Downtown Kalamazoo

1.  Write a short evaluation of Downtown Kalamazoo’s business area using specific examples from Friday’s observations.

            Downtown Kalamazoo’s business area is, overall, quite a pleasant place to be. For example, Burdick Street – which is part of the Kalamazoo Mall – has nice, decorative brick sidewalks that are definitely wide enough for pedestrians to walk comfortably, even when the area is busy. The majority of storefronts and displays are attractive, and many planters, flowers, trees, bushes, benches, and trashcans line the sidewalks and street. There are also old-fashioned styled street lamps, and almost no litter at all could be found on the ground. Furthermore, there are a large variety of stores, including thrift shops, retail clothing stores, banks, pharmacies, salons, gift shops, cafés, and restaurants – and even Climb Kalamazoo, an indoor rock climbing gym.

2.  Give at least three recommendations to improve the downtown.

            While the downtown business area in Kalamazoo left a positive impression on me, there are certainly aspects of it that could be improved. To begin with, the sidewalks are wide and convenient, but many of the streets are too narrow and/or have confusing signs regarding whether they were one-way or two-way. This may be beneficial in that it discourages automobile traffic in a mostly pedestrian area or forces drivers to pass by stores more slowly, but it is certainly detrimental in that confusing directions can be dangerous and parallel parking is often difficult to achieve on such narrow streets.

            I also found that although the planters, trees, bushes, and flowers lining the sidewalks are pleasant and attractive, there are a bit too many of them. In some places, the small bushes are simply not needed and only serve to clutter up the sidewalk. Getting rid of some of those would clear up the area and be less distracting as well, forcing shoppers to look at the storefront displays rather than the plants on the sidewalk.

            Lastly, I would suggest adding more of certain stores to the downtown business area – particularly more generators and more stores targeted toward college students, given that there are two college campuses nearby. During our exploration of downtown Kalamazoo on Friday, we found Climb Kalamazoo to be the only real generator. Furthermore, we were able to enter and browse a few retail stores, and we quickly realized that most of their products were much too expensive for us to even consider.

3.  Select a brief passage from “What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall” by Steven Lagerfeld or from Chapter 6 of City by William Whyte, and relate it to Kalamazoo’s downtown. Use specific observations from Kalamazoo to illustrate the point.

At the corner of Clematis and Dixie Highway, one of the main intersections in town, a new gym has opened, its large plate-glass windows displaying its clientele to passing pedestrians and motorists. The gym is what Gibbs calls a "generator": the traffic it draws will help attract related businesses, such as restaurants, fast-food outlets, perhaps a sporting-goods store, to the empty storefronts nearby.

            This passage from “What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall” by Steven Lagerfeld relates directly to the business area in downtown Kalamazoo. Like I previously mentioned, I believe that the downtown business area – particularly around Burdick Street – needs more generators. The only major generator we observed in that area was Climb Kalamazoo. Conversely, at the intersection of Portage Street and East South Street, there is quite an obvious generator there – the Rave, a very large, impressive, and popular movie theater – but an obvious lack of other stores.