Urban Grand Rapids

• 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.

• There will be three upcoming events with mobility integration & promotion: rock the block, GR's first Asian Festival, and Festival of the Arts.
  • Of the three - Rock The Block (10K estimated participants), Asian Festival (20K), and Festival (200K) - Rock The Block is the first event not downtown. The guidelines for event sponsorship are Downtown specific if read verbatim, these guidelines need to be revisited after the expanded commission is seated

The north-east neighborhoods will have a variety of Rummage/Garage sales this weekend, see the list below. The sales line up for a nice 3 mile-tour - a ~12 minute drive or only an hours total walk. All sites are located near the route of the RAPID#15 bus route.

Update 2016-08-17: We also now have a sale in the Creston neighborhood @ 2132 Edgewood Avenue NE (see below).

Update 2016-08-18: Another new sale! This one is in Midtown @ 1036 Fountain St NE (see below).

The news is official: "Partners shelve plans for small grocery store at 38 Commerce in downtown Grand Rapids". This in conjunction with the closing of award winning Propaganda Donuts ... it has not been a good month for retail in Grand Rapids.

There are a variety of upcoming events related to downtown, the Michigan St Corridor, and intra-city transit:

The easiest route to walk or bicycle between Highland Park (the park and the south west neighborhood) and Midtown is to pass under the freeway along the GRE (Grand Rapids Eastern) railroad tracks. Residents have been using this safe and convenient pathway for years. You can stand there and see the 'demand lines' and on nice days you do not have to wait long to see people using this route.