Grand Rapids Priorities: City officials are borrowing $30.5 million for a parking garage, but not for housing or rental assistance

We really need to pay more attention to what the local, state and federal governments give priority too when it comes to budgeting issues. 

According to the National Priorities Project, the US spends more on militarism than the next 9 countries with the largest military budgets combined. In 2020, the combined amount of money spent by Presidential candidates in the US was $3,977,400,000.00, according to OpenSecrets. (most of that money is spent on those shitty political ads)

We should always remember, it is not a question of having enough money, rather it is a question of priorities.

The City of Grand Rapids is now planning on borrowing up to $30.5 million to build a multistory parking deck on site at 201 Market Ave. SE near US-131. The city commission approved a resolution Tuesday afternoon, signaling its intent to go forward with the proposal, according to a WOODTV8 story. 

The channel 8 story also said, “the parking deck will only have 340 parking spots, mainly aimed at making the amphitheater accessible for all. The goal is to draw most people to and from downtown.” Just 340 parking spots for a 12,000 seat Amphitheater. This is an absurdly low amount of parking, which has been a concern and a concrete issue for many people during this whole process. 

The Deputy City Manager Kate Berens explains the low number of parking space by saying, “We also want to maintain that idea of, ‘You’re coming downtown, you’re staying a little bit longer. We’d like to capture you in our downtown and ensure you visit some of our other opportunities as well. That’s why you don’t see 12,000 parking spots right there at that facility. We want to rely on everything that’s downtown and invite users in and make it a gracious place to walk to on a nice summer night.” This will not really address the parking issue, on top of the fact that the City just increased parking rates and they are extending the time til 7pm for parking meters. It’s as if they want to cater to a certain class of people.

There are two other interesting points made in the WOODTV8 story. First, that the Amphitheater will owned, operated and maintained by the Grand Rapids Kent County Arena Authority, which is exclusively represented by the Grand Rapids Power Structure. Second, the Deputy City Manager says the Amphitheater and the Soccer Stadium will, “support the local economy.” This is not only a claim that is unsubstantiated, the money (meaning profits) that will be spent downtown, whether its Hotels, parking, restaurants and bars will disproportionately go to the owners of this city and not the people who wait on tables, those who clean the hotel rooms or the parking attendants. When people say these things support the local economy, they mean it will further enrich the Capitalist Class that runs this damn city.

Getting back to priorities. Ask yourself, if the City of Grand Rapids is willing to borrow $30.5 million for a parking garage, why don’t they borrow that same amount to address the housing crisis? I crunched the numbers and found that 1,694 renters who pay an average of $1500 a month for rent, could be subsidized for 1 whole year, which is the equivalent to the $30.5 million that the City of Grand Rapids is borrowing for a parking garage that will be for the Amphitheater attendees. Again, it is never about not having enough money, rather it is a matter of priorities.