relocating to Holland, need help (Grand Rapids, Grand Haven: houses, condos, rent)

[bear]

Could someone tell me what it is like to live downtown and what neighborhoods are desireable for a married couple w/ a young, infant child? We will be visiting in the near future and wish to check out some neighborhoods that we can consider buying in, but have no idea where to start. We are moving from NYC and like the urban feel of being able to walk or bike around instead of driving everywhere, which is why downtown seemed better....can anyone help?

[mich2fla]

Originally Posted by bear

Could someone tell me what it is like to live downtown and what neighborhoods are desireable for a married couple w/ a young, infant child? We will be visiting in the near future and wish to check out some neighborhoods that we can consider buying in, but have no idea where to start. We are moving from NYC and like the urban feel of being able to walk or bike around instead of driving everywhere, which is why downtown seemed better....can anyone help?

I assume you have visited Holland...it's a very conservative city with many shops closed on Sundays. 8th Street (downtown) has many neat unique shops and restaurants. We used to live in Central Holland and we moved away back in 1999. We currently live in Ada, Michigan just outside of Grand Rapids.

My parents live on Lake Macatawa (Lake Mac for short), on the north side off Ottawa Beach Road. My family and I come to Holland quite a bit during the summers and about once a month during the colder months.

You should focus on the north side in West Ottawa Public Schools (not Holland Public Schools). It's about a 10 minute drive to downtown Holland. There are plenty of developments and bike trails to Holland State Park and to Ottawa County Tunnel Park. It's located in Park Township, Ottawa County, Michigan.

Here's the website for Park Township if you want to gather more information: http://www.parktownship.org/

Also, here's the website for West Ottawa Public Schools: http://www.westottawa.k12.mi.us/west...e/default.asp?

If you want specific communities/subdivisions, please let me know and I can PM you for it.

Good luck on your search!

[bear]

Thanks for the suggestions. We actually have not been out to Holland yet, going in a few weeks. From here we've been doing most of our research via the web and can't seem to get a good grasp on which neighborhoods are good, if there's a bad section to avoid, downtown versus subdivisions, etc. So if there's anything more specific, we'd love the help! School info was way helpful!

[mich2fla]

My sister and brother in law lived in a Bosgraaf community north of Holland called Silver Ridge on Silverridge Drive Holland Michigan (google map it) north of Lakewood Blvd. They moved last year due to re-location for his work. It's a nice family oriented community. This community is currently full and last time we were there, there's several nice homes for sale. It has lots of young families there.

On Ottawa Beach road towards the state park, there's a new subdivision going up, I think it's near 168th Ave. It just started. It's very close to the state park and Lake Michigan. I cannot remember the name of the subdivision...we will go by there this weekend to visit my folks.

Keep in mind that this part of Holland do get busy on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day. During the week it's pretty quiet.

You can get a feel of the area by looking at the online newspaper at: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/ (You may have to register, it's free.)

Also, please check your PM.

Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

[mccchr]

Hey bear,

Coming from NYC, Holland is going to be quiet. VERY quiet. You obviously know that, but I just wanted to reiterate. On sundays, there are tumbleweeds rolling down mainstreet and you can hear the crickets. Fortunately, there are a number of fun/neat/great things about Holland that you should be able to enjoy without too much hassle.

You mentioned walking around. Holland (city and northside) is a very nice place to walk around. Lots of nice streets in the city to meander up and down. North of town is Park Township and they have bike paths EVERYWHERE. You can bike (or walk or skate) along Lake Michigan (on Lake Shore Dr.) all the way to Grand Haven. There is also a road with a bike path that leads south out of Holland to Saugatuck/Douglas.

Downtown Holland has a little bit to offer that you may enjoy beyond the walking: There's a farmer's market over in the civic center parking lot, there are a few coffee shops within a couple blocks, and Hope college runs a movie theatre downtown on 8th St. called The Knickerbocker. They show some non-mainstream films on an irregular schedule. Certainly not The Angelika on Houston St., but a breath of fresh air in a pretty conservative town. If you're conservative, not to worry, nothing at the Knickerbocker will have much violence or sexual content since it’s run by Hope College. Oh, and Hope used to have a pretty good summer repertory theatre program that my parents and I went to often. Check to see if it’s still around.

Another nice thing about Holland is it's proximity to Saugatuck/Grandhaven/Grand Rapids. Saugatuck (and it's neighbor Douglas) is a mix of small lake michigan vacation town, arts culture, and flamboyant gay culture. Don't worry, it's not the east village and you have to look around a little to find it, but it adds a fun air to the place. If you are looking for some good eats, some of the area’s better restaurants are towards Saugatuck/Douglas (You'll also find that in the summer, many people vacation from Chicago up and down the west coast of lake michigan) Speaking of Chicago, there is an Amtrak train that runs through Holland to Chicago if you need a little "city" fix.

Everything that mich2fla has said, I agree with completely. I also say move to the northside (over the bridge at the juncture of the Black River and Lake Mac) of Holland so you can be in the West Ottawa school district. I've been told by my parents (who still are in town) that Holland schools are having some problems with gangs and the academics are faltering a bit as well. In contrast to that, W.O. schools have been expanding rapidly and academics are very good. In the interest of full disclosure I did graduate from W.O. so I may be a teeny bit biased.

Neighborhoods in Park township: there are a lot of them and there are more everyday. Look around in Waukazoo woods and see if anything is interesting there. I loved growing up there because there were so many kids to play with. The woods are about 3 miles from the beach and 4-5 to downtown via bikepaths. I don’t know what you’re in the market for price wise, but the lakefront houses are ridiculously more expensive than non lakefront. There is a new sub-d going up just off Ottawa Beach Rd just before 168th which looks to have some nice homes. I wasn’t in the market for one though so I wasn’t looking very closely.

Mich mentioned that Holland is a bit conservative. Yep, definitely. It has gotten a little better over time though. At least now there are a few resturants open on sunday.

Summer around Holland (and the rest of western mich) people are going to the beach and enjoying time in their boats. It’s a very water centric time. The downside though is that Lake Mac is a bit polluted so doing much swimming isn’t suggested. Beaches on Lake Michigan are nice for swimming though. There are a few in Saugatuck, three on the northside of town, and one large one in Grand Haven.

Winter in Holland is rather grey since it’s to the west of lake Michigan and suffers from lake effect snow. However, there is at least one ski area nearby (Cannonsburg-N.E. of Grand Rapids) and there are more up north that have more to offer. There also used to be some short X-Country ski trails off Riley Ave(?) on the northside of town.

One big plus in Holland that I forgot to mention till now is the community aquatic center. My wife and I have brought our 1.5 year old daughter when we've been in town to visit my parents and my daughter loved it. (You don't have to live in town to use it though it is cheaper that way). I think it's on 22nd st just north of the hospital.

Most of the shopping is out close to the highway north of town so you'll probably need a car. Sorry. There is a D&W grocery store just off River ave north of town...

Any questions/comments lemme know!
Chris

[mich2fla]

Great post mccchr!

bear - if you have any more questions/concerns about the Holland area, let us know!

[mccchr]

Just thought of a couple more attractions for your little one when s/he gets older. There is a farm a little SW of downtown called Teusink's (pony farm) that has a petting area/ hayrides/ private birthday parties. Another place is the critter barn which is a little place over in Zeeland that kids can interact with little animals http://www.critterbarn.org/

Of course there's Windmill Island which has a few rides and plenty of places for little kids to run around.

In the summer, the Ottawa county fair is in town for a week and the fairgrounds are on Ottawa Beach road just past 152nd st./Waukazoo Dr. Lots of animals and yeehaw, a genuine demolition derby. I never missed a day of that while I was growing up. Fond memories...

Oh and thanks Mich2Fla

-Chris

[LeavingIndiana]

Hi,
Could anyone give me a feel for the race relations in the Holland area? A town near our current location has had a large influx of non-English speaking Hispanics, many of whom are known to be illegal. This has caused a big spike in crime and gang activity in that area. I was wondering how the large population in Holland is doing with such a large percentage of Hispanics? I'm not looking to make judgements, but I have a family and have seen with my own eyes what can happen if the social fabric is disrupted by people whose culture is very different than the US norm. In fact, in looking up crime statistics in Holland, I noitced a huge percentage of rapes in 2006 and what seemed to be a large number of sex offenders per capita. It was about 136:1, which is very high compared to my area's 700:1.

Any help on the good, the bad, and the ugly about Holland would be very much appreciated as we are seriously looking to move to the Western Michigan area. Likely, Holland/Grand Haven/Grand Rapids section of the state.

thanks everyone

[Siberia]

Originally Posted by LeavingIndiana

Hi,
Could anyone give me a feel for the race relations in the Holland area? A town near our current location has had a large influx of non-English speaking Hispanics, many of whom are known to be illegal. This has caused a big spike in crime and gang activity in that area. I was wondering how the large population in Holland is doing with such a large percentage of Hispanics? I'm not looking to make judgements, but I have a family and have seen with my own eyes what can happen if the social fabric is disrupted by people whose culture is very different than the US norm. In fact, in looking up crime statistics in Holland, I noitced a huge percentage of rapes in 2006 and what seemed to be a large number of sex offenders per capita. It was about 136:1, which is very high compared to my area's 700:1.

Any help on the good, the bad, and the ugly about Holland would be very much appreciated as we are seriously looking to move to the Western Michigan area. Likely, Holland/Grand Haven/Grand Rapids section of the state.

thanks everyone

Holland has went from 10% Hispanic to 25% in the last 10-12 years. The south side has some gang issues, specifically the "Latin Kings". They tend to kill themselves mostly, and seem to enjoy the use of spray paint and fire bombs rival houses. Talk to neighbors before buying on the South side...avoid Latin King turf if you want you new home to appreciate. I once rented on the south side a long time ago, and had my car broken into within two weeks of living there. It was a group of Hispanics from Ohio. Very unfortunate that a few bad apples create so much trouble, as most of the hispanics are the nicest people you will ever met and work hard for their living. I had multiple hispanic friends when I lived in Holland a long time ago...they are hard working folks who wish only for the American dream.

Holland is nice in general...just avoid the violent gang areas. This is common in most cities of any size...location is everything.



Gang Shooting Yesterday:

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news, weather, sports and video - Police: overnight shooting is gang-related


Holland Gang Graffiti

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news, weather, sports and video - Holland police: Gang tagging sites across city

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news, weather, sports and video - Holland residents and police meet to curb graffiti


2005 Holland Police talk about Holland Gang issues:

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news, weather, sports and video - Three people injured, another arrested following gang-related incident in Holland

[allbusiness]

Originally Posted by bear

Could someone tell me what it is like to live downtown and what neighborhoods are desireable for a married couple w/ a young, infant child? We will be visiting in the near future and wish to check out some neighborhoods that we can consider buying in, but have no idea where to start. We are moving from NYC and like the urban feel of being able to walk or bike around instead of driving everywhere, which is why downtown seemed better....can anyone help?

I live right in town -- about a dozen blocks south of 8th street in what some might call the near south side (hospital, high school, area). Most of the city's neighborhoods are well kept and friendly. Of course, there are currently some hot spots with gang activity, etc., like so many small towns but easy to avoid.

The historic district is very nice, immediately adjacent to downtown and has a lot of nice, older, and larger homes. It all depends on what you're lokking for. The area bordered by 10th street on the north, Washington on the west Central on the east and 13th on the south is prety much the historic area.

I'd strongly suggest the area south of 20th street, between Van Raalte on the west and Columbia Avenue on the east. Very nice area (with few exceptions) lots of schools, playgrounds, parks, very walkable and just far enough from downtown to avoid the rush, yert close enough to ride bikes or walk to the farmers market, etc.

Avoid the realtors who steer you into the townships outisde of the city. They're all "afraid" of the "big bad inner city". Makes me sick!

You will love Holland but coming from NYC will take some time to get used to the small town feel. Be sure to plug in to cultural, arts, sports and other opportunities or you will probably go stir crazy.

Rosemary Lacy at Five Star is a very good realtor with a lot of great homes inside the city limits. (no commercial here. I barely know her, but see a lot of her signs in nice inner-city neighborhoods.) Ask her or whomever you choose to work with to show you some great 2 and 3 bedroom homes around the hospital and the Elmdale/Lawndale court areas. I think you'll be pleased.

The Holland Area Aquaitc center, several parks and schools are rigth there.

Also check out Baker Lofts for a real urban feel --old furniture factory turned into tax-free loft condos!