walker

I think this is it: https://grandrapids.buildingeye.com/planning

I didn't investigate to see if it is the only one but taking a look at the historical aerials views it looks like it is the same building with plenty of additions and remodels through the years. Plug in 3300 Jefferson SE Grand Rapids MI and select aerials: Historical Aerial Views

Just a follow-up on the discussion last month on John Ball Zoo parking plans. Today I received an invitation via an email to " Join JBZ's Tele-Town Hall" on Wednesday, November 15 at 6 PM where they will discuss the new master plan including importantly what they are proposing for parking. But you don't need a special invitation to dial into this meeting. I found this zoo website of the master plan and if you slide down a bit, it gives the information on how to attend the meeting online. I don't know if this is interactive or it is just them presenting: JBZ masterplan and instructions for attending online meeting

Maybe some of you might find this interesting. The Historical Society is hosting a presentation on the history of GRR, both the current airport and the predecessor, on November 9. Usually I'd just post a link to their website but they don't seem to be keeping it up this year, so I've just cut and pasted the following from their newsletter for this month. These lectures are free and you don't have to be a member. The presenter, Roy Hawkins, is an airport planning engineer and a long time employee at GRR. Here's his LinkedIn page: LINKEDIN: Roy Hawkins And this is pasted from the newsletter: History of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport “Preparing the Ground” Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 7:00 p.m., Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch Presented by: Roy Hawkins This presentation will consider those who had the vision to bring aviation to the Grand Rapids/West Michigan area. We will discover the history of the many names the airport has held over the years. We will review the major airport historical milestones, air service, and planning efforts necessary for airfield development. We will also look at the different aircraft types, their changes over the years along with their impacts on airport design. From turf strips to thin flexible pavements and then to thick rigid pavements we have today. We will review the airport’s previous location and the airport’s “new” location and what prompted the location within Cascade Township. Planning efforts are continuous at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. Staff is always and has always sought to make our airport one of the best. That we are! From insurance vending machines in our lobbies to the conveniences we see today. What happened to postage machines and telephones in the terminal? Did you know that once the airport had two fountains? Did you know the airport was always a place people came to pass their time? Did you know we have one of the oldest Air Traffic Control Towers in the country? What happened to the trees and why? Why is the fence there? What the airport staff looks like, who are they and what do they do? What are the rules the Federal Aviation Administration has for airports? In short, nothing happens at this airport by accident. The glamor and wonder of aviation? It’s impact on the general populous. Airplanes and restaurants. What the people love. Airports are exciting places. They are places of sadness and places of much happiness. These we will discuss. There I so much to tell. “How do those huge planes get off the ground? I’m still amazed!” And finally, what does the future hold for the Gerald R. Ford International Airport?

The Vander Jagt mansion makes the news again: FOX17: Grand Rapids home now center of contention after owners host several events on property this story contains a pet peeve of mine. It is the tendency of local media to promiscuously use the word "historic" to describe any old building whether it has any historic value or not. Other than its size makes it stick out in this neighborhood, there is nothing unusual or historic about it I know of. If it were instead in an older section of East Grand Rapids, it would just be another large house.

Free article in the Detroit News today about the announcement of the expansion. No paywall so far: Detroit News: grand-rapids-public-museum-to-revamp-its-riverfront-area

Mlive has an article today about Jon Rooks two massive projects in Muskegon: MLIVE: why-tackling-2-massive-redevelopment-projects-in-muskegon-makes-perfect-sense-to-jon-rooks

If you were ever around Muskegon before the paper mill closed down in 2009 you will remember that it gave off a very strong unpleasant odor that pervaded the neighborhood. It's likely what discouraged much of any residential development along the lake front in that area previously.

No, not at all (except my housing comment - that was a little tongue in cheek but likely true .) The New York Times opinion article is serious and fact-checked and my other comments are serious. And what I said about Elon Musk is as far as I know true: NDTV: musk-father-of-11-wants-smart-people-to-have-children-reveals-biography WIKIPEDIA: SpaceX Mars program

The population graph above comes from an opinion piece in the New York Times the other day (links below.) I truncated the flatline that was on the left that goes back a thousand years. What it shows is that for a long time the earth's human population didn't change a lot then it started to increase during the beginning of the industrial age and then it really spiked mostly during my lifetime. It is always dangerous to project current trends into the future but using current trends in fertility rates this projects that there will be a crash in population in relatively a short time as great as the recent spike. Because this only considers fertility rates and does not consider other factors such a resource depletion, climate change with its resulting mass famines and political instability, I suspect we will begin to see this happening before 2085. When I say we I don't necessarily mean me of course since I'm an old man. So why did I think to post this on the Grand Rapids urbanplanet forum? Once and a while there is a passing mention here about climate change or the benefits of urban density versus suburban sprawl and so on. But for the most part here on urbanplanet we cheer on big is better. i.e. population growth, bigger busier airport, etc. And that's understandable, no one wants to live in a declining rust-belt city. I'm probably as inclined as anyone to that kind of thinking. I wonder if anyone else has pondered though about this dichotomy between our short term local point of view and the only slightly longer term world situation. Link for subscribers: NYT: human population global growth-decline (for subscribers only) Same article - temporary link for subscriber's guests: NYT: human population global growth-decline (shared) A couple of final thoughts: 1) A collapse in population will solve the lack of housing problem. 2) Elon Musk is working on solving both the population decline and climate change. First, he has been fathering children through artificial insemination believing that is what smart rich people should do to help counter the fertility decrease and what he sees as the increasing stupidity of the children of the non-smart. I think he's up to eleven children now. And second, he wants to colonize other planets for when the earth becomes uninhabitable.

Story today on WOODTV about the non-profit Family Promise buying two existing mobile home parks. I don't really understand this story. Like many TV news stories, it is short on details. You may remember that Family Promise was the lead non-profit that ran the old Holland Home over in Wilcox Park as an emergency shelter for homeless families a couple of years go. They talk of rehabbing existing mobile homes which is good but where I'm confused is that unless these homes are currently empty or abandoned, that would not increase the stock of affordable housing units and I would assume they don't intend to evict the current residents in order to house the homeless . Although not mentioned in the story, in many places hedge funds have been buying up old mobile home parks like these and then have been jacking up the lot rents to intolerable levels because the existing residents can't easily move away without either abandoning or moving their not so mobile home. So having a respectable non-profit such as Family Promise as an owner would at least be an improvement over a predatory hedge fund. WOODTV: Grand Rapids nonprofit buys mobile-home parks to help with affordable housing

3818 South Division. Haven't been there yet. Looks like they've got Jollof rice for you facebook: MotherLand Food (w Jollof rice)

MLIVE: WODA COOPER - 167m mixed income housing development replaces mortuary

Just last month Zads posted about this new Chicago Italian Beef restaurant: And now WOODTV tells us about this other new Chicago Italian Beef restaurant in Eastown: WOODTV: Jack Dangers Chicago Style Italian Beef Spot Opening on Wealthy Street

Haven't heard or read anything about Switch and their proposed expansion since last year as mentioned in the last couple of posts above from back then. But the last month or so they've been going gangbusters putting up the shell of a massive ugly concrete panel building just west of the pyramid. The size is impressive but it's not going to be nearly as pretty as the pyramid. So I climbed up on a couple of berms on the north side of 60th Street both with dangerously overgrown vegetation and took a few photos. Not the best photos, the sun was shining right in the view finder so I couldn't see what I was shooting.

Well, like the last post above about Paul Schrader, this one is more about people talking about someone from Grand Rapids rather than about Grand Rapids itself: You’ve likely never heard of this person unless you are very old like me and lived in either Grand Rapids in the fifties or in Detroit in the sixties and seventies or unlike me you were really into cable TV crafting shows late in the nineties and early 2000’s. The New York Times has a nice and long obituary today about Carol Duvall who hosted Martha Stewart type TV shows well before there was a Martha Stewart. She got her start on WOOD TV in 1951 hosting a kids show called Jiffy Carnival when the station was located in a small studio in the McKay Tower. I can vaguely remember me and my sister being in the audience on one of those early shows. NEW YORK TIMES: Carol Duvall, a TV Queen of Crafting, Dies at 97

Mlive says the family that's owned and operated the Rainbow Grill in Grandville since 1954 has sold it to Restaurant Partners Management, LLC., aka 4grfood, an outfit that owns and runs fifteen restaurants in Michigan, mostly around Grand Rapids. Two things in the article surprised me: 1) I didn't know there was a second Rainbow Grill in Hudsonville. The family is going to continue to run that one. 2) I'd never heard of Restaurant Partners Management and had no idea what restaurants around town they owned. But that's what Google is for so I looked it up. I guess I do know who they are, I just didn't know their name. The ambiance and culture of their other restaurants for the most part are nothing like the Grandville Rainbow Grill. It will be interesting to see how that works out: Here's the story: MLIVE: restaurant group acquires family owned Grandville Rainbow Grill location Here's my search of the restaurant group listing their brands- you will recognize them: 4gr8food - our-brands

So here's the story about the results: USA TODAY: BEST BEER CITIES

Remember we had a big discussion about the old Holland Home senior residence property three or four years ago when it was temporarily leased out for a year as an emergency homeless shelter. Since the lease expired it has sat empty. I don't remember anyone posting anything here about it since then. While they have apparently been working on it for some time, I just learned today that Hope Network is working on converting it to apartments for the disabled. A Google search turns up this as the most recent story about it: CRAINS: Hope Network- Starts Work on 40m Housing Project

Couldn't agree more Joe. So, what this grouchy old man got out of the article was that I guess the main mission of this aquarium would not be to provide educational or even entertainment value but instead it’s to drive economic activity. If that’s the case then I think that there are a lot of other ways to invest 300 to 400 million dollars that might have a better return on investment. Maybe not as great a return as these consultants forecast for an aquarium but has a consultant forecast ever been anywhere near accurate even after discounting their usual dubious hard to prove multiplier effect calculations. The Jerry Ford Museum according to consultants when that was proposed was going to create two thousand jobs. Not the same situation but this old clip comes to mind: SIMPSONS MONORAIL

the Musk family hasn't been doing too well of late. Twitter was a big mistake for Elon and Tesla's stock price has been falling. And it looks like Kimbal Musk's Square Roots shipping container farms have all shut down except one of the two behind Gordon Foods: BUSINESS INSIDER: Kimbal Musk startup square roots-layoffs farm closures

Here's a nice rendering and the official press release about the new American Seating headquarters: NEWS RELEASE: American Seating New Corporate Headquarters

I don't think they are anywhere close to having any renderings yet. The Detroit News today has a good article about where a new GR control tower stands politically and bureaucratically. It doesn't seem too promising any time soon. This article is suppose to be for subscribers only: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/michigan/2023/07/06/faa-bill-could-boost-tower-project-at-grand-rapids-airport-but-faces-hurdle/70384898007/

I didn't remember that but Google knows:

New concept and new name and menu but apparently the same owner and building as the Sandy Point Beach House: