Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids – Segment #4

One of the 10 principles of journalism is that it must serve as an independent monitor of power.

Now, I don’t claim to be a journalist, more of a media watchdog, but I do engage in movement media. Movement media is reporting and documenting what social movements are doing, which is what I have been trying to do with GRIID since 2009.

However, since I have been monitoring what I call the Grand Rapids Power Structure for nearly two decades, I thought I would start a new segment – Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids. 

The Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids segments will offer brief commentary on those who have power over others in this community. These segments will not replace my regular reporting on the Grand Rapids Power Structure, since those stories will offer more in depth writing. 

As we navigate a second Trump Administration with the likes of Elon Musk, it seems like a perfect opportunity to shed some light on rich and powerful of Grand Rapids, or to frame it the way that radical media from the 60s and 70s would do regarding the Capitalist Class, using the phrase, “up against the wall motherfucker!”

• Our first example comes to us from the monopoly business press for this city, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business, with the headline, DeVos, Van Andel families named Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year for 3 towers project. I found this story at https://dickdevos.com/, since he apparently likes to promote himself and his family……who knew! The Crain’s article doesn’t quote either the DeVos or Van Andel families, since they pay people to speak on their behalf. ““When you look at the location, it’s truly sitting in the center of an emerging sports entertainment district with the arena, amphitheater, the soccer stadium, just that vision for what could be,” Thomas said. Brad Thomas is the CEO of Progressive Companies and a lead shill on the DeVos/Van Andel 3 Towers Project. His comment about an “emerging sports entertainment district” is instructive, especially since these are all projects that were pimped by Grand Action 2.0, also started by the DeVos/Van Andel cartel. The result, as I have already noted, will expand the wealth of these billionaire families and it will primarily benefit tourists and the other businesses that are in the downtown area. The 3 Towers will also exclude the masses of people who won’t be able to afford any of the projects that Grand Action 2.0 has secured, with hundreds of millions in public money.
• Our second example for this installment of Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids, centers around how the rich and powerful insert themselves onto Boards in order to have greater control over policy decisions and how money gets spent in this city. For example, the West Michigan Policy Forum is a who’s who of those that make up the Grand Rapids Power Structure. The Executive Committee alone has some of the biggest power brokers in this city, like Dick and Doug DeVos, John Kennedy, Michael Jandernoa, Mike VanGessel and J.C. Huizenga. The interlocking systems of power in this city are incestuous and should be yet another indication of how much power these robber barons have in this community.