Reply #42: I grew up there [View All]

[Pied Piper]

Hated it, but didn't understand why until I moved to Boston for grad school.

The area is VERY conservatively religious. I think they have the largest number of chuches per captia than just about anywhere. I was raised Presbyterian, but the dominant denomination is Reformed or Christian Reformed. There is also a Catholic presence. But, when I was there, no Jews, at least I never met a single one while growing up. It didn't occur to me as unusual at the time, because everyone we knew was just like us: white and protestant Christian.

I know the demographics have changed in the 15 years since I left, but every time I go home to visit my family, I go a little bit bonkers around town.

There are pretty parts of town - I enjoy East Grand Rapids, Easttown, Heritage Hill; and there are some fugly parts of town - Wyoming, Grandville, mainly the western burbs.

There is no real public transportation to speak of. When I went to the Junior College, I was able to do a park-and-ride thing, but the busses stopped running at 6:00 pm and didn't even run at all on Sundays!

My eyes were opened to a whole new world when I left GR. Boston has a hugely diverse population. In my apartment building, on my floor alone we have a Lebanese couple with two children, a Chinese couple with two children (the kids and parents get along great), a black man with his grown daughter, a single mom with her two young daughters, two gay men (not partners - separate apartments) and a few single retirees. My next door neighbor is Iranian. And that's just on my floor!

GR wasn't really such a bad place to grow up in the 70s - we kids were safe all over the neighborhood, since all of our moms kept a watchful eye out the kitchen window. Funny, that's one thing that drives me crazy when I'm home - those same moms are still watching out the window. They know which car belongs to the neighbor's boyfriend and they notice if that car stays in the driveway overnight. Once when I was in high school and my parents were out of town for the weekend, one of my buddies stayed overnight. We just hung out and watched movies, no booze, no drugs. But I'll be damned, one of our snooty neighbors ratted me out by noon the next day. There are no secrets on my parent's street - everybody knows everybody's shit. I'm a little happier with my relative anonymity here in Boston.

My advice is to stay away from Grand Rapids.