Is your MI town emptying out? Could this be happening AGAIN? (Grand Rapids: for sale, insurance)

WheredoIlive? · 05-13-2009, 08:32 AM

Many of you saw my Hillsdale post, about the town dying, everything has closed there about. I heard they closed the last only decent sit down restaurant you could take a date to, and could be putting a bar in there. Sigh.

Now I am worried this town is emptying out. Yeah the tourists still come {St. Joe} but I am seeing ominious signs that match what happened in Hillsdale 3-4 years before I left.

I go to a small church of 35-40 people, it is now 15-20 within SEVEN MONTHS TIME. {started going there 7 months ago} There has been no church argument or anything like that. People simply MOVING AWAY.

I found out the apt building I live in within the area is only at 50 something % occupancy.

Have seen a few scattered empty houses here and there.

At least the downtown here is thriving. {mostly because of tourists}

But what about your Michigan town, do you see this happening?

Bydand · 05-13-2009, 08:39 AM

Nope my little town is remarkable consistent in population. And so are the surrounding towns. My little town was around 1200 people when my Father started 1st grade here back in the 40's, it was about 1200 when I started 1st grade here in the late 60's, and it is still around 1200 now. We go up and down a bit, but it generally is 10's of people and not 100's of people either in or out. We are actually seeing a slight increase due to the great school system. (Thanks to school of choice, our district has 500+ more kids attending school, than the population of the town.)

WheredoIlive? · 05-13-2009, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bydand

Nope my little town is remarkable consistent in population. And so are the surrounding towns. My little town was around 1200 people when my Father started 1st grade here back in the 40's, it was about 1200 when I started 1st grade here in the late 60's, and it is still around 1200 now. We go up and down a bit, but it generally is 10's of people and not 100's of people either in or out. We are actually seeing a slight increase due to the great school system. (Thanks to school of choice, our district has 500+ more kids attending school, than the population of the town.)

Do you mind saying where that is? I am glad you are in town that is not dying.

bluebird39 · 05-13-2009, 08:59 AM

Here in Lewiston (pop<1000), most shops "downtown" are for sale or rent. In just the last 3 years, things have gone from bad to worse here. Our insurance company is closed, hair place closed, 2-3 gift shops closed, seems like half of the restaurants are for sale, but still open. Ice cream houses are opening up for the season, but no new places at all.

Bydand · 05-13-2009, 09:43 AM

I'm in the Ludington Area. More specifically, Scottville. While population wise Scottville hasn't changed much for decades, the town HAS changed. There are not the Mom & Pop stores downtown there were while I was growing up, but they have been gone for a lot longer than the recent downturn. They left when Ludington was expanding toward us down US-10 and they were squeezed out by the K-Mart, Meijer, and Wal-Mart influx into Ludington. K-Mart has been gone for YEARS now, and downtown Scottville is trying to remake itself and attract new business (which it should have been doing all along in my opinion). Population and family wise it is still the same ol' town I grew up in and am happy to be raising my kids in.

suydam · 05-13-2009, 09:50 AM

My town (EGR) is slowly shrinking, but more due to birthrates I suspect than anything else. Overall I really look at my area (Greater Grand Rapids) and it's not shrinking or emptying either.

Small towns hear here (Ada village, Rockford, Caledonia) seem to be growing albeit slowly.

michigan83 · 05-13-2009, 09:56 AM

Things aren't too bad in my hometown of Lake Odessa. The population has hovered around 2,300 or so for a long time, and it seems pretty stable. The school system population has been slowly declining for a few years from a peak around 2004, but I think it's more of a demographics thing (a "bubble" of students came through and left). There were quite a few empty houses last summer, but most of them are now occupied again.

Also, the downtown strip has made huge strides during the last few years. Thanks to some government grants, there are a bunch of mom-and-pops that are currently making improvements to the storefronts. All of the downtown shops are occupied from what I can tell.

Not trying to make it sound like things are perfect, but there is definitely no mass exodus in my small town. I think it helps that the biggest industries in the area are agriculture and a couple of food suppliers (a Cargill plant, Twin City Foods). There's also a lot of commuters to both Grand Rapids and Lansing. Our town will be hit as those towns are hit, but no single plant closing or industry failure is really going to devastate the town.

magellan · 05-13-2009, 10:42 AM

I think any town in America that is outside of an hour's drive of a major metro area isn't going to be around long, I hate to say it. Many of those towns developed around 1 or 2 manufacturing companies when times were good, which are going away and not being replaced by service industry jobs. I think of towns like Evart, which had several large manufacturing plants in it that supplied the Big 3. Or towns like Kalkaska, which had several auto suppliers in it. Marshall, Sturgis, Adrian, Owosso, White Cloud, yada yada. All of them had big factories in them, now gone. We drive through a lot of Northern Michigan towns along 131 several times a summer and can't fathom what the employment base is. Is there any likelihood that a bio-tech company will set up shop there, employing hundreds of people? Or a large regional office or HQ of an insurance company? No, the large service companies need to be in major metro areas, or near large universities, or near large hospitals. And manufacturers today need more high-skilled workers, that are readily available in metro areas (as well as community colleges and workforce development centers).

The best these towns get is a Wal-Mart, which forces all the moms and pops out of business.

Not to be a debbie downer or anything. Sorry.

actinic · 05-13-2009, 11:57 AM

The demographic trends here are fascinating. Rural MI (and the country for that matter) is getting old. Older people tend to spend winters in warmer climates. Seasonality between summer and winter populations is increasing.

Younger couples with children are moving to urban areas with better schools and employment prospects. I believe this trend to be accelerating ... rural school districts are really shrinking and the quality of education is declining.

Many people electing to stay are driving a considerable distance to bring their kids to larger schools out of district. This only aggravates the declining enrollment in the smaller schools.

JGatti · 05-13-2009, 12:31 PM

People seem to be scooping up the homes in my area left and right. Gives me hope we can sell our house fast. We had 2 homes sell on our street in the last month. I think with the market down along with the tax credit this might be a good summer for home buyers/sellers.