Grand Rapids Area -- Diversity? (Detroit, Flint: income, jobs, violent crime)

[magellan]

Originally Posted by PeytonsMommy

I would NOT recommend Kentwood. The schools are having a lot of issues with gangs. A lot of diversity, but not a good situation. The problem there, in my opinion, is that a lot of low income kids are mixed with kids from $$ (country clubs, etc). The housing market there is saturated with homes and you will have a tough time selling again.

I live in Rockford. We are comparable to East GR and Forest Hills in terms of diversity (I think we are 97% caucasion!) but everyone is incredibly open to everything here. I LOVE it!!! Feel free to PM me w/any questions, and look at Rockfords website - we have a GREAT downtown and awesome walking trails! It's an outdoor persons dream!

Melissa

The Kentwood gangs rumor is just that: a rumor. I think because it has so diverse people assume that there are problems. There have been no incidents of gang activity or violence at Kentwood Schools. I know people who work at Kentwood Schools. There have been gang-related incidents at two places in Kentwood (Woodland Mall and one other place), but the kids involved were not from Kentwood.

[omagis]

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!

Well i have lived in a much Smaller city just south west of Grand Rapids, Holland Michigan is a great place to raise a family and live, every one here is open minded becides a very few people, we have strong family values and have good schools well the north side does any ways, were about 26-30mins out side Grand Rapids and 40mins out side of Muskegen. our population is much smaller then GR or Muskegen numbering around 40,000 people our "white" population is the largest but Hispanic makes up right around 10% of hollands population so unlike GR and Muskegen we arent 90+% "white" the school i went to was West Ottawa High school around 2,500 students in high school at least when i went there in 2002, not sure about the % of population on other races but i went to school with many different people who were all accepted, the crime rate is very low.

[deslok]

Holland is great if your dutch.

[Schaumburger]

GR is 67-68% white. Even higher is Holland at 78% while Muskegon is 60%. Either way more and more people of West Michigan are concentrating on raising families no matter their makeup. Its a moderate society striving for common values that make sense to parents raising families.

There will always be a bigot that will say folks shouldn't raise families outside their ethnicity.

[Wabbit]

And now for diversity of another sort.
All you fans of Architecture, check out this building that might
be coming to downtown G.R.:
MLive.com: Everything Michigan

Architectural tourism here we come!

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Wabbit

And now for diversity of another sort.
All you fans of Architecture, check out this building that might
be coming to downtown G.R.:
MLive.com: Everything Michigan

Architectural tourism here we come!

That's friggin awesome! It's exciting to be a Grand Rapidian lately!

Sources tell me it's pretty close to being a done deal, and means a new financial firm and law firm to the region, adding 200 jobs just to start with when completed.

[suydam]

To hunt for property in the 250-350 range, I suggest you check out http://public.grar.com/public/pubsrch.mac/start

It'll allow you to search by school district (which is what most people mean when they define Rockford, Forest Hills, etc.) including East Grand Rapids and Kentwood.

You'll quickly find (as my wife and I did when looking for a new home) that cities (Kentwood, East Grand Rapids) have smaller lots and higher taxes than townships (99.9% of Rockford and Forest Hills).

For us, that didn't matter and East G.R. won the day for a number of reasons.

I'm sure many people have the same decision to make and choose Rockford which is a great area too or Kentwood (which despite earlier posts bemoaning "problems" at the schools has a good system and is a safe place to live) or even the city of Grand Rapids which has plentiful housing stock if you like historic homes.

[ohioborn]

Sportzgal - if you are still looking for school demographics check out this website Schools, High School, Public Schools, School District, Public High Schools - SchoolMatters

I found info regarding racial make-up, % economically disadvantaged, and MEAP scores.

[amy05hope]

If you have not moved yet... perhaps this can help you.

I am a teacher for the Grand Rapids Public Schools... the high schools, things are not as bad as the media likes to portray (at least within the schools). The fact that we are the 2nd largest school district in the state draws a lot of media... and they are located right in the city so they have quick access! If your son is only 3 1/2 look at our small school programs... they are excellent! One that I am very familiar with because one of the teachers in my small Montessori high school sends her 3 1/2 year old and 5 year old is the Montessori program. It is located downtown GR (tec. the NE side) within Fountain elementary. The program is great and it has a continuing prgram that goes through 12th grade! That program is actually the only other high school in the district that has passed the state "standards for progress" besides the gifted and talented high school, City High. I'm not sure about the percentage of diversity in the lower grades, however from just viewing them they seem to be diverse. In our high school program we have about 50% black, 30% multi-racial, 10% white, 5% hispanic, and 5% asian.... I hope this helps!

To get more information on diversity you can go to:

Schoolsnoop.com

You will then want to go to Michigan, Kent County... and then you can look over the school data.... the only thing is that the small schools I was talking to you about are included into the larger buildings and not given their own data.

[nytexans]

My husband and I are moving from Texas to Grand Rapids as well. I grew up there, but I think it will still take some years to get used to the winters again... I wonder about the commutes. Do you know where you'll be working? We were considering Rockford, but a lot of the jobs are in Holland and south of GR (beyond the burbs south). Let me know if anyone has any big advice about where NOT to live to commute to various areas.