The Black Plague and Diversity in Grand Rapids: A Cautionary Tale

By Grand Rapids Anonymous
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at 6:31:00 P.M. EDT

Brief history from a lifelong resident of Grand Rapids. I write these reports as a warning for other cities. Avoid what we've done—and continue to do—if you want to keep your city prosperous and safe.

Half a century ago, there were blacks, mostly confined to the southeast portion of the city. Even then, in the 1960s and ‘70s, the numbers were below 10%. In the riots of 1967-68, the blacks stayed in their part of town and burned that particular area, never crossing the Grand River to attack the white side of town (the West Side).

Fast forward to the year 2000, and some of the multi-year homeowners of the West side began to die off. The children of these mostly Dutch and Polish residents decided to sell the houses to landlord types. Basically, the kids were living in the suburbs and had no interest in their parents’ homes-only the equity. During this period, the two recessions of 2000 and 2008 also contributed to the problem, by causing a lack of demand for these houses.

[Note that the 2008 recession was itself a diversity depression, caused when President George W. Bush pressured mortgage lenders to give “free” mortgages to black and Hispanic deadbeats.]

Enter Section 8.

Landlords started letting blacks and Mexicans in on state-(read: taxpayer)-paid rent. In my area, 8-10 years ago, a school was opened by city officials, in a completely premeditated plan to lure blacks from the other side of town. The plan was to fill this school with minorities, and move them from the longtime black part of Grand Rapids into the increasingly empty houses of the West Side. This fed on itself. The more the blacks came in, the more the whites moved out.

Presently, the city officials have decided to embrace and speed up the racial takeover, by approving a multi-story apartment building in the heart of the West Side—all for low-income blacks. [“Affordable housing” for colored criminals.] Another abandoned school, a few blocks away, is also being converted to black housing.

Obama pushing for minority housing in white neighborhoods was also a factor in this, but the City of Grand Rapids effed up by allowing the Black Plague to occur.

Holland, Michigan passed a law to limit the numbers of Section 8 tenants in houses. We should have done this, as well. The city tried to bandage over what was happening economically (small amount of white flight), by moving in black welfare types. They came all right, but not just from the black part of Grand Rapids. They came from all over... Saginaw, Flint, Detroit, and Benton Harbor. As Trump would've undoubtedly said, "We didn't get their best."

Essentially, what was needed was not a band-aid, but a tourniquet and then surgery: A plan to tear down abandoned, condemned and neglected houses, not refurbish them for blacks. White flight continued.

Much of the city housing has deteriorated into ghetto-quality condition. Peeling paint, uncut grass, old roofing and rotten porches (full of porch monkeys) are now the norm. Rotted sofas on the curb from evicted blacks are seen regularly. Certain areas, like my block, are an oasis in the desert cesspool.

The Mexicans came in to help in the demolition of the city, as well. At one time I had a black living on one side of my house, and a Mex on the other, both of whom could have been nominated for "Worst Neighbor of the Year."

I had them both evicted eventually, because of crime and filthy living conditions.

What was once 100% white citizenry on the West Side—with no crime—is now (it appears) 50% white, 30% black, and 20% Mexican.

Nicholas has stats of 20% black and 15% Mexican, but I'd presume to estimate those numbers are obsolete—since the last census. Needless to say, drug dealing, crime of all types and, yes, murder has jumped with the minority population increase.

The moral here is: What happened to Grand Rapids can happen to your town as well. Unless you don't allow it to.

—GR Anonymous