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.
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.
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.
Moving?
Hey ladies!! Hubby and I are originally from MI, but currently live in Dallas TX. We've been thinking about moving back to our home state after 4 years of living away and are really thinking about moving to GR.
Can you tell me everything you love/hate about the area? Where the good school systems are, etc? I'd love to hear everything you have to offer!
We're so used to living in a big place, and neither of us known that much about Grand Rapids since we grew up and went to school in the eastern part of the state. Thanks for your help and thoughts!
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
Re: Moving?
Hi there! DH and I grew up in Lansing and moved to GR 7 years ago. We love it here. There is so much to do including a great zoo, Frederick Meijer Gardens, regular museums, the art museum and children's museum. The downtown is very clean and has tons of restaurants and things going on all the time. Artprize happens every fall, which is the newest major attraction in GR. Plus we're within an hour from the lake and the skiing hills, so there's always something to do no matter the season. There are tons of great biking and hiking trails, our own baseball and hockey teams, etc. Plus GR is growing and has some of the best employment rates in the state.
The only thing I really don't care for about GR is the amount of snow in the winter. Its not as bad as some areas, but we certainly get more than Lansing and the east side of the state because of the lake.
The best school districts would be East GR, Rockford, and any of the Forest Hills schools, although I think the rest are pretty good, too, except I would stay away from Grand Rapids PS. I hope this helps! Best of luck to you!
My husband and I are both from a small town in northern Michigan and moved to Grand Rapids shortly before we got married (although, I had gone to college here).
We really like it here. I think that Grand Rapids is a great sized city -- it has all of the conveniences of a bigger city, but still retains the a lot of aspects of a smaller town like safety, good traffic, and a family-friendly atmosphere. There is also a lot to do in the area -- sporting events, festivals, parks, museums, hiking and biking trails, and the lakeshore.
Grand Rapids is also within a few hour's drive of Chicago, Detroit, and Traverse City -- all of which make for great weekend getaways.
My biggest complaint about Grand Rapids is that we're not closer to the lakeshore (I grew up 5 minutes from Lake Huron), but we'll probably be close enough if you're coming from Dallas! Other than that, my husband and I have been very happy here.
If you want to move to Michigan, Grand Rapids has one of the stronger economies and job markets in the state. That said, Michigan was hit hard by the recession and is still struggling to recover in a lot of ways, so finding a job can be pretty tough, depending on your profession.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. We're a friendly crew. :-)
ETA: Goodgollie is right about the snow. Grand Rapids gets a lot more snow than the east side of the state. It's beautiful but a lot of people hate it.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Grand Rapids and West Michigan. I grew up in the Flint area. The other posters gave good input already. If you want to learn more about what is going on in the area you can visit
www.experiencegr.com or www.grnow.com for listing of events and things to do aroung the area.
You might find some useful information in this guide, although they don't give as many facts as they used to.
http://grandrapidsshopping.mlive.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=87786
This area is a little more conservative than the East side. Certain things may seem odd to you, esp if you are from a big city. Things may seem a little quirky.
I think with any place, its going to be what you make of it. It's not Chicago, it's not going to be Dallas, or any other big city, but for the size of GR, we have some pretty amazing things around here - the Meijer Gardens, the variety of local resturants, the festivals, Art Prize. etc. I think what I love most is the sense of community pride.
Where are you both originally from?
I grew up in Metro-Detroit, and moved out of state for a while. When I wanted to return to MI, I chose GR for the reasons already listed.
We live in the city, and have the house on the market now because we want to get out of Grand Rapids Public Schools. We're very lucky to have many good districts around the city. Check out greatschools.org for an idea. Their rankings are based heavily on test scores which isn't the be all and end all of good evaluation, but it's a glimpse.
Good luck and have fun with your choices.
I really can't add more to what everyone has stated so far. However I've lived here pretty much my entire life as has my DH. The snow thing you get used to it's Lake effect snow and yeah we get more of it but we also get to have more fun with it. Skiing, Cross country skiing, tubing just to name a few.
As for schools I'll add in Northview School District and Coopersville, both are Blue Ribbon Schools. I'm in the process of moving my step son out of Grand Rapids Schools where he has been for the last few years.
I live in the Wyoming area (a suburb of GR area) and I really like it. It's a very suburban feel with urban GR a very short distance (10 min) away. I love being 10 minutes from pretty much everything (Meijer, Target, Mall, Downtown GR, tons of restaurants). I hope that description makes sense. LOL.
Wyoming Public schools are ok. Oriole Park Elementary is an award winning school, and that's where we plan to send our kids (probably because the school is 50 yards away, LOL). Wyoming Park HS is fairly good too.
Our particular neighborhood is pretty quiet too, which I like. Our neighbors have their house for sale if you're interested
End of a cul-d-dac, huge back yard, great neighbors
. I'd love for some non-crazy people to move in that are our age. Haha. Can't blame a girl for trying, right?
Thanks so much ladies!! H grew up in St. Joe and I grew up around the Lansing area, so GR would be halfway in between our rents when we start thinking about kiddos (thus the basis of it's appeal!!) We both went to school in Ann Arbor, so we're more familiar with that area, but GR looks like such a fun place to live.
Plus, that viral video on YouTube only sealed the deal for me this morning
I'll probably lurk around these parts for the next few months. We're thinking about TTC and moving in about a year : )
A little late to the party, but wanted to tell you that GR is a fun place to live. My husband and I moved back here 2 years ago from Chicago. We have used the amenities of GR far more than those of Chicago. It is the right size to get around easily but still has great restaurants, parks, bike trails, etc. Close enough to the lake that a beach day is easy to pull off and there are awesome weekend getaways in northern Michigan.
We settled in GR and love our walkable neighborhood, but if you are thinking of public schools I would suggest looking just outside the city and the school districts the ladies already posted about. Some of these areas have their own little walkable communities (ie: Ada, Rockford) that I would keep an eye out for.
Making a big move is exciting! Good luck with your planning!!
And one of our resident nesties is IN the video!