Cities are complex ecosystems where the intersection of personal freedom, social change and an ever evolving, expanding of consciousness take place in a community.
After touring the Grand Rapids Art Musuem's newest exhibition, Cities in Transition, and before Rapid Growth prepares to take a short holiday, I wanted to share a few thoughts on our ecosystem in the hopes of generating some rich literary discussions beyond the typical light summer reading lists of other publications.
Evidence of this tender balance was never more clear than right after I posted on my Facebook page my frustration with my neighbors. They were setting off bottle rockets, firecrackers and an occasional thunder-boom-sizzle display right over my house while I tried to sleep.
Had it been the Fourth of July, I would have been prepared. But as I eyed the calendar next to my bed to see if I had missed some obscure holiday, it became abundantly clear that they were celebrating the joyous celebration of Tuesday night.
It might have been fine had Tuesday been a single night holiday, but to my (and my now shaking dog's) dismay, the joyous celebration was taking on a pattern of a weekly event as the holiday of Tuesday spread over the advent of other days.
As I checked back on my Facebook page, the thread of comments had grown quite long. It appeared it was not just me who was concerned that almost overnight, the city had gone from one of civic calm -- as far as cities go -- and transformed into an Us vs.Them battle for silence (or ending it) in the near midnight hour.
Much has been written about this in places like the Grand Rapids Police Department call center and
MLive.
It was never more clear to me than when I read through those FB postings that by changing the law and opening our state’s borders to allow the ease of access to firecrackers often sold by companies with mostly out-of-state addresses that set up temporary shop in empty megastores around the city, had upset the healthy balance generated over time between quiet and celebratory noise in our city and others across the state.
Sure, disruption is good when it comes to advancing change, and maybe this was really a test of our ability to think quickly on our feet. This is exactly what the city, along with a large number of other cities, did around the state in the wake of this issue. They are all to be commended for their quick thinking in crafting a solution as they attempted to restore some order in each of their municipalities.
But to impact, or dare I say, overtax any city in Michigan while they are already scrambling to make due with less and less, halting their work to focus on a re-write, well, it just felt like a new class of cool cities was being pedaled in Lansing at our expense.
Frankly, I know a lot of folks may not have liked former Governor Granholm for a host of reasons, but at least when she attempted a Cool Cities project that impacted us, we got a few brick and mortar projects out of the deal that created community, rather chaos, in our cities.
But if there is to be a silver lining out of all this, I predict something far more beautiful will blossom and last far longer in the night sky than a fiery chrysanthemum fireworks effect. Community members reached out to each other as they sought channels to tap into their region’s resources: Neighborhood associations -- the keepers of the citizen’s voice -- received calls about this situation.
Sometimes, as I have discovered, it takes an issue to rally, and in this case, reintroduce one to one’s community.
The spark for my experience was a defective bottle rocket. The thing landed in my driveway, very close to where I was standing. I had to respond. And, I had to do the uncomfortable thing as I stepped past my property line to my neighbor’s yard, surrendering my fear of confrontation. I crossed the property line in the service of hoping to craft an agreeable solution. It is comical now as I look back, but at the moment of initial conversation, it was terrifying. No one likes to cross that line since there are 101 different ways it could play out.
But lucky for some others, they will not have to make that uncomfortable walk as the city appears to have crafted a solution.??The result for residents of Grand Rapids is that starting on July 1, we enact new community guidelines where those fireworks that leave the ground can only be set off during one of the 10 federal holidays, with one day preceding and one day after for each of these special occasions. Thirty days out of the current 365 -- not a bad compromise.
It just means for me that instead of only a few times a year, there are several days where I will have to drug my dog to the point of looking like a Courtney-Love-in-the-90s state in order to find comfort. Sure, it is good for the economy (and in this case the pharmaceutical industry), but at what expense to quality of life?
While on the topic of disruption and change, the arrival here of street art will only get more heated as the summer moves along. This shift in our history is one that the art world has embraced in almost every major city, but one I think Grand Rapids is not poised to respond to in a modern way.
If we are to move forward in our evolution, we have to understand, as hard as it might be, to find that middle ground similar to that which we crafted for fireworks in our city.
Just as a certain level of noise is expected over various holidays, so is a certain amount of street art to be tolerated as well. While many have begun in other markets to understand the difference in street art versus vandalism, many more have discovered a very unique byproduct of this movement. That would be the influx of tourism to a region by people (and primarily those in a younger demographic) who are drawn to these modern cave paintings that often reflect topics unfit or not ready for gallery walls. These images speak to people.
There is one artist that comes to mind who is asking us to address the questions of what is street art and what is vandalism. That would have to be the artist who has been placing the
Gerald R. Ford likeness all over town, signing the last two to appear as "SKBFF." (Editor’s Update:
Between the time I submitted this editorial and publication date, the Ford piece along the riverbank has been altered.)
My hope is before we start erasing these cultural markers of our time with white paint that we will begin to see a committee form to look at this method of expression and examine our laws a bit closer to see where they need amending or updating. This topic will only grow in our city as we continue to evolve.
The last area on my radar this summer is a voter initiative focused on the expansion of our community’s consciousness and our compassionate reach as the
Decriminalize Grand Rapids volunteers made up of 20- and 30-somethings hit the streets. These volunteers will be seeking enough signatures to place this new modern way of approaching marijuana use, amending current penalties to be more in line with a realistic and fitting punishment that in the end, does not destroy lives or families.
As they tirelessly hit the bricks all over our city, this group of young and energetic volunteer leaders is helping create the city they will inherit from many of us who have gone before.
And while I will explore this topic later if it makes its way to the ballot this fall, it is their passion and ability to organize around a complex issue that is worthy of all our admiration, regardless of how you feel about the topic. Their willingness to give up time with friends to write a law which, as they say on the website is "a smarter way," just makes much more sense in our modern world.
They’re in the streets organizing within their groups, but as they begin to move beyond their comfort zone, that is something I have not witnessed in our community and on this scale in some time. It is inspiring to see it up close and in action happening in a group most would be willing to write off until they are more vested in the city. They may not be vested, but it is their city already, even if they do not know it.
When I reflect on our present tension as we attempt to make the leap from a city that used to be into a new modern one, we will face many challenges like these from the known and the unknown. For all our planning and talk, the city is still able to shock and surprise, and this is, in the end, okay with many who have learned to adapt.
Some of our challenges will appear like flash points in the sky; others will appear like the street art on our city walls -- city voices seeking a way to illuminate a point of view and when confronted with the repercussions. It is my hope that we see our community evolve our consciousness as we make the shifts needed in our modern world.
The people are the city and how we intersect with it will never be black and white. But with a little time, as we step outside our comfort level and begin to engage with one another through dialog, we will begin to be the change we want to see in our world.
The Future Needs All of Us.
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
Email:
[email protected]
Click here to continue to this week’s G-Sync events.
On July 20, 2012, Rapid Growth's Lifestyle Editor and Jeanette Pierce of D:Hive will be hosting, in conjunction with the Grand Rapids Art Museum's Cities in Transition, a once in a lifetime tour of Detroit's emerging arts pockets and gardens that are changing the face of their city. Please check out the
GRAM's site for more info on this exciting collaboration.