10/20/2026
So, let's get into this.
First, transparency. While I was still on the Board of the West Grand Neighborhood Organization, serving as VP, I was an enthusiastic supporter of this project. The corridors of the WestSide have a horrid lack of place-making and reinforcement of identity and this concept was a perfect melding of my design and comms professional POV with my civic and activism passions, and skills. The design of these is fine. Not perfect, but not bad.
(Yes, I would have supported what many have suggested about involving artists, etc. but that was not as feasible as you might assume for a variety of reasons, both good and bad.)
All that said, this project has ballooned into a laughable boondoggle that you can guarantee has certain known members of the West Michigan Business Bro culture dipping into the slush fund.
Despite the feeble attempts of the very-problematic Executive Director of WGNO to diffuse public scrutiny over this application of so much money, the reality is that the funding for the Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) is still The People's money, and tax-based. They use Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which captures future increases in property tax revenues within a designated business district to reinvest in local infrastructure and projects. That's still "our" money. It could still go toward other, better things.
We all need to be demanding full and complete information from our Neighborhood Org to understand this project better than the usual shoddy local media coverage has afforded. That kind of commitment to oversight was a key element of my values when I served as VP. These are the kinds of inconvenient inquiries I always pursued when serving, and will continue to ask from outside.
Control freaks don't like it when you're curious. It makes them uneasy and makes them start to vilify you and lash out, and cause the kinds of infighting that led me to step away. What's right has always mattered more to me than the egos and feelings of other people, so... here we are.
Transparency on all of this has been hard to come by, even when I was on the inside. Right now, the public is owed an explanation about why this is a $1.7M project, and exactly what portions of said costs apply to the arches vs other purposes, who the recipients of those public funds are, and what else they're going to.
I backed this project. But not at this kind of cost. It has ballooned into a possible swindle that likely will be profiting the usual suspects. And if that's not true, the burden of proof is on West Grand, the Business Associations involved, and the CIA apparatus of The City of Grand Rapids.
Three illuminated arches will welcome visitors to Grand Rapids’ West Side business districts as part of a $1.7 million project expected to debut in spring 2027.
