance of their downtown and keeping GR strong versus the attitudes of many people in SE Michigan towards Detroit.
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Kgrimmwsu
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Username: Kgrimmwsu

Post Number: 104
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 12:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Spartan plans upscale D&W for downtown
by Shandra Martinez and Jim Harger | The Grand Rapids Press
http://www.mlive.com/news/inde x.ssf/2008/01/spartan_plans_up scale_dw_for_d.html
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Dbest
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Username: Dbest

Post Number: 69
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 - 11:47 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hey mind field you are out of your mind to sit and compare GR to Indy, Indy met is 1.9 million compared to 1.1 million for GR, not to mention Indy is the state capital and the states financial hub. BTW Indy has gotten better downtown but it still has a small town feel itself. And as for GR's developement I could only wish the tallest residential tower in the state was going on the Detroit River not the Grand River. Check out this video for there new JW MARRIOT
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EowtlJ JyLfo

I believe Indy was shot down on an attempt to get one of these rare high end Marriot's.
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 1404
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 - 12:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Actually, another 200,000 people, and Indy would surpass Detroit as the 2nd largest midwestern hub. Lucky for Detroit, we grew this time and they shrunk.

(Message edited by detroitrise on January 20, 2008)
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 385
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Sunday, January 20, 2008 - 1:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Indy is also a consolidated city-county government. That means that Indy's borders, with a few exceptions, extends out to the county border. Imagine GR covering all of Kent County with a few exceptions like East Grand Rapids. That would make for a comparable comparison.
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Detx
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Username: Detx

Post Number: 59
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 10:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dbest,

Do you have any more info on the JW Marriott in GR? Specifically, is it just a hotel or will there be condo units in it for sale?
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Novine
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Username: Novine

Post Number: 389
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 10:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Doesn't look like any condos.

http://www.ilovethejw.com/

http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.co m/developmentnews/JWM0830.aspx
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Dbest
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Username: Dbest

Post Number: 72
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 10:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detx there are no condos in the hotel, one of the reasons why is its close proximity to existing residential (plaza towers), as well as being across the Grand River from the new Riverhouse condo development and many more condos set along the river in old warehouses and factories heres some pics in these links;
Plaza Towers http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/b u/?id=plazatowers-grandrapids- mi-usa

Riverhouse Condo Tower
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/b u/?id=riverhousecondominiums-g randrapids-mi-usa

Amway Grand Hotel
http://www.emporis.com/en/il/p c/?id=123490&aid=8&sro=1

(Message edited by Dbest on January 22, 2008)

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