Let's Lay Claim to the Title of Beer City USA

By Steve Siciliano

Like every Grand Rapidian who is passionate about craft beer,  I am hoping that our town retains the coveted designation of Beer City USA. I’m not going to present a litany of reasons as to why Grand Rapids is more deserving of this honor than the other cities in Charlie Papazian’s poll. Plenty of folks have already done that, sometimes with extreme jingoism and prejudice, in the comments section on the online polling website. While I certainly believe that our city deserves the Beer City USA designation, at the same time I have to admit that there are other cities around the country that are equally worthy of this moniker. Since this is the case, I see no reason why we have to wait to see if the title is once again bestowed on us—we should just simply claim it.

What I’m suggesting has precedents. Detroiters call their city Hockytown despite the fact that each of the other six original NHL cities can also lay claim to that moniker. Tampa is known as Cigar City even though Miami probably produces just as many stogies. There are many cities around the world that are known as “the city of churches.” The lesson is this—if we want our city to be known as Beer City USA we just need to begin calling it Beer City USA.

I believe that all we need to accomplish this is a coordinated marketing campaign. If a few of our more visible businesses and institutions begin changing their names there will be a trickle down effect. I think Beer City Arena has a nice ring to it, as does the Beer City Grand Hotel, Beer City State University and Beer City International Airport. It wouldn’t take long before we would be seeing Beer City Pizza, Beer City Tool and Die, the Beer City Café, etc. Maybe the last three options are more viable.

Let the other cities around the country slug it out each year for the arbitrary title. Grand Rapids will be the real Beer City USA, in part, because we say it is, and mostly, well, because we know it is.

Help render the bossman's argument unnecessary. Vote now for Grand Rapids as Beer City USA for 2013.