Urban Grand Rapids

UPDATE: The developer has pulled out, this project is dead.

The McConnell is a conceptual proposal for a market rate 10 story mixed-use development at the McConnell Silver Line BRT station. The principle structure would be seated behind the fueling station at Wealth & Division. If constructed the McConnell would be Grand Rapids' first Transit Oriented Development (TOD).

The candidates for City Commission in 2022.

Shelterforce recently developed a six part series on ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). While there is currently no hope of meaningful zoning reform in Grand Rapids, MI I believe this remains a critical topic to track as ADUs should be the clearest path for residents to invest in their own neighborhoods - right on their own property.

Mobility and transportation related meetings for 2022.

It appears that the RAPID board meetings are hybrid, available via Zoom. Not sure about the Consumer Advisory Committee. MobileGR meetings are not available online.

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.