Conversations with Mayor Rosalynn Bliss

Mark Huizenga: Hey everybody, it's time for another ⁓ minute with Mark. Sorry, conversation Mark, I always screw this up. Hey everybody, this is Mark Heisinger, time for another conversation with Mark. Today, I'm really excited to have with us Rosalind Bliss. Everybody knows Rosalind as the former mayor, but you know what? I'm going to call her mayor because that's what us former mayors do. We call each other mayor and it's a title that ⁓ fits you perfectly. First of all, thank you so much for joining us. You're not mayor anymore and I have to look at my note because you're... title is is a little bit long. The Grand Rapids current assistant dean of chief external relations director for Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. is a mouthful. That basically means you work to make sure that the medicine program here in West Michigan is working and you're connecting people just like you always do to make things work well. That is a great synopsis. So yeah, I work at the College of Human Medicine and a big part of my job is Maintaining and developing relationships with our key partners and then telling the great story of the college of human medicine You know you and I have had a chance to work together for many years on lots of different things ⁓ We were both mayors together for a few years We I was in the house of representatives and worked with you on projects and then in the senate as well Can you talk a little bit about what it means for a mayor to have a connection with somebody that was a peer and then went to the senate or to the house and and how maybe working together is how government's supposed to work really? Yeah, well, I say the same thing for you. Once a mayor, always mayor. So I know we have other titles, but I think I still refer to you as mayor often. And what a joy it was to serve with you and work with not just you, but some of our other surrounding mayors throughout Kent County. I love ⁓ serving at the local level. I loved serving, I should say, past tense at the local level, being a nonpartisan elected official. ⁓ Because I think that creates an opportunity for you to put your own ⁓ maybe personal opinion about, you know, certain politics aside and just focus on doing what you believe is good for your community. ⁓ And also what I appreciate about you and our relationship, I don't even know how long we've known each other, probably at least 15 years. And the beauty of that is that we were able to work together and get to know each other and build a trusting relationship ⁓ before you went to Lansing and then, you know, when you went to Lansing, having an ally in Lansing that I could call, but also somebody in Lansing who understands local issues ⁓ and issues right here in West Michigan. I'm sure most people don't know this, but your background in social working, working at Butterworth Hospital is something that's also in my background. You and I both worked in the same department. I didn't know you. didn't hang out or anything. But I think that that's one of the unique characteristics of people that serve in government. that have a background with, ⁓ essentially I would say, ⁓ humanitarian or humanities perspective. And we saw people in their worst in the hospital. I was mostly an analyst, but I had people that I supervised that had to deal with really complex and frankly really sad things. And as a mayor, I would always have sort of this ownership of what happened in the community. If there was a fire, I was there. If there was a problem with a roadway or whatever, I always kept a hard hat in my car and I kept boots ⁓ in my car. And if something tragic happened, then I was always there. And I would say that the same thing has transferred to me in both the House and the Senate. Like something bad happens, we don't have the same local authority. So I don't really do anything, but like I still care for people so much and the people in my district, it means a lot. And I don't want to put words in your mouth, but to me, a strong leader, but with a good heart is how I've described Rosalind Bliss. Well, thank you. And I believe that does describe you as well. I do think my background and your background, you know, working in social work, I worked at the Children's Hospital, I worked in domestic violence, I worked in child welfare. And a lot of that work early in my career, especially doing clinical work. I think one, it helped me develop professionally, but it did help me serve in a different way than I saw some of my colleagues. ⁓ You know, if anything, I felt like I was always trying to balance out my heart and my head and not let my empathy get the best of me or my compassion and my emotions get the best of me, like trying to still be present and ⁓ be there for people on those dark days, but also be able to think about, how do I learn from this and make our community a better place to try to prevent this from happening again or just to Help me make better decisions in the future In the Grand Rapids metro area you and I both served on a number of boards that were collaborative in nature and if you think about organizations like the rapid and the six cities and the communities that supported and helped make that organization prosper or The Grand Valley Metro Council working with road funding and things like that But also one of my favorites is the Restore the Rapids. And now this was a long one. We worked on this for so long. You and I both had calls with FEMA, with DNR. And people would say like, why would you get involved with that, Mark? Like, well, part of the Grand River is ⁓ in Walker's boundaries. I mean, we had the northern side and the southern side down by Millennium Park. And of course you had the rapids here. But we're finally seeing progress with that and I don't know about you, but to me it's like, okay cross your fingers We've heard it many times, but it actually sounds like it's gonna happen this year at least some starting point Yeah, it is going to happen. I assure you and that is what I mean you and I've worked on projects kind of across our our time working together and I think when I think of the river restoration it started off when you're a mayor and then you were instrumental when you went to Lansing because This is a multi-jurisdictional project. So the Grand River, we've had to work as we work to remove the dams. There's ⁓ four lower head dams, which is the lower reach and then the larger dam, which is the upper reach. But we've had to work going on 17 years with state departments, federal departments. There's different permits at different levels of government. Army Corps of Engineers. Army Corps of Engineers. We got all the alphabet soup in there. federal and state families, as I say. So where we are today. truly because of support like yours and others throughout the community, both in the private sector and public sector, ⁓ we received ⁓ approval from EGLE about a year and half ago to move forward with removing, we broke the project up into two projects. So we received permits to remove the four lower head dams. Then we were waiting on the approval from the feds and some federal funds through NRCS. Those came in about, ⁓ I'd say six weeks ago, City of Grand Rapids put out a bid and they have selected a contractor who will work on that project. So really everything is teed up and now all we have to do is wait for the water levels to go down. And we And we can start, which right now, you know, our water levels are higher than we would like this time of year. But we're hoping to be in the river for the four lower head dams to remove those and put boulders back in the river and restore the rapids to their more natural state. Hopefully this July and then for the upper reach for the Sixth Street Dam, Army Corps and Great Lakes Fisheries, they're taking the lead on that and they're going through ⁓ really analyzing what we call alternative designs right now. But hopefully that will be three, maybe four years after the lower head dams are removed. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I mean, I'm a strong advocate for restoration of habitat, bringing things back to natural and considering all the water. effluent problems that have been there historically that don't exist anymore. We can and should do this. So I'm excited about it. When people talk to me, both around the state and around the country, when I go to conferences and things like that, they say things like, what makes Grand Rapids special? And I think a lot of it has to do with that collaboration between the six cities. Yeah, there's always like, a little territorial issue, but like we, I think work as closely together to get things done as any place. And probably ⁓ when you think about Grand Rapids and the tremendous growth that it saw under your leadership. A lot of that had to do with the fact that you're willing to collaborate with anybody. So it's not just a culture with the, between the different six cities. It's a collaboration that you have between agencies, with developers and saying, let's get this done. And same kind of thing that I've always believed into. Like if people want to do this, we're going to do it guys. Yeah. Yep. That's so true. And I love that you say that. So what I always say when people say, cause I heard the same thing and you and I would go to a lot of the same national conferences for mayors and ⁓ end up having a lot of similar conversations. And of course, we're always comparing ourselves to other cities and metro areas throughout the country. ⁓ And I would always say, I do think collaboration in ⁓ Grand Rapids, West Michigan ⁓ is more genuine and authentic than I see in other areas. I think some cities, they rave about collaboration, but they're really not doing it in an authentic way. I believe the reason for that is because in Grand Rapids, I do believe that collaboration is in our DNA and it all starts with the people. You know what makes our community a special place? It's the people. It's the people who are here and who step up and who say, I'm gonna serve and I'm gonna serve because I have a love for this community and I'm gonna put community before self. ⁓ And you do walk into rooms. with people from very different walks of life. And we're able to put our differences aside and come together around a shared mission. And we see that in our nonprofit sector. You serve on nonprofit boards. We see that in the public sector. And we see it in the private sector too, where they come alongside and we're able to work together. We've seen a lot of growth in the last decade around here. What do you think the next decade looks like? Because Grand Rapids is not like this secret anymore. We're on the map and, you know, with great successes also brings some problems, whether it's price of housing. It's great that people can sell their house for a lot more now, but young people need to start and get a house. we've got more congestion on the roads and things like that. But what does the next 10 years look like in your mind to Grand Rapids? Yeah, I think we'll continue to see growth and that's great. You know, you want to be a growing city. ⁓ I think the pace of the growth is always what you want to try to manage. ⁓ And you want to have smart, thoughtful growth, right? So ⁓ as we continue to grow, I think we'll have to continue to wrestle with that. ⁓ Although I would still argue being out and about in a lot of other cities, ⁓ our infrastructure is better than most. I think our roads are better than most, even though this time of year people are complaining because of howls. I'm glad I don't have to answer those calls anymore. ⁓ But I do think that we're in a good position for growth. And even though we do as a city, I'll speak specifically about Grand Rapids, we were largely a built out city, but we still have ample opportunity for infill and for high density development downtown. We have a lot of asphalt parking lots that someday hopefully will be higher density housing, which In my opinion, that's where high density housing should be. still need ⁓ single family homes and neighborhoods where people, if that's the type of lifestyle they want, they can choose that. But we also need higher density housing. And we still have a lot of opportunity for that. There was a project just approved out by Centerpoint Mall. I think we have tremendous opportunity for infill housing along our major corridors or transit oriented corridors like 28th Street and 44th Street and Alpine and Plainfield. And I think we'll continue to see and fill along those corridors. So again, as long as we're thoughtful about growth and making sure that we have different types of housing for individuals, depending on where they are in their life, ⁓ whatever stage they are, I think then we'll continue to be a growing city. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. This all the above strategy, whether it's something for everybody, that's really what we need. Yeah. A lot of... conversations occur about infrastructure when a city goes through growth. And one of the things I've really encouraged our partners at MDOT and others to work on is like, what do those real traffic counts look like right now? Because five years ago or 10 years ago, it's different and we have to look at the impact of that. And it doesn't mean we need new roads, but sometimes it means like, hey, we need to think outside the box and maybe just a few dollars less have to go to Detroit and a few more need to go here because we kind of need a little bit more of a lane here and We've been very successful with a bunch of big infrastructure projects around here. But one thing that resonated with me, as you mentioned, transit oriented development. You and I both served on the rapid board and one of my proud moments was the work that we did with the Laker line. ⁓ yeah. And you know, a lot of times people say like, I'm not a transit person. Well, guess what? Even if you aren't, that's probably one of the greatest projects around because it keeps a million rides off of our streets every year. A million kids go back and forth between Allendale, and downtown Grand Rapids. Talk about efficiency and guess what? The university has to spend less on parking decks, parking maintenance, kids less on cars. And so those are some of those really truly great wins that we have that people frankly expect us to do, but we did it, but it really has great outcomes. And that was a heavy lift. don't think people should... It's so interesting. We see these big projects come to be and you and I were at the ribbon cutting for the Laker line and it was... years in the making years and years in the making and and that's one thing I think people don't appreciate all the time either is The amount of work that you do behind the scenes that go that that goes unseen It was the expectation somebody has to do it somebody has to do it. I'm grateful you're doing it Yeah Mary Bliss, you've seen a lot of really great stories about development and growth and organizations coming to Grand Rapids Do you have a personal story that sticks with you that makes you think this is what makes Grand Rapids really special? ⁓ there's so many. ⁓ You know, I'm going back a few years. And one of the experiences I had when I was mayor that was such a powerful experience and a reminder of the strength and the real just amazing spirit of our community is really COVID. ⁓ Leading through COVID and going from... this unbelievable sense of fear and unknown and anxiety. You your phone was blowing off the hook just as much as mine, right? From individuals who lost their job literally five hours earlier, families who had loved ones get sick, businesses that were closed. There were just so many unknowns. The ultimate period of desperate moments at every level. many desperate moments. People in the hospital... Loved ones couldn't go be with them. I mean, it felt like every day we were responding to another handful of crises. And what happened in our community, and I would argue this is why our community came through COVID, ⁓ I would say better than some other communities, ⁓ you saw an almost immediate ⁓ group of individuals come together and say, okay, how are we going to get through this together across the sector, philanthropy, business, ⁓ nonprofit, ⁓ public sector. We came together, we started meeting almost every single day and having a list of, what are the things we need to solve today? And we did that, we created this task force and we did that for almost two years, both during COVID and then post COVID. You saw in our community, people standing outside the hospital, waving to people, driving by. You saw neighbors stepping up and helping neighbors, checking on neighbors, individuals who were isolated and alone. ⁓ That to me, that year as we navigated COVID and then came out of COVID was probably one of the most ⁓ inspiring experiences and just rooted my deep love for this community and the people here. ⁓ I had so many heartbreaking moments and so many proud moments. Yeah, incredible. Mayor Bliss, thank you for your leadership, for your new position at MSU, for leading us there, and for spending time with us today. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. And thank you for your service. Thank you. Awesome.