The Riverside Elementary redesign moves forward into assisted living

The Riverside Elementary redevelopment project appears finally to be moving forward, after a long series of delays. The city’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approved the project for tax breaks on Thursday, June 5, 2014. Vista Springs, LLC estimates it will cost them $6 million to redevelop the property.

Lou J. Andriotti, President and CEO of Vista Springs told Mlive he plans to turn the 60-year old former public elementary into a 43-unit luxury assisted living facility. The retirement center will focus on health and wellness and will feature a day spa, a performing arts community theater, a community center, fine dining, and an outdoor courtyard and cafe. Rates for occupants will vary according to how much assistance residents will require.

The idea of conversion was first proposed by G.A. Haan, a Harbor Springs development company, in early 2012. At that time, the Creston Neighborhood Association gathered a concerned group of Riverside Gardens neighbors to discuss what Gerald Haan’s plans were and how they would affect the neighborhood. Some neighbors reported break ins that had occurred in homes surrounding the now vacant school. Others were concerned about the potential for additional noise or light that might come from a converted building. Many agreed that an assisted living facility was one of the best possible converted uses, much more likely to be disruptive to the calm neighborhood than apartment complex would be.

Since that meeting, however, the building has continued to sit vacant, and the neighbors wondered if anything would ever be done about it. Last winter at least eight windows were smashed, and it appeared that the building might have been broken into, perhaps repeatedly. These windows were boarded over, but glass remained in the grass, which was only mowed occasionally (as in the winter it had been plowed).

It’s unclear as to why G. A. Haan passed on the project or why it sold the property to Vista Springs last winter when only a year ago it received the go ahead from Brownfield Redevelopment Authority itself. But neighbors are excited to see some project and hopeful that a functional and well maintained building will add more vibrancy to the neighborhood, along with the 50 new jobs Vista Springs estimates it will produce.

It’s interesting to note that Vista Springs has previously converted another former Grand Rapids public school, Taft Elementary into an assisted living retirement center. Many of these elementary schools were built to accommodate the needs of a burgeoning generation, the Baby Boomers, in their formative years. Some of them will now shelter them in their retirement. Everything comes full circle, it seems.

Grand Rapids Public Schools accommodates transgender student

With the diversification of American society, different groups - religious, social, sexual, cultural - are beginning to require and demand different accommodations from public schools and governmental bodies. Recently the Grand Rapids Public Schools had its first request for the use of a different bathroom from a transgendered student, Kitty, who felt unsafe using the facilities provided for girls and boys:

“I’m worried that I’m going to go in [in the men’s bathroom] some day and I’m going to get beat up and they’re not going to have any proof of it,” Kitty stated in a recent interview with News 8.

Michigan does not have any laws requiring schools to provide transgender students requests for separate bathroom or locker room accommodation. Other states, most notably Colorado, have also seen problems like these filter through the legal system. The Grand Rapids Public Schools decided to deal with Kitty’s request by creating a unisex bathroom available for her use, an easy to implement solution. Other public schools have allowed transgendered students to use the bathroom or locker room of their selection, regardless of their physical sex.  Some parents and students are uncomfortable with that solution, however, feeling it violates privacy having a person with male genitals in the girls’ bathroom (or vice versa) and that the rights of the few have been given preference over those of the many. This is a hard situation to explain to children who come to grips with their own identities over time and who develop awareness of the world outside themselves slowly. Bullying and social shunning aren't new phenomena in schools (or societies), and while no one wants to see a child suffer, people's ideas about what are proper responses to dealing with difference or identity expression vary. Many of the comments on the TV 8 article express anger over how these problems should be (and are) solved.

A child’s experience in the school can have profound impact over him during the course of his lifetime. Bullying has been a hot topic in schools and in the media lately, but it's not entirely clear whether bullying is on the rise, or whether an obsession with bullying is on the rise. It's also likely that as we encourage people to express what is different about themselves, more conflicts will arise about the appropriateness of various forms of self expression and, again, the rights of the many versus the rights of the few. It would be a step forward if we as a community in Grand Rapids could attempt to get to know each other and our individual and communal problems before we consult a lawyer or file a lawsuit.