Original Story: woodtv.com
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids woman who tenants said pretended to be their landlord and collected rent but then ‘took our money and ran’ is now the focus of a criminal fraud investigation.
Cheryl Murphy told Target 8 last week that she didn’t know what she was going to do about a place to live. She said she and her husband had paid $1,400 to Amanda Straight to live with her in a house on Griswold Street SE through February.
What Murphy didn’t know when she handed over the money is that Straight doesn’t own that home. She was a tenant renting it. Murphy said Straight took her rent money but never paid the actual property owner. A Plymouth Landlord Tenant Lawyer has experience representing clients involved in eviction disputes.
The real landlord is in the process of evicting Straight, who has since moved to another house. It is at least the third eviction notice she has faced this year, but Straight has never shown up for a court date.
Murphy, her husband and another tenant are going to be thrown out of the house on Griswold, too. Murphy said they didn’t have anywhere to go and didn’t have the money to find a new place.
After Target 8’s story aired, Tamara Holmberg — who doesn’t know Murphy — decided she had to do something to help. She started a GoFundMe.com account.
“We were able to raise, after the fees and everything, $1,400,” Holmberg said.
Tuesday, she presented Murphy with that $1,400 in cash, which was collected from mostly anonymous donors. The money will be used to help Murphy and her husband find a new place to live.
“They didn’t have to do this. They don’t know us. They have their own families and people to take care of that are close to their hearts, and for them to reach out to us and our situation that we were placed in , it has been a really overwhelming experience,” Murphy said.
The Grand Rapids Police Department said it also learned about Straight’s alleged shady dealings from Target 8. After the story aired, police started getting calls from other victims. GRPD forwarded the case to the Metropolitan Fraud and Identity Theft Task Force for investigation. No charges had been filed against Straight as of Tuesday. A Birmingham Eviction Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.
Sara Czachorski told Target 8 she was also ripped off by Straight. She lived with Straight at a house on Kalamazoo Avenue SE that she thought Straight owned. But she realized something was fishy.
“I knew things weren’t obviously OK. There were times where several people (would come to the house). She wouldn’t answer the door,” Czachorski said.
Straight kicked her out unexpectedly, she said.
“A couple of days later, we filed for small claims,” Czachorski said.
Czachorski told the judge that Straight owned her over $1,000 for an unreturned security deposit and cable and Internet service that was supposed to be included in Czachorski’s rent. Straight told her Czachorski’s name would have to appear on the bill and she would pay Sara.
“She said, ‘Well, they won’t let me get it in my name,'” Czachorski recalled. “She said she didn’t have good credit.”
Czachorski won a judgment against Straight when Straight, once again, did not show up to court. A Rochester Landlord Tenant Lawyer assist property owners in regaining possession of their land from tenants refusing to abide by the terms of their lease.
But she is being summoned there again. Murphy has also filed a small claims case for the rent Straight took from her. The case goes before a judge Jan. 7.
Showing posts with label Grand Rapids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grand Rapids. Show all posts
29 December 2014
13 November 2014
GR RANKED ON LGBT INCLUSIVENESS
Original Story: woodtv.com
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids received an average score from an LGBT civil rights group that rates cities on how inclusive they are for the LGBT community.
The Human Rights Campaign released its third annual Municipal Equality Index Wednesday. The group looks at laws, policies, and services in cities across the nation to score them.
Grand Rapids scored a 59 out of 100, which is the same as the national average.
The city got a plus for its nondiscrimination policy in city employment. The author of the report told 24 Hour News 8 that’s significant for a city that doesn’t have the benefit of state law.
“Grand Rapids is an example of a city that’s doing better than the state, frankly, and it’s amazing to see so many cities are really excelling where the state are perhaps not there yet,” Cathryn Oakley, the HRC’s legislative counsel, said in a phone interview. The MetroHealth Pride Clinic is devoted to serving the health needs of the LGBT community.
The report also points out where Grand Rapids needs to improve.
One area is law enforcement. The Grand Rapids Police Department doesn’t have an LGBT police liaison, which the group says is the best practice nationwide. The liaison would ensure that hate crime evidence is processed appropriately and that members of the LGBT community are treated respectfully if they’re arrested.
According to the Municipal Equality Index, Detroit, East Lansing and Lansing have LGBT police liaisons or task forces.
In Michigan, the index rated East Lansing the best, giving it a perfect score. Ann Arbor came in next with a score of 83. Detroit scored a 74.
No other West Michigan cities were included in the index.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids received an average score from an LGBT civil rights group that rates cities on how inclusive they are for the LGBT community.
The Human Rights Campaign released its third annual Municipal Equality Index Wednesday. The group looks at laws, policies, and services in cities across the nation to score them.
Grand Rapids scored a 59 out of 100, which is the same as the national average.
The city got a plus for its nondiscrimination policy in city employment. The author of the report told 24 Hour News 8 that’s significant for a city that doesn’t have the benefit of state law.
“Grand Rapids is an example of a city that’s doing better than the state, frankly, and it’s amazing to see so many cities are really excelling where the state are perhaps not there yet,” Cathryn Oakley, the HRC’s legislative counsel, said in a phone interview. The MetroHealth Pride Clinic is devoted to serving the health needs of the LGBT community.
The report also points out where Grand Rapids needs to improve.
One area is law enforcement. The Grand Rapids Police Department doesn’t have an LGBT police liaison, which the group says is the best practice nationwide. The liaison would ensure that hate crime evidence is processed appropriately and that members of the LGBT community are treated respectfully if they’re arrested.
According to the Municipal Equality Index, Detroit, East Lansing and Lansing have LGBT police liaisons or task forces.
In Michigan, the index rated East Lansing the best, giving it a perfect score. Ann Arbor came in next with a score of 83. Detroit scored a 74.
No other West Michigan cities were included in the index.
20 August 2014
RETIRE HERE, NOT THERE: MICHIGAN
Original Story: MarketWatch.com
Michigan is probably not the first state that comes to mind when people think about retiring on the beach. And yet its sandy, dune-lined shorelines, with coasts along four of the five Great Lakes, have attracted many boomers to the “Riviera of the Midwest.”
Indeed residents anywhere in Michigan are never more than 6 miles from a body of water; the state has more than 36,000 miles of streams and more than 11,000 inland lakes, along with the most freshwater coastline in any state in the nation. This life aquatic gives retirees plenty to do. The state has more than 900,000 registered boats and ranked seventh in the nation in number of registered fishermen—over 1 million—in 2013. Many quaint towns have grown up along the shores, luring retirees with restaurants, locally owned shops and artist communities.
The sporty lifestyle in the Great Lakes State doesn’t end at the water line. Golfers have over 800 public courses to choose from, including three that made the 2013-14 Golf Digest list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses: Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfurt (No. 12); the south course at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills (No. 20); and Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club in Arcadia (No. 57). The state ranks third in licensed hunters with more than 760,000. Plus, Michigan has the largest state forest system in the nation.
Michigan, and in particular Detroit, are known for cars, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is a shrine not just to the automobile but to American inventors, with sections on aviation and manufacturing, as well as special exhibitions. The state also has a strong reputation for arts and culture. The 658,000-square-foot Detroit Institute of the Arts ranks among the top six art museums in the nation for its multicultural collection spanning from prehistory to the 21st century; it also hosts top traveling exhibitions. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is home to the internationally renowned annual Art Prize competition and has a growing reputation in 19th and 20th century American and European art, works on paper, and crafts and design.
Many of Michigan's smaller towns pack a cultural punch as well. The Ann Arbor Art Fair, which presents crafts ranging from ceramics to paintings to jewelry, attracts more than 500,000 attendees annually; and the area around Saugatuck, nicknamed “the artist's colony of the Midwest,” has dozens of galleries and a small, but engaged, population of retiree artists.
Possibly the best thing about Michigan, particularly for those who want to stretch their nest eggs, is how inexpensive it is. The cost of living is 11.2% below the national average, the median home costs just over $117,000, and both nursing home and assisted-living costs are below average. Income is taxed at a flat rate of 4.32%--the 11th lowest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. Boomers who want to keep working may have been reluctant to consider relocating to Michigan, which took one of the hardest job-loss hits in the nation during the auto industry’s decline. But the state unemployment rate is now 7.3%, only a point above the national average, and recent job growth is positive, according to Sperling’s Best Places.
Retirees had better not mind cold winters: In Michigan, they average 58.1 inches of snow. On the other hand, all those flakes make for prime cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, as well as some stunning ice formations on Lake Michigan when the waves freeze in place, says Bill Underdown, an agent with Shoreline Realtors based in Douglas, Mich. “It’s magical,” he adds. Retirees on Lake Michigan’s shores who like the four seasons will find that the water soaks up the summer heat making for “very long usually dreamy falls,” says Mike Norton, media relations manager for Traverse City Tourism.
State crime rates overall are only slightly higher than the national average, although violent crime in Detroit is much more frequent than in the U.S. as a whole.
Here are four budget-conscious retirement destinations which blend the state’s strengths from the outdoors to the cultural:
Traverse City
Traverse City is a hub for hiking, cross-country skiing, cycling and boating. “In the winter, almost all the cars have ski racks; in the summer, they have kayaks on them,” Norton says. This means that the area tends to attract active retirees, the kind of people who “want to be out, who don't want to just sit around and watch the world go by,” he adds.
They'll find plenty to do here: The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore features long stretches of beach and bluffs that jut up 450 feet above Lake Michigan; it’s a favorite spot for canoeing and kayaking. Hikers and bikers also enjoy the TART Trails system, a network of eight multiuse trails and a crosstown bike route. Traverse City is also one of the leading fly-fishing destinations in America, with four blue-ribbon trout streams within a half-hour drive of town.
To unwind from all this strenuous outdoor activity, retirees can visit the area's thriving wineries. The lake creates a unique microclimate that makes the area near Traverse City excellent for growing fruit like apricots, cherries and grapes. The region is known for its white wines, particularly rieslings, Chardonnays, pinot grigios and gewürztraminers--but it’s also beginning to produce some decent quality reds, like Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Francs. It is also one of the top producers of ice wine, a dessert wine made from winter-frozen grapes. The wineries, along with the orchards and farms, have helped produce a foodie scene, Norton says, with “a lot of farm-to-table restaurants.”
Traverse City offers other perks for retirees, including a compact downtown, lined with local businesses; a lively art gallery scene; and one of the region's best hospitals. The Cherry Capital Airport has direct flights to Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Minneapolis. One downside—the town can get crowded with tourists in the summer.
By the numbers:
Population: 14,702
Median home cost: $165,800
Cost of living: 1.8% lower than the national average
Unemployment: 6.6%
Source: Sperling's Best Places
Marquette
Nestled on the shores of shimmering Lake Superior in the far northern arm of the state, Marquette is rich in outdoor activities. The Noquemanon Trail Network, which runs through town and all along the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is a favorite for walkers, mountain bikers and cross-country skiers alike. In the winter, “fat tire biking” is a popular way to pedal through the snow. Downhill skiers hit Marquette Mountain, which boasts 169 skiable acres of mostly moderate terrain. Sailors love this town too: A local group, Fleet 35, has sailed on the Bay of Marquette every Wednesday since the early 1970s, and residents gather by the water to watch the local rowing club take their longboats out on evenings during the summer, says Pat Black, executive director of the Marquette County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The lake also offers more relaxing activities like kayaking and fishing. The area has six golf courses and plenty of land for both small- and large-game hunting.
“There are lots of cultural activities beginning to grow here,” Black says. The quaint, walkable downtown is lined with historic sandstone buildings that house eclectic restaurants, bars and shops. The Huron Mountain Club Gallery and Marquette Arts and Culture Center, both in the Peter White Public Library, host exhibits by locally, regionally and nationally known artists. Marquette is home to Northern Michigan University, where people over 62 can take classes free; the campus is also the site of the DeVos Art Museum. The Northern Center for Lifelong Learning offers low-cost classes in subjects like photography and bird-watching, along with social events. From early June to October, Marquette County hosts free events every weekend from concerts to festivals to athletic competitions, Black says.
Marquette does have a small airport with direct flights to Chicago and Detroit. Well-regarded Marquette General Hospital is operated by Duke LifePoint Healthcare, affiliated with Duke University.
By the numbers:
Population: 21,383
Median home cost: $159,900
Cost of living: 2.9% lower than average
Unemployment: 7.4%
Grand Rapids
After a career as a defense electrical engineer mostly in the Los Angeles area, Bob Lindeman and his wife Julie—both age 60—retired to their hometown of Grand Rapids in September 2013, not only to be near their elderly fathers, but because they could find a high quality of life at an affordable price. Their cost to build a 5,200-square foot home on Georgetown Shores Lake is half what it cost them to have a similar size home two blocks from the beach in greater Los Angeles, Bob says. “We were close to the ocean, but now we’re on the water,” he adds. “We’re going to have a boat.”
Grand Rapids made the top five in AARP Magazine’s list of top places to retire for under $30,000 a year in 2013, and it’s easy to see why. The city has a revitalized, vibrant downtown, ringed by historic neighborhoods with surprisingly reasonably priced homes. “In the last 10 to 15 years, Grand Rapids has had a real resurgence, particularly culturally,” says Jeannine Lemmon, associate broker and owner of Grand Rapids-based Patriot Realty. “That’s really pushed Grand Rapids into the forefront as a destination.”
Eclectic shops, art galleries, restaurants and night life have sprung up downtown and in districts such as Eastown, East Hills-Cherry Hill, Midtown and West Fulton, Lemmon says. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is internationally known for its annual ArtPrize competition, which attracts artists from around the globe. The small city has its own symphony, ballet and opera companies, and the DeVos Performance Hall hosts nationally known performers and Broadway touring shows. Retirees have plenty to do outdoors, too: The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park includes works by artists from Rodin to Calder and a five-story tropical conservatory; and the city is just a 40-minute drive away from Lake Michigan beaches. It will be even easier to get downtown from the suburbs when the Silver Line hybrid bus starts service in September.
Gerald R. Ford International Airport offers direct flights all across the U.S. In the health-care field, the Van Andel Institute is a world-class research institution in cancer and other health topics, and the Meijer Heart Center, part of the Spectrum Health system, also is globally renowned.
By the numbers:
Population: 189,340
Median home cost: $103,500
Cost of living: 11.5% lower than average
Unemployment: 6.8%
Douglas
While sister city Saugatuck, just across the Kalamazoo River, is better known, Douglas shares that city’s white sand Lake Michigan beaches and embrace of the arts—the area has gained the nickname of the Art Coast. Once a sleepy farm town known for peaches and a basket factory, Douglas is a bit more laid back and less touristy than Saugatuck, and it’s easier to find housing there, says Underdown, the local real-estate agent, who lives in a renovated farmhouse that dates back to the 1880s.
The art life and natural beauty are what drew Tom and Janice Krakowski to Douglas. They fell in love with the area when Tom started attending art workshops at Ox-Bow, a nearby art college surrounded by 115 acres of natural forest, and they moved to Douglas from Detroit in July. “We watched the transformation of the entire area,” says Tom, a 62-year-old retired master modeler and clay sculptor for the Ford Motor Company. “Douglas was nowhere just 17 years ago, but now there are great restaurants, wonderful shops, and great art galleries.” They bought a 12-year-old energy-efficient house two blocks from downtown, and are converting the second-floor garage into a pottery studio for Tom. “It’s calm, quiet and everyone knows each other,” adds Janice, a 66-year-old retired teacher. “There’s so much art and greenery; golly, it’s beautiful.”
Douglas doesn’t have chain stores, and its downtown on Center Street is modest, with a few restaurants (including the popular Saugatuck Brewing Company), a bowling alley, art galleries and locally owned shops. Big-box retailers, however, are just a 10-minute drive away in Holland or South Haven. For more cultural amenities and the closest airport, locals head to Grand Rapids, about 40 minutes away. Budget-minded retirees may wish to note that Douglas, while not the most expensive place in Michigan, does have a cost of living 14.1% higher than the national average, according to Sperling’s Best Places.
By the numbers:
Population: 1,097
Median home cost: $246,100
Cost of living: 14.1% higher than average
Unemployment: 6.1%
Michigan is probably not the first state that comes to mind when people think about retiring on the beach. And yet its sandy, dune-lined shorelines, with coasts along four of the five Great Lakes, have attracted many boomers to the “Riviera of the Midwest.”
Indeed residents anywhere in Michigan are never more than 6 miles from a body of water; the state has more than 36,000 miles of streams and more than 11,000 inland lakes, along with the most freshwater coastline in any state in the nation. This life aquatic gives retirees plenty to do. The state has more than 900,000 registered boats and ranked seventh in the nation in number of registered fishermen—over 1 million—in 2013. Many quaint towns have grown up along the shores, luring retirees with restaurants, locally owned shops and artist communities.
The sporty lifestyle in the Great Lakes State doesn’t end at the water line. Golfers have over 800 public courses to choose from, including three that made the 2013-14 Golf Digest list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses: Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfurt (No. 12); the south course at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills (No. 20); and Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club in Arcadia (No. 57). The state ranks third in licensed hunters with more than 760,000. Plus, Michigan has the largest state forest system in the nation.
Michigan, and in particular Detroit, are known for cars, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is a shrine not just to the automobile but to American inventors, with sections on aviation and manufacturing, as well as special exhibitions. The state also has a strong reputation for arts and culture. The 658,000-square-foot Detroit Institute of the Arts ranks among the top six art museums in the nation for its multicultural collection spanning from prehistory to the 21st century; it also hosts top traveling exhibitions. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is home to the internationally renowned annual Art Prize competition and has a growing reputation in 19th and 20th century American and European art, works on paper, and crafts and design.
Many of Michigan's smaller towns pack a cultural punch as well. The Ann Arbor Art Fair, which presents crafts ranging from ceramics to paintings to jewelry, attracts more than 500,000 attendees annually; and the area around Saugatuck, nicknamed “the artist's colony of the Midwest,” has dozens of galleries and a small, but engaged, population of retiree artists.
Possibly the best thing about Michigan, particularly for those who want to stretch their nest eggs, is how inexpensive it is. The cost of living is 11.2% below the national average, the median home costs just over $117,000, and both nursing home and assisted-living costs are below average. Income is taxed at a flat rate of 4.32%--the 11th lowest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. Boomers who want to keep working may have been reluctant to consider relocating to Michigan, which took one of the hardest job-loss hits in the nation during the auto industry’s decline. But the state unemployment rate is now 7.3%, only a point above the national average, and recent job growth is positive, according to Sperling’s Best Places.
Retirees had better not mind cold winters: In Michigan, they average 58.1 inches of snow. On the other hand, all those flakes make for prime cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, as well as some stunning ice formations on Lake Michigan when the waves freeze in place, says Bill Underdown, an agent with Shoreline Realtors based in Douglas, Mich. “It’s magical,” he adds. Retirees on Lake Michigan’s shores who like the four seasons will find that the water soaks up the summer heat making for “very long usually dreamy falls,” says Mike Norton, media relations manager for Traverse City Tourism.
State crime rates overall are only slightly higher than the national average, although violent crime in Detroit is much more frequent than in the U.S. as a whole.
Here are four budget-conscious retirement destinations which blend the state’s strengths from the outdoors to the cultural:
Traverse City
Traverse City is a hub for hiking, cross-country skiing, cycling and boating. “In the winter, almost all the cars have ski racks; in the summer, they have kayaks on them,” Norton says. This means that the area tends to attract active retirees, the kind of people who “want to be out, who don't want to just sit around and watch the world go by,” he adds.
They'll find plenty to do here: The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore features long stretches of beach and bluffs that jut up 450 feet above Lake Michigan; it’s a favorite spot for canoeing and kayaking. Hikers and bikers also enjoy the TART Trails system, a network of eight multiuse trails and a crosstown bike route. Traverse City is also one of the leading fly-fishing destinations in America, with four blue-ribbon trout streams within a half-hour drive of town.
To unwind from all this strenuous outdoor activity, retirees can visit the area's thriving wineries. The lake creates a unique microclimate that makes the area near Traverse City excellent for growing fruit like apricots, cherries and grapes. The region is known for its white wines, particularly rieslings, Chardonnays, pinot grigios and gewürztraminers--but it’s also beginning to produce some decent quality reds, like Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Francs. It is also one of the top producers of ice wine, a dessert wine made from winter-frozen grapes. The wineries, along with the orchards and farms, have helped produce a foodie scene, Norton says, with “a lot of farm-to-table restaurants.”
Traverse City offers other perks for retirees, including a compact downtown, lined with local businesses; a lively art gallery scene; and one of the region's best hospitals. The Cherry Capital Airport has direct flights to Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Minneapolis. One downside—the town can get crowded with tourists in the summer.
By the numbers:
Population: 14,702
Median home cost: $165,800
Cost of living: 1.8% lower than the national average
Unemployment: 6.6%
Source: Sperling's Best Places
Marquette
Nestled on the shores of shimmering Lake Superior in the far northern arm of the state, Marquette is rich in outdoor activities. The Noquemanon Trail Network, which runs through town and all along the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is a favorite for walkers, mountain bikers and cross-country skiers alike. In the winter, “fat tire biking” is a popular way to pedal through the snow. Downhill skiers hit Marquette Mountain, which boasts 169 skiable acres of mostly moderate terrain. Sailors love this town too: A local group, Fleet 35, has sailed on the Bay of Marquette every Wednesday since the early 1970s, and residents gather by the water to watch the local rowing club take their longboats out on evenings during the summer, says Pat Black, executive director of the Marquette County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The lake also offers more relaxing activities like kayaking and fishing. The area has six golf courses and plenty of land for both small- and large-game hunting.
“There are lots of cultural activities beginning to grow here,” Black says. The quaint, walkable downtown is lined with historic sandstone buildings that house eclectic restaurants, bars and shops. The Huron Mountain Club Gallery and Marquette Arts and Culture Center, both in the Peter White Public Library, host exhibits by locally, regionally and nationally known artists. Marquette is home to Northern Michigan University, where people over 62 can take classes free; the campus is also the site of the DeVos Art Museum. The Northern Center for Lifelong Learning offers low-cost classes in subjects like photography and bird-watching, along with social events. From early June to October, Marquette County hosts free events every weekend from concerts to festivals to athletic competitions, Black says.
Marquette does have a small airport with direct flights to Chicago and Detroit. Well-regarded Marquette General Hospital is operated by Duke LifePoint Healthcare, affiliated with Duke University.
By the numbers:
Population: 21,383
Median home cost: $159,900
Cost of living: 2.9% lower than average
Unemployment: 7.4%
Grand Rapids
After a career as a defense electrical engineer mostly in the Los Angeles area, Bob Lindeman and his wife Julie—both age 60—retired to their hometown of Grand Rapids in September 2013, not only to be near their elderly fathers, but because they could find a high quality of life at an affordable price. Their cost to build a 5,200-square foot home on Georgetown Shores Lake is half what it cost them to have a similar size home two blocks from the beach in greater Los Angeles, Bob says. “We were close to the ocean, but now we’re on the water,” he adds. “We’re going to have a boat.”
Grand Rapids made the top five in AARP Magazine’s list of top places to retire for under $30,000 a year in 2013, and it’s easy to see why. The city has a revitalized, vibrant downtown, ringed by historic neighborhoods with surprisingly reasonably priced homes. “In the last 10 to 15 years, Grand Rapids has had a real resurgence, particularly culturally,” says Jeannine Lemmon, associate broker and owner of Grand Rapids-based Patriot Realty. “That’s really pushed Grand Rapids into the forefront as a destination.”
Eclectic shops, art galleries, restaurants and night life have sprung up downtown and in districts such as Eastown, East Hills-Cherry Hill, Midtown and West Fulton, Lemmon says. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is internationally known for its annual ArtPrize competition, which attracts artists from around the globe. The small city has its own symphony, ballet and opera companies, and the DeVos Performance Hall hosts nationally known performers and Broadway touring shows. Retirees have plenty to do outdoors, too: The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park includes works by artists from Rodin to Calder and a five-story tropical conservatory; and the city is just a 40-minute drive away from Lake Michigan beaches. It will be even easier to get downtown from the suburbs when the Silver Line hybrid bus starts service in September.
Gerald R. Ford International Airport offers direct flights all across the U.S. In the health-care field, the Van Andel Institute is a world-class research institution in cancer and other health topics, and the Meijer Heart Center, part of the Spectrum Health system, also is globally renowned.
By the numbers:
Population: 189,340
Median home cost: $103,500
Cost of living: 11.5% lower than average
Unemployment: 6.8%
Douglas
While sister city Saugatuck, just across the Kalamazoo River, is better known, Douglas shares that city’s white sand Lake Michigan beaches and embrace of the arts—the area has gained the nickname of the Art Coast. Once a sleepy farm town known for peaches and a basket factory, Douglas is a bit more laid back and less touristy than Saugatuck, and it’s easier to find housing there, says Underdown, the local real-estate agent, who lives in a renovated farmhouse that dates back to the 1880s.
The art life and natural beauty are what drew Tom and Janice Krakowski to Douglas. They fell in love with the area when Tom started attending art workshops at Ox-Bow, a nearby art college surrounded by 115 acres of natural forest, and they moved to Douglas from Detroit in July. “We watched the transformation of the entire area,” says Tom, a 62-year-old retired master modeler and clay sculptor for the Ford Motor Company. “Douglas was nowhere just 17 years ago, but now there are great restaurants, wonderful shops, and great art galleries.” They bought a 12-year-old energy-efficient house two blocks from downtown, and are converting the second-floor garage into a pottery studio for Tom. “It’s calm, quiet and everyone knows each other,” adds Janice, a 66-year-old retired teacher. “There’s so much art and greenery; golly, it’s beautiful.”
Douglas doesn’t have chain stores, and its downtown on Center Street is modest, with a few restaurants (including the popular Saugatuck Brewing Company), a bowling alley, art galleries and locally owned shops. Big-box retailers, however, are just a 10-minute drive away in Holland or South Haven. For more cultural amenities and the closest airport, locals head to Grand Rapids, about 40 minutes away. Budget-minded retirees may wish to note that Douglas, while not the most expensive place in Michigan, does have a cost of living 14.1% higher than the national average, according to Sperling’s Best Places.
By the numbers:
Population: 1,097
Median home cost: $246,100
Cost of living: 14.1% higher than average
Unemployment: 6.1%
22 May 2012
Grand Rapids Bar Owner's Career A Colorful Tale
Story first appeared in The Detroit Free Press.
What do Ayn Rand, Warren Buffett, the Titanic, rock bands, a hedge fund and Michigan craft beer have in common?
All are intertwined with the splendidly erratic career of a Grand Rapids bar owner.
At age 43, with the man presumably only midway through life's journey, more plot twists undoubtedly lie ahead -- but let us begin with the present day, then flash back through the zigs and zags from Michigan to Boston, L.A. and Chicago before returning to his hometown.
He is on the verge of announcing that his newest project, the Grand Rapids Brewing Co., will be Michigan's first all-organic brewery when it opens in August.
He and his wife are already key players in the downtown Grand Rapids bar and restaurant scene, by virtue of opening the HopCat beer bar in 2008, followed two years later by Stella's Lounge and the adjacent Viceroy speakeasy-style joint a block away.
Their Barfly Ventures holding company also bought McFadden's Irish Saloon, and he is landlord and financier to the Pyramid Scheme bar and indie rock venue nearby.
Via HopCat's Facebook page, he led a crusade that vaulted Grand Rapids to the top of a National Beer Examiner poll last week as co-winner of the 2012 BeerCity USA title, tied with Asheville, N.C.
HopCat, which brews craft beers along with selling about 40 others on tap from around the globe, will make good tonight on a promise that if Grand Rapids won the BeerCity poll, patrons could buy $1.50 pints of Michigan craft beer for one night.
All of his bar and restaurant ventures, including revival of the Grand Rapids Brewing name that dates to 1893, are in historic downtown buildings.
In search of purpose
None of this, including the return to his hometown in 2007, was ever part of a plan.
He was born in Kalamazoo and raised in Grand Rapids, where his parents divorced when he was 15. He attended college for a while, enjoyed the campus life but not the classes -- and dropped out of Michigan State University.
He taught himself to play piano well enough to get into Berklee College of Music in Boston, but didn't stick with that, either, and migrated to Los Angeles, where he played keyboards and guitar with some rock bands.
He also discovered that he was better at the business side of the band than he was as a musician.
Armed with newfound passion and focus, he re-enrolled at MSU and aced his business courses en route to a degree in accounting.
A wild ride
He landed a job with GE Capital in Chicago and then moved to Morningstar, where he authored the investment firm's newsletter and became chief equities strategist before leaving in 2005 to start his own hedge fund, Sellers Capital.
Oh, and during his Chicago stint, he earned a master's in business administration at Northwestern University.
He raised $12 million from investors and by 2008 was managing a $300-million portfolio -- but then got whacked by the big financial crisis and stock market plunge.
He and his wife had already resettled in Grand Rapids, where they found they could have a 5,000-square-foot house for the same price as an apartment one-third the size in Chicago.
Late in 2008, he decided to sell all of his funds' stocks and return the money to investors -- except one stock, Premier Exhibitions, which holds salvage rights to the Titanic.
Premier operates touring exhibitions, including "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," on display at the Henry Ford through Sept. 30, during the 100th anniversary year of the Titanic's sinking. Its stock has been selling between $2 and $3 a share since early April, and has a total market value of about $128 million.
How to find your niche
Although his HopCat bar and brewery is profitable now, he said it was not conceived as a vehicle to make money.
He made some decidedly un-commercial moves there.
HopCat banned smoking in the bar from its opening in 2008, two years before Michigan's smoking ban took effect. And refuses to sell national mega-brands Budweiser, Miller or Coors, even in bottles.
He said craft beer lovers are a different breed -- they like to smell the brew and swirl it, and increasingly, they come from far away to visit Founders, the biggest and best-known of Grand Rapids' craft-beer makers, and the region's growing cluster of smaller brewers and beer bars.
He said the fact that he's now making money, despite being called crazy for the no-smoking and no-Bud stances, just proves the old adage about working at something you love.
What do Ayn Rand, Warren Buffett, the Titanic, rock bands, a hedge fund and Michigan craft beer have in common?
All are intertwined with the splendidly erratic career of a Grand Rapids bar owner.
At age 43, with the man presumably only midway through life's journey, more plot twists undoubtedly lie ahead -- but let us begin with the present day, then flash back through the zigs and zags from Michigan to Boston, L.A. and Chicago before returning to his hometown.
He is on the verge of announcing that his newest project, the Grand Rapids Brewing Co., will be Michigan's first all-organic brewery when it opens in August.
He and his wife are already key players in the downtown Grand Rapids bar and restaurant scene, by virtue of opening the HopCat beer bar in 2008, followed two years later by Stella's Lounge and the adjacent Viceroy speakeasy-style joint a block away.
Their Barfly Ventures holding company also bought McFadden's Irish Saloon, and he is landlord and financier to the Pyramid Scheme bar and indie rock venue nearby.
Via HopCat's Facebook page, he led a crusade that vaulted Grand Rapids to the top of a National Beer Examiner poll last week as co-winner of the 2012 BeerCity USA title, tied with Asheville, N.C.
HopCat, which brews craft beers along with selling about 40 others on tap from around the globe, will make good tonight on a promise that if Grand Rapids won the BeerCity poll, patrons could buy $1.50 pints of Michigan craft beer for one night.
All of his bar and restaurant ventures, including revival of the Grand Rapids Brewing name that dates to 1893, are in historic downtown buildings.
In search of purpose
None of this, including the return to his hometown in 2007, was ever part of a plan.
He was born in Kalamazoo and raised in Grand Rapids, where his parents divorced when he was 15. He attended college for a while, enjoyed the campus life but not the classes -- and dropped out of Michigan State University.
He taught himself to play piano well enough to get into Berklee College of Music in Boston, but didn't stick with that, either, and migrated to Los Angeles, where he played keyboards and guitar with some rock bands.
He also discovered that he was better at the business side of the band than he was as a musician.
Armed with newfound passion and focus, he re-enrolled at MSU and aced his business courses en route to a degree in accounting.
A wild ride
He landed a job with GE Capital in Chicago and then moved to Morningstar, where he authored the investment firm's newsletter and became chief equities strategist before leaving in 2005 to start his own hedge fund, Sellers Capital.
Oh, and during his Chicago stint, he earned a master's in business administration at Northwestern University.
He raised $12 million from investors and by 2008 was managing a $300-million portfolio -- but then got whacked by the big financial crisis and stock market plunge.
He and his wife had already resettled in Grand Rapids, where they found they could have a 5,000-square-foot house for the same price as an apartment one-third the size in Chicago.
Late in 2008, he decided to sell all of his funds' stocks and return the money to investors -- except one stock, Premier Exhibitions, which holds salvage rights to the Titanic.
Premier operates touring exhibitions, including "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," on display at the Henry Ford through Sept. 30, during the 100th anniversary year of the Titanic's sinking. Its stock has been selling between $2 and $3 a share since early April, and has a total market value of about $128 million.
How to find your niche
Although his HopCat bar and brewery is profitable now, he said it was not conceived as a vehicle to make money.
He made some decidedly un-commercial moves there.
HopCat banned smoking in the bar from its opening in 2008, two years before Michigan's smoking ban took effect. And refuses to sell national mega-brands Budweiser, Miller or Coors, even in bottles.
He said craft beer lovers are a different breed -- they like to smell the brew and swirl it, and increasingly, they come from far away to visit Founders, the biggest and best-known of Grand Rapids' craft-beer makers, and the region's growing cluster of smaller brewers and beer bars.
He said the fact that he's now making money, despite being called crazy for the no-smoking and no-Bud stances, just proves the old adage about working at something you love.
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27 February 2012
Interview With Fred Meijer’s Sons
First appeared in MLive
When your last name is Meijer, there's no such thing as a
quick trip to the grocery store.
It's something Hank and Doug Meijer learned at a young age
by watching their father and retail magnate Fred Meijer work a crowd. Over the
years, the unassuming billionaire with Greenville roots had elevated
glad-handing to an art form.
A wide smile. A firm handshake. A few genuinely kind words.
And, inevitably, he would draw his trademark free coupon for a Meijer Purple
Cow ice cream cone from his pocket and press it graciously in someone's hand,
whether he was in one of his own stores or a black-tie gala.
And while the younger Meijers do follow in their late
father's personable footsteps -- forays into the family's stores can sometimes
take hours after all the stop-and-chats -- the brothers who hold the reigns of
the Midwest's largest family-run grocery chain remain very private about some
aspects of their lives, and the operation.
In their first interview since the death of their iconic
father last year, the Meijer Inc. co-chairmen shared what Fred Meijer did to
ensure the business will continue to flourish under family ownership.
Fred Meijer was younger than his sons are today when he
began planning for his death four decades ago by placing the company stock in a
family trust so it wouldn’t be vulnerable to estate taxes. The trade-off was he
no longer directly owned the company he'd built with his father, Hendrik.
Meijer isn't for sale
“Our dad was very careful planning so there wouldn’t be
reasons for his estate to force the sale of the business,” said Hank Meijer,
60, who is the eldest of the three sons that includes Mark, 54, along with
Doug, 58.
Selling the company has never been a consideration in its
nearly 78-year history.
“We have made that so clear for so long to people who might
be interested that it’s been a decade, I think, since we’ve had anyone even try
to talk to us seriously (about purchasing the chain)," said Hank Meijer.
The most famous interested buyer was Walmart founder Sam
Walton, who copied the supercenter concept Fred Meijer pioneered in the 1962
with the opening of Meijer Thrifty Acres in Grand Rapids.
Even though Fred Meijer didn’t have direct ownership, he was
still the company’s leader for decades until turning over the reins to his sons
in 1990, and taking on the role of chairman emeritus.
“When he walked in (a meeting) and made a comment, there was
no question that people would listen to him,” Doug Meijer said.
“Higher Standards, Lower Prices”, the tagline in the
company’s advertisement, probably best reflected Fred Meijer’s approach to the
grocery business.
“He was fanatical about low prices,” Doug Meijer said of his
Dutch father.
That commitment isn’t easy when your competition is Walmart,
the biggest retailer in the world, and a force that commands the lowest prices
in the supply chain network. The stakes are hefty in this high-volume,
low-margin business.
“If we get in a price war over paper towels and toilet
paper, it can be extremely expensive because of our commitment to be price
competitive,” said Hank Meijer, who became chief executive officer in 2002.
Competing in national arena
Meijer often competes in the national retail arena although
its chain of nearly 200 stores cover only a five-state footprint. The
Walker-based company landed in the sixth spot in a recent Consumer Reports
reader survey ranking of national retailers.
Hank Meijer doubts the company will become a national
retailer in his lifetime. The retailer’s growth will continue to be slow and
steady. He expects to see Meijer expand into additional states, but they will
be contiguous to the company’s current footprint of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois and Kentucky.
“We really like to grow organically,” Hank Meijer said.
There are no plans to leapfrog to highly populated states
like Florida or grow by acquisition. Both strategies have fueled the growth of
neighboring Gordon Food Service, another private, family-owned West Michigan
company in the food retail business.
One area where Meijer is quickly gaining a national – and
even an international – presence is online. More than half of Meijer.com sales
come from outside its regional market.
The company’s steady growth made Fred Meijer one of the
richest men in the state, with his name and company showing up on various
Forbes' lists. Putting a number to the Meijer wealth is mere speculation -- the
company is extremely private when it comes to any kind of sales numbers.
It doesn’t release annual revenue figures like other private,
family-owned West Michigan companies such as Ada-based direct selling giant
Amway Corp. or Holland-based office furniture maker Haworth Inc.
Supermarket News pegs Meijer sales at $14.4 billion a year.
Hank Meijer will only say that trade publication estimates
are more in the ballpark than Forbes’.
“I think they sometimes build formulas based on public
company returns and similar sales, and ours are often lower,” Hank Meijer said.
“And so there tends to be more room for miscalculation and exaggeration and
speculation than Supermarket News would have,” he said.
The family has long said that being private means it can
afford to turn a smaller profit than public companies, which have to satisfy
Wall Street.
Meijer in next 50 years
Without that pressure, Meijer has more flexibility to
experiment with new ideas. Which is why, the company was one of the first
retailers to introduce grocery carts, 24-hour format and self-scan checkouts.
The big question is whether Meijer can be as relevant in the everchanging retail
landscape over the next 50 years, as it has been in the last half century.
Meijer is positioned well for the future because it is a
very progressive, well-managed company that puts a lot of thought into how its
customers like to shop, said Mark Hamstra, retail editor at Supermarket News,
which ranks Meijer No. 16 on its list of the Top 75 North American Food
Retailers.
“The company has been at the vanguard of food retailing on
many fronts, including its efforts around things like health and wellness,
natural and organic products, and digital communications,” Hamstra said. “Its
approach to providing a positive customer experience and a one-stop shopping
environment should give it some legs for the long haul.”
The brothers acknowledge their father left big shoes to
fill.
“We are expecting whenever we do something people don’t
like, they’ll say, 'If your dad was still here, he wouldn’t approve,' "
said Hank Meijer.
Hank Meijer remembers his dad hearing the same thing about
his father.
“When we opened our first store in Jenison on Sunday, my dad
got calls from people who said if Hendrik was still alive, this wouldn’t have
happened,” he said. “We all know that isn’t the case. He would have taken care
of customers' shopping when they want to shop, and we can operate with that
same confidence if we are making the right decision.”
As they talk, the brothers are sitting around their
grandmother Gezina’s dining room table. Her sturdy dark oak furniture now fills
a room at the company’s Walker headquarters. Family photos of ancestors and oil
paintings brought over from the Netherlands hang on the walls.
“You have to understand she was beyond frugal,” said Hank
Meijer of his grandmother, who immigrated to America in the early 1900s with
her husband, Hendrik. “That’s where my dad got it from, more than my
grandfather. So the thought of not putting (the furniture) to use wouldn’t have
been pleasing to (my grandmother).”
What they won't talk about
The brothers made a video early this year for their 60,000
employees to convey the message that their company will remain a family
business.
Related: Fred Meijer's sons send video message to employees.
But when they're asked about the future role of the family's
fourth generation -- their children and their nieces and nephews -- they get
uncomfortable. The three brothers are parents to a brood of seven children who
are in their 20s or younger.
“I don’t want to put any kind of burden of expectations on
them,” said Hank Meijer. “I would rather not talk about it. I wouldn’t have wanted
our dad to talk about that when I was a little kid or even a college kid.”
As his sons reached adulthood, Fred Meijer didn’t know if
they would join the family business, although what spending money they earned
during their teens came from working jobs at Meijer.
Hank Meijer began his career as a journalist, including a
stint at The Grand Rapids Press writing sports while his youngest brother Mark
Meijer co-founded Life EMS, a successful ambulance company. Middle son Doug
Meijer went to work full time for the company after earning his business degree
from University of Michigan.
Hank describes Doug as the “natural born retailer” in the
family.
“Our dad was very careful to say 'I want you to do what you
want to do' in career terms, all the time feeling tremendous hope and pressure
on his part that we would come into the business,” Hank Meijer said.
The retailer will survive even if their children don’t go
into the family business. The company’s day-to-day operation has been and
continues to be run by a non-family leadership team.
“I think we have the strongest leadership we have ever had,”
said Hank Meijer. “We feel very good about the future because we have a lot of
great, great people.”
Leading that team is Mark Murray, whose impressive resume
includes president of Grand Valley State University and state treasurer under
former Gov. John Engler.
He is the fifth non-family president for the company. The
tradition began in 1975, when Fred Meijer appointed Harvey Lemmen to the post.
The Meijer board – which includes the three brothers and
their mother Lena - also has outside directors such as David Brandon,
University of Michigan regent and athletic director, and former chief executive
of Domino’s Pizza.
Hank and Doug Meijer are involved in all major decisions of
the company. Their work week begins with Monday meetings with Murray and the
senior management team.
While they often hear from customers and employees, they
usually just pass along those comments. Their dad taught them not to
micromanage.
“You never want be perceived as someone throwing your weight
around,” said Hank Meijer.
That’s why their regular visits to Meijer stores don’t stir
panic among the ranks.
“If there is a piece of paper on the floor, you pick it up,”
said Doug Meijer, remembering another Fred Meijer lesson to his sons. “You
don’t need to call a store manager.”
26 September 2010
ArtPrize Draws Tons of Tourists to Grand Rapids
The Detroit News
Roberto Chenlo was handing out business cards on the street, because you never know when someone will need a bronze sculpture.
Melissa Dunn of Byron Center took two and handed one to her 5-year-old daughter, and Emily looked at it like it was a chip from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This is a good few weeks to be an artist in west Michigan, even if you don't win cash in the second annual ArtPrize competition. It's a better few weeks if you do win; the $250,000 for first place will buy a lot of brushes.
The $7,000 for fourth through 10th also will go a long way toward yanking the word "starving" from in front of "artist." But even if your chances of winning are as slim as a coat of paint, it's homecoming week and you're the quarterback on the football team.
Jonathan Carlson of suburban Chicago was standing in front of Van Hoecks Shoes, hands in the pockets of his tan cargo shorts, discussing the use of color on the pastel streetscape in the window.
"You're so talented," said a passer-by in an ArtPrize T-shirt. "I love your work."
Carlson, a waiter, can barely draw a circle. He sort of looked like an artist, though, and that was enough.
There are plenty of reasons why ArtPrize, which opened Wednesday, is a splendid concept. It's good for tourism, with several hundred thousand visitors expected to stroll the 3-square-mile core of downtown. It's good for the image of the city, and good for Marissa Mewitz, 22, who owns the Big James Steak Sandwiches cart in front of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and went through 30 pounds of beef Thursday when she normally tops out below 10.
But the beauty of it is this: In Grand Rapids, at least through Oct. 10, art matters.
ArtPrize was dreamed up by Rick DeVos, 28, who has probably earned the right to not always be identified as the grandson of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. What would happen, he wondered, if downtown Grand Rapids was turned into an art gallery?
Very good things, it turned out. For the first ArtPrize last year, 1,262 artists participated, and the Big O' Cafe where sculptor Chenlo was displaying his bronze horse and cowboy had three consecutive weeks of record sales.
1,713 artists, 192 venues
"It's a one-city stimulus package," said Big O' owner Bernie Kersten, and this time around it has 1,713 artists.
Their works are being shown at 192 venues ranging from a tattoo parlor to a lot across from Van Andel Arena -- named for the other Amway co-founder -- that's big enough to hold a man on a pedestal posing as a statue, an 8-foot-tall roller skate, a 30-foot-tall greeting card and an airborne 55-foot-long wood-and-Styrofoam pig.
Jurors will determine $5,000 winners in each of five genres, but the big prizes will be awarded through the votes of registered visitors.
For information on voting, artists, locations, shuttles and other essentials, see www.artprize.org. For tips on how to prepare for a day at ArtPrize, see Tammy White.
ArtPrize draws fans
She's a 40-year-old bank employee from Paw Paw, and rather than spell her last name, she explained that it's "White, like the crayon."
Last week was her vacation, and she was sick for every accursed day of it. "I'm living my entire vacation today," she said, and she struck out into the sunshine carrying a camera, a big purse and a parasol. Her sunglasses were pushed back atop her red (like a crayon) hair.
While she hustled to make up for lost time, Brian Maas and Steven Thayer of Grand Rapids spent a leisurely lunch hour eating street-side pizza and strolling the exhibits.
They both work in quality improvement for Spectrum Health, and they both plan to become ArtPrize regulars. "It's my favorite time of year," said Thayer, 53. "I can catch fish right off of Sixth Street, and I can come out here and catch art."
Something for everyone
There's something at ArtPrize to snag everyone, regardless of taste, tenure or transportation.
Women in sensible shoes crossed the street alongside girls with pierced lips. A bicyclist in a green T-shirt sped along with an orange snake around his neck. Some stood transfixed by the giant pig, some dismissed it as a gimmick.
The team behind the porker put a 110-foot-long sea serpent in the Grand River in 2009. It placed sixth. For all the glitz, pointed out Marco Riolo, "last year, an oil painting won."
Riolo, 29, an artist and rugby player from Grand Rapids, has a large oil painting hanging at a wine bar called Bar Divani. He was taking pictures of pictures with his cell phone, and planned to ultimately see every one of the 1,713 pieces.
"There's treasures," he said. "Hidden magical treasures, everywhere you look."
After a while, reality and art become indistinguishable. Photographer Megan Major, 25, of New Hudson was working the second day of ArtPrize at the museum, sitting at the side entrance in a black cocktail dress and writing down visitors' ZIP codes. By lunchtime, she had come across visitors from Canada, Australia and Peru, Vt., just down the road from Jamaica.
A few yards away from her tall chair, one of the inside panes of glass surrounding the museum's courtyard had fractured, leaving a pattern of swirls and spider webs across the glass.
"People keep asking me if that's art," Major said. She answered them all gently, because expanded horizons are better than narrow ones, and you don't want to be discouraging.
Up the block, at a hot dog joint called the Dog Pit, Melissa Dunn was marveling at her daughter's creativity, the way parents are supposed to.
Emily was the girl who'd stared at the card from the 73-year-old sculptor who crafted a mounted cowboy in a wide-brimmed hat. She had borrowed a small notepad from her grandmother, and caught up in the moment, she'd drawn a rainbow.
Her mother told her it was wonderful and she should draw some more, because art matters.
Melissa Dunn of Byron Center took two and handed one to her 5-year-old daughter, and Emily looked at it like it was a chip from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This is a good few weeks to be an artist in west Michigan, even if you don't win cash in the second annual ArtPrize competition. It's a better few weeks if you do win; the $250,000 for first place will buy a lot of brushes.
The $7,000 for fourth through 10th also will go a long way toward yanking the word "starving" from in front of "artist." But even if your chances of winning are as slim as a coat of paint, it's homecoming week and you're the quarterback on the football team.
Jonathan Carlson of suburban Chicago was standing in front of Van Hoecks Shoes, hands in the pockets of his tan cargo shorts, discussing the use of color on the pastel streetscape in the window.
"You're so talented," said a passer-by in an ArtPrize T-shirt. "I love your work."
Carlson, a waiter, can barely draw a circle. He sort of looked like an artist, though, and that was enough.
There are plenty of reasons why ArtPrize, which opened Wednesday, is a splendid concept. It's good for tourism, with several hundred thousand visitors expected to stroll the 3-square-mile core of downtown. It's good for the image of the city, and good for Marissa Mewitz, 22, who owns the Big James Steak Sandwiches cart in front of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and went through 30 pounds of beef Thursday when she normally tops out below 10.
But the beauty of it is this: In Grand Rapids, at least through Oct. 10, art matters.
ArtPrize was dreamed up by Rick DeVos, 28, who has probably earned the right to not always be identified as the grandson of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. What would happen, he wondered, if downtown Grand Rapids was turned into an art gallery?
Very good things, it turned out. For the first ArtPrize last year, 1,262 artists participated, and the Big O' Cafe where sculptor Chenlo was displaying his bronze horse and cowboy had three consecutive weeks of record sales.
1,713 artists, 192 venues
"It's a one-city stimulus package," said Big O' owner Bernie Kersten, and this time around it has 1,713 artists.
Their works are being shown at 192 venues ranging from a tattoo parlor to a lot across from Van Andel Arena -- named for the other Amway co-founder -- that's big enough to hold a man on a pedestal posing as a statue, an 8-foot-tall roller skate, a 30-foot-tall greeting card and an airborne 55-foot-long wood-and-Styrofoam pig.
Jurors will determine $5,000 winners in each of five genres, but the big prizes will be awarded through the votes of registered visitors.
For information on voting, artists, locations, shuttles and other essentials, see www.artprize.org. For tips on how to prepare for a day at ArtPrize, see Tammy White.
ArtPrize draws fans
She's a 40-year-old bank employee from Paw Paw, and rather than spell her last name, she explained that it's "White, like the crayon."
Last week was her vacation, and she was sick for every accursed day of it. "I'm living my entire vacation today," she said, and she struck out into the sunshine carrying a camera, a big purse and a parasol. Her sunglasses were pushed back atop her red (like a crayon) hair.
While she hustled to make up for lost time, Brian Maas and Steven Thayer of Grand Rapids spent a leisurely lunch hour eating street-side pizza and strolling the exhibits.
They both work in quality improvement for Spectrum Health, and they both plan to become ArtPrize regulars. "It's my favorite time of year," said Thayer, 53. "I can catch fish right off of Sixth Street, and I can come out here and catch art."
Something for everyone
There's something at ArtPrize to snag everyone, regardless of taste, tenure or transportation.
Women in sensible shoes crossed the street alongside girls with pierced lips. A bicyclist in a green T-shirt sped along with an orange snake around his neck. Some stood transfixed by the giant pig, some dismissed it as a gimmick.
The team behind the porker put a 110-foot-long sea serpent in the Grand River in 2009. It placed sixth. For all the glitz, pointed out Marco Riolo, "last year, an oil painting won."
Riolo, 29, an artist and rugby player from Grand Rapids, has a large oil painting hanging at a wine bar called Bar Divani. He was taking pictures of pictures with his cell phone, and planned to ultimately see every one of the 1,713 pieces.
"There's treasures," he said. "Hidden magical treasures, everywhere you look."
After a while, reality and art become indistinguishable. Photographer Megan Major, 25, of New Hudson was working the second day of ArtPrize at the museum, sitting at the side entrance in a black cocktail dress and writing down visitors' ZIP codes. By lunchtime, she had come across visitors from Canada, Australia and Peru, Vt., just down the road from Jamaica.
A few yards away from her tall chair, one of the inside panes of glass surrounding the museum's courtyard had fractured, leaving a pattern of swirls and spider webs across the glass.
"People keep asking me if that's art," Major said. She answered them all gently, because expanded horizons are better than narrow ones, and you don't want to be discouraging.
Up the block, at a hot dog joint called the Dog Pit, Melissa Dunn was marveling at her daughter's creativity, the way parents are supposed to.
Emily was the girl who'd stared at the card from the 73-year-old sculptor who crafted a mounted cowboy in a wide-brimmed hat. She had borrowed a small notepad from her grandmother, and caught up in the moment, she'd drawn a rainbow.
Her mother told her it was wonderful and she should draw some more, because art matters.
16 July 2010
Jet Development in China creating Jobs in Michigan
NPR MI Radio
A new commercial jet being developed in China is creating jobs in Michigan.
The C919 is being developed by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac. The plane could be a big step forward for the aviation industry in China, and a possible competitor to Boeing and Airbus.
But to make it happen, Comac is relying on a number of joint ventures with American companies, and that includes the aviation division of GE, which is headquartered in Grand Rapids.
George Kiefer heads up GE Aviation's Grand Rapids office. He says about 200 engineers are being recruited to work on the C919.
"We're actually recruiting some locally," he says of the hiring process. "And we're also going internationally to hire, to China, as well as the UK and then throughout the United States."
Kiefer says many of the engineers will work in Grand Rapids. But some are also being sent to China, and some to Clearwater, Florida.
27 January 2010
Business Leaders Form Regional Air Alliance to Bring Cheaper Fares, Better Connections to Grand Rapids Airport
mLive
If a group of West Michigan business executives have their way, airline flights out of Grand Rapids soon will be cheaper, more abundant and able to connect passengers to anywhere in the world.
That's the goal of the new Regional Air Alliance of West Michigan, an initiative launched today at a press conference in downtown Grand Rapids and led by Dick DeVos. It also includes Meijer Inc. and The Right Place Inc.
"From this point forward, we want to be sure that no one is forced to drive to Chicago or Detroit anymore," said DeVos, president of the Windquest Group, a former gubernatorial candidate and son of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos.
The efforts involve CEOs and company executives from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo and Traverse City who plan to launch an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at keeping airlines already operating out of Gerald R. Ford International Airport, and attracting new low-cost service.
"The cost of flying out of Grand Rapids has been historically higher than it needs to be to compete," DeVos said.
That's because competition for airline service is fierce, said Gerald R. Ford Airport Director James Koslosky.
"There are 200 to 400 similarly situated communities and regions that are literally competing for every airline seat we have landing here at this airport," he said. "Given the current airline economics and given the economy where we are, those are scarce resources."
The problem, he said, is compounded by the fact that all those markets want the same thing -- low fares, international connections and networked domestic service to all of those airports.
And they want that from airlines that have cut capacity and consolidated systems, but still lose money, Koslosky said.
Gerald R. Ford Airport currently commands about 65 percent of passenger travel from a market that includes airports in Lansing, Kalamazoo and Traverse City.
But the airport is still "under served" despite having seven long-established airlines and low-cost carrier Allegiant Airlines, which operates direct flights from point to point and does not fly every day.
"We need a low-fare carrier that serves both leisure and business travelers and goes to a focus city and feeds out of that city to other markets," Koslosky said.
Birgit Klohs, president of the economic development group The Right Place Inc., said when talking to existing or potential customers, the frequency, cost and connectivity of air service is always "90 percent plus" a part of the conversation.
"We are dealing really in a global economy; many of our local companies do business overseas," Klohs said. "We cannot afford not to have world class service in and out of here at prices people can afford."
That's the goal of the new Regional Air Alliance of West Michigan, an initiative launched today at a press conference in downtown Grand Rapids and led by Dick DeVos. It also includes Meijer Inc. and The Right Place Inc.
"From this point forward, we want to be sure that no one is forced to drive to Chicago or Detroit anymore," said DeVos, president of the Windquest Group, a former gubernatorial candidate and son of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos.
The efforts involve CEOs and company executives from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo and Traverse City who plan to launch an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at keeping airlines already operating out of Gerald R. Ford International Airport, and attracting new low-cost service.
"The cost of flying out of Grand Rapids has been historically higher than it needs to be to compete," DeVos said.
That's because competition for airline service is fierce, said Gerald R. Ford Airport Director James Koslosky.
"There are 200 to 400 similarly situated communities and regions that are literally competing for every airline seat we have landing here at this airport," he said. "Given the current airline economics and given the economy where we are, those are scarce resources."
The problem, he said, is compounded by the fact that all those markets want the same thing -- low fares, international connections and networked domestic service to all of those airports.
And they want that from airlines that have cut capacity and consolidated systems, but still lose money, Koslosky said.
Gerald R. Ford Airport currently commands about 65 percent of passenger travel from a market that includes airports in Lansing, Kalamazoo and Traverse City.
But the airport is still "under served" despite having seven long-established airlines and low-cost carrier Allegiant Airlines, which operates direct flights from point to point and does not fly every day.
"We need a low-fare carrier that serves both leisure and business travelers and goes to a focus city and feeds out of that city to other markets," Koslosky said.
Birgit Klohs, president of the economic development group The Right Place Inc., said when talking to existing or potential customers, the frequency, cost and connectivity of air service is always "90 percent plus" a part of the conversation.
"We are dealing really in a global economy; many of our local companies do business overseas," Klohs said. "We cannot afford not to have world class service in and out of here at prices people can afford."
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