About
About this project
What Discover Grand Rapids is, why it exists, and the principles it holds itself to. Plain language, no corporate boilerplate.
The reason
Why this exists
There is a real difference between the city and the metro. West Michigan means something specific. Eastown is a neighborhood, not a city. The Medical Mile shapes the local economy in ways that matter. ArtPrize changed how the city sees itself. Grand Rapids has layers most people never get explained to them, and that gap is what this site exists to close.
Most of what exists online about Grand Rapids is either a tourism pitch, an advertising platform, or a review site. None of those things are bad, but none of them are trying to help someone actually understand the city. Discover Grand Rapids is trying to do that.
Organized, accurate, neutral information about a place is a public good. That is what this is trying to be.
The goal is a site that a new resident can use as a starting point for understanding their new home, that a visitor can use to actually grasp the city before they arrive, that a longtime resident can use to discover something they did not already know, and that everyone can use to find what they are looking for without being sold to.
This is not a business. It is not primarily a monetization vehicle. It is a civic information resource that happens to be a portfolio piece for the web design studio that built it. Those two things are not in conflict.
The maker
Who made it
Discover Grand Rapids was designed and built by Sunburst Studio, a West Michigan web design studio. This site is a portfolio project — a demonstration of what the studio can build and a genuine attempt to contribute something useful to the Grand Rapids community.
The site has no editorial staff or newsroom. Content is researched, written, and maintained by the studio, with corrections and additions welcomed from the community. The process for submitting information is straightforward and is described on the Submit Information page.
Sponsorships help cover the operational costs of running the site — hosting, development, and maintenance. The sponsorship model is described on the Sponsorship page, and current sponsors are listed on the Our Sponsors page. Sponsorship does not purchase editorial influence of any kind.
The mechanics
How the site works
Content is focused on information that remains useful over time. This site deliberately does not try to maintain a live event calendar, a comprehensive business directory, or anything else that would require constant updating to stay accurate. Where current, frequently-changing information is relevant, the site links outward to the platforms that do that well.
The site prioritizes:
- Accuracy
- Information is researched and verified before it goes on the site. When something changes, community submissions are the most reliable way it gets updated. Submissions are reviewed before any change is made.
- How data is gathered
- Listings on this site — businesses, activities, and nonprofits — are compiled from publicly available information. This cataloging is redone roughly once per quarter to help keep listings current. A date shown on a listing page reflects when that section was last cataloged, not when it was last confirmed accurate — details can change in between. Community submissions are the fastest way something gets corrected, and the Submit Information form is always open.
- Neutrality
- No business is recommended over another without explicit editorial basis and clear labeling. Being listed is not an endorsement. The site does not rank businesses subjectively or create "best of" lists that favor some over others without cause.
- Transparency
- Sponsorships are labeled as sponsorships. The site's policies are publicly stated. There is no hidden advertising, no paid rankings, and no undisclosed commercial relationships.
Common questions
Why isn't my favorite business or restaurant listed?
A few possible reasons: the site is still being built out and not every business in Grand Rapids is listed yet; the business may not have been captured in the initial research process; or it may not quite fit the current categories. If something belongs here and is missing, the right move is to submit it.
Does being listed mean you recommend it?
No. Being listed means the business or place exists, is operating, and meets a basic threshold of relevance. It is not an endorsement or a quality rating. There are no star ratings, no rankings, and no best-of lists that pull a handful of businesses out for special treatment.
Can a business pay to be listed or ranked higher?
No. Paid listings, paid rankings, and paid placement do not exist here. Businesses appear in alphabetical order by default, sponsor or not.
Policy
Integrity policy
Discover Grand Rapids holds itself to a set of principles that govern how content is created, how businesses are represented, and how financial relationships work.
Financial support does not purchase editorial influence. Sponsors are recognized as sponsors. They do not receive preferential treatment in listings, recommendations, or any informational content.
Businesses and organizations are not given preferential editorial treatment because of any financial relationship with this site. A business that sponsors the site appears in the same listings as a business that does not, ranked by the same criteria — which is to say, not ranked at all. Alphabetical order is the default. Paid placement is not offered and does not exist.
Advertising is not permitted on Discover Grand Rapids. This means no banner ads, no paid promotional placements, no sponsored content presented as editorial content, no paid rankings, and no marketing campaigns. Sponsorship is permitted under specific conditions described on the Sponsorship page, and every sponsorship is clearly labeled.
When something on this site is wrong, we want to know and we want to fix it. The Submit Information form exists for exactly this purpose. Submissions are reviewed by a person, not processed automatically. The site makes no claim to be error-free, only to take errors seriously when they are identified.
Policy
Privacy policy
Discover Grand Rapids does not collect, track, or share visitor data. This is the entire privacy policy.
This site does not use tracking pixels, analytics scripts, behavioral monitoring, or any form of visitor surveillance. There is no Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no third-party data collection of any kind embedded in the site.
Your visit to this site is your own business.
This site does not set cookies for tracking, advertising, or profiling purposes. The only browser storage used is a small local preference for the sound toggle — whether you have sound on or off — which is stored in your browser's localStorage and never transmitted anywhere.
The only information collected by this site is what you voluntarily submit through the Submit Information form. That information — which may include a name, email address, and the details of your submission — is used only to review and act on your submission. It is not shared with third parties, used for marketing, or retained beyond its useful purpose.
This site loads fonts from Google Fonts and map tiles from Mapbox on the Neighborhoods page. These services may log requests as part of their standard infrastructure operation. Discover Grand Rapids does not control what these services log or retain, but neither service is used for advertising targeting or visitor profiling on behalf of this site.
External links on this site — to Experience Grand Rapids, Facebook, Reddit, and others — are subject to those platforms' own privacy practices. Discover Grand Rapids is not responsible for what happens when you leave this site.
Policy
AI usage policy
Artificial intelligence tools were used in the development of Discover Grand Rapids. This page explains how, because transparency about this is the right thing to do.
There are no AI tools, chatbots, language models, or automated systems embedded in or connected to this site that interact with visitors. Nothing you read on this site is being generated in real time by a model. There are no AI-powered recommendations, no generated responses, and no machine-learning systems influencing what you see.
The "Help me decide" feature uses a simple random selection from a curated database. It is not an AI recommendation engine and makes no claim to be one.
AI tools assisted in the following areas during the development of this site:
- Code development — AI tools were used to assist in writing, reviewing, and refining the site's code.
- Research and information gathering — AI tools were used to help catalog publicly available information about Grand Rapids businesses, neighborhoods, events, and community resources, which was then reviewed and verified by a person before being included on the site.
- Accuracy verification — AI tools were used as one part of the process for checking factual claims, though human review remained the final step.
- Sound design — AI-assisted synthesis tools were used in the creation of the site's sound effects.
All content on this site has been reviewed, edited, and approved by a person. AI involvement in development does not reduce the editorial accountability applied to what is published.
