Grand Rapids - Best City to Grow Your Career

Linkedin has named Grand Rapids the best city to grow your career on it's Cities on the Rise list. City Manager Mark Washington joins us to discuss what makes our city special. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the latest accolade for the great city of Grand
Rapids comes from LinkedIn on one of the screens yesterday
the Today Shows on in the background like I think
television should be, and it shows that Grand Rapids number
one city on the rise in the country. Absolutely not
a surprise to our next guest. This is West Michigan's

(00:22):
Morning News Steve Kelly. Schmidt's back with us soon. City
manager for Grand Rapids, Mark Washington, thanks for doing this today, Mark.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good Marning, and thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Let's dig into this just a little bit. Why Grand Rapids,
according to LinkedIn, growing tech scene and booming insurance industry
helping Grand Rapids redefine its industrial identity. Just to our
left out our studio window mark which watch Akrasure being
built as part of Studio Park. There's crane still all over.

(00:53):
Talk to us about how cool it is to see
our name once again on the National Spotlight's.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good because we're now recognized that we are a great
place to work, live and play. And it's no secret.
As you said, it was acknowledged not only by LinkedIn,
but also on the Today Show. And it's because of
the uniqueness of our community. There's so much to offer
with vibrancy in the neighborhoods but also booming downtown. We

(01:20):
have transformational projects and a lot of this is due
to our but I think it's our fantastic public private
partnership relationship that allows us to have an acrocher amphitheater
I'm going to see twelve thousand people, or a amly
soccer stadium. And as you've acknowledged, one of the uniqueness
things about Grand Rapids is that, you know, we have

(01:42):
so much to offer that differentiates us from our cities
like Detroit and Chicago, but doing it in a very
safe place, a city that's in the midst of the
longest river in the state, and just a growing population,
primarily of young people. And I think that's one of
the reasons why they acknowledge the city on the rise.
We have over ten thousand graduates in our area every

(02:04):
year and about eighty percent of them stay here. And
if you look at the growing trend in our community,
people were ages twenty five to thirty four. We had
about a nineteen percent growth in that category from last
census and where our statewide was only nine percent. So truly,
we are one of the growing areas of the state.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
That's remarkable, and as you mentioned, give us a little
more on this public private partnership. There are great organizations
that walk along with the City of Grand Rapids to
help benefit all of West Michigan. Right, I mean, we
do conversations with the right place in the chamber in
Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Sports Commission. The list goes on,

(02:42):
right And.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Because we recognize your government can't do it by itself,
and neither a chen residents alone, and so of those
transtimational projects I mentioned earlier was the collaboration between both
the city and the county. Grand Action two point zero
was very instrumental in it, well as the Conventional Arena
Authority and all the other partners that you mentioned, and

(03:04):
it's one of the things that has proven successful over
the years, dating back to the arena or the convention
center itself, and even the transformation of a medical industry
now med tech industry on the medical mil all that
has been due to collaboration with public partners and private
partners such as Michigan State and the Van Andel Institute
bringing that medical reformation in our city.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
And why not point the finger back at yourself. Let's
talk a little bit about local government with you as
the city manager. I have a brand new mayor. Talk
to us a little bit about that relationship, your philosophy
and how that's working.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well. You know, our city is fortunate and we were
just recently acknowledges the twenty second best run city in
the country. And that's not just because of the leadership
at the government level, which I really am appreciative to.
All the employees as well as those who provide leadership
over the year are current mayor and our mayor Rosin

(04:02):
bist was just phenomenal. But it is again it goes
back to the public private partnership of the fact that
we have the headquarters of Corwell here in our city
and they've chosen to be here and be invested in
our city and being very visible and partnering with us
on some of our community issues and making our city

(04:23):
a safer place just speaks to the collaboration that goes
throughout our city. And so it doesn't happen alone. There's one,
not one silver bullet that makes us happen, but it's
really the people coming together, including even people in the
neighborhoods and the neighborhood associations.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Number one city on the rise, according to LinkedIn. City
manager of the city of Grand Rapids Mark Washington. Great conversation.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Having me this morning.