Supermercado Mexico - WKTV Journal

Last week, Rapid and City of Wyoming officials collected input on what residents and business owners would like to see along Division Avenue. (Photo by WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

As a YMCA community collaboration director Aly Rickman often talks to residents along Division Avenue about the importance of living healthier and having an active lifestyle by purchasing more fruits and vegetables and walking their community.

“Many times the residents say it’s too difficult because of the traffic and safety issues along Division,” Rickman said.

It was for that reason that Rickman along with several Division Avenue residents and business owners attended a series of Silver Line Transit Oriented Development Study open houses Thursday and Friday (Feb. 27 and 28) that took place at several Division Avenue business such as Wei Wei Palace, New Beginnings, Brann’s Steakhouse, and Supermercado Mexico.

Javier Olvera, President and Co-Owner of Olvera Enterprises, which owns Supermercado Mexico, looks over a survey about Division Avenue. (Photo by WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

“I think it is very important to get the community together to talk about what their vision is for Division,” sad Javier Olvera, President and Co-Owner of Olvera Enterprises, which owns Supermercado Mexico. For Olvera, he said he would love to see more green space with trees and plants along Division Avenue to help make the area a more welcoming place.

Getting input from the people who live and work along Division Avenue is an important element to the study, said Bill Kirk, a business affairs specialist for The Rapid. When the Silver Line was launched in 2014, it was looked at as a catalyst for potential economic ground development leading into the downtown area. The line runs along Division Avenue from 60th Street in Cutlerville to the Medical Mile/Grand Rapids Community College loop.

“The economic investment did not come,” Kirk said, adding that the Silver Line concept, which was the first Bus Rapid Transit system in the state of Michigan, was taken from other cities, such a Cleveland, which had seen economic growth along its Bus Rapid Transit system.

A Federal Transportation Administration grant of about $900,000 along with $25,000 contributions each from the cities of Grand Rapids, Kentwood, and Wyoming, all of which have parts of Division Avenue within their boundaries, are being used to fund a study to find ways to improve affordable housing options, businesses opportunities, and neighborhood conditions in the corridor without losing much of the diversity that is part of Division Avenue, Kirk said.

The study is utilizing two major components: data on land usage and codes and input from residents and business leaders on what they would like to see along the Division Avenue corridor. The Feb. 27 and 28 meetings were the start of the community conversations, Kirk said.

Community members and officials sit on a Rapid bus in the Supermercado Mexico parking lot discussing the vision for Division Avenue. (Photo by WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

Those who came to the open house had the opportunity to take a South Division Corridor Identity Survey to help determine how residents view the corridor. They also could make a Design Workshop Survey which asked a series of questions on what people would like to see along the corridor.

“It made sense to start looking along the corridor because each of the three cities, Grand Rapids, Wyoming and Kentwood, were in various stages of reviewing their master plans,” said City of Wyoming City Planner Nicole Hofert. “The City of Kentwood is wrapping up theirs, the City of Grand Rapids has its Southtown plan and us, the City of Wyoming, is working on our master plan.”

Hofert said the City of Wyoming has not addressed the Division corridor in its master plan because of the Silver Line study and that the city will most likely adopt what comes from that study. Grand Rapids also has not included it in its Southtown Corridor Improvement District plan.

To give the community an idea of what some of those improvements could be, the Oklahoma City-based private urban consultants company Team Better Block will be staging a couple of “pop ups” or temporary use of space.

A community member looks over a map of Division Avenue. (Photo by WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

“This could be a pop up shop, a pop up bike trail, a painted bike lane,” said Daniel Sperle, the Division Avenue project manager for Team Better Block. “It will be a test of what the community would like to see and how it would look within the environment.”

Kirk said the team hopes to wrap up the study by the end of the year. For now, the goal is to get as much input from area residents to help complete the study, he said.

Those interested in taking the survey for the Silver Line Transit Oriented Development Study or keep updated on the progress of the study can visit the website silverlinetod.org.

First-grader Aylin Mendoza receives a treat at Supermercado Mexico

By Bridie Bereza

School News Network

Carlos Urbina and Josephine Shindano sat next to each other in Kara Jones’ classroom at the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center. The second-graders colored on worksheets that asked them to create a picture of a tradition their family observes. Carlos peeked over at Josephine’s drawing, which showed an Easter egg hunt she participates in each year.

Students eye the baked goods at Supermercado Mexico on Division Avenue

“They have Easter in Africa?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Josephine, an African immigrant who has been in West Michigan for three years. She and her classmates have spent time each week since school began working on a project called “Who AM I?” It encourages students to explore and share their culture, language and family traditions.

The project was devised by Jones and first-grade teacher Nancy Stefano, following a weeklong summer course on thematic learning. They created “Who AM I?” to address a phenomenon they had both observed among students: they weren’t proud of their heritage.

Josephine Shindano, a second-grader at the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center, works on her family tree

Fostering Pride

“One thing I noticed in the classroom was that during conferences, parents would frequently tell me that kids didn’t want to speak their native language. They wanted to blend in to the U.S. culture with how they look and speak,” said Stefano. “We want kids to be proud of who they are, where they come from, and the wonderful differences we can share.”

Jones noticed similar sentiments among her students: When asked about their culture and customs, she said, many students would just copy whatever the person next to them said, saying, ‘Oh, I do that, too!’

The teachers have built in time throughout the week to work on projects surrounding family, culture and traditions.

Second-grader Nevah Sivins looks at photos depicting different traditions

Students are creating their own portfolios that contain family trees they created, and other drawings and writings about their families and cultures.

Seventy-five percent of students in the district are Hispanic. While the lessons in “Who AM I?” emphasize students’ individual identities, the teachers have incorporated some elements specific to Hispanic culture into the project, such as taking students to Supermercado Mexico, and having them prepare a song, poem and a dance for a school assembly during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Getting to Know You

“Who AM I?” will culminate around Thanksgiving, with a party for students and their families, who will be invited to bring a dish to pass that is specific to their family or culture.

First-graders from the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center had many questions for Yeli Romero of Supermercado Mexico

Students throughout the school will get a chance to walk around and see portfolios created by those who participated in the project.

Besides instilling some pride and a sense of who they are and where they come from, the project has served another purpose: to help the teachers get to know students and their families a bit better. That has been a major focus at the school this year, said Jones.

“We wanted to find out what makes (students) unique,” said Jones. “Through these different projects, we’ve learned a lot about different people. We’ve learned about their families, we’ve learned about their traditions. It’s been really fun.”

Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.

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