Downtown Kalamazoo

1. Downtown Kalamazoo is a cute little town filled with stores of all types. There is lots of natural scenery throughout the sidewalks, and many of the sidewalks have been made with bricks forming a design. There are benches and tables for pedestrians to sit at and soak in the surroundings too. The myriad of stores includes restaurants, art galleries, insurance companies, home design, clothing, and more. All the stores have good window displays too that follow most of the principles that we have studied. Most stores on average are on the smaller side too, so it creates a warm, homely environment.

2. While Downtown Kalamazoo is nice as it is, there certainly could be some improvement. One of the major improvements that could be made is the street system. To explain it from personal experience, I break on average two to three traffic laws every time I drive downtown. There are so many confusing one-way roads, and the signs are unclear. Given the natural curve of the main road, a lot of awkward turns can be found too that only further complicate driving. This is not good given that the downtown area is repelling people that have to drive. Another improvement that can be made is reducing the amount of natural scenery. While the flowers and trees are beautiful and good for the environment, there are so many that they can sometimes distract pedestrians from the stores. They also increase the costs of maintenance of the downtown area. Lastly, the downtown area could benefit by trying to be more accessible to college students. Many of the stores, aside from the restaurants, are not places a college student would shop. On average, stores are a bit on the pricier side, and they do not sell things a young student would want.

3. The following passage is from chapter 6 of Whyte’s book, City:

a. “One of the virtues of street trees is the way they channel the walkway and moderate the scale of the right-of-way. A very wide sidewalk without trees is not a comfortable space.”

b. This is pertinent to Downtown Kalamazoo because the sidewalks are quite wide and they do have trees and other plants. Especially along Burdick Street, it would feel very strange to have such a large empty path to walk along. The single, narrow road in the middle and an empty sidewalk would combine to make a very ominous path. Thus, the city does a good job in preventing this by placing trees and plants strategically. The beds of plants also serve as a place to sit and for all the things that Whyte says a trash can be used.