GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — A group of Grand Haven High School juniors went in front of city council in an effort to revitalize their downtown. These students say there's a lack of economic growth in the city, but they believe a stronger social media presence, and more activity, will go a long way.
"We had to kind of come up with solutions and present it to the city council on, like, why we think, or what we think, that they could do better," said Grand Haven High School student Olivia Venema.
This project was facilitated through futurePREP’d, a program run by the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District (OAISD). And in their research efforts, the students spoke with business owners, city managers and local community leaders.
This is the driving question for the project, developed by the city and the Main Street Downtown Development Authority (DDA): “What strategies and tools can the city of Grand Haven Main Street DDA create and implement to attract and retain resilient businesses, connect property owners with new businesses to strengthen the downtown, and assist small business owners with succession planning?”
To revitalize downtown, these students created an acronym, MEPP, which stands for Marketing, Events, Planning and People.
They listed multiple financial solutions to the city council. As a more immediate course of action, they proposed offering downtown discounts and creating a more unifying marketing campaign, including more engagement on social media. In the long term, suggestions included grants, creating succession plans, more effective budgeting, etc.
The students also created a list of 16 new business ideas that could fill some of the vacant spaces downtown. The list included a rage room, fowling, an escape room, a trampoline park, etc.
"There's less places to go downtown, like, less things drawing people in, which then affects all the businesses down there, and there will be less people putting their money into the community," said Grand Haven High School student Alex Dumbrell.
"No one really goes there, other than for Coast Guard and stuff. And it's a lot bigger problem than, like, you would have thought," another Grand Haven High School student, Makayla George, said.
Dana Kollewehr, Grand Haven assistant city manager, says the DDA budget tends to be flat, so she’s encouraged to see the future of her city advocating for the change they want to see… even if that means playing into the theme of Gen Z.
"We definitely value and need to be asking area youth what they think and what we should be doing different in our downtown. So we're trying to take that to heart and utilize that as we implement our plans," Kollewehr said.
"We really want to push to make our unity better as a downtown, because community is what’s really important," George said.
These students say it’s now in the hands of the city to make these changes, but they’re hopeful, as the city council was receptive of their ideas.
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