9MST0303HD_REV20231221_Grand Rapids_Michigan_Transcript

- John McGivern: I am in Michigan, overlooking a city known for taming its river.
[upbeat music]

- Announcer: Thanks to our underwriters.

- How to get more out of your Wisconsin Dells vacation? Ride more rides, slide more slides, bite off more than you can chew. Have more fun than a barrel of monkeys! That's more like it. Wisconsin Dells: The Water Park Capital of the World! WisDells.com.

- Wisconsin's picture-perfect historic downtown Greendale isn't just a great backdrop for photos. It's the perfect place to find unique gifts, spend time with a friend, enjoy a perfect brandy old fashioned, learn about the past, and enjoy the beautiful flowers. Ask anyone who's made memories here. We'll all tell you the same thing. You just gotta see Greendale!

- Heiser Automotive is honored to help John McGivern and his team arrive safely to many Main Streets. We are committed to remaining true to the Heiser way: Do what's right for our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve. We are happy to help.

- My father taught me that to make great bakery, you have to do it the right way. O&H Danish Bakery, where kringle traditions begin.

- Twenty-minute commutes. Weekends on the lake. Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities. Not to mention all the local flavor! There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin. Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Thanks to the Friends of Plum Media and to the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

♪ 'Cause these are our main streets ♪
♪ Somethin' 'bout a hometown speaks to me ♪
♪ There's nowhere else I'd rather be ♪
♪ The heart and soul of community's right here ♪
♪ On these main streets ♪
[upbeat music concludes]

- That is the Grand River. And guess what? That's Grand Rapids, the second-largest city in the state, and the fastest-growing metropolitan area in Michigan. It has a population of over 200,000 people. It's in the western part of the state, about 45 miles southeast of Muskegon and 50 miles due north of Kalamazoo. Grand Rapids. I can't be the only one who thinks that these don't look like rapids to me. It looks very calm. And I wonder... I have a question. Emmy.

- Emmy Fink: Yes.

- So glad you're here.
[laughs]

- Did someone call the show historian?

- Yes, they did. So how come the Grand Rapids are calm?

- They are calm right now. That's a big thanks to all the channeling, the dredging the river, the damming of the river. That made it easy to navigate. But oh, my gosh, back in the mid-1800s, the Grand Rapids...

- John: Yeah.

- The rough rapids were good for two things: Transporting lumber and milling it.

- So I'm presuming and visualizing that up and down this river, there were lumber mills.

- Emmy: Oh yeah, you got it. And that turned into a big furniture-making boom and really gave Grand Rapids its true identity, at least back then.

- What's it known for today?

- Something totally different. But I have to show you in person, so...

- Oh, you're--

- Can we go?

- Are we going somewhere?

- Yeah.

- What is this, like a field trip?

- Emmy: It's a Main Street mania.
[laughs]

[glasses clink]

To a field trip.

- Thank you so much for taking me here. Why are we here?

- All right. This is what Grand Rapids is now known for.

- Bars that look like churches?

- No.

- No, that's not it.

- Craft beer.

- Craft beer, okay.

- Since the late '90s, the passion for craft beer around this area, it's given Grand Rapids a whole new nickname. Move over, Furniture City. Hello, Beer City.

- Beer City. No, that's wrong. I'm from Milwaukee. We're both from Wisconsin. Those are fighting words, I believe, Emmy.

- I know, and we are Homers. But here's the thing: You cannot argue numbers. Within 30 minutes of here, 40 award-winning craft breweries.

- John: Wow.

- And I have brought you to one of the best. Welcome to Brewery Vivant. -John: Vivant. Yeah, what is this brewery known for?

- Emmy: They're known for their Belgian traditions.

- Okay.

- Four ingredients in here. It's one of my favorite, favorite beers. We have grain, hops, yeast, and water.

- Okay.

- All right, now a Belgian beer, you're gonna typically get fruity notes.

- Yeah.

- Sometimes spicy notes. A really complex beer with good flavors. One you're gonna remember, I like to say.

- So a great beer menu, and obviously a beautiful food menu. So this is duck confit nachos.

- Oh, my--

- With a beautiful cream sauce.

- Goodness.

- And it's... Have a taste; I've been eating as we talk.

- Oh, my gosh.

- Mm-hmm.

- So their food menu is also Belgian and French-inspired. These are delicious.

- Yeah; I would drive here for these, wouldn't you?

- Absolutely. The sauce on there?

- This is great. This is really great.

- Oh, my goodness.

- So is this a church?

- Emmy: It's not a church.

- John: What is it?

- Emmy: You're close, though. It's an old funeral home.

- John: Oh, a funeral home.

- Emmy: The owners came in, they saw it. They're like, "It's absolutely perfect." Because in Belgium, since the Middle Ages, they've been brewing beer...

- John: In monasteries.

- Emmy: Yes.

- Okay, so let's toast. To...

- To who?

- Can we call it? We'll call it Beer City II.

- All right, Beer City II. Cheers.
[upbeat music]

- John VanderHaagen: Meijer Gardens first opened our doors in 1995, and here we are nearly 30 years later, welcomed over 14 million visitors.

- Why did we start right here?

- John V.: We've got one of our beautiful sculptures of our founders and of our benefactors. Fred and Lena Meijer.

- John M.: Meijer.

- Yes.

- From the stores.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- And that's just a part of what that family is all about. But what we really know them for here is their love of the community and what they've given to West Michigan and really to the world, in this place of Meijer Gardens.

- John M.: Really committed to this community.

- John V.: They really are, yeah. Not only with Meijer Gardens, but philanthropic projects all over the area.

- Yeah; so I get a little packet before we come to these communities, and it's like, oh, it's a garden and a sculpture park, which you don't find those two together.

- John V.: Not often, no.

- Suzanne Ramljak: That balance of nature and art in everything we do is what makes Meijer Gardens special.

- John: Yeah.

- The departments work together. We think about everything, about the seasonal change of color and the scale.

- We're open every day except three days of the year here. And really something to enjoy, not only in the summer when things are beautiful, but also in the winter, when things take on a more calm and serene aspect as you're wandering the sculpture park in our gardens. This looks truly stunning in the fall. Eve is just perfectly, perfectly framed.

- This work by Ai Weiwei is gorgeous in any weather.

- John: Is that, the material is iron?

- Suzanne: Yes.

- John: Really? What are some of the highlights that people can't miss when they're here?

- Yeah, definitely the American Horse is probably our most-Instagrammed, most-shared piece here with 24-foot-tall bronze horse, one of two in the world.

- John M.: Where's the other one?

- John V.: The other one is in Milan, Italy.

- John M.: Is that right?

- John V.: So the horse was based on drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

- Must be a Clydesdale.
[laughs]

- Another work that's perfectly suited for a garden is Claes Oldenburg's and Coosje van Bruggen's nearly 20-feet tall Plantoir. Looking at sculpted form helps you appreciate other forms, like trees or rocks, and--

- This looks like a sculpture itself.

- You're right; good eye.

- Yep. Thanks.

- John M.: Beautiful setting, all of it.

- Suzanne: Yes. So I don't want to say you're never gonna find anything else quite like this anywhere else, but it's true.

- Right, okay.
[laughs]

So say it.

- Truth be told.

- It's good.

- Do you have a garden at home?

- I don't, no. I have two brown thumbs. And any garden that I've tried has died right away. So I am fortunate to come work at a place like this, where I don't need to be a gardener, but I can come and enjoy it anytime that I want.

- Did you know that your local water treatment plant adds a variety of chemicals to your drinking water in order to purify it and change the pH balance and make it taste better? But here at this plant in 1945, the Monroe Filter Plant, they added something to the water that had never been added before. Do you know what that is?
[whimsical music]

- Grand Rapids was the first to add fluoride to its water. That's right. Ten years later, guess what? Tooth decay was down 65%. Dentists in the area, not too thrilled. Project Steel Water was such a success that they built this monument to honor all those healthy smiles.

- For a city of this size, Grand Rapids has an incredible amount of public art. Some of it is privately commissioned, like this piece called The Four Elements. But a lot of it made its way here through an organization called ArtPrize. It's a big deal.

- Catlin Whitington: A little bit.

- Yeah, it is.

- So starting in 2009, it kind of started as a grand experiment in basically how to attract amazing art into Grand Rapids and make it a very public-engaging experience. How do we bring creativity and culture into the city? And how do we find art around us in the day-to-day life? And so the public actually votes on who the winner is.

- John: And those that win then get a prize?

- Catlin: You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, as well as grant money, comes for the artists to build capacity for them to come out and participate in this event.

- Yeah; what they do, they make application, and then who matches them to a venue that's gonna be...

- Catlin: So the venues and the artists, they self-curate.

- John: They do? How--

- Catlin: They find themselves, yeah. It's a little bit like a dating app for artists and venues, and they self-select. And when they both connect and they say, "Hey, like, let's talk."

- John: Match.art.

- There you go.
[laughs]

- John: So good!

- Yeah, nobody really knows what good art is. I know what I like; I don't know what you like.

- John: Yeah, yeah.

- Catlin: Right? And that's part of the beauty of it. And if you walk around Grand Rapids, you'll actually see a lot of art in the public space that's a legacy from ArtPrize years past. The artists come in, they make sculptures, paint murals, and sometimes they leave 'em here. This is all legacies of ArtPrize past. The artists have come in, they've left their mark, and they've left. This artist took it upon himself to come out here to carve into a granite boulder and leave this representation of fish that could be here for centuries to come.

- John: Right, yeah. And this is just one example of...

- It's just one example of the public art.

- What's left behind.

- Yeah. This is the lasting legacy of ArtPrize, man. You hope that people come out and they explore and they find a chance to discover not just the art, but also little venues and spaces in Grand Rapids that they never knew existed or, you know, might want to come back to. It's also a lot of fun.

- John: Good; it's a lot.

- Catlin: I try.

- John: That you're responsible for.

- Catlin:
[laughs]

I try.

- This is La Grande Vitesse, which in French loosely translates to "The Grand Rapids." But locals just call it "The Calder," after the artist who designed it, Alexander Calder. It was installed in 1969 and was one of the first pieces of public art that was funded, partially funded, by the National Endowment for the Arts. It's certainly an icon here in the city of Grand Rapids and began a real passion for public art, a passion that continues to this day. La Grande Vitesse.

- Steelcase is a staple here in Grand Rapids since furniture making has been their thing since 1912. The industry grew so big that at one point, there were 47 furniture factories. And of those 47, they employed one-third of the population. Of course they would name Grand Rapids "Furniture City."
[upbeat music]

- We couldn't come to this town without talking to somebody who builds furniture. And so... You won.
[both laugh]

- Dan Chase: All right, there's a lot of us; good.

- John: So the name of your company, just so you know, when I got my sheet, I thought it was Redwell.

- Dan: Yes, I get that a lot.

- Do you get that a lot?

- Yeah.

- Good, so I'm not the idiot.

- Dan: It's short for reclaimed dwelling. For us, a lot of it comes from like old barns, factories, houses, buildings that are getting deconstructed or demolished. We'll try to save what we can.

- What do you build?

- We do a little bit of everything. Residential, commercial, restaurants.

- John: How long you been building furniture?

- Dan: Actually, this week is 10 years.

- John: Is there something you love building?

- No.

- John: No?

- I love...

- John: You love it all.

- I love it all, yeah.

- What do we got here?

- This is a drop-leaf table we're putting together. So these will fold up when not in use.

- Can I tell you this? This is beautiful. What is this?

- So this is all reclaimed barn wood.

- Oh, my Lord.

- So these were, like, floor joists.

- So what do we have here? Do we know?

- We have beech, white oak, elm, white oak, red oak, more beech.

- This is really handsome. Do people camp here?

- That's our garage where we--

- Oh, this is your garage?
[laughs]

Nice; look at this. This is beautiful. I could take it to my house if you want. Dan, it's up to you.

- Yeah, we can get it there. This here is flooring from a tobacco barn from Louisville, Kentucky.

- Oh, really? And so what is this thing called?

- This is a planer.

- A planer? What does a planer do?

- Planer will surface the material, make it flat, clean,

- John: Flat and clean. So is this the first thing that happens?

- Yeah, pretty much. We'll get it planed down and flattened so that we can take it over to the table saw, put straight edges on it.

- It's getting lighter!

- Yeah! So this is a big sanding machine. It takes about five minutes instead of, like, five hours.

- John: Five hours?
[laughs]

Material-wise, is it ever hard to get stuff?

- Dan: Reclaimed wood isn't really hard. There's barns coming down everywhere. For us, reclaimed doesn't have to mean old. We'll repurpose anything.

- John: Take a look. Does it look like I work in a place like this? No, but I'm gonna leave my mark. Here we go.
[upbeat music]

Thanks, Dan.

- Dan: Thank you.

- This is considered the heart of Grand Rapids. It's the Ecliptic at Rosa Parks Circle. This is where the community comes to gather for concerts and events and lunch on Thursdays. In the winter, this becomes the ice skating rink for the community. It was designed by Maya Lin, the same artist who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It has 750,000 visitors a year, which is a half a million more than they thought would visit when it opened in 2001.

- Here at Innovation Central High School, they have a motto on how to live life: L-I-F-E, lead, inspire, focus, and excel. And one alumni took that to the next level: NASA astronaut Roger Chaffee. Now sadly, Chaffee died in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire in 1967. But Grand Rapids continues to honor his memory.
[gentle music]

- John: Thanks for letting us in.

- Dr. Mirelle Luecke: Definitely. We're really excited to share our museum.

- John: Thanks. So is this a large collection compared to other presidential museums?

- We have about 20,000 artifacts in our collection. So I'd say we're a fairly mid-sized collection. It's not the biggest, but it's not the smallest.

- John: If you look back on history, he is one who fought really hard for civil rights. You know, he really brought a nation together in the middle of turmoil.

- Yeah, I think that's really true. And he had such a short presidency.

- Right.

- But he had been in politics for such a long time, that he had these really strong connections throughout Washington and was really interested in bringing the nation together.

- John: Whatever side of the aisle, he was well-respected.

- Exactly. And that was really how he came to be first vice president and then president, because when Spiro Agnew resigned under the 25th Amendment, President Nixon was going to appoint a new Vice President. And part of the reason that Ford got picked was because he had such great relationships with both Republicans and Democrats.

- John: Again, he was the only president who was never elected, right?

- Mirelle: Exactly.

- John: Can we take a moment to talk about Betty Ford?

- Mirelle: Yes.

- ERA was really what she worked hard on.

- Absolutely. She was a really feisty lady, and she really felt like part of her job as First Lady was that she would take her experiences and make them public and hopefully create change with them. She said when she was going into the White House, "You know, if they don't like me, they can kick me out." And she really kind of had that attitude for the rest of her life.

- John: Okay, Betty.

- So here we have his congressional desk that was used here in Grand Rapids. So then this section tells the story of Ford and Willis Ward, who was one of his teammates on the University of Michigan football team. Georgia Tech wasn't going to let Ward on the field because he was Black, and they weren't gonna let a Black person on the field. And Ford was incensed about this, said he wouldn't play.

- Hence his work, civil rights. So our crew and myself are from Wisconsin. Green Bay Packers wanted him on their team. He decided to go into politics.

- Mirelle: Ford was a Boy Scout, and he was actually the only president to have become an Eagle Scout.

- John: Oh, is that right?

- Mirelle: Right.

- He's the only president that was ever an Eagle Scout?

- Mirelle: Right; just surprising.

- That's surprising.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Mirelle: This is what Ford's Oval Office looked like. It's very accurate. It was recreated using photographs. So a lot of the artifacts, particularly the pipes and the desk chair, were all his things and original.

- He had some pipes, didn't he?

- He had quite the pipe collection.

- John: So is it usual that the presidential museums also have the grave sites?

- Mirelle: It kind of depends on the wishes of the president.

- John: And Betty was all right with this, I guess.

- Yeah, she was. She also supported having the grave site here. Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's a really great spot. It's been a really exciting process in the year and a half since I've been here, really learning more about him and seeing kind of all the connections between his presidency and kind of the wider American history.

- I'm in a neighborhood called Heritage Hill. It's Grand Rapids' first neighborhood, and one of the oldest urban historic districts in the entire country. These 130 city streets have some of the most eclectic architectural styles that you have ever seen. When you visit Grand Rapids, you have to stop by this house. It's called the Meyer May House. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright house that was purchased and restored by the Steelcase Corporation. This house, this neighborhood,
[laughs]

amazing.
[upbeat music]

That is the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. It was built in 1913 as the Pantlind Hotel. It was restored in the 1990s to its full glory. And it really brought rejuvenation to downtown Grand Rapids. It's a beautiful hotel.

- How long you been here?

- George Aquino: I've been here 31 years this month. I still had a lot of hair when I started here.

- John: Did you have some hair?

- George: It's been a while.

- John: Right; and you must know some stuff around here?

- I think a little bit.

- You do.
[laughs]

- George: The Amway Grand Plaza is a historical hotel. It really is what brought the growth and development of the modern Grand Rapids as it stands today. In 1978, Amway Corporation, the founders, Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, decided they are gonna invest in their city and buy the old Pantlind Hotel and rebuilt it to its, you know, to its classic charm. And we opened the hotel as the Amway Grand Plaza in 1981.

- John: 1981. You walk into this lobby here, and it reeks of history. And it's like, is this a movie set? 'Cause it's grand.

- George: The lobby of the Amway Grand is probably the most photographed spot in downtown Grand Rapids, and probably in Michigan because of this amazing architecture in this interior of this building.

- John: And so altogether, how many rooms are in this hotel?

- George: We have over 680.

- John: It's a big hotel.

- George: It's a big hotel.

- John: It is; oh, remarkable. The Imperial Ballroom.

- George: The Imperial Ballroom.

- John: Wow.

- George: Quite beautiful. From the 1800s, there was always a bank here.

- This was the bank.

- Yeah, this was a bank.

- Wow.

- George: And then when we bought it, we converted it into a ballroom.

- John: And the ceiling!

- George: The ceiling. You cannot duplicate that.

- John: And these light fixtures. Are these original?

- George: Yes.

- John: These light fixtures?

- George: Yeah.

- John: It's a great room.

- George: It's a fantastic room. So when we're renovating around the hotel, we really want to make sure that we keep the historical features of the hotel intact.

- This is a nice patio, by the way.

- It's not bad.
[laughs]

Without this investment in Grand Rapids, I don't think we will have this vibrant city as it stands today. Grand Rapids is thriving now.

- This river not only powered lumber mills, it powered paper mills and flour mills. And in 1880, this river, the Grand River, powered something for the first time ever in the world. Do you know what that is?
[whimsical music]

- Right here is the Grand Rapids Public Museum. But guess what it was back in 1880? The world's first hydroelectric power plant. It actually powered some of the downtown's factories and streetlights. The man behind the project, his name was William Powers. He was a local industrialist. Powers built a power plant? I mean, you can't make this stuff up. Now because of those early rough rapids, or should I say grand rapids, dams were built to try to temper those rough waters. Well, it's like the saying goes, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, because the dams actually made it harder for those native fish to migrate. So in 1976, Fish Ladder Park was built, and it's just as it sounds. The fish leap up the concrete stairs to migrate upriver. And if you time your visit right, I don't know, you might see some salmon or steelhead. The bonus here is that it even helps keep out invasive species.
[upbeat music]

- Mark Seller: I grew up in the '70s, watching The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island and Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. And I just always really thought of the, you know, Hawaii and the Polynesian Pacific Ocean area as very exotic.

- John: We're in a tiki bar.

- Mark: It's a tiki bar right straight outta the 1950s.

- John: Yeah; can we talk about the history of tiki bars?

- Tiki bars were invented by Don the Beachcomber in 1933 in Los Angeles. It was created in America, and it just kind of caught on with the American public. It was a whole huge part of American culture in the '50s. It's made a big resurgence, though, in the past 15 years. This wall is beams that came out of a warehouse in Honolulu that was being torn down, and these green Chinese tiles here, those are from a mansion in Shanghai that was torn down in the 1940s.

- John: Where'd you get this guy? Is it concrete? What is this?

- Mark: No, it looks like concrete.

- John: It does.

- It's foam.

- It's foam. I love all these, like, separate spaces.

- Mark: Yeah, we call these our tiki huts.

- John: Oh, sure; and each one is different.

- Yeah.

- John: Oh, my God.

- Mark: There's no two things in here and no two areas that are alike.

- And is there anything that you would find at every tiki bar in the world? What would you find?

- Mark: Every tiki bar needs to have a good Mai Tai-er or it's not a good tiki bar. You have to request it in a tiki mug.

- John: Oh, you do? Tiki mugs?

- Mark: Yeah.

- John: Which don't look like mugs to me.

- Yeah, there's about 500 tiki mugs in here.

- They're intricate and completely special.

- Pieces of art. Yep.

- John: Tom Selleck.

- Mark: Yeah, this is a Tom Selleck. We got a Don Ho.

- John: Don Ho.

- Mark: And a Hawaii Five-0. They're made by artists in primarily California, but all over the place. Hawaii and Florida.

- There's a ceramic studio here.

- Mark: There is.

- You're a potter?

- I am not a potter, but I have a staff.

- A tiki studio?

- Our ceramic studio, yeah.

- You have potters who work here?

- Yeah, ceramicists. This is where we make tiki mugs that we sell in the restaurant and we sell them online as well.

- So do you guys provide mugs for other tiki bars?

- Mark: No, we don't have the capacity to make any more than what we can sell ourselves.

- John: These look great, you guys.

- Mark: So this is where all the stuff that's in Max's now used to be.

- John: This was your storage?

- Mark: Yeah.

- John: Wow.

- Mark: It was wall-to-wall. I'm the fanatic in the family.

- That's all right; that's all right.

- My wife was very happy when I decided to open this place.
[John laughs]

What you're seeing is really the largest collection of this kind of stuff anywhere in the world.

- John: And it's museum quality. This place is remarkable.
[laughs]

- Mark: Well, thank you.

- I love that you were influenced by Gilligan's Island.

- Oh, yeah, I've seen every episode.

- John: Remarkable, as I said.
[bright surfer music]

[energetic music]

So, Emmy, if you had friends who were coming to Grand Rapids, what would you tell 'em?

- Oh, I'd say you're gonna find an amazing craft beer, enjoy a beautiful downtown. You know the town slogan: Dream Grand and Go.

- So tell 'em to go to Grand Rapids.

- Well, yeah, you really simplified that for me. Thank you.

- John: Sure.

♪ There's nowhere else ♪
♪ I'd rather be ♪
♪ The heart and soul of community's ♪
♪ Right here ♪

- This is some sweetness.
[John laughs]

[server laughs]

- I wanna say something funny about the dentist. So throw me a line.

- Do not give me a line reading. Oh, oh! My God!

- Crazy, really?

-
[laughs]

Okay, you ready? So, Emmy, if you had friends--

- I do.
[both laugh]

- Producer: Perfect.

- That was a good one.

- Announcer: Thanks to our underwriters.

- How to get more out of your Wisconsin Dells vacation? Ride more rides, slide more slides, bite off more than you can chew. Have more fun than a barrel of monkeys! That's more like it. Wisconsin Dells: The Water Park Capital of the World! WisDells.com.

- Wisconsin's picture-perfect historic downtown Greendale isn't just a great backdrop for photos. It's the perfect place to find unique gifts, spend time with a friend, enjoy a perfect brandy old fashioned, learn about the past, and enjoy the beautiful flowers. Ask anyone who's made memories here. We'll all tell you the same thing. You just gotta see Greendale!

- Heiser Automotive is honored to help John McGivern and his team arrive safely to many Main Streets. We are committed to remaining true to the Heiser way: Do what's right for our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve. We are happy to help.

- My father taught me that to make great bakery, you have to do it the right way. O&H Danish Bakery, where kringle traditions begin.

- Twenty-minute commutes. Weekends on the lake. Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities. Not to mention all the local flavor! There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin. Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Thanks to the Friends of Plum Media and to the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

- Well, now this is the only way I ever want to go to Michigan.

- Me too; does this... Can we get to Detroit from here? C'mon.

- Lois, can we?
[John laughs]