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Grand Rapids businesses are lobbying the government to replace the control tower: WOODTV: GR businesses appeal for replacement air control tower

So now we know, it's Broad Leaf Brewery that was waiting in the wings: WOODTV: Bridge Street Shuffle - Broad Leaf to take Sovengard Space

This was so popular a year ago that now there's a sequel: Up and Coming City - part 2 EDIT: here's another related video by the same people: Renting Apartments in 2022

I'd never seen anything like this before. In this Sunday's Free Press there is an article about a sixteen story condo tower being built in Greektown starting with the top floor and then working downward, The two top floors were first assembled on the ground and then were hoisted up by hydraulics and steel cables. The sixteenth floor was hoisted up in May and the fifteenth floor last week. Once a floor is locked in place then they start assembling the next lower floor which then in turn will be hoisted then repeat. The idea is that it is cheaper and faster to build a floor on the ground and hoist it than it would be to build each floor in the conventional way as you go up. FREE PRESS: Upscale Detroit Condos Hoisted Into Place Here is a link to the website of the company in Detroit that is doing it: liftbuild.com

Can't say my wife and I were in any way regular patrons but we decided to stop by for lunch today at the Grand Villa on Chicago Drive for wet burritos. The parking lot was empty and the electronic sign out front said CLOSED and there was a handwritten sign on the door saying "Closed Today." According to their Facebook page they had announced they were going to close at the end of the month and their latest entry dated June 14 said they were closed that day due to heat and would re-open in a couple of days. Appears maybe they threw in the towel and never re-opened. It's one of the restaurants that have been around for like what seems forever. FACEBOOK: Grand Villa Restaurants

Another tenant for the Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building: MLIVE: Global digital consulting firm opening headquarters in Grand Rapids, creating 37 jobs

Just a follow-up on the original post: MLIVE: Consumers gets OK to retire coal, boost solar energy

I have no idea where this came from but I've had it in one of my photo files for about 6-8 years. Maybe this is what your buddy saw:

Kellogg has a lot of employees in Grand Rapids. Not sure what impact this will have if any on Grand Rapids but people in Battle Creek won't be happy: WOODTV: Kellogg to split into 3, move corporate HQ to Chicago I was surprised by how their businesses break down. The snack business is much larger than their cereal business, Snacks is mostly what they do in Grand Rapids (I'm thinking mostly but not entirely of what used to be Keebler.) And of course they recently moved their call center to out behind the airport. Historically when you look at these mega corporation headquarter moves, despite what the say in their PR release, they are usually because some higher up executives want to live in a flashier location. But in my opinion when you physically move your headquarters of a manufacturing company far away from the manufacturing facilities, it usually doesn't end well. The executives start focusing on marketing and accounting trickery rather than on making good useful products.

I share your skepticism. Since the tunnel is already there, I can see the utility of trying to use it as a way for pedestrians to easily travel between buildings on both sides of the expressways so as not to be so isolated from each other. But as a practical matter, who would pay to maintain this up to the standards suggested in the renderings or pay for security? But I try to not be a grouchy old man. I found this site on the interweb that shows 5,468 photos of pedestrian tunnels. I guess there are all kinds of possibilities: photo images pedestrian tunnels

It's been two years since I posted the original post above and since then the Detroit News has put up a pay wall so you can no longer read the link to Henning's story without a subscription. So now I'll tell the better story that involves the same phone system in our department at the Free Press but has nothing to do with sports. Roger Taylor, a computer programmer, and an ex-Ohio State hockey player was a relatively new employee at the Free Press. Previously he had worked at Henry Ford Hospital. Roger also loved to work on cars. At the hospital with Roger there was a guy who had worked there with him that had an old Cadillac that needed a lot of work and Roger was happy to help him with it. After Roger started at the Free Press the guy would call up and identify himself as Ameer Al-Mumeet Mujahiid and ask for Roger. Roger told us that was the guy's Black Muslim name and it allegedly translated to "the black messenger of death." So it was always fun when he called to put him on hold and yell out to Roger that the messenger of death was waiting for him on line two (or whatever.) He called often to talk about cars or hockey but I think mostly he called because he was lonely and he was unemployed at the time. While waiting for Roger to pick up the phone I'd talk to him sometimes. Despite his name, he was actually fun to talk with. So in early May 1979 (about a month before Les Moss was fired in the unrelated story in the original post above,) Roger comes in to work a little shaken and says that the messenger had called him at home the night before. After talking with Roger for a while about hockey, he gets around to what he was really calling about. He was making his one call from jail, he had just shot and killed a man outside Baker's Keyboard Lounge. Back then Baker's Keyboard Lounge was known as one of the most elite venues for jazz in the country. His victim was the headliner that evening, Eddie Jefferson, a jazz singer of some renown who was known as the creator of vocalese (the technique of putting recorded instrumental solos to words.) The story is that Ameer Al-Mumeet Mujahiid once worked with Mr. Jefferson in New York City a decade or so earlier as a tap dancer and he had approached him at the lounge about giving him a job. Jefferson didn't need a dancer and turned him down. The messenger wasn't happy with the response. Here's a couple of links about Eddie Jefferson that explains vocalese and his importance and they end with his murder: WIKIPEDIA: Eddie_Jefferson ALLMUSIC: eddie-jefferson And here is a video of Jefferson and his then young partner, Richie Cole, playing just a day or two earlier in Chicago - Jefferson appears in the video starting at about 5:20: Eddie Jefferson - Live from the Jazz Showcase starring Richie Cole Richie Cole became an alcoholic after that and some people think that witnessing the murder of his mentor was the cause. It's likely but whose to say, since being an alcoholic or heavy drug user seems to be a common occupational hazard for jazz musicians anyway. Cole, went on to have a long career and he just died recently right around the time I wrote the original post. So what happened to Ameer Al-Mumeet Mujahiid aka William Perryman? Roger couldn't help him. After all he went to college to play hockey- not to become a lawyer, I told Roger that the messenger was going to prison for a long time and every day he'd think about who didn't help him and then he'd eventually get out, Turns out I was wrong, the messenger was appointed a very good defense lawyer and after a three week trial he was found not guilty and went free even though it was clear he did it.. EDIT: even though Jefferson was the more or less inventor of vocalese, I think there are better examples of it than his last recorded performance. Here is an example of vocalese I like by Joni Mitchell of her adding lyrics to a Charlie Mingus jazz instrumental tune: Joni Mitchell - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat ANOTHER LATE EDIT: I realize no one is likely reading this old post other than crawler bots. And if anyone does read it, they are not likely to stay with it this deep into it. But YouTube just recommended to me this interview of Ritchie Cole done in 2010 and I have to include it. I found the whole interview very interesting. it covers Cole's whole life (up to the time of the interview.) Around the eight minute mark he's asked about Eddie Jefferson who he worked with for around five years until Jefferson was murdered. He says he doesn't want to talk about the murder but then he does, and he mentions with some bitterness the messenger, aka Bill Perryman: "I'm The Luckiest Guy I Know!" ~ The Real Richie Cole ~ 2010

This pseudo news article on Microsoft Edge caught my eye. It's nothing more than a listicle of metro areas of where people are moving to Grand Rapids from. In typical listicle format. it's a countdown by metro area with a separate page with a little background information for each entry. Despite it essentially being clickbait, I think it is probably reasonably accurate information culled from census data. stacker.com: metros sending most people to grand rapids And here is sort of the reverse: stacker.com: metros where people from grand rapids are getting new jobs

Nothing really to do with the west side except that the above was in a response to a comment by GRDadof3 back in 2019 about certain areas in midtown Detroit looking like the old industrial area of the west side near Bridge Street. I recommended this restaurant, an old favorite of mine when I lived near by it. If you didn't follow-up on my recommendation, it's too late now. It burned down early this morning. FREE PRESS: traffic-jam-snug-restaurant-detroit-fire Probably should have posted something over in the Detroit forum, but nobody seems to read that anymore.

After posting my long ago story about the abandoned gas station today I thought it would be a good day to walk down Wealthy Street. Sad to report that there is a sign on the bulk food store at 620 Wealthy St. SE that says May 28th is their last day.

WARNING: another old mailman story coming up: When I was a mailman this was the site of a recently abandoned Sunoco gas station on a route I frequently delivered starting in 1967 just after the 1967 riot. The regular mail carriers in the neighborhood told me the station operator closed down and got rid of the gas in the tanks just a few days before the riot because he had inside info that it was coming. Considering the times, I suspect he may have decided it was a good time to think about employment elsewhere, but I think the riot was a little too spontaneous for anyone to have any specific inside information. This was a rough neighborhood then along this part of Wealthy and the adjoining streets. particularly along Prospect and Lafayette and Cass on both sides of Wealthy including blocks that no longer exist that were urban-renewaled for the expansion of St. Mary's and for the new Mary Free Bed Hospital next door. When I walk through the area on my walks these days, I'm always amused to see nicely dressed people coming out of houses where heroin addicts used to live. Here is a Google Street view photo of the former gas station building from 2007 before it was torn down. In those good old days, the dry cleaning business in the photo used to be in a building across the street:

Another great renovation of an old building. Maybe other people already knew this but it made me wonder, who were they and what exactly does a belt lacer company do? Luckily I live in an age when Google exists. It turns out they were pretty high tech in the belt lacer business back in 1913 when this building was built: Clipper Belt Lacer Co. History And they are still here in the the area with a new factory in Walker but under a different name: Flexco Announces Michigan Facility Move And Expansion

Seeing where that building is located in relationship to the CSX tracks and the Amtrak station, I was hoping that one day when the federal pork money was being handed out for transportation projects, that Amtrak or the state would buy this property and tear down the building and build a rail siding there to connect the station to the CSX tracks going west so that the train would no longer have to travel south down along 131 to back in and out of the station. That would probably shorten the trip time to and from Chicago by at least fifteen minutes each way. It should have been done as part of the original train station project. Edit: well, taking a look at the Google view of the area just now, it might be a little tight fitting a siding in there. Maybe there is a civil engineer that knows about railroads that reads this that might know.

Not a game changer as they say but it's seventeen new apartments in a part of town that hasn't seen much development: MLIVE: aging-grand-rapids-building-would-be-transformed-into-low-income-housing-city-plans-show I'm not sure what's in the building now other than the Seymore Branch Post Office on the ground floor. I think at one time there were offices on the second floor. I know that at one time there was a woman who manufactured historic dress patterns that had her office and workshop up there. That was a long time ago and she's not there now.

New pizza restaurant in Eastown run by the Ucello family. Unlike most of the other new restaurants lately, what's notable about this one is that it won't be serving tacos (however Tamales Mary right next door does.) WOODTV: opening-monday-francas-brings-taste-of-sicily-to-gr EDIT: OK, here's another new restaurant that's planning to open soon and it doesn't look like they will be serving tacos either: WOODTV: a-dream-come-true-in-gr-inside-monsoon-vietnamese-cuisine

FROM Joe's link: "CIG also purchased the Gallery Apartments in downtown Grand Rapids at 10 Commerce Ave. SW for $12.6 million on Dec. 31, 2021 from CWD Real Estate Investment, doing business as Two West Fulton II LLC, according to property records." I wonder if the UICA gallery is considered a separate piece of property from the Gallery Apartments since the listed price back in 2020 for the gallery is so much lower than what CIG just paid for the apartments. I know real estate prices have jumped in the last two years but considering what a white elephant the gallery itself is, I wouldn't think its price has increased much if at all.

The elevator shafts are just about up. Took this on my walk today (pretty hot out today): This perspective is just about the same in the photo as in the rendering. The wires at the top of the photo go to the same telephone pole as in the rendering. The pole is just slightly out of the photo.

Big Boy may be around little longer. According to WOODTV, the developer has withdrawn the zoning variance request for now because of negative feedback to the proposal: WOODTV: kum-go-pulls-request-to-raze-big-boy-and-add-gas-station

First baby formula and now tacos. Apparently the demand is still greater than the supply: WOODTV: taco-borracho-temporarily-closes-after-overwhelming-demand

Andy Rosario, the owner of the Mexican restaurant in Rogers Plaza, has bought the old Chinatown restaurant building on 28th Street. He plans to open it after extensive remodeling as a new concept Latino restaurant. Article says he got a good deal on the building. It's not where I'd put my money for a new restaurant but I'm not in that business and he's made a go of it in a mostly empty low rent Rogers Plaza so maybe he knows what he's doing. warning - WOOD is apparently updating their website to bring in a little more money and you might have trouble navigating around their pop-up ads. WOODTV: new-plans-for-former-28th-st-chinatown-restaurant

I can't remember if anyone has posted the GRR concourse vision video that is on their website so I'll do it. Pretty impressive. It's even got Lake Michigan and sand dunes and fall colors. The crowd of happy people are all well groomed and fit and diverse and not anxious or in a hurry, and there are no babies crying, or babies at all. There's only a couple of children and they are well behaved and are just quietly looking out the window. There's what appears to be a couple of seconds of walking through what must be the old concourse portion with its remodeled but still low ceilings then you hit the new spacious high-ceiling addition. Slide down just a little for the video: GRR: concourse - a vision and a journey. Late EDIT: looking at this again just now, I guess I can understand why everyone in happy and not in a hurry. It's so nice there, who would ever want to leave?