Submitted by whitemice on Thu, 09/04/2025 - 19:25
After the recent post about the declining growth projections for the city (Grand Rapids, MI) the topic of population growth has been on my mind. You notice things more when they are on your mind. Making regular appearance has been the common general-purpose theories which are used to short-circuit the population discussion; people love their grand theories. The most common of which is The Weather Theory. The Weather Theory posits that people move to “nice weather”; that weather is the principle explanation of why the rust-belt is hollowed out, why the mid-west does not grow, etc… This theory manifests itself everywhere. From conversations at the bar to the kind of top-ten lists shared on Linked In. On social media forums such as Reddit’s r/relocating a suggestion that a midwest city is somewhere someone should consider as a home is akin to tossing a pork chop into pool of piranha – it is a completely absurd notion that someone would want to live in a place which is frozen solid for six months of the year. The picture many people seem to hold in their mind of a Grand Rapids winter is:
The winter of 1978, 47 years ago (assuming you are reading this in 2025) |
