Grand Rapids

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by cannedairspray

I wasn't that far south, but a lot of my friends were from Beverly and I spent a shit ton of time there, especially during my high school years. The Bake was one of the first bars I was a regular at, and I wasn't 21.

i remember being in the trenches - grown assed adults face down in the alley, the cops making sure everyone is ok - with the southsiders, then watching the busses pull up with cubs fans pouring out ostensibly from the northside. cops beating ass. 100% blacked out after that. i probably died.

[Centropolis]

also CANNEDAIRSPEW that corroberates the michigan/wisco dynamic i always suspected. that there is a split, too.

[Centropolis]

good shit.

[The ATX]

I'm from Grand Rapids, and that's where most of my family lives. It has had relatively stagnant population growth for decades typical of Rust Belt cities. But the city has a good economy and has done a very good job in maintaining a healthy downtown. It has a couple of wealthy benefactors similar to its big brother to the SE. There are no large swaths of abandoned or run down areas that people usually associate with Rust Belt cities. With that said I left for Austin a long time ago and won't ever return. Not because Grand Rapids is unpleasant, but because Austin exists.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by The ATX

I'm from Grand Rapids, and that's where most of my family lives. It has had relatively stagnant population growth for decades typical of Rust Belt cities. But the city has a good economy and has done a very good job in maintaining a healthy downtown. It has a couple of wealthy benefactors similar to its big brother to the SE. There are no large swaths of abandoned or run down areas that people usually associate with Rust Belt cities. With that said I left for Austin a long time ago and won't ever return. Not because Grand Rapids is unpleasant, but because Austin exists.

Plus, no snow and ice. I'm from New York; I could not go back to that. I like flip flops in December.

[Doady]

"Grand Rapids" sounds more like a city of 100k people rather than the central city of an metropolitan area of 1M people. I was very surprised at its size when I was looking for transit mode share stats for the USA.

[The ATX]

A few more things...

Grand Rapids is near the top of that "1/3" line that separates most of the state's population and industry in the lower 1/3 of the state from the largely undeveloped northern 2/3.

Michigan has some great beaches - mainly on Lake Michigan (Sandy and Duney) and Lake Superior (rocky and scenic). I liken Michigan to Minnesota in that once you head north of Grand Rapids or Minneapolis, there is a lot of wilderness (and Bears).

Most folks including me favor Detroit teams. To this day the Lions and Michigan Wolverines are my football teams. I hate the Cowboys. But there are some Cubs fans in the SW part of the state. The UP - especially the western half - are solid Packers fans. The folks I've known in the UP could not care less about Detroit or most of the lower 1/3 of Michigan for that matter. I'm pretty sure that feeling works in reverse as well.

[dc_denizen]

I think Grand Rapids itself is 600k in terms of urban area and the two adjacent cities make it around 730k. So not 1 million.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

I think Grand Rapids itself is 600k in terms of urban area and the two adjacent cities make it around 730k. So not 1 million.

The OP was referring to the metro area which is 1.06 million.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by JManc

Plus, no snow and ice. I'm from New York; I could not go back to that. I like flip flops in December.

Winters are definitely one reason why I would never go back. The lake effect snow accumulations near Lake Michigan make for some rough winters. But Austin, Houston, Texas in general would not be habitable IMO without AC. But with that said, I still am much more happy with hot summers than cold winters.

[Centropolis]

god damned october in missouri is as hot as two scorpions fucking in an MRAP i can’t imagine texas year after year. you just get hot and can’t cool down, just went swimming in a hot outdoor pool. you just sweat syrup this time of year.

[Centropolis]

i pray for snow.

[cannedairspray]

Say what you will about Hawaii, but my years there imparted in me that there really is a place with perfect weather. And it's not San Diego.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by cannedairspray

Say what you will about Hawaii, but my years there imparted in me that there really is a place with perfect weather. And it's not San Diego.

No place is perfect. But some places are definitely a lot closer to perfection than most.

[SIGSEGV]

I assume cannedairspray must be from cannedairyville.

[cannedairspray]

Nah, near west side and Bridgeport. But no one ever partied there so most of my misspent youth was in alleys in Beverly or Lincoln Park. I went to Ignatius so my social circle was geographically broad.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by cannedairspray

So some of my dad's family settled in West Michigan so I'd spend a lot of the summer there when I was little. That's obviously the biggest factor that my mental impression is the complete opposite, but the other is that as a southsider, anything north of like Peterson was a different world. I lived in Milwaukee for a winter and it still feels, mentally, like it might as well be the Twin Cities.* Meanwhile, Holland, South Haven, Saugatuck, Benton Harbor, etc...that's the backyard.

Ironically, I only went to Grand Rapids a few times in my life, and none since maybe 1990. It seems kinda weird to see this topic, know the general area so well, remember the fucking TV channels from Grand Rapids that I'd watch as a kid...but not know anything about it from personal experience .

*Weirdly, Madison, though, feels like home. Madison and Champaign occupy the same place in my mind.

That's interesting. I grew up in the northern burbs (wilmette), so the other side of the lake always felt far away. And I too have a bunch of family over in SW michigan (kalamzoo/Cassopolis area) and spent a lot of summer vacations over there as well, but it always felt far away because it meant going through the entire city (and all of its traffic) and the down and around the bottom of the lake, usually a 2 to 2.5 hour drive depending on traffic.

Milwaukee on the the hand was only an hour away from the northern burbs if traffic was open, and thus felt much more "in the neighborhood".


Regarding grand rapids itself, it's much further away from downtown chicago than milwaukee is.

Downtown to downtown driving distances:

Chicago to Milwaukee - 91 miles

Chicago to Grand Rapids - 178 miles

So roughly twice as far away.

[10023]

A million people or not, there’s nothing there. One of the main differences between Europe and America is that in Europe, a city of a million people (or even half a million), has a real city center, a dense built environment, lots of history, and numerous sights of real significance. In America, outside of the East Coast, it’s just subdivisions and a big Wal-Mart.

I mean, Salzburg has about 150k people. The metro is maybe twice that. And there’s actually stuff to see, and an urban city center.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by 10023

A million people or not, there’s nothing there. One of the main differences between Europe and America is that in Europe, a city of a million people (or even half a million), has a real city center, a dense built environment, lots of history, and numerous sights of real significance. In America, outside of the East Coast, it’s just subdivisions and a big Wal-Mart.

I mean, Salzburg has about 150k people. The metro is maybe twice that. And there’s actually stuff to see, and an urban city center.

What is the point of posts like these?

We skipped right over the Grand Rapids to Toronto comparison, and moved right to the Grand Rapids to all of Europe.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

What is the point of posts like these?

We skipped right over the Grand Rapids to Toronto comparison, and moved right to the Grand Rapids to all of Europe.

10023 makes a sport of saying annoying things like that, a feature that appears to grow with age.

American cities are still a blank slate, and that’s a good thing. European towns were built centuries ago, and yay for them. I take zero interest