Grand Rapids returns to Global Prominance as a Convention Facility like when we were the Furniture Capital of the World? How?

GUN LAKE CASINO'S SUCCESS COULD HELP GRAND RAPIDS WIN BACK GLORY AS NOT JUST A NATIONAL, BUT GLOBAL CONVENTION LOCATION!

Why couldn't this new Gun Lake Casino located south of Grand Rapids along the highest RV traveled N/S freeway east of the Mississippi, help Grand Rapids  leverage this flurry of activity in a dead economy into proudly again becoming the one of the very TOP CONVENTION CITIES IN THE WORLD as the Gateway to the playground of our Nation and Furniture Convention Capital of the World just as we were in the video I've posted a link to?

Beginning where I-94 crosses US-131 in Kalamazoo, drawing people north on US-131 to visit our awesome new Casino en route to the great playground of our nation rather than having people from Chicago go north on US-31 to get up north and rather than the people from Detroit and Cleveland driving up I-75? I know it's a longer treck for everyone without first extending US-131 to I-80. But if US-131 is perceived to be the "Recreational Corridor" that it is with much nicer recreational and tourism draws than those along I-75 or S-31, even though we don't have the big lake, if a "Toll road to the Toll Road" was financed and constructed, we could also pull people up US-131 from Indianapolis.

What can we do to turn our economy around and take back our state from the welfare roles of the nation?  Let's do it!

If West Michigan and downtown Grand Rapids would change their attitude and work with this Tribe's leaders, we could leverage this flurry of activity into promotions that would help us regain even more of our prior grandeur as a Convention Town, and even propel us over the top to become even more of a Global Destination for conventions than we have been since when we were the Furniture Capital of the World with huge conventions 2 times per year. Can you believe we had over 3 million square feet of show space within five blocks of the Pantlin Hotel back then? That's three times what we have now, and three times as much as the Las Vegas Convention Facility attached to the Hilton! But that was back in 1922!

If Grand Rapids and West Michigan would work with this Tribe, we can take all that back. We can pull cash money from a much larger area than just Grand Rapids and maybe even around the world! It will be hard to pull much more money out of local visitors of the Casino than what is being done right now when it opens. If so, how do we get people from elsewhere to come visit and spend their money, even other currencies here in West Michigan?

What would be so bad about that everyone? Would some be jealous of how much money they might make? Well, why don't we start to focus on how much money we could make by doing additional things to get tourist here from all over the world rather than worrying about others! If we can't figure out how to be more successful in our business as the Gun Lake Casino's success begins to become legendary within a 5 state area, we get the best chance of leveraging their success into success for ourselves as well.

Why not? Only if we want to cry in our soup and be mad about it all can we miss the opportunity at this point! Let's partner with the MSU Hospitality program in East Lansing, study the possibilities, then have them and the owner's of the Casino help teach us how to be a Region of Hospitality, not alienation of those from different countries or beliefs! Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell people we should all change our beliefs, or religion or all become radical islamists for heaven's sake! I'm just saying, these people are our neighbors and they've been here and taken care of this land far before we were even here. Why can't we get along and leverage the ONE THING OUR GOVERNMENT HAS GIVEN THEM IN EXCHANGE FOR OUR WRONGS AGAINST THEIR PEOPLE AND TURN IT INTO SOMETHING THAT HELPS US AS WELL!

Watch the video and enjoy even if you don't like what the Casino is doing or might do in the future. All things aside, a lot of that video is the same sort of stuff they use to promote our area now also, but we lost the Furniture Capital destination to North Carolina probably to our "that will never change" attitude and our much colder winters.