Kinkema

They've definitely been raising money for a new computer science building, although, I assumed it would be in allendale. It would be much nicer to have it downtown near the engineering campus, though.

https://fox17online.com/2019/04/23/first-5-tenants-announced-for-studio-c-in-downtown-grand-rapids/

Construction is underway for this project.

The reason ours is considered high is that we also collect sales tax on our gas. The sales tax money goes to the general fund. Personally I like the idea of the gas tax. It hits two birds with one stone, fixing our infrastructure as well as encouraging EV use. I understand that it is, however, a regressive tax, so I also like a registration tax that is higher on newer vehicles, we could copy the system that MA uses. Also, I think a lot of people overlook that Whitmer proposed doubling the earned income credit to offset the gas tax on lower income households.

According the the Rapid's site, they will be releasing a phone app 'soon' for the new wave cards that allows tap to pay. The cool thing about the new wave cards is that you don't need to pay for a monthly pass, just pay single fares until you hit the monthly amount and it stops charging you.

https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/01/grand-rapids-condo-project-grows-in-size-units-drop-in-price.html More units, but I'm not a fan of the new look.

GR should use them to design one of the new riverfront parks. https://www.mbres.com/Portfolio/maggie-daley-park

Looking at streetview, that section of road has been no parking since at least 2007. They're probably planning on opening it up to parking and installed the pay station before removing the parking restrictions.

Yeah, I don't know how well this works for them in a city like GR. It seems like it has just kind of left all of the large retail space empty.

When a few companies own all of the large retail spaces, they can set a high price on those space and refuse to rent for less. They would rather wait years for a tenant willing to pay high rent rather than rent it for less which would affect the market value of their other properties.

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2018/12/plans-progress-for-publicly-financed-convention-hotel-in-grand-rapids.html Happy to see this project is still moving forward

Usually I just park on the west side, along or near seward , or in heritage hill and walk in to downtown. But if I'm trying to get closer to where I'm going, then the downtown market has free 30 minute parking, the monroe ramp has free 60 minute parking, there is free street parking towards the south on Commerce, La Grave, and Ionia, and there are quite a few free spaces on State street. I'm not opposed at all to building more parking ramps, however, I also don't mind raising the street parking rates and/or extending their operational hours. I don't think they should blindly extend all of the meters to 8pm and enforce on the weekends. Rather, they should only extend the hours in areas where the parking is consistently full at those times in order to encourage turnover. I also wouldn't mind seeing some 15 or 30 minute parking spaces. If they're going to build more parking ramps, I would love to see area 7(behind the Big Boy) turned into a massive parking ramp that acts as a commuter station with dash busses running out of it frequently.

Madison is pretty similar in size and climate. Parking there is much more limited, meters everywhere, much more expensive, and they charge on Saturdays(but not Sundays). People seem to use parking ramps more or walk further. Honestly, outside of monthly permit parking, GR parking is easy to find, easy to use, and cheap. I never pay for parking and usually walk no more than 4 or 5 blocks to where I'm going. If I were willing to pay, there's always a spot within a couple blocks. I really find it hard to sympathize with people who complain about parking in GR /:

This is reminds me of one of my largest road related gripes, Grand Rapids' (and Michigan's) terrible upkeep of road markings. I'd also like to complain about the underuse of reflectors both in the roads and along the sides of roads, they make such a massive difference in nighttime and rainy weather driving.

It charges a small fee to cover the permitting process, it does not pay for the parking spot. And no, I don't think people have the right to park in a public space on the block they live on. From my own experience living in SD, I would usually park within 2 blocks of my apartment, but often had to walk 3+ blocks. I could have rented a space for $250/month, but I chose to take my chances parking on the street or occasionally paying for metered parking when I was feeling lazy.