The GR Chamber of Commerce posted a Forbes article on how to best brand Grand Rapids: Expand the wealth gap, criminalize the unhoused and use public money for private profits

A few days back, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce posted on their Facebook page an article from Forbes entitled, 5 Ways A Growing City Can Define Their Brand, an article which highlighted Grand Rapids.

Before we jump into the 5 talking points I wanted to just address the idea of cities creating a branded identity. Branding is essentially a PR tactic, to that people can identify your brand based upon an image, a logo, a phrase or a tag line. Everyone knows the golden arches or the Nike swoosh, corporate branded identities that people are bombarded with in advertising and PR campaigns. However, for cities to brand their identify would on face value seem more complex. For Grand Rapids it means that they are trying to appeal to a certain demographic or targeted audience in their brand. As I have noted in numerous GRIID posts over the years, Grand Rapids tends to target businesses, the professional class and tourism as their primary targets in their brand identity. In fact, much of the Grand Rapids identity has been centered on what the city offers in the downtown area, which is both the primary economic and tourism hub.

Now let’s look at the 5 Ways A Growing City Can Define Their Brand, I will post what the article includes for each of the 5 ways, but one at a time, followed by a GRIID response. 

1) Start By Sharing Your City Name. Located in the heart of the manufacturing Midwest, Grand Rapids, Michigan may be an unlikely candidate to be one of the best places to live, work, study, retire and raise a family. But the city of 200,000 (metro over 1 million) appears in more top lists than any of its size and stands up competitively with any major metro.

GRIID response – apparently self-promotion is what Forbes identifies in the first way to brand a city. Grand Rapids certainly has done that, appearing in numerous lists, but let’s be clear the lists are pro-market orgs listing Grand Rapids in their lists. The lists are not centered on social justice, equity, or collective liberation. 

2) Organize Leaders In The Community. Grand Action, an organized group of action-oriented leaders, partnered to create necessary amenities to attract and retain talent. They built the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena as well as a massive convention center in DeVos Place, a downtown market, community theater and played a part in luring a major medical school from a Big Ten University.

GRIID response – Of course the Forbes article cites Grand Action as “leaders.” Grand Action was a brain child of the DeVos family and other members of the local power structure. Grand Action has pushed projects, beginning with the Van Andel Arena and most recently the outdoor Amphitheater and Soccer Stadium, which primarily benefits the companies that own downtown restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and parking lots. In addition, Grand Action has revolutionized the private/public partnership, which translates into the transfer of public money into privately owned and controlled projects. In addition, by naming Grand Action as the entity organizing leaders, it means that working class people, labor unions, grassroots groups, BIPOC communities and other marginalized groups are not seen as leaders. 

3) Embrace New Industries For Growth. Grand Rapids’ metro has long boasted a successful group of privately held businesses. Several appear in Forbes’ top privately held businesses list. Grand Rapids and, to a larger degree, West Michigan as a whole, established itself long ago as “furniture city.” Office furniture giants MillerKnoll, Steelcase, and Haworth are all headquartered there. While the global growth of Amway created another boom, the dominant regional growth of Midwestern leading grocery chain Meijer launched yet another. And there’s no slowing down ahead, as top-10 global insurance broker Acrisure is ushering in insurance and tech booms driving more growth and jobs.

GRIID response – So, new industry growth means industries and companies such as MillerKnoll, Steelcase, Haworth, Meijer and Amway, which just happened to be run by the most powerful families in the area, are good for Grand Rapids branding. The Forbes article even cites Dick DeVos in #3 as someone who can attest to the “creativity” of the business community in Grand Rapids. Of course the business community here is creative, since they push the whole use of public money for private gain, since they use campaign contributions to get state policies that benefit their bottom line, since they use their foundations to fund non-profits who provide social services and don’t question the wealth gap in this community……of course they are creative when it comes to screwing over the general population to get what they want. 

4) Have Hard Conversations. Not all efforts are focused on creating the next big thing, however. Some of the biggest needs any city faces appear when challenges arise; where success is determined by how a city leans in (or doesn’t) to exploring and implementing long-term solutions, such as what Grand Rapids has faced when seeking to ensure safety for all people and care for unhoused populations.

GRIID response – Wow, talk about arrogance and ignorance. The very policies that the City of Grand Rapids embraced to “ensure safety for all people and care for unhoused populations,” was nothing more than members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure coming together to get what they wanted. Of course, getting what they wanted in this instance was increased policing and criminalizing the unhoused.

5) Play To Your Strengths. When others are asked to define Grand Rapids, the answer is not about being the biggest, and it doesn’t seek to be. It’s a right-size city. It has an affordable but robustly growing housing market, backed by a community that prioritizes maintaining this trajectory. As recently as 2019, Realtor.com’s hottest zip code in America was 49508, nestled squarely on the south end of Grand Rapids. Interior designers and planners like Jean Stoffer, host of Magnolia Network’s The Established Home, have been drawn to the area to work, film, and help improve the lives of others in the city and surrounding neighborhoods.

GRIID response – I’m sorry, but the housing market in Grand Rapids is anything but affordable. There were 80 people at last Saturday’s Tenant Assembly who would beg to differ with such a claim. To support their claim, Forbes once again cities an industry spokesperson from the Magnolia Network’s The Established Home, rather than talking to people in Grand Rapids who have any sense of the housing crisis in this city. 

In the end it makes perfect sense that the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, which represents to Capitalist Class in this city, would post a Forbes article talking about how to brand your city. Just talk to the wealthiest people and the organizations they operate if you want input on how to brand Grand Rapids and make it a tourist destination. This is exactly what Forbes did and the Grand Rapids Chamber just assisted them in promoting what they are ideologically committed to – expanding the wealth gap in Grand Rapids.