Grand Rapids Area -- Diversity?

[Constitutionally Speaking]

Originally Posted by sportzgal1277

Hi -- My husband and 2 small children (ages 8 months and 3 1/2) are possibly relocating to the Grand Rapids area. Our family is interracial (caucasian and african american). Can someone tell me about good areas of Grand Rapids (and the surrounding areas) that have good schools, low crime rates and plenty of ethnic and cultural diversity?

Thank you for the info!

Grand Rapids itself is wonderfully diverse and most of the near suburbs are very safe and have easy access to to the cultural events of the city (actually if you are from any major city, Grand Rapids itself is quite safe by comparison).

[dorothyallen]

Listen, Sportzgal, I moved from Texas to Michigan four years ago, and I have family in Grand Rapids. And I am African American. East Grand Rapids is not diverse, nor is it particularly open to diversity. Forest Hills is just as bad. Both of these school systems are elitist and snobbish. The public schools of Grand Rapids offer some good, competitive programs. Your best option may be to send your kids to one of the private Christian schools in the area, and despite their lack of diversity, they're small enough to give a lot of personal attention to their students, especially on the elementary level. Very few schools offer the kind of education our kids to need to compete in the global economy, so most parents who want to see their children succeed, will send them to co-curricular after-school programs offered by companies like Sylvan Learning Center and Kaplan.

Finally, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT live outside the Grand Rapids/Kentwood area. These areas have some beautiful properties. You do not want to live in the lily-white, conservative Republican suburbs of Grand Rapids for your kids' sake.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by dorothyallen

Listen, Sportzgal, I moved from Texas to Michigan four years ago, and I have family in Grand Rapids. And I am African American. East Grand Rapids is not diverse, nor is it particularly open to diversity. Forest Hills is just as bad. Both of these school systems are elitist and snobbish. The public schools of Grand Rapids offer some good, competitive programs. Your best option may be to send your kids to one of the private Christian schools in the area, and despite their lack of diversity, they're small enough to give a lot of personal attention to their students, especially on the elementary level. Very few schools offer the kind of education our kids to need to compete in the global economy, so most parents who want to see their children succeed, will send them to co-curricular after-school programs offered by companies like Sylvan Learning Center and Kaplan.

Finally, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT live outside the Grand Rapids/Kentwood area. These areas have some beautiful properties. You do not want to live in the lily-white, conservative Republican suburbs of Grand Rapids for your kids' sake.

I would disagree. We live in Forest Hills in a newer neighborhood and I would say that 30% of the neighborhood is foreign born or minority households. If your definition of diversity is just "African Americans", then you're right.

[GRRAZO]

First it depends on what you define as diverse?This fourum is part of City-data.com, a site with data for all cities including demographics of the population.....

a quick study would show that GR and all of its subburbs are mostly white. GR being 55% white and 45% minorities. Kentwood and Wyoming are the most "diverse" both being about 75% white, 25% minority. All of the other subburbs are at least 90% white.

There are differences with the Hispanic count throwing numbers off. Also these are probably from 2000 and are bound to be different now espeacially places like Kentwood where there has been a lot of subsidised housing recently there, a very noticable demographic change in some areas. Wyoming and SW GR has, the historical Hispanic area has continued to see strong growth

While places like Forest Hills has pokets of "diverse" neighborhoods, the majority of the area and the state for that matter are pretty segrigated. Kentwood would probably be your best bet to see the most overall diversity in race and economic conditions, also with pretty decent schools. Godwin Hieghts is also a very diverse subburban school.

Another thing you will find is that many of the inner subburban school demographics will not directly represent the residents in that area, due to "school of choice", there are a lot of GR city students attending schools in the burbs and not much visa versa

Over all GR is diverse compared to other similarsized midwestern cities, but not the same as other areas of the country, thats the facts

[marylee54]

Originally Posted by dorothyallen

Finally, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT live outside the Grand Rapids/Kentwood area. These areas have some beautiful properties. You do not want to live in the lily-white, conservative Republican suburbs of Grand Rapids for your kids' sake.

Ah, geez, what's wrong with lily-white Republicans? Some of my best friends are lily-white Republicans!

[cjhsa]

Serving tacos for dinner is considered diversity here. Soft shelled tacos will get you labeled as certifiably over-diversified.