Newsweek published something on America's Dying Cities last week using the most recent census data on population loss to examine those cities with the most total population loss and loss of those younger than age 18.
On this list is Grand Rapids, which happened to upset a bunch of people, prompted the mayor to write a response, and created a mini-firestorm on my Facebook homepage... I get it. Being from the Grand Rapids area helps me understand those angry people and the fault of Newsweek. By simply using the census data, they only see a total population loss over a ten year period, but they fail to notice the low point was four years ago and the city is now rebounding.
Pittsburgh is on the list too in a similar situation, and I think what is written for it gives better insight that could be used for GR than the general stuff about Michigan that was actually given. Since the populations have gone down, especially in the younger age groups, these cities will have a harder time moving forward than others like San Francisco or Portland that are attractive simply by existing...
I really like that Grand Rapids and Mayor Heartwell stepped up and pointed out Newsweek's flaws and the strengths of the city. It needs to be done. Negative media portrayal leads to situations like Detroit's where the good gets totally overshadowed by the bad.
However, we shouldn't just say Newsweek got it totally wrong and stop there. We did lose population, and we have not gotten back to where we were before. In terms of income on the metro level (suburbs included) taking a class in economic development last semester informed me the median income in Metro Grand Rapids is lower than the median for Metro Detroit. Yes. Worse than Detroit.
Obviously, Detroit is skewed upward by Oakland County, but Grand Rapids is probably affected in a similar way by EGR, Ada, etc. Plus, we should also look at the low end of the spectrum where Detroit probably (extrapolating from its larger population) has a higher number of individuals and families with lower incomes. Therefore, some kind of balance may be expected between the two. In total dollars and wages for employees, our region is not anywhere near the economic power we may think.
ArtPrize, "green" building, and sustainability are great (I love them all), but they are just a start. Success includes so much more than that. In some ways we may be "thriving," but the opposite still exists too, and we need to continue working hard on making Grand Rapids the best city it can be.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
My Music Folder 2010
Here is the music I listened to most from last year:
Caribou - Swim
Girl Talk - All Day
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
New Pornographers - Together
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Brews for Ale
I am fascinated with and enjoy beer. As a result, I have started another blog where my friends and I can talk about it.
Beers for Ale is it's name. If you are interested in the topic or just feel like reading more of my opinions hop on over and check it out. Have something you want to share yourself? Let me know and maybe you can post.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
KiD CuDi, Please Impress Me
Kid Cudi has released a another album. I still don't know what to think. A handful of songs on his original mixtape hinted much promise, but few tracks on his first two commercial releases live up, especially since "Day 'N' Nite" was on the mixtape first. I really like some of his songs, but his albums as whole pieces of work have yet to truly impress me. I know a lot of people have issues with the reviewers at Pitchfork, but their reviews of Man on the Moon and the cleverly named Man on the Moon II actually manage to sum up how I feel pretty well.
"Man on the Moon: The End of the Day, was a modest commercial success but a mortifying creative face-plant, a compilation of the most two-dimensional art-school-kid clichés (I'm sad, I'm stoned, I'm deep) imaginable" - Jayson Greene, Pitchfork Review, November 18, 2010
"Man on the Moon: The End of the Day, was a modest commercial success but a mortifying creative face-plant, a compilation of the most two-dimensional art-school-kid clichés (I'm sad, I'm stoned, I'm deep) imaginable" - Jayson Greene, Pitchfork Review, November 18, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Expanded Horizons
Every year, the University of Michigan planning program puts on Expanded Horizons. It is a 5 day break from classes and takes many of the first year planning students on a trip to explore some city withing driving distance of Ann Arbor - all for a class credit (assuming we manage to participate and turn in a short paper when requested).
I returned from this one week ago. Our destination this was Philadelphia, PA (which has a ridiculous number of one-way streets)!
Last Wednesday morning the planning students crammed onto a bus for our 11 hour ride to the City of Brotherly Love. The trip went like most long rides and all of us were relieved when we finally arrived at our hotel: A Holiday Inn Express right in the center city. After settling in, we went to wander downtown a little to grab some dinner and drinks.
On Thursday morning, we met up with the director of the Preservation Alliance, piled onto our bus again, and took a tour of the city learning everything we wanted to know about Philadelphia. We went past Independence Hall, through Society Hill, Temple University, and many other places (some pretty sketchy).
After our tour, we went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. An indoor farmer's market, Reading had just about every kind of food you could want and was simply a unique place with many different people wandering its crowded paths.
In the afternoon we began splitting into groups, which went to various organizations throughout the city, to see what kind of planning-related activities were happening. My first one was Greensgrow urban agriculture. Like any urban agriculture project, Greensgrow was doing a lot with sustainability, education and outreach, and supplying healthy, locally grown foods via the market and the CSA (which includes some kind of protein with the vegetables each week). However, it was interesting to learn that they did not start out of the local foods movement or for social justice issues, but rather as a way to simply use vacant land.
The farm is located on the site of a former factory that polluted the ground with many heavy metals and is an EPA-classified brownfield. To "fix" the site, it was covered over by a concrete slab, so none of the farming is actually done in the ground of that site. The first farming they did was for-profit hydroponic lettuce, which was sold to high-end restaurants in downtown Philadelphia. Eventually they moved in the direction to where they are now as they responded to the needs of the neighborhood and added a nursery and market, etc.
Much of what they sell is grown above the concrete in raised beds within greenhouse structures or is purchased from other local farmers to distribute in the neighborhood. They are just beginning to break even on the food growing side of their enterprise, but have been able to rake in money from selling flowers and other plants from the nursery to cover expenses.
On Thursday night, we held a social event and met up with a bunch of planning students from UPenn (Ivy Leaguers!) at the bar.
Friday was a continuation of meeting various organizations, and in the morning I went to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Here we learned about how they are working to make Philadelphia more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Various types of bike lanes are being implemented and we walked down to look at one that included a buffer zone between drivers and riders.
Another project was the conversion of parking meters into bike racks. As the city converts to parking kiosks for entire blocks of spaces and the old meters are removed, the poles are left behind and places to lock bikes to are being bolted on. Other projects included larger bicycle trail systems and general education for drivers, riders, and pedestrians.
In the afternoon was my final session. A group of us walked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and talked with the executive director of the Fairmount Parks system (who has a niece that went to Calvin). We began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Rocky ran up the steps and ended down near city hall. Along the way we learned about the green space, traffic concerns, and current construction projects. There are a couple of new and remodeled museums along the way as well as many other civic buildings such as the library. It is quite the historic stretch of road: created as Philadelphia's ChampsElysees during the City Beautiful movement.
If I had to pick a session I didn't go to, but wished I had it would be Postgreen ... or Interface Studios: joint creators of the LEED Gold or Platinum, 100k home.
We spent Friday night bowling and socializing. Making sure we got to know all the people who went on the trip - another purpose of such a trip. Many of us ended up walking to the Piazza at Schmidt's, a development by Tower Investments - where a number of others went for one of their sessions.
Later in the night, a number of us decided it would be cool to head over the Delaware river to Camden, NJ - one of America's most dangerous cities. Probably not the best idea ever. The place seemed like a literal ghost town, and after talking to some police officers who said we were a "huge red flag" we went back to where we came from.
Saturday morning we did some community service work cleaning up parks and a business district. We disposed of trash, raked, weeded, mulched, etc.
That afternoon, a number of us went to Tony Luke's to get cheesesteaks and then ended up at the bar to watch the Michigan-Indiana football game with the Alumni Club of Philadelphia.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip that allowed me to see a different city, learn quite a bit, and get to know my classmates a lot better.
I returned from this one week ago. Our destination this was Philadelphia, PA (which has a ridiculous number of one-way streets)!
Last Wednesday morning the planning students crammed onto a bus for our 11 hour ride to the City of Brotherly Love. The trip went like most long rides and all of us were relieved when we finally arrived at our hotel: A Holiday Inn Express right in the center city. After settling in, we went to wander downtown a little to grab some dinner and drinks.
On Thursday morning, we met up with the director of the Preservation Alliance, piled onto our bus again, and took a tour of the city learning everything we wanted to know about Philadelphia. We went past Independence Hall, through Society Hill, Temple University, and many other places (some pretty sketchy).
After our tour, we went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. An indoor farmer's market, Reading had just about every kind of food you could want and was simply a unique place with many different people wandering its crowded paths.
In the afternoon we began splitting into groups, which went to various organizations throughout the city, to see what kind of planning-related activities were happening. My first one was Greensgrow urban agriculture. Like any urban agriculture project, Greensgrow was doing a lot with sustainability, education and outreach, and supplying healthy, locally grown foods via the market and the CSA (which includes some kind of protein with the vegetables each week). However, it was interesting to learn that they did not start out of the local foods movement or for social justice issues, but rather as a way to simply use vacant land.
The farm is located on the site of a former factory that polluted the ground with many heavy metals and is an EPA-classified brownfield. To "fix" the site, it was covered over by a concrete slab, so none of the farming is actually done in the ground of that site. The first farming they did was for-profit hydroponic lettuce, which was sold to high-end restaurants in downtown Philadelphia. Eventually they moved in the direction to where they are now as they responded to the needs of the neighborhood and added a nursery and market, etc.
Much of what they sell is grown above the concrete in raised beds within greenhouse structures or is purchased from other local farmers to distribute in the neighborhood. They are just beginning to break even on the food growing side of their enterprise, but have been able to rake in money from selling flowers and other plants from the nursery to cover expenses.
On Thursday night, we held a social event and met up with a bunch of planning students from UPenn (Ivy Leaguers!) at the bar.
Friday was a continuation of meeting various organizations, and in the morning I went to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Here we learned about how they are working to make Philadelphia more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Various types of bike lanes are being implemented and we walked down to look at one that included a buffer zone between drivers and riders.
Another project was the conversion of parking meters into bike racks. As the city converts to parking kiosks for entire blocks of spaces and the old meters are removed, the poles are left behind and places to lock bikes to are being bolted on. Other projects included larger bicycle trail systems and general education for drivers, riders, and pedestrians.
In the afternoon was my final session. A group of us walked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and talked with the executive director of the Fairmount Parks system (who has a niece that went to Calvin). We began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Rocky ran up the steps and ended down near city hall. Along the way we learned about the green space, traffic concerns, and current construction projects. There are a couple of new and remodeled museums along the way as well as many other civic buildings such as the library. It is quite the historic stretch of road: created as Philadelphia's ChampsElysees during the City Beautiful movement.
If I had to pick a session I didn't go to, but wished I had it would be Postgreen ... or Interface Studios: joint creators of the LEED Gold or Platinum, 100k home.
We spent Friday night bowling and socializing. Making sure we got to know all the people who went on the trip - another purpose of such a trip. Many of us ended up walking to the Piazza at Schmidt's, a development by Tower Investments - where a number of others went for one of their sessions.
Later in the night, a number of us decided it would be cool to head over the Delaware river to Camden, NJ - one of America's most dangerous cities. Probably not the best idea ever. The place seemed like a literal ghost town, and after talking to some police officers who said we were a "huge red flag" we went back to where we came from.
Saturday morning we did some community service work cleaning up parks and a business district. We disposed of trash, raked, weeded, mulched, etc.
That afternoon, a number of us went to Tony Luke's to get cheesesteaks and then ended up at the bar to watch the Michigan-Indiana football game with the Alumni Club of Philadelphia.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip that allowed me to see a different city, learn quite a bit, and get to know my classmates a lot better.
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