$12 Million to redevelop a small riverfront park in Grand Rapids is more money than the amount of money the City has set aside for their Affordable Housing Fund

On Tuesday, MLive ran the headline, City of Grand Rapids to borrow up to $12M to redevelop downtown riverfront park.

The first sentence of the article stated, “The Grand Rapids City Commission approved a request by city staff to borrow up to $12 million to redevelop Lyon Square, an urban riverfront park located between DeVos Place and Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.”

This is really all readers needed to know.

So, the City of Grand Rapids will be borrowing $12 Million to redevelop the space along the Grand River that just happens to be between DeVos Place and the Amways Grand Plaza. It should be noted that on the northwest corner of Lyon and Monroe, is the Reserve Wine Bar, which Dick and Betsy DeVos own.

Now, we will probably never know, since the local Capitalist Class and the City of Grand Rapids are not big on transparency, but it is instructive that the City will be borrowing $12 Million to “redevelop” this very small riverfront park, which is sandwiched in between two DeVos-owned businesses and the Convention Center, which is named after the DeVos family. Imagine the conversations had been DeVos people and the City of Grand Rapids, regarding the Lyon Square redevelopment idea. It might have gone something like this:

Hey, how about you all foot the bill for the redevelopment of this project, and by you all we mean the public. When Lyon Square is then redeveloped, it will add to our ability to promote this new amenity for people who will be staying in our hotel or visiting our wine bar. I’m sure the general public, maybe even working class people will use it from time to time, but since we utilize private security guards, and we now have the new ordinances adopted that will make it harder for poor people to just hang out and be idle with no real purpose.

In the August 8th Agenda Packet for the Fiscal Committee (pages 51 – 56), it lists what exactly the $12 Million will be used for:

The Additional Bonds will be issued for the purpose of defraying all or a portion of the costs of improvements to Lyon Street, N.W. between Monroe Avenue, N.W. and the Grand River and adjacent properties commonly known as, “Lyon Square,” consisting of (a) demolition and removal of obsolete public fixtures, utilities, facilities, and related infrastructure, (b) construction of new roadways and walkways, an event and performance space, park and recreation facilities, streetscape improvements, tree canopy and landscape improvements, placemaking amenities, mechanical snowmelt system, structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and other public amenities, and (c) all other work, furnishings, fixtures and equipment and site improvements necessary and incidental thereto which are located within the City of Grand Rapids.

$12 Million is a lot of money for such a tiny park

In May of this year, it was noted that, “Roughly $5 million was allocated to the fund (for Affordable Housing) for the next fiscal year, which will boost the grand total to about $11.5 million,” according to an article on MLive.  The $11.5 Million has been building up over several years and will be used for Affordable Housing in Grand Rapids, although the details of how that money will be spent haven’t been very clear. 

However, the point I want to make is that compared to several years of putting together an $11.5 Million budget for Affordable Housing, the City of Grand Rapids approved $12 Million to redevelop a small downtown park with one simple vote. The $12 Million for Lyon Square will not be used for housing, but for a park space that will primarily benefit tourists and members of the Capitalist Class. 

Now imagine for a moment that the DeVos family would foot the bill for the Lyon Square project and the $12 Million that the City will now be borrowing, would instead go directly to affordable housing. Affordable Housing is a relative term, but let’s say that for a new modest home for a family of 4, it would cost $250,000. With $12 Million, the amount they will be spending on redeveloping a small park, that amount of money could cover the cost of building a $250,000 home for 48 families. 

Of course, affordable housing could also mean providing rent vouchers to families, who pay $2000 a month for rent. At $2000 a month, that would be $24,000 for a year. So, what would $12 Million look like if it was used as rent vouchers for an entire year for families who are paying $2000 a month? $12 Million could cover the cost of $2000 a month rent for an entire year, for 500 families. 

Therefore, either 48 families could have their new homes paid for with the $12 Million that will be spent on Lyon Square or 500 families could have their rent paid for during a 12 month period. If given a chance to vote on this, how do you think most families would vote on the $12 Million? 

Of course, we could do this for all of the other development projects for downtown – the Amphitheater, the proposed Soccer Stadium or the proposed Aquarium, all of which will each cost way more than $12 Million. The point I want to end with is this, there is plenty of funding available so that no one in this community would have to be housing insecure, but the priorities of those who own Grand Rapids are designed to increase their wealth, not to create economic equality.