Urban Grand Rapids

This is a map of voter's support of RAPID funding in November 2017. Creation of this map was inspired by the "Transit Supporter Split" BLOG post. That post, at least proposed, that in the city of Portland [Oregon] that transit support had a conical shape: strongest downtown, tapering down as one moved out through the neighborhoods, and zeroing out into opposition when one reached the true suburbs. It raised the question of what support for the RAPID looks like in Grand Rapids.

PRELIMINARY CHANGES IS AVAILABLE HERE. This pertains to the following of the affordable housing commissions recommendations, and below each is a summary of the proposed changes.

• #3 : Incentives for small scale development.

The MobileGR commision has approved its meeting schedule for 2018. All meetings are at 50 Ottawa Ave. NW and occur at 8AM. Dates are:

October and November (2017) have been active months. A collection of interesting documents have been created or brought into active conversation concerning both housing and mobility.

The Grand Rapids Planning Commission is hosting a community discussion about possible changes to the zoning code related to Accessory Dwelling Units (aka: ADUs). This conversation is the result of a report of possible policy changes created by the Housing Advisory Committee.

The related documents from Housing Advisory Committee are:

• link: Official agenda for this meeting, Accela Meeting Portal.
• link: Official minutes for this meeting, Accela Meeting Portal.
• Sponsorship of the Hispanic Festival.
  • An outreach effort at the Hispanic Festival will be used to improve the results of the transit stop survey.

So, that happened. What to do now? This should always be the question asked in response to terrible public policy decisions. In this case the response is obvious. Consider the fact that the transportation systems alone of the United States produce more greenhouse gasses than any other economy in the world except for China. That is an astonishing data point.