Marie and Chris get married: Tour Grand Rapids

If you have some time to spare while in Grand Rapids, you might try one of these self-guided tours.

6 Degrees of Separation

This is really more of a game. Here's how it goes:

1. Enter any establishment on the SE side.
2. Locate an anglo-looking person.
3. Approach said person and attempt to find a shared connection.
4. You get 5 points if you find a connection within 5 min, 10 points for 2 min, and 30 points if you discover a connection in under a minute. +10 points for incest.
5. Get weirded out by how easy that was.
6. Repeat in a new establishment.

For variety, try locating two anglo-looking people and finding their common connection.

For advanced players, try finding a common connection between yourself and two or more strangers.

Extreme version:

Find all anglo-looking people in the building and figure out how they are all connected to each other.

The Boutique Side of the City

As you may have guessed from the image, this tour is a little sappy and romanticized. But it's a thorough look at the newer developments attracting people to the area. This is the trendy side of Grand Rapids: quaint coffee shops, antique stores, designer goods, hipster hangouts, and upscale eateries.

"Libby’s charmingly witty and beautifully descriptive 24-hour guide is filled with all the goodness in life, from food and drink to art and antiques. Click through to read her short-story-esque city guide!"

The RedLine Tour

Grand Rapids is a particularly good case study on racial segregation. We rank as the 26th most segregated city in the country. And here's a map of the racial divides in Grand Rapids, even down to individual streets. Take a drive through several different neighborhoods and ask your kids what they notice about store signs, the condition of houses, who is seen outside, the condition of roads and sidewalks, etc.

You'll find many similarities to the image above, from the 1930s, when the divides in Grand Rapids were most clearly outlines by a method called redlining.

"What's remarkable (though unfortunately not at all surprising) about the maps is how they illustrate the amazing persistence of racial segregation and disinvestment in our neighborhoods. Most of the areas that were marked in red in the 1930s are still, to this day, struggling neighborhoods."

Legend (from the original maps)

First Grade or A rating - signified by green on the map
The First Grade or A areas are “hot spots”; they are not yet fully built up. In nearly all instances they are the new, well-planned sections of the city, and almost synonymous with the areas where good mortgage lenders with available funds are willing to make their maximum loans to be amortized over a 10-15 year period -- perhaps up to 75-80% of the appraisal. They are homogenous; in demand as residential locations in “good times” or “bad”; hence on the up grade.

Second Grade or B rating - signified by blue on the map
The Second Grade or B areas, as a rule, are completely developed. They are like a 1935 automobile -- still good, but not what the people are buying today who can afford a new one. They are the neighborhoods where good mortgage lenders will have a tendency to hold loan commitments 10-15% under the limit.

Third Grade or C rating - signified by yellow on the map
Third Grade or C areas are characterized by age, obsolescence, and change of style; expiring restrictions or lack of them; infiltration of a lower grade population; the presence of influences which increase sales resistance such as inadequate transportation, insufficient utilities, perhaps heavy tax burdens, poor maintenance of homes, etc. “Jerry” built areas are included, as well as neighborhoods lacking homogeneity. Generally, these areas have reached the transition period. Good mortgage lenders are more conservative in the Third Grade or C areas and hold loan commitments under the lending ratio for the A and B areas.

Fourth Grade or D ratings - signified by red on the map
The Fourth Grade or D areas represent those neighborhoods in which the things that are now taking place in the C neighborhoods, have already happened. They are characterized by detrimental influences to a pronounced degree, undesirable population or an infiltration of it. Low percentage of homeownership, very poor maintenance, and often vandalism prevail. Unstable incomes of the people and difficult collections are usually prevalent. The areas are broader than the so-called neighborhoods and others will lend only on a conservative basis.

Explanation
Taken as a whole, the maps and survey sheets reveal what local bankers, realtors, and appraisers viewed as the long-term trends for the city in 1937. This outlook would influence the preference for new construction in carefully planned areas, the direction of expressways, and the effort to restrict and isolate ethnic and minority communities within particular areas. While certainly not alone, the HOLC map offers a window into the mindset of the 1930s.