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The conservative reputation of Grand Rapids is done and overplayed. The city is much more progressive than its suburbs but what city isn't? Even then it's suburbs aren't some bastion of intolerance as people ignorantly portray. It's a pre 90's stigma that won't die much like stigmas that exist elsewhere. It can be frustrating for anyone who knows the city. All one has to do is spend time in Grand Rapids and it's neighborhoods and that stereotype goes right out the window.
I'd honestly look into Grand Rapids, once you are there for yourself I doubt you'd be disappointed.
Have you considered Madison, Wisconsin? That's a liberal/progressive enclave in an otherwise fairly conservative part of the Upper Midwest.
Kalamazoo is a typical left-leaning college town, but it's not exactly West Coast liberal. I grew up just south of Kalamazoo and went to school at WMU, so I know the area pretty well. We now live in the Seattle area, and if it's that type of "progressive" you're looking for, you might find that Kalamazoo will take a little bit of adjustment. It's left of center, certainly, but it's still very solidly Midwestern in a lot of ways.
I wish you luck with the Michigan winters! I've been away for about 12 years now, and I realized how much my blood has thinned out when we went to Livonia to visit family in February. I think the warmest it ever got was 7 degrees. I don't think I could survive those winters anymore!
Winter does get cold and we have been in a cold cycle these last 2 years (coldest in 20 years), but 7 degrees is rare here. the normal January/February is is in the mid to high 30s.
I went to WMU and then moved away too, but I came back. As a student, my life was engulfed by other students, school and being drunk half the time and I really did not know what the Kalamazoo community was really like until I moved back.
I have lived in many places, but Phoenix is the furthest west that I have ever lived. I found that city incredibly conservative, especially in comparison to what Kalamazoo is like today.
I always find it amazing when I hear say that Death Penalty states out west are "progressive". Michigan has gone longer than any other state without having Capital punishment (1846). Every so often, special interest groups get it on the ballad only to have the voters shoot it down overwhelmingly.
Outside of Portland and some of the college towns, Oregon is very conservative as is the case with most western states. Conservative states tend to have progressive meccas for the liberal population to escape too. ie Seatle, Portland, Austin.
Calling Kalamazoo less progressive then western states is coming from ignorance that is perpetuated by a ignorant, western based media. If you live in a suburban neighborhood in Kalamazoo then you are going to find people like what you are describing, but the progressives live in either the city neighborhoods or they by a couple of acres outside of town so that they can have a small organic farm (there is a reason why Kazoo has the best Farmer's Market in the state and it is rank in the top 25 in the country). We even have one of the last remaining and thriving Hippy Communes in the country.
How about the progressive view of transportation. Michigan has some the best laws in the country that protect bike riders and encourages bike lanes. One in particular is the Complete Streets program for Kalamazoo and Van Buren county that requires all new road projects to include dedicated bike lanes and sidewalks where feasible. ----High Speed Rail? Michigan start back in the 1990s buying and improving tracks. Aside from the BoshWash corridor, once again, Michigan was way ahead of the rest of the nation. The only thing that is slowing down the trains now on the Detroit to Chicago line (Kalamazoo being the one stop for the high speed train) is that Indian and Illinois still have not purchased and improved the Amtrak lines in their states. We are not standing still either as we are building new lines (Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor to Detroit). Oddly, you never hear about any of this in the media as they ignore what is has already become reality here and instead they show case discussion over plans of possibly having a high speed rail on the west coast someday. .......being a little facetious here.
Anyway, ignore the dribble about how the the Midwest is not progressive that you here from the media. When you give the litmus test you will find that Michigan (along with Minn. and even Wis) show to be even more Progressive. There is a reason why the Republicans do not even bother campaigning in Michigan....they have not won here in 30 years in a presidential election and even longer for senatorial.
The conservative reputation of Grand Rapids is done and overplayed. The city is much more progressive than its suburbs but what city isn't? Even then it's suburbs aren't some bastion of intolerance as people ignorantly portray. It's a pre 90's stigma that won't die much like stigmas that exist elsewhere. It can be frustrating for anyone who knows the city. All one has to do is spend time in Grand Rapids and it's neighborhoods and that stereotype goes right out the window.
I'd honestly look into Grand Rapids, once you are there for yourself I doubt you'd be disappointed.
I agree with Mjlo. The city of GR has come a long way from the Bible Belt rep that it had in the 1980s. However, Kent county has yet once gone blue like the Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties consistently do presidential election, but I think the this next election we will see it.
I agree with Mjlo. The city of GR has come a long way from the Bible Belt rep that it had in the 1980s. However, Kent county has yet once gone blue like the Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties consistently do presidential election, but I think the this next election we will see it.
Does it really matter if the county goes blue? Kent County went blue in 08 why does it need to? What does it signal? The city has been consistently blue for at least the last 4 election cycles. A voting record of a county alone can't be enough. Muskegon County is always blue and I have a hard time believing it offers what the OP is looking for. If you need to see it blue on paper it seems you're looking for a status. Voting for Democrats alone does not make an attractive progressive area.
If what you're looking for is a place that pursues progressive policies for urbanity, Grand Rapids is at the forefront next to any city in the state. You constantly see Grand Rapids city hall consider and adopt policies to advance the city for the future. From the use of streets to be more pedestrian and bike friendly(road diets), to energy consumption, to BRT, and so on. From what I've seen Grand Rapids usually is the first city in Michigan to try new things, and then you often see it copied by the more flagship "progressive" cities.
Does it really matter if the county goes blue? Kent County went blue in 08 why does it need to? What does it signal? The city has been consistently blue for at least the last 4 election cycles. A voting record of a county alone can't be enough. Muskegon County is always blue and I have a hard time believing it offers what the OP is looking for. If you need to see it blue on paper it seems you're looking for a status. Voting for Democrats alone does not make an attractive progressive area.
If what you're looking for is a place that pursues progressive policies for urbanity, Grand Rapids is at the forefront next to any city in the state. You constantly see Grand Rapids city hall consider and adopt policies to advance the city for the future. From the use of streets to be more pedestrian and bike friendly(road diets), to energy consumption, to BRT, and so on. From what I've seen Grand Rapids usually is the first city in Michigan to try new things, and then you often see it copied by the more flagship "progressive" cities.
It shows how the majority of the county's population is voting. All urban cores tend to vote Democratic, but when you can get the enough of the suburban and rural population voting Democrat, so that the county goes blue and does so consistently, then you will have a true change in the way the region leans politically.
Right now most of the the metro population of Grand Rapids is solid red.
I do however have an issue with stating that GR is the first to implement progressive policies and then other "flagship progressive cities" follow suit. It is the other way around as Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo have been leading the way for decades and are usually years ahead of GR. To people living outside of these communities it may seam differently, but that is because it does not make the news until our 2nd largest cities does it. Kazoo have been putting in bike lanes - under the radar - since the early 1990s. Both Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor started implementing LBGT rights 10 years before GR. In fact, Kalamazoo had voted that Gay and Lesbian couples had full rights and benefits as married couples back in 2003 (? not positive on the year) only to have republican representatives bring forth a state laws making our local initiatives illegal at that time.
Last edited by westernwilly; 03-24-2015 at 09:30 AM..
Mljo, I agree with you in that the city of Grand Rapids is very progressive. I just think that more of it's suburban areas needs to move a little further into the 21st century.
It show how the majority of the county's population is voting. All urban cores tend to vote Democratic, but when you can get the enough of the suburban and rural population voting Democrat to where the county goes blue and goes blue consistently, then you will have a true change in the way the region leans politically.
Right now most of the the metro population of Grand Rapids is solid red.
I get what you are saying. As someone who lived there for 5.5 years even though I had heard about it how conservative it was it never felt like I was living in Republican hell. The cities in GR's urban area cooperate with each other very well, I found Kent County on the whole to be more libertarian. The city itself is very surprising if you've never been. I look at areas like Flint and Saginaw of which are overwhelmingly blue and find them very unnatractive at the moment. So my question remains why does it matter? The product of what is offered in any area speaks for itself no? Ideology in this case I feel is perception and not reality.
I get what you are saying. As someone who lived there for 5.5 years even though I had heard about it how conservative it was it never felt like I was living in Republican hell. The cities in GR's urban area cooperate with each other very well, I found Kent County on the whole to be more libertarian. The city itself is very surprising if you've never been. I look at areas like Flint and Saginaw of which are overwhelmingly blue and find them very unnatractive at the moment. So my question remains why does it matter? The product of what is offered in any area speaks for itself no? Ideology in this case I feel is perception and not reality.
Flint and Saginaw as well as Muskegan too, are all "solid Blue" for an entirely different reason. Most of their population is far being progressive and vote Democratic in elections for other reasons such as union support, social welfare assurance and racial tradition and mistrust of Republicans.
What a great, informative exchange! We are definitely going to include Grand Rapids on our tour. My intelligent, liberal, Kalamazoo College-graduated niece says she would really consider moving to Grand Rapids. Basically, we are going to look deeply into both Kalamazoo and GR, anything further north might be too much winter for us. Wonderful to hear about the Kalamazoo farmers market.
You are quite correct when you say much of the west is mildly conservative interspersed with urban centers of progressive liberals. Not everyone, by any means, is letting their freak flag fly out here. Most of Arizona, inland California and California south of LA, rural Oregon, eastern and coastal Washington, Utah, southern New Mexico, and Colorado Springs are all pretty conservative.
I think the media is responsible for this mis-representation of the West and even the generic dismissal or belittlement of the Midwest as home to some very real progressive social and economic programs. This is exactly what excites me about considering Michigan: the opportunity to get with people who are concerned about community and the environment and act under the radar, because they care. It may be a small or smaller group, but if substantive change in the area of caring about and helping our fellow citizens can be achieved (some might say regained) in the hinterland, well, then, there may be hope for this country.
Flint and Saginaw as well as Muskegan too, are all "solid Blue" for an entirely different reason. Most of their population is far being progressive and vote Democratic in elections for other reasons such as union support, social welfare assurance and racial tradition and mistrust of Republicans.
So clearly it's not all about being blue, It's about a collective mentality
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