We moved here from California in 2020. We bought a house on the internet, sight unseen, and parachuted in. Our draw to EGR was first and foremost the schools. As our children were still very young at the time, we were prioritizing a great public school system and proximity to boundless nature, which West Michigan has delivered on.
Being city dwellers the last 15+ years, we loved the walkability of this part of town and the closeness of our neighbors.
Seeing the playgrounds of St Stephen across the street has been an amazing augmentation to our otherwise limited personal yard space. My kids go to the playground about every day, year round. It’s a place where many neighbors congregate with their kids — from the immediate Gladstone/Rosewood blocks and further north and south.
We love that it’s a contained space between our two blocks; that the playgrounds and sidewalks provide just enough separation where the kids feel like they have autonomy to roam around freely.
The school has been vacant almost the entirety of our time here. Aside from sporadic drop offs our first year (in the heart of “covid-times”) and nightly recovery meetings, the playgrounds have been the only places utilized.
We would love more green space. More spaces for kids and adults to congregate in. Places where we feel safe for our kids to play in alone and still be close to home — our “third space”.
We like playing basketball. It would be great to have more grass to kick a soccer ball around — our yards are far too short and current green space isn’t conducive to that. Given the fact that it’s adjacent to MLK/Franklin, it would be great if the space felt a little more intimate. Unbeknownst to us, the corner of Rosewood and MLK in the St Stephen parking lot became the most entertaining, involved, exciting spot to build snow forts in winter based on where the plow piled up all of the snow.
We love this part of town because of its accessibility which we see daily, via foot, bike, skates, scooters, and everything in between. We want a space where our community can hang out outside. Not over-designed. Just a nice space for kids to play, for parents to chat and read, and just live life among our neighbors. We wouldn’t live on these blocks if we wanted to be sequestered and isolated. Keep this a community space for face to face interactions.