Eastown began as a streetcar commuter suburb in the early 20th century and was an important midway stop between downtown Grand Rapids and the resort area of Reeds Lake (now East Grand Rapids). The neighborhood filled in by the 1930s with a handsome array of larger single family homes catering to the professional middle class. However, the district was redlined in the mid-century and experienced several decades of disinvestment in the post war area. Fortunately the neighborhood began to attract creative and intellectual types in the 60s and 70s and was often referred to as the “Greenwich Village of Grand Rapids”. Eastown has fully stabilized and is one of the City’s most popular and neighborhoods and arguably holds its best urbanism thanks to its solid commercial districts running down Lake and Wealthy Streets.
For Eastown to be a premiere urban district it simply needs a density level of at least 15K to drive more retail and cultural amenities. This would require significant densification along its commercial corridors and relaxing its likely strict single family zoning laws. Eastown could also use better public transit access and more walkable schools.
Click here to view my Eastown album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Solid access to dwtn being only 2 miles away.
* Great sidewalk infrastructure and ADA curbs are up to date in most intersections.
* Very safe community with limited blight.
* Decent for sale diversity and price points but not 1-bed condos and only a handful of 2-beds that sell btwn 270K-340K. Plenty of 3 & 4 beds that sell anywhere btwn 200K-600K with a handful of mansions that sell for more.
* Decent inventory: 1-beds lease in the low-medium 1Ks but are pretty limited, more 2 & 3 beds that lease btwn 1.7-2.4Ks. Several 4 beds as well.
* Excellent tree canopy throughout.
*Overall a pretty safe community with limited blight
* Great array of larger historic homes from the 1890s-1930s. Some nice historic commercial but generally planer.
* Good park amenities starting with the multi-functional Wilcox Park and Acquinas College has gorgeous grounds & woods, sigsbee is also a nice park and MLK park has a pools and sits just south of Eastown.
* Only a handful of infill. Generally pretty good urban form.
* Solid cultural amenities especially restaurants, bars, cafes, a performing arts theater at Acquinas College, a couple live music venues, the Indie Wealthy Theater is only a block outside of Eastown, and lots of great cultural amenities in neighboring East Hills.
* Generally good urban form along the two major biz districts of Eastown (Lake & Wealthy) and the couple blocks along Robinson & Fulton. But a decent amount of small surface parking lots throughout.
* Good retail amenities including a drug store, some boutiques & clothing stores, a couple bookstores and home goods stores, several salons, a bike shop, several dessert joints, a couple of gyms, a local post office, several churches, and a major hospital just east of the neighborhood. Also walkable access to all the retail amenities in neighborhood East Hills.
* 3 dedicated bike lanes with decent connection to surrounding neighborhoods.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
- Schools are pretty limited to most private elementary schools. A public elementary school located within Eastown but not well rated.
- Public transit is so so for an urban district.
- Missing some key retail amenities including a neighborhood supermarket, public library, and local boutiques and gift shops are a bit limited.”
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 