Formerly an arts and culture reviewer for a daily newspaper, SW Second Wave's Mark Wedel revisits his roots to take in The Gilmore International Piano Festival's opening night — a magical 'amusement park ride' that was 'full of surprises.'
"Outside of work, they just love me, and I'm still teaching them outside of work, you know, how to behave.... Just looking out for the children and making sure that they feel safe in the community, and that they know there's somebody's always there if it's not at work or at the center.
"We know that if we can reduce the cost of transportation, then that improves people's ability to afford quality housing or quality childcare or quality healthcare," says Matthew Hollander of the new EV car rental program in place at Edison's The Creamery.
Kalamazoo Housing Advocates strives to provide one-on-one supportive services, where instead of just offices and forms, a person in crisis can call on someone to help navigate the steps toward a more stable environment. And love is built into the organization.
The people behind Housing Matters are volunteers. Together with local officials and area agencies, they are looking for what's next in terms of getting and keeping people housed in Kalamazoo County.
'Quieting' downtown streets is a noisy process. Change can be unsettling. Ask any Kalamazoo resident. But South Bend, Ind. has completed the transition of urban one ways to two ways. The results are encouraging: downtown reinvestment, beautification projects, and increased community pride.
"At the 2020 presidential election, I was observing the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers.... They spent an entire hour because there was a one-vote discrepancy in one of the precincts." When they figured out the discrepancy, "everybody broke out into applause."
Kalamazoo has a plethora of arts organizations and a rich array of artists. The Artist Job Fair, sponsored by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and KRESA's Education for the Arts, is bringing the two together for a networking extravaganza at Bells Eccentric Cafe.
"We had a liter bottle of Hungarian wine. As we were finishing the bread, and finishing the wine, we said, 'Man, this (bread) is good! You know, we could sell this!' And that's why you shouldn't drink too much."
"What you have told us basically is that hope comes from having some action you can take to make things better, either for people close to you or for the world or whatever... You've shown us that hope comes through feeling like you can do something."
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