Kalamazoo’s name is so distinctive strangers around the world have been known to break into song at hearing the name. With such a recognizable moniker you’d think Kalamazoo wouldn’t need nicknames, but through the years changing names have reflected the city’s refusal to stand still. The Zoo, Celery City and the Mall City are a few. The innovative thinking that brought downtown K’zoo the nation’s first pedestrian mall in 1959 continues to work today. Innovators have developed thriving life sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. They build on the expertise of Kalamazoo’s universities. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Davenport College all are centers of research, development and technology. They surround a downtown vibrating with condos, apartments and homegrown, top-notch restaurants. The universities are woven into the city’s social fabric and contribute to a cultural scene that Kalamazooans love to boast about. The Kalamazoo Symphony, Kalamazoo Institute of Art and a vibrant local theater community are a few of the offerings. Locals also love their festivals that fill the air with music and the scents of ethnic foods wafting over the Arcadia Festival grounds and the Kalamazoo River. Outdoor activities from biking on the Kal-Haven trail to disc golf and standard golf on a nationally-acclaimed course in Milham Park are the start of the city’s leisure side. Sports fans have competitive college teams, minor league baseball and hockey to follow. And it all comes with a Promise. All high school graduates who live in Kalamazoo qualify for a scholarship that pays 100 percent of their tuition at any public university or community college.
The idea behind Warmline is that it is a peer-run listening line to prevent a crisis, designed to offer support and to connect people with the resources they need. It is provided by Gryphon Place, ASK Family Services, and Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health.
The Urban Alliance Inc. of Kalamazoo, which has worked since 1999 to help break generational cycles of poverty, is shifting the focus of its outreach efforts from adults to young people – in order to address the issue of gun violence and affect change.
Kalamazoo Collective Housing will open two new houses in the fall and is currently accepting applications.
Advocacy for fair housing policies and personal experience with homelessness will serve Patrese Griffin well in new role as head of Kalamazoo County Continuum of Care.
The events get rolling Wednesday, June 1. The 71st Annual Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair will be back at Bronson Park. Art on the Mall will be back and bigger on the Kalamazoo Mall on June 4. The Do-Dah Parade will be do-dah-ing along downtown roads that day. And everyone will be showing their pride in person at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place for Kalamazoo Pride 2022. Concerts in the Park and Beats On Bates -- which were in-person last year -- will be back, too.
With the Memorial Day Weekend as the traditional kickoff of the summer season and the hope that Kalamazoo weather will stay warm, residents of the city’s core neighborhoods – those without their own swimming pools – will be looking for opportunities to cool off. The City of Kalamazoo has some answers for that, and it’s looking to kick off the summer season with a party.
Like most communities, Kalamazoo has struggled for decades with homelessness. There are an array of government and nonprofit agencies and services focused on the problem. But they are not alone. Some members of the area’s faith community are also deeply involved. They include the First United Methodist Church in downtown Kalamazoo.
LISC-Kalamazoo will be the conduit for hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding through the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 4 Program. “HUD Section 4 is a specific pool of money to increase nonprofits’ capacity to do their work in specific areas,” says Beth Romeo, the assistant program officer at LISC Kalamazoo.
Soul Artistry has worked with more than a dozen area organizations to compile a list of this year’s events celebrating Juneteenth in Kalamazoo.
With National Endowment for the Arts funding, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center creates a letterpress book, "Truth Comes Slowly," featuring linoleum cut illustrations by Mary Proenza and a short story from Los Angeles writer Jervey Tervalon about his family's involvement in a moment of gun violence when he was a child, plus other projects.
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