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  • [traffic noise]

  • GREGORY SUNDSTROM: "Let me quickly relay a short story that explains the birth of this genius.

  • A group came to see me and said that they wanted to create a boulevard on Plainfield.

  • And I drive Plainfield every day because I live on the north side

  • and I said, I think I actually said, 'Are you crazy?'"

  • [Music]

  • RUTH KELLY: "It's really a quality of life project.

  • The seven water quality, or bioretention islands,

  • are going to bring, we believe,

  • social, economic and environmental benefits to the city of Grand Rapids

  • and particularly to the Creston business area in the north quarter."

  • DEBORAH EID: "Plainfield Avenue would be resurfaced this summer

  • and we would love to see some improvements to the streetscrape of Plainfield, not just new concrete.

  • With 1 inch of stormwater falling into these basins, we are going to treat 90,000 gallons

  • of the water that goes pouring out from the storm water to the city's biggest water asset."

  • MARK DECLERCQ: "A lot of storm sewer that we capture in our system goes directly out to the Grand River,

  • so this kind of handles that first flush, and filtrates it."

  • LAURIE WILLIAMS: "All of the solid waste would be filtered out.

  • A lot of the road salts and whatnot will be filtered out before it goes out to our river and our Great Lakes."

  • RUTH KELLY: "Because it's a quarter of a mile away from the river,

  • we could capture that storm water and clean it and make sure that when it enters the river,

  • this is about as clean as nature can make it."

  • DECK ANDREJCZAK: "It's going to be great for Grand Rapids, great for the Grand River and Lake Michigan.

  • If this takes off, and other communities in general adopt this,

  • it could have a huge impact on what type of water gets into our waterways."

  • LAURIE WILLIAMS: "So the water still runs to the outsides of the road.

  • There's catch basins at the curb

  • and those catch basins will collect the rain water.

  • The rain water will be gravity-fed to the center of the road underneath the islands

  • by underground pipes. As that fills up with water,

  • it'll start to flood the island and water all the plants inside the island."

  • DEBORAH EID: "And there was only one problem: no gold in the pot to pay for those boulevards."

  • RUTH KELLY: "But the city had no money for such a project."

  • GREGORY SUNDSTROM: "We don't have any money. You need to raise the money."

  • MICHAEL SMITH: "And this Creston Neighborhod Association stepped forward and said,

  • 'This is really important to us. We're going to raise the money,' and they did it in four weeks."

  • DECK ANDREJCZAK: "We all spoke with our wallets and our time."

  • GREGORY SUNDSTROM: "And we put a little bit of seed cash to get it started."

  • RUTH KELLY: "I think we'll see more families outside,

  • walking up and down the streets enjoying the beauty. And all that kind of thing brings

  • in investment to the neighborhood."

  • GREGORY SUNDSTROM: "They have raised the money and they made this work.

  • And so I tip my hat to the neighbors and businesses of Creston

  • because I thought we gave you an impossible challenge, and you succeeded."

  • RUTH KELLY: "It's about placemaking and making our place so attractive that people

  • not only live there because they have to that because they want to."

  • MICHAEL SMITH: "Grand Rapids has been famous for cutting-edge projects.

  • We've had several grants here like this and they're doing it again now,

  • and they'll do it again next year with another project.

  • This is a city that really thinks outside the box. Yes."

  • [music full]

[traffic noise]

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