Roosevelt Park

The spine of this southwest-side neighborhood is Cesar E. Chavez Avenue SW — the street most people still know as Grandville Avenue — and walking it tells you most of what you need to know about the place. The storefronts run close together and stay busy: bakeries like M&M and Tres Hermanos, taquerias, antique dealers such as Century Antiques and Warehouse One, and cafés like Mudpenny sit shoulder to shoulder along a corridor that has been the commercial heart of the area for generations. Green space breaks up the built-up blocks. Roosevelt Park itself is an eight-acre park dating to 1922, with a playground, picnic tables, and frontage on Plaster Creek; Clemente Park, dedicated in 1983, adds a soccer field, a skate park, and more picnic room. Anchoring institutions line the avenue too — the Cook Library Center with its children's programming, the Hispanic Center of West Michigan, and a Grand Rapids Community College workforce-training branch. The housing behind the corridor is older Grand Rapids stock, a mix of wood-frame single-family homes and two-stories on a tight urban grid, set on smaller lots close to the street. Position is part of the appeal: the neighborhood sits just southwest of downtown, with US-131 running along its eastern flank for quick access in and out. Between the creek, the two parks, and the density of the avenue, it is a walkable, distinctly urban corner of the city. For the neighborhood association and its history, see the Roosevelt Park association page.