Located on the shores of little Lake Macatawa, just off the coast of expansive Lake Michigan, Holland is the epicenter of West Michigan's Dutch history and culture. Not surprisingly, then, the city is perhaps best known for its annual Tulip Time Festival in May. But there's much more to the Tulip City than, well, tulips. The city's downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts as much retail activity as any urban core in the region. The community is flush with wildly popular waterfront beaches like Tunnel Park and Holland State Park. And Hope College lends the clean, conservative town a bit of youthful spirit. Holland is the quintessential family town that's a choice destination to work, live, and recreate.
Farmland in west Michigan typically is more valuable for building superstores and subdivisions than growing fruits and vegetables. But, with increasingly more mouths to feed in heavily populated places like China, a growing crop of thinkers questions whether that's the best way to put the region's unique landscape to work in the global economy.
Kent County is becoming more diverse. Asians and Hispanics are moving here, and the result is a more robust economy and a place more interesting to educated, mobile people.
The car is king in Grand Rapids. And road trips and Sunday drives are great American past times. But for daily transit needs, just getting conveniently from point A to point B, there has to be a better way. Is Grand Rapids ready?
Grand Valley State University invests heavily in public art and architecture on its Allendale campus. Rapid Growth photographer Brian Kelly captures the beauty of this growing campus in a small town.
Cities - the nerve center of the knowledge economy - must focus on four key factors to compete successfully.
Design and innovation drives economies. West Michigan has the talent, but how do we sell it?
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