Who is SHRPN?
The Safe and Healthy Roosevelt Park Neighborhood (SHRPN) Coalition is a group of residents, businesses, and organizations working together for a safer and healthier Roosevelt Park neighborhood. For too long, residents have been exposed to the burdens of heavy truck traffic on César E. Chávez Avenue (formerly Grandville Ave).
This truck route cuts through the heart of our community, creating noise, air pollution, and safety hazards. Multiple studies have highlighted this environmental injustice and ranked our neighborhood as one of the most environmentally burdened in the entire state of Michigan.
Our North Star
The Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Roosevelt Park Neighborhood (SHRPN) is committed to using an equitable and multi pronged approach, which centers community voice, shared leadership, and building relationships as we work together to end unnecessary truck traffic on the Roosevelt Park Corridor.
Our Why
For many years residents of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood have been exposed to health and safety hazards stemming from trucks traveling through the heart of our community on Grandville Avenue SW, recently renamed to Cesar E. Chavez Avenue SW. There is a long history of concern from neighbors and business owners as well as recognition from various departments in the City of Grand Rapids that the designated truck route and the commercial truck traffic needs to be addressed for the health and safety of the community. There has also been statewide attention regarding the environmental injustice concerns with a recent study highlighted in the Detroit Free Press. This study places census tract 39, in the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood, at the top of the list with the highest environmental injustice score in the entire state.
Recently, a coalition of community organizations and individuals was brought together to address this concern. This coalition is called Safe and Healthy Roosevelt Park Neighborhood or SHRPN. The Safe & Healthy Roosevelt Park Neighborhood is committed to using an equitable and multi pronged approach, which centers community voice, shared leadership, and building relationships as we work together to end unnecessary truck traffic on the Roosevelt Park Corridor.
SHRPN has been meeting monthly since the spring of 2023 with a growing number of organizations, businesses and residents to strategize, organize and build a campaign. We have met with representatives from different city and county departments, representatives from the Michigan Department of Transportation and elected officials at different levels. These meetings have had minimal results. We believe that our greatest asset and most important allies in this campaign are our residents and the general community. Our unity and our collective power is what will help us reach our goal.
Current and past coalition participants include:
“For a city that isn't very walkable, the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood is a very walkable area, right? You can get your groceries, and you can go to a doctor and a library and an elementary school. You have all of these things within a half mile, but there's trucks driving through them the whole time.”
- Erica
Our History
Our current efforts are not the first. Our community’s efforts to protect our residential neighborhood from the hazards of excessive heavy truck traffic running through four schools located on or within a block of Cesar Chavez Avenue.
Data
Although Cesar E. Chavez Ave SW is no longer designated as a truck route, there is little to no enforcement of this due to the City of Grand Rapids’ interpretation of Federal law 23 CFR 658.19 Reasonable Access which states that: “No State may enact or enforce any law denying access within 1 road-mile from the National Network using the most reasonable and practicable route available except for specific safety reasons on individual routes.”
Designated Alternative Routes for Non Local Truck Traffic:
In August of 2020, the City of Grand Rapids approved changes to its Truck Route ordinance that downgraded the section of César E. Chávez Ave, formerly named Grandville Ave, between Logan Street and Clyde Park Ave to a Major Street. This was consistent with changes to the MDOT Truck Operator Map. At that time, the signage at the intersection of César E. Chávez Ave and Clyde Park was also changed to direct north-south truck route traffic in the area to Godfrey Ave, Century Ave, and Clyde Park Ave. Motor vehicles of the restricted class are required to travel on Truck Routes only within the city, except when making a local pickup, delivery, or service, in which case the motor vehicle must return to the truck route by the shortest route possible. Since the route change, however, there continues to be a prevalence of truck traffic on César E. Chávez Ave in potential contravention of the ordinance.
