Mutually Inclusive

WGVU Inclusion Reporter Mariano Avila joins us on the Morning Show today to talk about the next episode of Mutually Inclusive, airing tonight on WGVU-TV.

The author of the Grand Rapids book of the year, A City within A City, held a speaking tour in Grand Rapids last week. Todd Robinson’s A City Within A City is a history of the African American community in Grand Rapids up until 1975. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss made it the Community Reading Project’s book of the year. Which may be part of why Robinson’s talks, including one at the LINC-up Gallery, were packed.

A minority infant in west Michigan is two to four times more likely to die before the age of one than a white infant. WGVU’s Mutually Inclusive takes a look at the how and why.

“So, infant mortality varies dramatically across communities. And that’s something that people don’t quite understand, is infant mortality is a white-glove test for how well a community is taking care of it’s most vulnerable citizens.”

That’s Cathy Kothari, professor at Western Michigan University’s school of medicine.

  Increased theft of car wheels and tires in Grand Rapids and Kent County are now on The Grand Rapids Police Department’s radar.

The Grand Rapids Police Department sent out a release urging citizens to be careful where they park their vehicles as several have ended up on bricks in the past couple of weeks. Sgt. Keith Hefner of the Combined Auto Theft Team at GRPD:

A Rockford Construction proposal for development in the Madison neighborhood got concerned neighbors to City Council last night. 

Rockford Construction wrote an internal, 43-page proposal that LINC Community Revitalization posted on its website last week. That generated concerns of gentrification among residents of the Madison neighborhood. Among them Mary Van Poolen.

The nation’s foremost academic on urban gentrification gave a talk at GVSU yesterday. Lance Freeman literally wrote the book most urban planners reference regarding gentrification.

“Gentrification is typically defined as when a neighborhood that has experienced divestment, property decline, depopulation, experiences an influx of more affluent residents and investment.”

Sounds great, right? Except when the net outcome is that original residents can’t afford to live in their own neighborhoods. But even if they can: