When Mayor Rosalynn Bliss says she is “active with a lot of groups,” she means it. From boards to committees to councils to commissions, Bliss has been helping the city of Grand Rapids and its residents in one way or another for twenty years.
In fact, it was a group of women who encouraged her to run for the Second Ward City Commission seat at age 30. She served for a decade starting in 2006 and made a name for herself as a fearless advocate for the residents of the Second Ward, as well as endangered children, unhoused families, and others who experience injustice in some way in the city. Those experiences led her to seek higher office.
She was elected to her first term as Mayor of Grand Rapids in 2016, serving a second term starting in 2020. Her last day as mayor is Dec. 31 due to term limits.
“My goal is to savor every moment, knowing that these experiences will be my last as mayor. I’m really in a season of savoring right now,” said Bliss.
She’s also in a season of assessing the goals she set as a new mayor and looking at how far she and the city have come in meeting them. She wanted to focus on environmental sustainability, economic development, strengthening neighborhoods, housing, public safety—and the list goes on for Bliss, who is quick to see a need and begin working on meeting it.
“I feel like I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of those goals and move the city forward,” she said as she looked over the city from her sixth-floor office in City Hall in downtown Grand Rapids.
U.P. roots
That office is a fair distance from her roots in the Upper Peninsula. A true Yooper, Bliss was born in Sault Ste. Marie and graduated from Sault Area High School in 1993. She attended University of South Alabama in Mobile on an academic scholarship and earned a degree in psychology and criminal justice, but always returned to the Soo in the summers to work.
She married a man she met one summer and they moved to Grand Rapids, where she got a job at Hope Network and earned a master’s degree in social work from MSU. The marriage ended, but her love for Grand Rapids didn’t. She’s been here ever since.
Bliss’s second term had just started when the Covid pandemic hit the state. Bliss saw city leadership turn from proactive to reactive, moving into crisis management mode to handle day-to-day problems that arose including supporting emergency services, helping front line workers, supporting small businesses, and activating outdoor spaces.
“I am really proud of our city’s ability to navigate Covid and come out in a stronger place,” said Bliss. “We had to think creatively about continuing to support businesses, public transit, getting kids food at home who were getting it at school, helping kids get access to Wi-Fi. It’s indicative of the strength of our community that got us through that crisis.”
Moving the city forward
Mayor Bliss—who loves to read, kayak, camp, hike, and attend music festivals in her down time—points to several things she considers among her and her team’s greatest accomplishments.
- Corridor Improvement districts. “More neighborhoods have them now, and that means investment and energy into our neighborhoods,” said Bliss. “We also started a Neighborhood Match Fund to match dollars and neighborhood volunteers.”
- Big projects such as the Grand River restoration (“I think we’ll be in the river next year”), Lyon Square Park, the soccer stadium and the amphitheater.
- Neighborhood park investment. “Investment in neighborhood parks is key to revitalizing our neighborhoods,” said Bliss.
- Two new fire stations in the Third Ward.
- Evidence-based violence prevention. “We’ve added social workers and co-response workers who go out when needed,” she said.
- Homeless Outreach Team (HOT). The team is out in the community interacting with unhoused people, engages with businesses and residents to resolve issues, and addresses immediate needs related to housing and services for unsheltered persons. So far, the team has rehoused over forty people, according to Bliss.
- Additional housing throughout the city. “Because we are a growing city, we need housing for all levels: lower end, middle income, and market rate,” said Bliss. “Everyone who wants to live in our city should have a place they can live.”
- Strides around renewable energy and sustainability. She points to the anaerobic biodigester at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, adding a solar array at Grand Rapids’ Lake Michigan filtration plant, and adding a solar array at the old Butterworth landfill.
While much good has happened during Bliss’s two terms, there are still things that make her cry when it comes to Grand Rapids. She said it always breaks her heart when she sits with families who have been victims of crimes. The civil unrest downtown, leading to businesses being broken into, was heart-rending as well.
“The officer-involved shooting of Patrick Lyoya was so hard for me and the community. I walked alongside people who were so angry and so hurt,” recalled Bliss. “People were looking to me to solve problems, but one person can’t solve all the problems. There are deep racial disparities in this city.”
Yet the city is also moving forward. Grand Rapids partners with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and participates in the Living Cities Racial Equity Here (REH) initiative.
“We are starting to dismantle some of those systems through starting an equity office and equity initiatives,” said Bliss. “That work is important as we as a community work together. But I still find myself thinking, what else can I do? How could I have moved the needle more? It always feels like I don’t do enough.”
Bliss points to having a more diverse city work force and being intentional about appointments to boards and commissions representing the people. She sees a move from 20 to over 100 micro-local businesses owned by women and minorities. She also highlights building stronger relationships with the county to prevent children from being poisoned by lead, for mental health support, and investing in the trail networks.
These days the mayor is also beginning to think about what comes next. She’d like to take January off to relax, regroup, and decompress.
“When I think about my next chapter, I intend to do something meaningful through which I can have an impact. I want to still be involved in city initiatives, still serve on a handful of boards and commissions, maybe some statewide policy work with a focus on West Michigan,” said Bliss. “That is aligned with who I am and what I love.”
For this native Yooper and now whole-hearted Grand Rapidian, “My job is to make our city the best place it can be. Regardless of where people stand on issues, what draws us together is our love for our city.”
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