Ridgemoor

Turn off Breton Road into the interior streets and the pace drops immediately. The blocks here loop and curve rather than run straight, so there is little reason to drive through unless you live on them — Ridgemoor Drive, Okemos, Swansea and their neighbors form a self-contained grid tucked into the far southeast corner of Grand Rapids. The frame is easy to trace: Burton Street to the north, 28th Street to the south, Breton Road to the east, and the East Beltline along the west. Most of the housing went up in the 1960s and 1970s, and it shows in the stock — substantial single-family homes, a good share of them brick, set back on full lots with mature trees arching over the sidewalks. The scale is consistent from block to block, which gives the streets their even, settled look. Practically everything is a short drive: the Breton Village shopping center sits right at the northeast corner, 28th Street's retail runs along the south edge, and Meijer, Target, and Walmart are all within a few minutes. The East Beltline puts I-96 close by, so the rest of Kent County and downtown are an easy trip out. Reeds Lake and the shops of East Grand Rapids are just to the northeast. It is the kind of layout where you can walk a loop under the trees without crossing a busy road, then be on the highway five minutes later. To read about the community identity and the institutions that anchor the area, see the Ridgemoor association page.