Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:57 am

This Walmart is near the Wyoming - Rentwood border.
Kentwood lacks a Walmart of its own.

Isn't 131 the boarder? That far South is higher crime? I thought south of 44th was where the rednecks lived.

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 01, 2024 3:08 pm

The fact this story hasn't received more widespread attention statewide is astonishing to me.

Unfortunately the news media today takes police press releases and rewrites them. That is the extent of their coverage. No further digging, no questions asked, no follow up. If the police don't follow up with press releases, the story dies.

TC Talks wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 02, 2024 5:14 pm

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 02, 2024 11:57 am

This Walmart is near the Wyoming - Rentwood border.
Kentwood lacks a Walmart of its own.

Isn't 131 the boarder? That far South is higher crime? I thought south of 44th was where the rednecks lived.

Division (which was US-131 prior to the freeway being built) is the border.

Fun fact: Going south along Division, mailing addresses switch from Grand Rapids to Wyoming around 28th St. Around 44th St (give or take a few blocks), mailing addresses on the east side of Division switch to Kentwood, while the west side of Division remains Wyoming, At 60th St, both sides of Division Ave switch mailing addresses back to Grand Rapids.

Isn't 131 the border? That far South is higher crime? I thought south of 44th was where the rednecks lived.

Ftballfan did a good job explaining.

S. Division Ave is the border from the 4200 block southward to the 6000 block (where Gaines Twp is the east side of S. Division Ave. and Byron Twp. is the west side). From the 4200 block northward, Wyoming juts out farther eastward until one reaches the 2800 block (28th St). A small portion of the Steelcase campus, which lies on the east side of Eastern Ave., is in Wyoming.

You are correct that there are a LOT of rednecks in the area. There are multiple trailer parks along Clyde Park Ave. between 44th St and 54th St. The neighborhood south of 54th St and west of S. Division Ave. is pretty nasty (multiple flooding events in the past 25 years from Buck Creek), as is the Godwin Heights neighborhood.

Lee High School in the NW corner of the city was infamous was terrible scholastic achievement rates and high school pregnancies as far back as the 1990s.

Plenty of pawn shops, used car lots and other sleazy businesses line S. Division Ave. between 28th St and 54th St.

Wyoming, like Kentwood, has plenty of low income housing & apartments in a large portion of the city. The panhandle portion of Wyoming - which lies within the Grandville school district - is still very nice. That section of the city has little in common with the rest of the city.

The local economy took a massive nosedive when Steelcase moved the manufacturing jobs to Mexico and then another massive nosedive when the General Motors stamping & fabrication plant on 36th St SW - which had been in existence since the 1930s or 1940s - closed. The GM plant was razed many years ago, the site was sold to a commercial real estate investment firm out of Metro Detroit who hasn't done jack shit with it, and it's been a gigantic eye sore ever since.

Growing up, aside from Steelcase and GM - Bentler, Keebler, Oven Fresh, and Country Fresh were significant employers in the city. I have no idea how many of those plants are still in operation. I suspect Metro Health and Gordon Food Service are the largest employers in Wyoming today. When I was very young, Kelvinator had two factories in Wyoming - one along Clyde Park Ave. near Chicago Dr. and another along 44th St. SW just east of 131.