GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The Grand River still bore the scars of its dirty, industrial past when former mayor George Heartwell first landed a seat on the Grand Rapids City Commission in 1992.
The city’s combined sewer pipes hadn’t yet been separated, sending thousands of gallons of sewage surging into the river during heavy storms. Floodwalls choked off access to the waterway. By and large, Heartwell says, the downtown riverfront didn’t attract many visitors.
“It was not a place that anybody wanted to go,” said Heartwell, who served as mayor from 2003 to 2015. “It was dirty, it was polluted, it was inaccessible.”…