Downtown Kzoo

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

The downtown Kalamazoo business area is a very interesting place and a lot different from many other parts of Kalamazoo. The downtown area is filled with small shops and one way streets. There is very limited parking on the streets, but there are several parking garages near the downtown area. For the vehicle it may be very difficult to navigate through the downtown area if you are unfamiliar with the city. For people on feet it seems like a great experience. Walking through downtown Kalamazoo can be both entertaining and relaxing. There are plenty of benches and seats to rest when you need and shops all along Burdick St. You can also go inside to Mall Plaza and get away from the cold in the winter. I also saw that there were several restaurants and a few food markets in the area. Overall downtown Kalamazoo has a lot to offer to the ordinary person.

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

• One improvement I would make to downtown Kalamazoo is the addition of drinking fountains. I did not see any drinking fountains for the people walking down the main streets. They had several benches and garbage cans, but the addition of drinking fountains would make the experience that much better.
• The second improvement I would make is more signs. I would add directories throughout main street to show which shops/stores are near and how to get to these places.
  
• The last improvement I would make is possibly something very attractive to bring people to this area. It seems that downtown Kalamazoo has a lot of unknown stores and shops that people would not really know anything about. If there was something that was very recognizable it may bring people in who are not just from Kalamazoo.
  

3. Select a brief passage from the article about Robert Gibbs ("What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall" by Steven Lagerfeld) or the reading on public spaces (from City by William Whyte) and relate it to Kalamazoo's downtown. Use specific observations from Kalamazoo to illustrate the point.

THE CITY
"At the opposite extreme from Lexington are the suburban shopping malls. Their walkways are wide-thirty feet or more. Originally, they were wider yet. The first regional malls had lots of green space, and their central walkways as much as fifty to sixty feet across."

I find this passage very related to downtown Kalamazoo, but in a sort of opposite way. Whyte discusses Lexington Ave and says how the sidewalks are much to big. He noted that the sidewalks were up to thirty feet wide and used to be up to sixty feet wide. However, in downtown Kalamazoo I noted that the sidewalks seemed to be the perfect size. There is not too many people trying to walk on the sidewalks at one time and this makes it very easy for the people to maneuver around. I watched people walk by each other on the sidewalks and realized that they had a very easy time getting by one another. I think that this is one of the very well designed aspects of downtown Kalamazoo.