Chisox

What people are hoping for is an all clear like a tornado warning being lifted that moves through without touch down. Everyone just goes back to business as usual, but demand is either put in a different quarter or it's just not going to materialize at all. I think everything is going to be phased, and it's going to be a test, retest, and then an eventual all clear will be given if their feedback loop allows for it. The bright spot is I'm hearing young people are making 20$/hr at local grocery stores with mandatory overtime stocking shelves.

Critical = just exempt from quarantine not market disruption. A lot of us are on catch-up. The economy was in over drive before this and we're just hanging on to the flywheel now not sure if the engine is still running and doing it with loads of social distancing and alcohol. We're just going to have to see. Everyone is on someone else's contract and assuming cash flow was good in Q4 2019 that will get us through Q1. Who has cash flow and is credit flowing? Does that even matter if the consumer isn't moving?

I believe construction was apart of the critical industries that can keep operating during quarantine. I know a partner at an interior design firm in the hospitality industry and consensus at the board meetings were minus ~70% as highly like scenario for the industry until Q3. How that translates into construction? I'm not sure.

I can understand the selfishness of not wanting more neighbors, but on the other hand as policy you risk the potential for sliding into economic irrelevance without it. Just humming along doesn't cut it in a market that values change, growth and consumption. Imagine all the things in Grand Rapids that people enjoy TODAY that wouldn't be possible without the growth that took place. Population growth is both the answer and the problem. I might be off, but you can see this in Ionia County. I briefly lived there and the old folks I met like to talk. Intersting enough they didn't want to make the connection between the kids leaving and growth in their community. That's a conversation taking place in hundreds of rural towns and exurbs in the great lakes region everyday.

Was that the lip dub thing that was on CNN and all the other national news programs some time back? I vaguely remember a viral video from Grand Rapids and a bunch of people singing Don McLean's American Pie or something. Lol I didn't make the connection till now that the movie American Pie was a Grand Rapids thing.

I guess that's a problem for most cities that aren't on the coasts in context to media. Although just in my travels I got the feeling that INSIDE the state there was a perception problem, which is more concerning. That's just my observation. Maybe GR is just going to be that place that manages well with the under promise and over deliver mantra. That only gets you so far though, eventually you're going to need to be a bit of showman.

I get the context, but I don't know what it is with the old tyme trolleys. #facepalm This style of trolley is something you'd see at a suburban mall to outlot parking or something.

It gets worse. ---https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/03/michigan-photos/607480/ Just an outsider, but It seems like you guys get shafted in the image department (even for metros of the same or less size) and I've noticed there's a certain wing of the press that does the shafting. Grand Rapids and western Michigan is not the city that some told me about, its better in most cases. I guess this comes with the territory when your city has very little reputation to precede with and it's citizens don't have a healthy ego. In that case people get to define you and often times it's probably not going to reflect reality or maybe it does. In this case you're just a museum and a few bridges without a narrative. Not exactly the image people IN Grand Rapids are trying to sell. I took my gf to GR (never been to Michigan) for a day and I told her as we drove up US 131 into the city I said off the cuff welcome to the biggest city you never heard of.

I wasn't sure where to put this, but a native got some press. https://www.archdaily.com/934717/to-be-a-good-architect-you-have-to-be-fearless-in-conversation-with-john-ronan

Good points The people who were at the helm were industry professionals and representatives of the railroads. I don't know enough about the rail industry and it's attitude towards public or private use of it's infrastructure, but what I do find interesting is that they wanted to be included. That's a topic for another day. With the huge political and social pressure (climate change) to make available more efficient and higher quality transportation modes I don't see it unfeasible or unwanted to at least put in place a framework to encourage it when the time comes. With people cheerleading grand rapids to grow downtown and it's self promotion as a green place it only seems prudent to plan on walking the walk or else they just look to be aggrandizing. Given that these corridors probably had mass transit before the shift to cars was made makes it even more sense if there's a shift away from cars as downtown becomes harder to get to and more job dense. In my short time in GR as a choice rider of the SL for a year they had to add busses right behind one another to accommodate rush hour. This was between 2018-2019 so I don't know what ridership was like beforehand. Some riders I had conversations with were choice riders at Park and rides who made the shift when their employer provided incentives to not park downtown. The southbound busses at 5pm-6pm were always near packed and probably 2-3 days standing room with blue shirts. I boarded the northbound SL at 5:30a at E. 60th st and it was consistently 3-4 people boarding with probably 2-3 riders already on. I don't know what 8-9a boardings looked like.

Interesting. Years ago, I actually had conversations with a director at a railroad transportation advisory group here in Chicago. At the time he said that they were in Grand Rapids fact finding and watching closely, because they believed that while the Grand Rapids area was sub 1 million at the time, that the city and region should start planning in how it would react to demand for commuter style transportation. I think the vision was a Metra style link from the lakeshore suburbs to downtown. It sounded like they had discussed where things may go, costs, public engagement, relationship building in the private sector, etc. It sounded like an organic private sector answer than a top down government master plan. I do know the C suite at this nonprofit had quite a bit of data for their reasoning and they had some high level railroad executives advising on how to move forward. I don't know much more than that. I think this was about 2002-2003, but I wouldn't be surprised if things fizzled out during the great recession.

I visited Ada this past summer asking myself where the commuter line station was. Its got a lot going for it, the river, the village, the topography, etc.. all comes together for a great memorable space.

Just gonna ask if this was a T.O.D in the suburbs.

GVSU master plan (PDF) I'm not sure if anyone shared this, but I found this PDF that spells out the next 10 years.

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Wyoming_mi got it. It's the Fred Meijer Grand River Trail ped bridge in Ionia. Picture was facing north down S. Dexter St. Great place. To be honest you guys have wonderful rail to trail infrastructure in the Grand Rapids area. A lot of "stations" on the trails include restrooms, splash pads, community space and even free air for bicycle tires.

Where is this development located? Nevermind saw it on Redfin.

I'd consider it the Grand Rapids area, but to me any county adjacent to Kent is the Grand Rapids area. I'm willing to narrow it down: this location is within a county that is home to an important picnic table.

Where was I?

You guys need to go find Hoffa now.

I did some fly fishing here in '18 and wondered why there were vacant plots in this subdivision. Now I'm taken aback by the circumstances. According to some plaques along the parking lot they're looking to improve this park by adding additional infrastructure. My mind is blank on what exactly, but I recall a new trail going through the forest north of this property.

Shouldn't be a problem. It seems everyone is an investor or in search of one these days.

I don't doubt it's needed, but I bet it's going to accelerate growth in the western areas then maybe expand to a true interstate style roadway. I don't know officially, but I saw quite a bit of room on both sides to expand. It looked well cleared. It's grade separated almost 100%.