Grand Rapids: Michigan's boom city or elsewhere?

[suydam]

I wonder if that Detroit News piece is overly negative.
Take Kent County. There is a population gain here (granted, small... but it's there). "We" show up as having a large number of outbound movers for a few reasons:

1) The higher the population, the more people will be moving out at any given time. That's just a fact.

2) We have colleges. If GVSU graduates 6000 kids a year and 80+% stay in Michigan (a number their president quoted on WoodTV8 yesterday or the day before) then that's still 1,200 kids moving away annually. That's not a bad thing... it's just how it works.

I find that sort of interactive graph interesting, but misleading.

[actinic]

Originally Posted by magellan

I'm also surprised North Carolina didn't make the top 10.

Because it's not doing well on the employment front ...

Table 3. Civilian labor force and unemployment by state and selected area, seasonally adjusted

[Indentured Servant]

Those numbers do not reflect NET migration. Those only outbound numbers, not inbound numbers. I would venture a guess that nearly as many people from Cook County moved to Kent count in the same period.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by suydam

I wonder if that Detroit News piece is overly negative.
Take Kent County. There is a population gain here (granted, small... but it's there). "We" show up as having a large number of outbound movers for a few reasons:

1) The higher the population, the more people will be moving out at any given time. That's just a fact.

2) We have colleges. If GVSU graduates 6000 kids a year and 80+% stay in Michigan (a number their president quoted on WoodTV8 yesterday or the day before) then that's still 1,200 kids moving away annually. That's not a bad thing... it's just how it works.

I find that sort of interactive graph interesting, but misleading.

Yes, I did also notice they did it in raw numbers, and not percentages.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by actinic

Because it's not doing well on the employment front ...

Table 3. Civilian labor force and unemployment by state and selected area, seasonally adjusted

Ouch. There are a lot of states now giving Michigan a run for its money (California, Nevada, Oregon, RI, SC, NC).

[HotSauce]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

I think Ann Arbors growth is partly due to the sprawl expansion (exurbs) of Metropolitan Detroit. Livingston County is part of Metro Ann Arbor, but it is really the westward expansion of suburban Detroit. The Ann Arbor area has the Nucleus for 21 century growth, which is strong research Universities, Highly educated population and a proximity to Major international Airport with direct flights to destination at home and abroad. Grand Rapids, although my sentimental favorite lacks the Major research, educated populous and Major Airport. That said, it has a growing medical research area and it does have close recreational amenities that Ann Arbor does not. If a person were looking to relocate to the State, for the long term, Grand Rapids or A2 would be your best choices. Grand Rapids was a “boom” town in that for at least a decade or more it had a population growth rate above the national average. That is probably not true any longer.

Well here we are a few short years later in Grand Rapids. The medical "mile" continues to grow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Rapids_Medical_Mile -- some of that information is out of date. Here are a few updates:

The Van Andel Institute has tripled in size - along with the amount of world class research going on at that facility. http://www.vai.org/

This is from Michigan State University's web site, "The College of Human Medicine has the largest class expansion of any LCME-accredited medical school. The college will double its enrollment in 2010 when the Secchia Center medical education building opens in Grand Rapids."

The heart center on the medical "mile" has approval to start a major heart transplant program. They are currently looking for a world-class heart surgeon to head up a group of eight experienced heart surgeons. Many jobs are being added in that area.

On a lighter note: this past summer we had the first Grand Rapids "Art Prize" event - by far the best art show/fair I've ever been to in Michigan - including A2's fantastic summer art fair.