Featured Stories

What's The Big Idea?!

Jeff Hill Thursday, February 09, 2012

Rapid Growth's Not Your Average Speaker Series returns in February with a look at big ideas and how they can be turned into reality.

Community Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Speaker Series

Dakota Shayne: From Books and Cookies to Fitness and Urban Growth

Lauren Folkes Thursday, February 09, 2012

Dakota Shayne is fairly new to Grand Rapids, but has already tackled various market segments including fitness, art and literary advocacy. He's 25 and loves Grand Rapids. Come eat cookies and read with him.

Community Engagement, Education, Entrepreneurship, Healthy Living

Eastown

Global Sustainable Partnerships: Bringing Clean Water from GR to Tanzania

Chelsea Slocum of The ModeLife Thursday, February 09, 2012

Kim Fogg, founder of Global Sustainable Partnerships (GSP), is a very busy woman. She lives life on the go, split between three places: Washington D.C., Grand Rapids and Tanzania. She is a dynamic woman who, in just one year, has provided 8,000 children with clean water, something they they never had access to prior. And that’s just the beginning.

Community Engagement, Entrepreneurship

G-Sync: The Getaway! (a romantic urban adventure)

Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor Thursday, February 09, 2012

Events happen a lot in Grand Rapids these days, but sometimes, as Tommy Allen discovered, you can easily create a fast and comical getaway that is totally your own downtown experience.

Accommodation, Arts & Culture, Attractions, Dining & Nightlife, events, Festivals, hospitality, Hotels, Museums, Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor, tourism, Visitors

Innovating with Chef Ray

J. Bennett Rylah Thursday, February 02, 2012

The Meijer Innovation Center joined GRid70 seven months ago. Chef Ray Sierengowski has been using this space to conduct experiments in creating the best consumer food product, making him the only man in the world who will say he's tired of chocolate chip cookies.

Design, Development, Food

Tyler Way's Collection

Jason Lester Thursday, February 02, 2012

Tyler Way first started customizing sneakers in his dorm room as a freshman at GVSU. Since then, his custom footwear business has grown exponentially with an impressive roster of clients including LeBron James, who pays as much as $2,500 a pair.

Design, Entrepreneurship, fashion

G-Sync: Riding The High Line To GRR (A New York Love Story)

Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor Thursday, February 02, 2012

Sometimes, the fastest way to make a connection in our region is by creating a straight high line. But before you think our lifestyle editor, Tommy Allen, is talking about GRR flight patterns, you'd better read on....

Arts & Culture, Attractions, Community Engagement, Community Organizing, Cultural, Design, Development, Music, Parks, Recycling, Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor, tourism, Volunteerism

Center City

Moving Mountains Three At A Time

Jeff Hill Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cari Draft of EcoTrek Fitness doesn't let towering dunes or giant retail outlets frighten her from reaching her goals.

Entrepreneurship, Food, Retail, Sports & Recreation

Carl Kelly & the Grand Rapids Youth Boxing Foundation

Kevin Vanantwerpen Thursday, January 26, 2012

Every Wednesday night, approximately 35 children and young adults from the surrounding schools and neighborhoods gather with the staff and volunteers of the MLK Mentoring and Boxing Program to train in the sport. But talk to any member of the staff, and you’ll hear that there is much more to the program than athletics.

Community Engagement, Education

Teresa Weatherhall Neal: Treating GRPS Like Family

Rachel Melville Thursday, January 26, 2012

The newly appointed GRPS interim Superintendent lives up to all of the raving reviews: She is a team player; an advocate of the GRPS community, a force of stability and holds a clear vision and plan for the schools. Teresa Weatherall Neal is all of these things… and much more.

Community Engagement, Education

G-Sync: Cool-laboration (No Stagnation)

Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor Thursday, January 26, 2012

A lot of folks will toss about the word "collaboration," but few really ever get beyond the beta stage. Lifestyle Editor Tommy Allen returns to WinterWest a year later to discover how getting back to our communities' roots might hold important keys for others.

Attractions, Community Engagement, Community Organizing, Festivals, Sports & Recreation, Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor, Visitors

Taking Theatre to the Edge with the Stark Turn Players

Joseph Charles McIntosh Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rapid Growth talks with nonprofit theater company the Stark Turn Players about their exciting brand of experimental theater and where the theatre scene is in Grand Rapids.

Arts & Culture, Non Profit, nonprofit, Non-Profit, Theater

Heartside

Bridging the Gap: Part II

Jeff Hill Thursday, January 19, 2012

Come along with Rapid Growth on its second trip to Detroit in a year. You just might be as inspired as we were.

Arts & Culture, Business Development, Choosing Michigan, Community Engagement, Community Organizing, Cultural, Design, Development, Dining & Nightlife, Investment, Museums, Performing Arts, Theater

G-Sync: To The Powers of Three

Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rapid Growth and a bus full of local doers and makers rolled out of Grand Rapids on their second cross-state trip to Detroit on January 13. Lifestyle Editor Tommy Allen once again discovered cross-cultural city joy to the powers of three.

Arts & Culture, Community Engagement, Cultural, Entrepreneurship, Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor

RapidBlog: Greenwashing in Restaurants, by Angela Topp

Angela Topp Thursday, January 19, 2012

Treehuggers' Angela Topp talks about greenwashing in restaurants, and how to tell if your favorite restaurant is really the environmentally conscious, local and organic business they claim to be.

Environment, Healthy Living