Photo Tour
How Grand Rapids is working to decrease the negative impacts of parking on their community:
Grand Rapids for its part has been doing an OK job of working through the damage done to the city by parking and reducing the amount of parking that needs to be in place. In the last few years, it has reduced and eliminated parking minimums in its downtown core, multiple improvement corridors, and regularly waives parking minimums across the city. Just recently, it told the region’s largest employer to rethink their plans to demolish and pave a large area just outside of the downtown core, echoing the voices of its community members. In the month of January, the planning committee voted unanimously to reduce parking minimums citywide as part of a zoning change to allow for more affordable housing to be built. We still have a ways to go in fully eliminating the hardship the parking has imposed on our city, but there is progress being made in the right direction.
How Grand Rapids is building streets that are dominated by people and accommodate automobiles—not the other way around:
Almost a decade ago, the voters of Grand Rapids voted for a millage to provide funding to the city’s new Vitals Streets Program. This program was designed to help fund the building of green infrastructure and “complete” streets. Recently, the city has been able to celebrate some wins, with the addition of curb-protected bike lanes this year, some funky raised bike lanes a few years ago, and future pedestrianization, leading to one of Grand Rapids’ most-used pedestrian bridges. During COVID, the city allowed businesses to activate street parking and turn it into an outdoor setting. This program has been wildly successful and is now a permanent fixture of the city. This year, we welcomed our first bike signal at an intersection, and appointed two Strong Towns Grand Rapids members to the MobileGR Committee. We continue to rebuild and retrofit roads to make them safer through all of Grand Rapids, and there is more to come.
How Grand Rapids is making progress toward greater transparency in budgeting and accounting:
Our city is better than a lot of other cities in this case, but it is still overly complicated and confusing. The data itself can be hard or inconvenient to access and often is missing data or a study of alternatives. Some city departments are transparent about where their money comes from, and we do have a participatory budgeting process in the city. All finance committee meetings are public record and are easily accessed from a few different sources. You are also able to speak at these meetings, which allows for a citizen’s voice in the process.
How Grand Rapids is promoting the incremental development of more housing options and greater housing flexibility:
Just recently, the planning commission passed a zoning reform that would allow incremental development to really start happening. These changes would make it easier to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs), allow duplexes through sixplexes in low-density residential neighborhoods by right, and reduce parking minimums citywide. In 2018, the city passed Housing Now, which legalized the development of ADUs, eliminated some barriers to development, and streamlined the process of building housing for all. Grand Rapids also has a few very active organizations working in this space. Housing Next, Together West Michigan, The Dwelling place, and ICCF Community home advocating for affordable, incremental housing for all levels.
How Grand Rapids is shifting focus toward maintaining their existing infrastructure instead of just building more roads:
Community involvement. That is the biggest driver in getting roads for people and not for traffic. We had an open discussion with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and a very vocal opposition to expanding the freeway through downtown. The current planning of Grand Rapids, as shown in the GR Forward plan, the master plans of 2002 and 2024, GR Forward (2015), and every corridor improvement plan show that the citizens of Grand Rapids do not want more roads. The citizens have run the math, and determined that it would be more economical to turn the freeway through downtown into a boulevard. The city of Grand Rapids has done a good job on reducing lanes, installing curbouts, street trees, and expanding pedestrian access throughout the city. Its staff members openly joke about the MDOT roads through our city, as they are the most dangerous roads for pedestrians and drivers alike.
How Grand Rapids leaders engage with the public and listen to them:
Grand Rapids is generally good about listening to its citizens, but it does need to be reminded of what the citizens want. This is where speaking up at every opportunity is important. This year, groups like Strong Towns Grand Rapids, Friends of Slow Streets, and Housing Next have changed the way that city commissioners view policy. They know that the citizens are looking to hold them accountable for what we have told them we want. We have a lot of plans, we just need to make them reality. As long as we continue to come out, speak up, and be consistent, we will get it done.
What inspires Grand Rapids to keep working to make the town stronger and sets it apart as truly special:
Grand Rapids is a great city. It’s hard to be bored in a city like Grand Rapids, as there is always something going on. Questions like what festival is going on, or who is playing a show at one of the multiple performance venues are common. Grand Rapids is one of those places where you fall in love with just one visit. Our walkable downtown is full of art, family-friendly activities, fantastic food, and an event almost every weekday. During the summer, the festivals are full of bike riders and their bikes are lining the fences. Grand Rapids is already a walkable city, and we are finally making progress to make it more walkable. We are a city of transit users, with a bus system that has a ridership well above the rate of other bus systems with similar funding. About 12% of households in Grand Rapids don’t have a car, and that number is growing with the city.
