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Callie Opper

Professor Mukherjee

WRT 465

2/24/16

Lyon

Lyon Street Café. Photo by Callie Opper

I walk into Lyon Street Café, a small town coffee shop that brings in not only

locals, but also people from all over Grand Rapids. Exposed white brick wall surrounded

by old-fashioned light bulbs hanging everywhere, as I peer through the foggy glass

window from outside. The green door creaks as I turn the brass cold handle slowly.

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Sounds of clinking coffee mugs are heard, as well as indie folk music playing through the

speakers, surrounding the buzz of conversation.

This cafe is now a staple on Lyon Street. Over the past several years, this street

has taken form and become quite the center for community, right in Heritage Hill. It sits

on the east side of Grand Rapids, Lyon Street, the center of this community. MLive, The

Repidian and other local news outlets have featured Lyon Street and Union as streets that

have shaped Heritage Hill for the better. Lyon Street in particular has played an

instrumental role in bringing together this neighborhood. It is a community of large

homes and small families, a place to find solace from the city, one that has fostered

relationships and changed the way the locals live their everyday lives, a place that has

become a growing, thriving area.

The roads are extremely bumpy, plastered with potholes, filled with slushy gray

water from a mixture of snow and salt. Hundreds of houses are align in rows, just off of

Lyon Street, tall, spacious and eclectic, covered in chipped paint and vintage design.

This street is one where want-to-be-hipsters pass by in pastel colored pants, with their

wool socks pulled above their ankles, reveling deep down lace up boots just below,

splashing in the murky puddles. Lyon Street is buzzing, not with the sounds of cars or

trucks, but the vibrant sound of locals on their bikes or on foot, talking to each other

while passing by. Little children are on almost every corner, kicking their scrawny little

legs along the ground. Their little tike bike wheels move quickly, dragging across

cracked cement sidewalks, as the children try to keep up with their parents, whom most

hold a dog leash in their hand.

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Her warm breath is hazy in the crisp winter air as she calls out to her daughter to

slow down, who was peddling quickly on a small bike ahead. One arm is pushing her

toddle son’s plastic blue bike, the other, now, pulling her curly-red headed freckled face

daughter’s bike behind her. I approach her slowly and ask if she has time to chat, at the

same time as she starts wiping off her son’s runny nose. She chuckles and tells me she’d

love a break, smiling down at her two children. She tells me she’s lived in the area for six

years, an area that is far enough away from the city, but close enough within reach.

Despite the giggles and small screams from her children standing beneath us, I inquire

about Lyon Street and the storefront.

“We live on this street so we come here a lot.”

In 1981 Kameel Chamelly, the owner and founder of Martha’s Vineyard, a wine,

beer and local market on Lyon Street started his business. His vision was to make a

market available for any residents and his overall goal is to bring community together in

a close proximity. He pictured a place where locals could feel comfortable. In the last

several years, that vision has expanded into a bakery, pub and most recently a coffee

shop.

“Kameel has done an incredible job of keeping these businesses here,” she says,

“they used to go in and out, but something worked with these. This street brings people

together. I love it. I think it’s a fantastic spot to live.”

I decide to ask why she likes this neighborhood. Before I can even get my full

question out, she motions at me with her blue mitten, grasped in her hand. She spins

around in a small circle; arms open slightly telling me it is eclectic, pointing to all the

brightly colored houses and individuality of the storefront, people and place.

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The contrast between the looks of this neighborhood and the massive houses catch

me off guard. The rundown roads and dying grass, yellow and crumpled, cover the yards

surrounding us, in what immediately appears to be a deprived neighborhood. But she

doesn’t think so. The mansions that surround Lyon Street make it unique and a

community has formed and shaped a type of culture in this small street in East Town

Grand Rapids.

“It’s small knit, so we see people all the time. Since property values have risen in

this area there is more diversity, in who lives here,” she says, “College students are

moving here, young professionals and families. These businesses have brought this area

together.”

This neighborhood is one where college students, young adults and families have

made their home. It is also a place where expansion has taken place developmentally

throughout the years, but it remains the same in some aspects. Lyon Street is the center of

what brings community and neighborhoods together, in between East Town and

Midtown, for the sole purpose of finding people and friendships.

As she starts to walk away, she stops, looks back at me and asks why I’m here

and why I chose to write about Lyon Street.

“Why not,” I said.

She grins and keeps walking.

In the heart of Heritage Hill, Lyon Street Café, four thirty in the afternoon. I’m

immediately greeted as I walk through the door of building 617. As I stare up at the black

chalkboard with etched in calligraphy, deciding what I want, I notice class jars, wooden

pallets and eccentric décor surrounding the counter. After ordering, and receiving my

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steamy soy mocha, I sit down. It’s a comfortable bench, made from old wooden pieces

that someone once threw out. The worker tells me he’ll be right there, I’ve asked to talk

to him.

“I’ve been working in coffee for four years. I moved here, from the west side,

wanting to jump into something local,” he says, “East Town is like a clique. You can get

anything in a 10-mile radius. You can grocery shop, get coffee or dinner, which makes it

unique, but Lyon Street also provides the opportunity to separate yourself from the city,

but not too far.”

The liveliness within this part of Grand Rapids has drastically increased. With the

amount of students and young adults moving into the city or small knit communities such

as Lyon Street, a culture has formed. Many of these large Heritage Hill homes have

turned into apartments, making this place affordable and attractive to many.

“If you live here,” he says, “you will meet people. You will see them all the time.

Lyon Street brings together intentional community, it’s what makes us special, it’s what

makes us stand out from the West Side…they just do their own thing.”

He tells me that Lyon Street is a little oasis of community and that it’s warmer

and friendlier than most other places in Grand Rapids, especially relating to coffee shops.

“As a coffee shop, it’s more cozy here compared to the other competition around

the city. A lot of people say they don’t like going to MadCap” (a coffee shop on the West

Side), “because it seems cold, almost as though you can’t hang out there…but you can

here.”

I sip some more of my mocha, thick and cold, now.

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He stares at me and says, “Here’s the thing about this neighborhood – everyone

knows everyone. You can spend a few hours on Lyon Street and pass someone you

know. You’re almost guaranteed to see someone you know and love multiple times a day,

because this community is so tight knit. Everyone knows each other within about a ten-

mile radius. That’s just how it works and I think it’s really cool.”

Lyon street is special and I gained a sense of that through the experiences had

walking in and out of the stores, each time, greeted in the most friendly way. This street

is what brings Heritage Hill together. It’s a community made out of individuals, wanting

to make a neighborhood thrive. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what you do. It

doesn’t matter the amount reflecting on your paycheck or the way you dress in this part

of East Town. What matters is community. That community can be found in this

neighborhood. Whether it’s seeing a friendly face while picking up a few last minute

groceries, or having an in depth conversation over a warm brewed cup of Lyon Street

Café coffee, Lyon Street makes Heritage Hill come to life and brings people together

from all different walks of life, by giving them one thing – community.