Urban Grand Rapids

There is a Climate Resolution floating around which rumor has it will appear on the City Commission agenda sometime in the near future. As a bit of history, for a long time, the Grand Rapids City Commission did not - as a rule - consider resolutions. That has changed in recent years. For example there was a resolution expression support the West Michigan Express (WMX) transit project in 2019 (August?).

Preamble: I'm going to start a new thing called the "Data Point" where I quickly put up a particular point of data. This is the first. There is a lot of data, there is a constant stream of data. And there is a lot of conversations. Sometimes these two streams do not appear to intersect. So: the Data Point. You provide the context and the narrative, but start with data.

Preamble: This is a post about the neighborhood of Highland Park by a resident.

In response to the previous post - Fantasy Map (Parks) - someone pointed out that part of the answer has to be connectivity. An alternative to making more of something closer to where someone is, is to make what exists closer. AKA: connectivity. Something may be nearby, yet if there is a barrier between you and it, then it is effectively further away. This is a good point. So, before we can talk about more issues like paths or trails or housing or commerce we need to take a step back and look at the neighborhoods connectivity.

Preamble: This is a post about the neighborhood of Highland Park by a resident.
Updated: 2021-01-26 20:25

For Conversation: Highland Park has two parks, located on the west side of the neighborhood. It also has places which serve as pseudo-parks - open spaces which are not parks but which people often use in a park-life fashion.

In October of 2020 Invest Health hosted a "convening" related to ADUs. The invited communities were Grand Rapids (MI), Missoiula (MT), Napa (CA), and Riverside (CA). The convenings were held for two hours over five days. The media and video of the convening are now available. Of particular interest is the financing options portion of day #2; local expertise in this area is extremely limited.

2020 has been a strange year; having an extended prologue and epilogue. It is a year that began sometime around the end of march and will conclude sometime in early November, unlike any other year I’ve experienced. The notion of this BLOG – attend some meetings, report on the coo andl the frustrating stuff which is happening [or not happening] – has not been a good fit for 2020. So, before whatever it is that happens next, a round-up seemed like a fun idea and a nice distraction.

The Housing Next needs analysis was presented to the Committee of the Whole on 2020-07-21.