Grand Rapids Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
NEED HELP from Grand Rapids Residents! Please Read!
Hello All, This is going to be an odd question for this board but I need assistance and remembered how helpful these boards were when I was getting married (and same for the Bump when I had my first baby) and I knew I could count on fellow nesties. Here's the issue: my 30 y/o brother is relocating to Grand Rapids and needs to move quickly. We're from the Phila area and know no one out there. Could you please send me your thoughts on the safe vs unsafe neighborhoods? He's leaning towards the city. He's 30, single and currently lives in the city of Philadelphia. So, leaning towards city but open to suburbs. I'm worried about him being so far away and want to get the advice of the locals on the best spots to rent . Thank you SO much in advance. I know you have other things on your mind right now 
Best of luck ladies!
Best of luck ladies!
Re: NEED HELP from Grand Rapids Residents! Please Read!
I know several people who have moved from Chicago to East Grand Rapids and are happy with the transition. Or maybe a condo downtown might be for him or a house in the Heritage Hill area. Maybe have him contact a real estate agent in Grand Rapids who can advise him on good areas.
I agree with Wop. GR is pretty safe. There are some school districts and areas that are nicer than others, but really there is no where in the area that I would consider downright dangerous to live.
There are some new condos downtown, some of which are tax-free.
I agree with Tigers that contacting a local REA is a good bet.
Is he looking to buy or rent?
The neighborhoods of Heritage Hill and Cherry Hill/East Hills are lovely, with old historic homes and walkable neighborhoods. They're just outside of downtown (a nice longer walk or a quick bike/bus ride into downtown) with lots of character and TONS of new development/urban renewal in the past few years. Some homes are privately owned, some are rented and some are split into a couple units.
GR also has lots of condos on the market - 38 Commerce, Boardwalk, Hillmount, Union Square, The Fitzgerald, Avenue 23...just to name a few. All of these are in the greater downtown area and therefore close to everything going on in the city.
If he'd like to get in touch with realtors who know a bit more about this market, and locations closer to the city in particular, I can recommend both Steve Volkers (stevevolkersgroup.com) and Diane Griffin (griffinproperties.net).
Good luck to him!
Chymes had great info on locations. I would second DIane also. It seems like she really has her hands in those area.
For good info on what is going on around town, he can check out
GRnow.com
http://www.downtowngr.org/
The Grand Guide has some good info about the area http://grandrapidsshopping.mlive.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=68835
The Grand Rapids Press has been doing a nice series on why young people are leaving the area and why young people are moving to this area. They just featured a couple from NYC that moved here. Maybe Chymes will have better searching skills on www.mlive.com than I do.
If he is looking into meeting other people his age and is into art, the Frederik Meijer Gardens has a membership level for the 20-30 something crown called Connections (I think that is what it is). They have a lot of special events for this group.
As far as the safety portion, this website is helpful: http://www.crimemapping.com/ You can look up different addresses or zip codes and see crime activity.
DH and I live in Eastown, not to far from East Hills and we love it. Tons of character! But I have to say, people's ideas of safe vs unsafe are so subjective. Where we live isn't really a "high crime" area, but there have been a few house break ins, vandalism, and there is gang activity. So while I love where we live, I wouldn't call it totally safe- he'll probably want to stay out of Eastown and Southtown.
TTC September 2010 thru October 2011
SA February 2011: Normal
RE App. October 2011 - Recc. Clomid and IUI
Taking a break from TTC to pursue adoption
Met our 2 year old son in Russia July 2012!
Court trip October 2012
Home November 24 2012!
adoption blog: addingaburden.com
Thank you all so much!! This is so extremely helpful. I know he is working with a realtor provided by his company but I will certainly pass these names on as well. The area recommendations are great. Just the detail I needed.
Oh, and he'll definitely be renting initially!