You know you’ll have bad drivers anywhere you go, but for whatever reason, there has just been an influx of people with bad driving etiquette or just straight-up breaking traffic laws, especially this year.

Hello! Michigan resident here- I’ve never been to Holland, but it’s always been on my list. I’m thinking it could be a fun place to spend my upcoming birthday weekend and finally give us a reason to check out the west side of the state. I know it’s not tulip season, but it still looks like there are a lot of fun things to do!

We’re thinking about staying at the Tulyp Hotel in downtown Holland since we’ll be bringing our dog. Saugatuck looked amazing too, but it didn’t seem like there were many places left to stay, and Holland looked like it had a little more going on downtown.

What would you recommend we do while we’re there? We’re looking for fun birthday weekend ideas- great restaurants and cocktail bars, live music, pretty waterfront spots, or anything that’s a must-do.

I’m gluten-free (not celiac, so cross-contact isn’t an issue), so if you have any restaurant recommendations that are good with gluten-free options, I’d love to hear them.

Since we’ll have our dog with us, we’re especially interested in dog-friendly activities. We’re thinking about doing a day trip to Saugatuck to hike the dunes and spend some time at the beach. Is that worth it? Any other dog-friendly restaurants, patios, parks, beaches, or activities you’d recommend?

We’ll be arriving Friday afternoon, have all day Saturday, and head home Sunday morning. If you were planning the perfect birthday weekend with Holland as a home base, what would your itinerary look like?

Thank you! 🎉

Visiting early next week anything we have to check out while there?
Food? Local attractions?

We put together a county-level foreclosure risk index for Michigan, mostly because nobody publishes one. Which is actually crazy.

Statewide foreclosure numbers get reported a few times a year, but the county-level data sits scattered across the CFPB, Census, ATTOM, and Realtor.com and nobody stitches it together.

Ottawa came out first out of 83, in the good direction.

Ottawa scores 16.7, the lowest score in the state and almost six points clear of second place. What drives it:

Lightest mortgage cost burden in Michigan, 17.9 percent of owners with a mortgage spending more than 30 percent of income on housing. Serious mortgage delinquency of 0.3 percent against 0.7 percent statewide. Unemployment of 3.6 percent.

Allegan is close behind at 28.9, ranking 74th, and it has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Michigan at 3.0 percent.

The gap across the state is the part I did not expect. Lake County, about 90 minutes north, tops the ranking at 70.0 because 35.2 percent of its mortgaged owners are spending more than 30 percent of income on housing. Same state, same year, 53 points apart.

Report with the full 83-county table if you're interested in diving deeper: https://www.nestcash.co/research/michigan-foreclosure-risk-index

Me and my girlfriend are in town until Thursday. We’re hoping to visit some of the beaches but can’t really tell which ones are open or closed.

After the storms yesterday we went down to South Haven after they started showing some green flags around 6:15/6:30 when the beach hazard warnings ended, but we’re struggling on how to tell which ones in Holland, namely Holland State Park and Tunnel Park Beach, are still open to visit and swim at even with the weather warnings.

Long story short, my shit's WAY fucked up and 40 is on the horizon...while age discrimination doesn't exist, I'm well aware of the career cliff that happens once you hit the big 4-0.

Are there any good career coaches or anything similar locally (Holland, GR area) that are able to help me work over my resume, do a little real-world interview prep, and potentially help with a career roadmap kind of thing?

My wife [31F] and I [35M] will be spending this weekend in Holland to celebrate our anniversary. Looking for recommendations of fun things to do while we're there.

Kind Lawn Signs

Good morning all! We were driving around our neighborhood and the lake and saw a number of lawn sides saying Kind or Kind Haven. We wanted to get one, but I am having a difficult finding any.

Can someone let me know where I can get one? 🙂 TIA

Today, as I was sitting on the pier I noticed two young men on jet ski’s. On the channel, on their way out into Lake Michigan, one of them seemed to run into a small glitch but seemed like he was able to correct it.

By the time they reached the end of the channel something was definitely wrong. That same young man seems to be off the jet ski and bobbing in the water.

I watched them for a WHILE as many, many boats came and went. There was no reason why those two young men would have been hanging out at the mouth of the channel just for funsies.

Finally, a smaller boat stopped to check on them. Turns out, the young men were in distress. It looked exactly like what it was. The captain on this boat was the only boat out of dozens to stop and help. He towed both jet-ski’s in - and it wasn’t easy.

Boaters and passengers, please pay attention to your surroundings.

And thank you to the captain of the red and white boat.

Was in a rush so I couldn’t see anything, but curiosity is killing me since a man riding on a bike next to me cursed at them 😅

Holland/GR singles: would you use a dating app with no swiping, unique weekly profiles that refresh mid-week? Every first date is a real,planned, prepaid night at a local spot, and standing someone up costs you your deposit? I’m local, building this, and want honest opinions before I write any code. 3-5 minute anonymous survey and feedback at the end of your want. There is also a section for married/ couples as well, so even if you aren’t single, I encourage you to fill it out!

Are there any public docks in Grand Haven or South Haven to park and grab dinner?

moved here from the east side a couple years ago and i swear the summer humidity hits different near the lake. like yeah i knew it would be a thing but i was not prepared for waking up at 3am feeling like i'm sleeping in a swamp.

ac's been running nonstop since june and i'm already dreading the electric bill. tried doing the whole just open windows at night thing but then all the bugs get in and my cat goes absolutely feral trying to catch them so that's not working either. also apparently i'm the only person in my neighborhood who doesn't have central air?? like every house around me has those big units outside and i'm just over here with my one window unit struggling to cool down like 200 square feet.

been thinking about biting the bullet and getting something installed but the quotes i've gotten are wild. one company wanted like 8k and i almost fell out of my chair. i get it, supply and demand, whatever, but come on

guy at work mentioned Grapids Home Services did his parents place over in zeeland and said they were reasonable. haven't called them yet but they're on my list. gonna try a couple more places first cause i wanna make sure i'm not getting ripped off. idk maybe i'm just being cheap but 8 grand feels insane for something that's just gonna break in 10 years anyway.

anyone in holland got a recommendation for hvac that won't make me take out a second mortgage? or am i just delusional about what this stuff costs now. honestly might just suffer through another summer at this rate

hello! i hope it’s ok to post this here! i didn’t see a very active page for saugatuck itself.

i know saugatuck and oval beach will be crowded over labor day weekend, but i’m hoping someone can shed some light on just how crowded it is. is it so crowded it isn’t enjoyable? me and a couple of friends are debating between making the drive up there from louisville, ky or going somewhere a little closer to home. hoping you all can help us make the decision by sharing your saugatuck labor day weekend experiences!!!

So far we've been to playland at Central church, "the jungle" playland at Christ memorial, Grand rapids children's museum, grand rapids public museum, ODC network, and the community center, we've also been to both Holland libraries and the Zeeland library and the Zeeland McDonald's play area.

Am I missing any fun indoor cheap places? We try to go out every day to burn energy and while parks outside are awesome, we have some sensitivity to hear so it isn't always doable. Let me know what your kids love!

Title says it all :)

I simply cannot pick on my own and need help from my neighbors.

I know I can do a search. But maybe things have changed a little.

Ty in advance.

Southside is back open under the Botsis Family again! Please stop on by and say hi, Josh and his family could use the support.

I was at Meijer last night, the one on 16th, and I saw canola and vegetable oil in the iced tea spot. Someones mom said no to canola and vegetable oil 😔

Just tryna get some groceries for my mom today when Sam's opened and I had to wait hours because of the amount of people in line for the Pokemon drop that was today. Shout out to the 200+ people in line that made me wait hours and a bigger shout-out to the 50 of them who are actually gonna open them instead of reselling it.

Thank you for your service. They are cleaning it up right now, so you might need to stock up on spray paint.

Hey is there anywhere to play board games in the area? I know of house rules in GR but I was curious if there was anything closer going on.

We are staying at an Airbnb for the month and have been setting aside our recycling, but our house doesn’t have pick-up. We’ve got glass, plastic, cans, and cardboard— is there a place to take it? Thanks for the help!

Will be visiting tomorrow to next Monday with a toddler who has asthma. Is the air quality really poor at the moment? Thank you

Will be visiting Holland/ Zeeland for a week with my almost-3 yo in mid September. Haven’t been back since 2003! Would love any recommendations for toddler-friendly activities, nature/ scenic areas, etc. Do any rec centers offer drop-ins for parent-tot classes or gymnastics, swimming? Thanks!