Downtown Shopping
By Mary Timmer

Tucked away on side streets and inside hotels are distinctive stores selling the unique, the vogue and the hard-to-find. Read Full Story >

River awareness
By Patrick Revere

Every 10 years, an educational and recreational event takes place on the Grand River — all 200-plus miles of it. Meanwhile, two men and a legion of supporters have secured a promise from the Downtown Development Authority for a feasibility study geared to returning the rapids to the river. Read Full Story >

Back to nature
By Alexandra Fluegel

Blandford Nature Center’s new director is looking to blaze new trails to become a better resource for the community. Read Full Story >

What Women Have Wrought
By Ann Byle

While females in West Michigan have made amazing strides, today’s leaders say there’s still a lot to be done. Read Full Story >

Funny People
By Dwight Hamilton

In comedy, timing is everything. And the timing has never been better for the local comedy scene. Read Full Story >

Best of Grand Rapids Readers Poll
237 Reasons to Love this City
By Jocelyn Burkett

Cuisine, shopping, services, entertainment, people and more. Read Full Story >

Not your father's country club
By Drew Avery
Grand Rapids area country clubs offer much more than golf and male bonding. Family, fitness and fun are also par for these courses.
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River city … Furniture city … Suffragette city?
By Jo Ellyn Clarey
Emily Burton Ketcham was a force in the national suffrage movement from right here in Grand Rapids.
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The Man Who Would (Have) Be(en) Governor
By Curt Wozniak
The former lieutennt governor is still helping citizens.
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The Last 40
By Curt Wozniak
John Logie’s office in the Warner Norcross & Judd suite of downtown’s Fifth Third Bank building looks out upon DeVos Place. With the hopes of so many individuals riding on that awesome structure — especially Logie’s (he chairs the Convention/Arena Authority) — the view from his window puts the future of this city in your face.
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The Next 40
By Curt Wozniak
The making of bold predictions is not the type of behavior in which the steadfast leadership of one of the bastions of midwestern conservatism might typically participate.
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Summer Fun: What to Do Once You’re There
By Curt Wozniak
OK, you’ve read up on Brew City and you’re game for a trip across the lake. The only question remaining: When to schedule that long weekend?
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Rising Through The Ranks: Women Lead Local Television
By Mark Johnston
In a broadcast industry largely driven by staying ahead of the competition, it’s no surprise the legacies of television stations in Grand Rapids are partly built on “firsts.”
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Bowled over
By Gary Artman
The room is completely silent. So silent, in fact, that everyone in the room is waiting to hear not one, but 10, pins drop. All eyes are on one man.
So far Pat Bottrall has bowled 11 strikes in a row. He steps up to the line. The tension is thick. Everyone in the bowling alley, whether they know him or not, is mentally wishing him well. He takes a moment to focus, steps and throws a perfect hook.
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Transformed by art
By Gary Artman
They dance as if no one were watching them, yet all eyes in the room are riveted to their movements. Their hands glide around their bodies, suggesting the rarest kind of freedom. Some close their eyes, lost in the music. Others dance with an intensity and focus that is as powerful as it is inspiring. To watch these dancers is to witness firsthand the transforming power of art, and, in many ways, defines the word "grace."
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The Old and New Library
By Sam Cummings
Preservationists, it seems, are never wrong. Too frequently in our recent past, significant old structures are razed simply to obliterate them from the landscape, with no replacement to rise in their stead. Nationally, as people have become reacquainted with their urban centers and in doing so, their cultural histories, the trend has been to rediscover the value in their aged infrastructure.
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Behind the Signs:
The Stories of Our Familiar Names
The philanthropy of the DeVos and Van Andel families is transforming the Grand Rapids cityscape the way person-to-person marketing transformed the business landscape for Amway when Rich and Jay founded the company in 1959. Check out the construction booming around downtown over the last decade: DeVos Place. The Van Andel Institute. The Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences. Van Andel Arena. Their legacies as community leaders — and the buildings that bear their names — have secured a place in city history for Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel.
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History in the Making
In her inaugural address, Michigan’s 47th governor paid homage “to the brave women and to the just men who blazed the trail” to the governor’s door. “In particular,” she said, “I bow to those women who showed me how to rap upon its aged wood, who inch by inch cracked the door ajar, who looked in but were denied admittance.”

Behind that door, history is still being made, as Granholm begins to shape the future of Michigan. Prior to her election, the governor-elect shared with us how Grand Rapids — which she refers to as “the model of a beautiful city in this state” — fits into that future.
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West Michigan’s Best Doctors
Their peers in the medical community have named these 132 physicians as "the best."
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