Cool Cities Feedback

[ModSquad]

So what do you think you are going to report back, Dave?

Do you mean report back to the Cool Cities Advisory Committee?

[GRGridGirl]

so you are saying that facade improvements do start businesses?

After thinking about this, I say "yes" facade improvements spur local economic development, which start businesses. For example, when vacant and boarded up buildings receive facade improvements, they receive interest from new business start-up's (AND this forum). In most cases, the facades are opened up with transparent storefronts, which allow entrepreneurs to "realize" their dream of owning a business can be a reality. In some cases, a major facade improvement to one building can serve as a catalyst for revitalization for an area.

Grid Girl

[GRDadof3]

Do you mean report back to the Cool Cities Advisory Committee?

Yes.

[ModSquad]

Yes.

I think I may put together a collection of pertinant quotes and comments and feed this to the panel members. There is some good thoughts here that should be considered as we look at the effectiveness of the program.

[twoshort]

To us it is not about race, it is not about religion, it is about economics. If you are middle income and up, no matter what your hue or beliefs, Lighthouse would like you to consider moving into our neighborhoods.

As a mid-20's soon to be married middle to upper middle class citizen of Grand Rapids I would really like living in those areas. Having spent a lot of time around the eastown area, franklin and prospect area, and now the NW side, I love GR and I love being near the heart of downtown, eastown, etc. I think GR is a cool city, and many of my friends who aren't from around here and come to visit say just that: 'wow, what a cool city!'

I think if we want to keep people in the heart of GR we need to boost the image of GRPS. If its a good school, then tell people about it. I sure haven't head a lot of good things about it lately. That's not to say I've heard a lot of bad things, but I haven't heard anything good either. It's going to be hard to keep people in neighborhoods where they aren't comfortable sending their kids.

[MJLO]

I don't think the stigma of the GRPS will go away just by saying nice things about it. And I seriously doubt you will ever see a consolidated Kent County School System. Want to talk about a huge fight that will be? Do you think the people in the Upper class suburbs like Rockford and Forest Hills will want their children to be associated with the Creston and Central kids who brawl at football games?

[RustTown]

I agree it's a hard fight, but to paint over the rampant drug use in suburban schools all across the country isn't helping anything. It's more a problem of perception than anything else.

Check out this article:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread...?threadid=87551

[ModSquad]

Do you think the people in the Upper class suburbs like Rockford and Forest Hills will want their children to be associated with the Creston and Central kids who brawl at football games?

Media is a HUGE HUGE problem with GRPS. The GR Press and local news media have total control over what they print, and what they say. I have seent he whole tape and it was not in any way shape or form a brawl. The benches cleared, which is a violation of MHSAA, and we dealt with it. This happens all the time in pro baseball, soccer, football, basketball, etc. There is no way in hell that this should have been the headline in the news that evening or any other evening. In regard to subruban parents not wanting their kids to be associated with central city kids, of course they wont if they only use the media as their sole source of information regarding what our central city kids are like.

[PBJ]

Media is a HUGE HUGE problem with GRPS. The GR Press and local news media have total control over what they print, and what they say. I have seent he whole tape and it was not in any way shape or form a brawl. The benches cleared, which is a violation of MHSAA, and we dealt with it. This happens all the time in pro baseball, soccer, football, basketball, etc. There is no way in hell that this should have been the headline in the news that evening or any other evening. In regard to subruban parents not wanting their kids to be associated with central city kids, of course they wont if they only use the media as their sole source of information regarding what our central city kids are like.

Yeah, that didn't look like much of a fight to me either.. just some heated kids, but WOODTV sure played it up as a big thing, i think they talked about it twice with the anchors, and then a "special" report for the sports guy.. seriously, way to take a small story and inflate it on a slow news day. This kind of stuff happens everywhere, I remember a decent "brawl" at one of my soccer games in high school.. oh, and this was in the "good suburbs".. it didn't get any news coverage.

[torgo]

Yeah, that didn't look like much of a fight to me either.. just some heated kids, but WOODTV sure played it up as a big thing, i think they talked about it twice with the anchors, and then a "special" report for the sports guy.. seriously, way to take a small story and inflate it on a slow news day. This kind of stuff happens everywhere, I remember a decent "brawl" at one of my soccer games in high school.. oh, and this was in the "good suburbs".. it didn't get any news coverage.

I think you have to expect that crap from the media. Most of the news media nowadays is about ratings, not what actually happened, and that goes for local media all the way up to the big-shot national media folks. A high-school football "brawl" will get more viewers than a "minor skirmish", even if that is what actually happened. When I was at GVSU, there was a "near-riot" described in the paper, if you count 20 people standing in the parking lot a riot. It was a joke.

[Rizzo]

We all must remeber that the local media is "for profit."

[d59]

Because of all the above arguments (and other reasons), I take the news media with a grain of salt. In my opinion, all media, both liberal and conservative, pander to their respective audiences. Unfortunately, it makes it hard for reasonable people to find the truth.

[bwindi25]

Getting back to some of the comments at the beginning of this post regarding economic diversity in neighborhoods. In Grand Rapids, I don't think we can talk about economic diversity without a frank discussion of racial diversity. In David Rusk's 1998 book "Inside Game/Outside Game" he says this about Grand Rapids.

"But economic growth alone is not sufficient to stem the growth of poverty neighborhoods. The Grand Rapids area has had on of the country's most prosperous economies. The poverty rate has been stable (around 8 percent). Between 1973 and 1988, the Grand Rapids area experienced a 55 percent increase in jobs, a rate of increase equal to that in metro Charlotte. Most remarkably, the area had a 22 percent increase in manufacturing employment, although undoubtedly education and skill requirements rose in jobs in the manufacturing sector. But Grand Rapids is also a very recially segregated society ( a dissimilarity index of 72). Any adverse economic adjustments affecting black workers were magnified within highly segregated black neighborhoods. Despite the region's prosperity, the number of poverty neighborhoods grew from twelve to twenty-two, and almost half of these had minority populations even though the entire region had less than a 10 percent minority population." pg 77

"In a typical metro area, however, three out of four poor whites lived in middle-class, mostly suburban neighborhoods. By contrast, three out of four poor blacks and on out of two poor Hispanics lived in inner-city "poverty neighborhoods" where at least 20 percent of the residents were poor." pg 71

[twoshort]

When I was at GVSU, there was a "near-riot" described in the paper, if you count 20 people standing in the parking lot a riot. It was a joke.

Ahh Hillcrest.. (I assume that's what you're referring to)

[GRDadof3]

Getting back to some of the comments at the beginning of this post regarding economic diversity in neighborhoods. In Grand Rapids, I don't think we can talk about economic diversity without a frank discussion of racial diversity. In David Rusk's 1998 book "Inside Game/Outside Game" he says this about Grand Rapids.

"But economic growth alone is not sufficient to stem the growth of poverty neighborhoods. The Grand Rapids area has had on of the country's most prosperous economies. The poverty rate has been stable (around 8 percent). Between 1973 and 1988, the Grand Rapids area experienced a 55 percent increase in jobs, a rate of increase equal to that in metro Charlotte. Most remarkably, the area had a 22 percent increase in manufacturing employment, although undoubtedly education and skill requirements rose in jobs in the manufacturing sector. But Grand Rapids is also a very recially segregated society ( a dissimilarity index of 72). Any adverse economic adjustments affecting black workers were magnified within highly segregated black neighborhoods. Despite the region's prosperity, the number of poverty neighborhoods grew from twelve to twenty-two, and almost half of these had minority populations even though the entire region had less than a 10 percent minority population." pg 77

"In a typical metro area, however, three out of four poor whites lived in middle-class, mostly suburban neighborhoods. By contrast, three out of four poor blacks and on out of two poor Hispanics lived in inner-city "poverty neighborhoods" where at least 20 percent of the residents were poor." pg 71

I think you raise a valid point, bwindi. For example, I kept reading these very frustrating letters recently to the editor in the Press. A couple of them were about the local woman who worked for the FHA or HUD who got that new reality show about picking your neighbors kicked off the air before it ran. Several letters were written in to the Press stating "the show should be kept on so that we can address these racial and social prejudices" and get to the bottom of the issues that people have. All sounds good and jim-dandy, until I noticed most of the letter writers were from Lowell, Ionia, Cedar Springs, . How about moving back to the city, folks, and you can actually work on these problems with "actual people" instead of looking for the answers on a "reality" show. The last thing I think we need is to see my fellow white brothers' and sisters' racial and homophobic attitudes paraded across the television.

Another letter was from a woman lamenting the fact that Fred Meijer was donating money to the Civic Theatre, and not to the GR Public Schools. OK, maybe. But then I saw she was from Sparta or Newaygo Perhaps YOUR tax dollars could go to the GRPS if you lived in GR

Ugghhhh!

End rant.