Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Planning Manager Tim Kelly emails a weekly GR Forward update to the project Steering Committee. Here's this week's communication:

Happy First Day of Spring Everyone:

Another busy week for GR Forward related activities.

Our consultant team was in town this week and we made a lot of progress on a number of project related elements. In addition to adding additional detail to our strategies, we also outlined our schedule for the remainder of the project. Our next major event will be a Public Forum on April 16, which I will send more detail on in the coming weeks.

This week we also found time to meet with our friends at Disability Advocates of Kent County, and we will be at the LINC Third Friday event tonight. Next week we look forward to providing updates to the City Commission on Tuesday, as well as participating at a GR Current event on Tuesday evening.

Lastly, we finalized details on an event for Downtown residents on April 15^th at The B.O.B. Many thanks to Allen Duistermars and Faith Megna for helping to organize. We are looking forward to a fun and entertaining evening!

Web Numbers

The latest web and social media numbers are below. Be sure to share the links below within your networks so that everyone can stay up to date with GR Forward activities.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/grfwd

Twitter - https://twitter.com/grfwd

Instagram - http://instagram.com/grfwd#

Resources

This article from City Lab on Chattanooga, TN, and why housing is key to capitalizing on their investments in broadband infrastructure is interesting: www.citylab.com/housing/2015/03/why-housing-is-key-to-chattanoogas-tech-hub-ambitions/386776?utm_source=SFTwitter.

In 2010, the City invested in ultrahigh-speed fiber-optic connections that transfer data at one gigabit per second. For reference, that is 50 times the average speed for homes in the rest of the country, and just as rapid as service in Hong Kong, which has the fastest Internet in the world. The service is less than $70 a month, and enables consumers to download a two-hour, high definition movie in 33 seconds. The same download will take 25 minutes using an average high-speed broadband connection.

Movie downloading, however, is just one of the benefits. The high speed connections have also helped the city attract capital and talent that never would have been there otherwise. City officials are now trying to identify investments that can help sustain that growth. A major component to their strategy involves an ambitious expansion of Downtown housing, aimed at keeping a portion of 50,000 Downtown employees in the City. Not only will the increased housing help to grow the population and attract further investments, but it will also help increase Downtown vibrancy and spur further innovations.

Given the conversations around growth in Downtown Grand Rapids, and reaching our critical mass goal, it is interesting to see how other cities are prioritizing their investments to achieve their own growth and housing goals.

As always, let me know if you have any questions. If not, have a great weekend!