New video shows how economic and political power functions in Grand Rapids to benefit the those who have deep pockets

A new Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce video was released last week and  focuses on the progress of the CWD Real Estate Investment’s property at 111 Lyon in downtown Grand Rapids.

The video features the GR Chamber’s government affairs liaison Josh Lunger talking with one of the partners of CWD Real Estate Investment Sam Cummings.

The irony of having Lunger and Cummings featured in this video is that Cummings has been a part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure for decades and Lunger was instrumental in lobbying state legislators to change a law that will allow developers to use public dollars when converting former office space into housing.

In a July article I wrote about how the Chamber and Cummings collaborated to change state law to benefit developers:

At a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce event this past Spring, Sam Cummings talked about a state law that was adopted in 2023, which amended the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act. This amendment made housing development projects, like the One Eleven Lyon project eligible for brownfield capture. Cummings made these remarks at the Spring conference held by the GR Chamber of Commerce, which contributed to LaGrand’s campaign for Mayor and subsequence campaigns for State Representative, which is nothing more than influence peddling by people like Cummings, who has a long history of using public funds to expand his wealth.

Sam Cummings sent a message to the Grand Rapids City Commission in late 2020, where he berated City officials for not taking $500,000 from Kent County to purchase more technology for the GRPD, known as ShotSpotter. The community, particularly Black and Brown communities organized a campaign to defeat ShotSpotter, but that didn’t prevent Cummings from going off on City officials who, in this case, actually listened to people who don’t have deep pockets like Cummings.

As was mentioned, Josh Lunger helped to lobby state legislators to change a law that will allow developers to use public dollars when converting former office space into housing. As Cummings is giving a tour of the 111 Lyon building to Lunger, where they are talking about billiard tables and pickleball courts, Cummings says the new 140 apartment units will be the coolest place to live in Grand Rapids. What Cummings didn’t say was what these apartments will cost. We all know that these apartments will only be affordable for people who are part of the professional class, people who make well over six-figure salaries, which is the kind of people that the GR Chamber of Commerce and the City of Grand Rapids have been trying to attract in recent decades.

On top of all of that, it is important to note that Josh Lunger was also the main GR Chamber of Commerce person who initiated the discussion around the “problem” of unhoused people in downtown Grand Rapids. In the summer of 2022, Lunger sent a letter to the Grand Rapids City Commission on behalf of the GR Chamber of Commerce about how business owners and some residents of downtown GR were upset about the “homeless, which you can read here.

Josh Lunger then took the next step on behalf of the GR Chamber of Commerce in December of 2022, where he sent another letter that proposed the City of Grand Rapids adopt ordinances that would criminalize the unhoused in downtown Grand Rapids. Lunger and the GR Chamber got over 100 of their friends to endorse the proposal to criminalize the unhoused, which can read here.

In the summer of 2023, the City of Grand Rapids then adopted two ordinances that essentially fulfilled the GR Chamber’s proposal intent, despite their being significant public opposition to the ordinances.

This new video from the GR Chamber of Commerce is another clear example of how political and economic power function in this city and why we have to resist this kind of influence peddling. If we don’t resist, we allow members of the Capitalist Class to dictate the future of Grand Rapids.