Talk:Grand Rapids, Michigan

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[edit] Radio Stations

I noticed that on the media page there are only FM radio stations. Can someone add some AM stations? 1340

[edit] Skyline Pictures

Is there an available picture of the skyline? There are no graphics on the article that show Grand Rapids as a modern urban area. Euphoria 20:16, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I took a picture of the skyline today, and added it. King-of-no-pants 20:51, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Library

Something should be said about the renovation of the main branch of the library. A couple of years ago it went under major renovation. King-of-no-pants 01:49, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Furniture Capital of the World?

At one point in time, Grand Rapids was called furniture capital of the United States, but I don't think it's even that anymore. I find many references to it as "Furniture City" online (and not just through Wikipedia siblings), but only a few to "furniture capital" and most of those say "of the United States" with none being "of the world." So, I'm reverting it. Euphoria 06:22, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of links

I don't agree with the removal of the majority of links on 12/18. They were all relevant to Grand Rapids. --Trackstand 04:21, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Just being "relevant" isn't enough; they have to be sources of encyclopedic information. Lately people have been adding more and more links to local businesses and organizations they want to promote, treating this like some kind of portal or guide to Grand Rapids, and that's simply not the purpose of Wikipedia. It's also debatable whether local activist groups like GRIID and Media Mouse (both of which I like, by the way) are really notable enough to warrant articles. See WP:NOT#Wikipedia is not a propaganda machine. Tverbeek 12:19, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I just removed a ton of external links that provide no encyclopedic content, many of them were for commercial companies. Please read Wikipedia's guidelines on external links before adding any more external links. --Pchov (talk) 21:24, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Economy

I've moved the following comment here, from the page itself:

please note: the above fails to acknowledge the influence of the Amway Corporation on the town's economic identity-- although the names of DeVos and VanAndel, founders of Amway, clearly register in its peripheral institutions. It is this very absence of acknowledgment that makes the political economy of Grand Rapids at times bewildering to its analysts. User:24.199.73.18

[edit] Rapids?

Is there any history as to when the "Rapids" on the Grand River were removed? I am assuming they were flattened to facilitate the transportation of lumber down the river, but I was wondering if that is true or not.

I believe with the addition of the sixth street dam, the rapids were taken away from the river. I'm not quite sure if this is correct, either. King-of-no-pants 03:48, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

12.75.43.149 17:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Grand Rapids' river rapids fall 1000 feet between the Ann Street bridge and Wealthy Street bridge. The rapids were eliminated by several "wiers" or dams to control flodding and to create electricity. the Sixth Street dam had two purposes. First, to create electricity and second, to divert some of the river water for a power canal (now removed) that created water power for several industrial sites along it. The power canal ran from the Sixth Street dam to Pearl Street where the Public Museum now stands. The power canal was drained and filled-in in the 1960's. The electric company that used the Sixth Street dam was disbanded back in the early part of the 20th century and its building and equipment removed. The only evidence of it today are the two cement projections from the middle of the dam. 12.75.43.149 17:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Grand Rapids in Popular Culture

Other city pages have a section for references to their city in popular culture. Might be something that others could contribute too. Here's one for Scranton, PA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scranton%2C_PA#Scranton_in_popular_culture

[edit] River Bank Run

The 25k takes place in May, not June as stated on the page. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GRKaters (talk • contribs) 14:08, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Metropolitan Area Population

The page cites two different metropolitan populations, one in the first paragraph,

The Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area (CombdSA) has a population of 1,315,319

and one in the population table on the right of the page,

- Population        
- City (2000)   197,800
- Density       4,434 mi² / 1,710.8/km²
- Urban         539,080
- Metro         771,185

Could someone verify the proper metro population for Grand Rapids, and fix the discrepancy?

Thank you. King-of-no-pants 03:48, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I know I'll take grief for this, but in the infobox I list the MSA population, which is the most often used population when talking Metro Areas. CSMA includes Grand Rapids and the metros of Muskegon and Holland. What I will do is also add the MSA population to the city description. --Criticalthinker 02:09, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

It looks like the CSMA is the 2005 estimate, not 2000 as stated.

I am from Grand Rapids and I'm wondering why there is nothing on the page about East Grand Rapids, Eastown or the large "blues" music influence on the town? I would really like to see something about that on this page. I currently don't live in GR, but when I think of home, I think of "Blues on the Mall" and "Eastown Street Fair", Yesterdog... as well as all the live music (a live band somewhere every night of the week). And yes, also the cobblestone/brick roadS. There are more than just one of these roads (for whoever wrote there is only one), Cherry St., Wealthy St., Lakeside Dr., the streets running along and behind Michigan St., "Look-out Hill" and all sorts of back alley roads in Heritage Hill/Cherry Hill neighborhoods. I think the cobblestone and brick roads are significant, they're part of the signature of the town. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.46.0.13 (talk) 15:27, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Changes

First, photo wars -- I'm glad that we can finally have a skyline picture, but other pictures continue to be added and deleted. The famous horse doesn't belong in the city page, because it isn't in the city limits. A cultural attraction it may be, but that doesn't put it under Grand Rapids jurisdiction. Due to the fact that it's address is Grand Rapids Township, I understand the confusion, but they are seperate governments, the township has a page of its own, and this distinction has already been articulated. If this were a page about the metropolitan area, then, certainly, it belongs. As Grand Rapids is not one of the 100 largest cities in the nation, however, the closest thing we have to a metro is Kent County -- where the horse is mentioned. It may seem a technicality, but this is common practice -- the Chicago page doesn't mention that McDonalds Corporate HQ happens to be located in a suburb thereof; Minneapolis can't claim to the home of the Mall of America, etc.

Next, cobblestone -- the picture certainly does serve a purpose by showing the only such street in Grand Rapids. It may or may not be "attractive", but this is a rather subjective justification for removing a picture, no? Furthur, Wikipedia is not a tourist agency -- it is an encyclopedia, attempting to depict Grand Rapids as it is, not as a whitewashed advertisment. Would anyone dream of deleting a photo of Lincoln because he was "ugly"? Or for that matter, blanking the Civil War page because it reflected poorly on American history?

Finally, one user seems to be responsible for all these changes, User:71.205.123.166. This user has blanked his/her warning page five times, despite repeated notices not to do so, and violated the 3-revert rule. My guess is that this is city hall, or a real estate agent attempting to draw people into Grand Rapids, as the collective effect of the edits is to make Grand Rapids seem appealing and cut out negative imagery. I love Grand Rapids as much as anyone, but the job of an encyclopedia is to present an unbiased assessment of fact. Other activities by this user seem to have been removing unpleasentries from Gerald R. Ford's biography page, such as information regarding childhood abuse, etc.

Kent county 13:32, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

First off I am not a real estate agent nor do I work for city hall. And no, I am not trying to remove any negative images of Grand Rapids, I merely do not see the purpose of the cobblestone picture. Who really cares? We have one cobblestone road in Grand Rapids, what makes it so special that it deserves a poorly taken picture on wikipedia.

Secondly, Leonardo DaVinci's Horse is a major symbol for the city of Grand Rapids. Yes the address of Meijer Gardens is technically Grand Rapids Township, but the Grounds also overlap with the city of GR. The neighborhood located behind the Gardens (Bradford St.) Are all in the city limist, ther is even a Grand Rapids Public school back there. So sinse the gardens are in two municipalities, let them share the claim. Grand Rapids Township has a picture of the horse and so should GR.

I'll leave your picture of the cobblestone street if you leave the picture of DaVinci's horse.

I have been watching this whole thing unfold, here are my 2 cents. About the skyline, we have a great picture as of right now (1/4/07), lets keep this one. As for the cobblestone street and the DaVinci horse, lets remove both of them. The horse may be a symbol of the city, however it is not in Grand Rapids, MI. I think it would be more appropriate on a page about the Meijer Gardens. The cobblestone street picture is not very nice, in my opinion, and could also be removed from the page. I have one final question. The section on radio stations seems a bit long, perhaps it warrants its own page, a list of the radio stations of GR, with a link to it from the main page. Something like the list of startrek TNG episodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_episodes) King-of-no-pants 06:22, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I find no mention of either the horse or the cobblestone street in the article, so why should there be pictures? These two contested pictures are completely disconnected from the article itself so they should BOTH be removed unless a substantial amount is also included in the article of the city. Aside from the argument about whether or not the Meijer Gardens is within the city limits; which is it not, the horse is not iconic of Grand Rapids, and is more iconic of the Meijer Gardens, two strikes against the horse picture. I also agree that the picture of the cobblestone street is of somewhat poor quality, not very encyclopedic, it also adds little to the overall article about the City of Grand Rapids. --Pchov 11:38, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Election results

The sentence "Not True" is not appropriate. It is under presidential election results for 2000 and 2004. I can't find election results for Grand Rapids, but I can for Kent county, Michigan. Unfortunately, the winner of the greater number of votes may be different for the city versus the county. According to http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2000&fips=26081&f=0&off=0&elect=0 in Kent County in 2000, Bush got 59.37% of the vote and Gore got 38.13%

According to http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2004&fips=26081&f=1&off=0&elect=0 in Kent County in 2004, Bush got 58.85% of the vote and Kerry got 40.19% of the vote.

Yes, but the city of Grand Rapids only accounts for a third of the county's population: I'm sure the suburbs vote more heavily Republican. Kent county 01:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merchantile Bank

Why is it important to have Merchantile Bank on the front page? THere are lots of banks in G.R, but why that one?

Because while Fifth Third, Huntington, LaSalle, Chase, etc. all have a presence in Grand Rapids, Mercantile is the only bank based in Grand Rapids. Kent county 01:36, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weather

I was wondering if something should be added for weather in Grand Rapids. I've seen it done in other city pages such as Salt Lake City's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City,_Utah

Especially with our unique weather that is affected greatly by Lake Michigan, such as lake-effect snow, it might be helpful to add for people doing research on the area.

Grmagellan 14:06, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Leonardo da Vinci's Horse

This seems to be an on going debate regarding the picture of Leonardo da Vinci's Horse. I had removed this picture citing the fact that the horse is not within the City of Grand Rapids (in fact, it resides within Grand Rapids Charter Township), it was also not mentioned anywhere in this article. The picture has since been placed back on this page. I will be removing it once again. --Pchov 14:01, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:GrandRapidsRockets.jpg

Image:GrandRapidsRockets.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 15:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:GrandRapidsRampage.gif

Image:GrandRapidsRampage.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:MLFA thunder.gif

Image:MLFA thunder.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

[edit] Image Grdowntown.jpg is NOT A COPYVIO

Yassie...this is an Image I took with my own camera on my own time and I release this image and all its copyrighted privileges. I understand that the previous Image I was posting was copyrighted and for that I am sorry...but this one is not. Please discuss on here before you once again attempt to remove my image. ---Eman1114

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gerald Rudolff Ford

The biography for Gerald Rudolff Ford who raised Gerald Ford and for whom Ford legally changed his name has been nominated for deletion as being non-notable. The man is the reason why Ford was raised in Grand Rapids. You can make your comments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gerald Rudolff Ford. Americasroof 05:24, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notable current/former residents

I deleted the name Brenda Garcia from this list as it was not cited. Many of the other names should be deleted also unless cites can be found. - Epousesquecido 23:25, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] M-44 Connector sign is incorrect HELP

Didn't know how to do this one. Sorry. Maybe somebody can HELP. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 21:16, 20 January 2008 (UTC)Stan

[edit] Revision of the page

I am currently working on a new version of this page on a seperate page. I do not wish to have everybody comment on it yet since it has my personal comments inbedded into the text that needs to removed. Also I need to find Citations for pretty much the entire article ARGH! In anycase once I get that stuff done over the course of the next month I wish to have it checked over before we do a massive revision of the present article. I do not wish to OWN this article but this page is pretty sloppy and needs to much work to just do minor edits. In due time I will get this done but I am making this one of my pet projects to get done this winter. I tend to get this stuff done pretty fast as I did in the Medical Corridor article. If anybody has anything else they would like to have in the article you can just let me know. Right now I have the layout pretty much done but I do have one question.

As of the past decade their has been a major reconstruction of the city. Some would say revival or a lot small projects but in any case where in the present article would be a good place to locate that at. I really feel if anybody would look at this city 15 years ago to now they be shocked at how much has changed. --Mihsfbstadium (talk) 21:38, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure if the article needs to be completely rewritten but the answer to your question is the reconstruction of the city should be in the history section. - Epousesquecido (talk) 01:28, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Grand Rapids MI Seal.jpg

Image:Grand Rapids MI Seal.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 23:26, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:GrandRapidsMI.gif

Image:GrandRapidsMI.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

BetacommandBot (talk) 23:43, 13 February 2008 (UTC)