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.
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.
¿Se siente deprimido, ansioso o estresado, y cree que una consejería en salud mental le ayudaría? ¿Pero también tiene un plan de seguro médico que requiere que gaste cientos o incluso miles de dólares antes de que la cobertura se haga efectiva?
If all continues as planned, spaces for at least 60 unhoused individuals will be open by late June. The studio apartments in The LodgeHouse are intended for those with extremely low incomes currently living in a place that is not fit for human habitation, outdoors, in their car, or living in a hotel that they can’t afford.
Loy Norrix High School teacher librarian John Kreider was honored with an OutFront Kalamazoo #AlwaysOutFront Award in April for his work as the advisor for the school's Gender and Sexuality Alliance. Kreider said they were humbled to receive the award because they know of so many other teachers and staff who have worked to support students.
Se calcula que alrededor del 20% de los adultos de Michigan padecen una enfermedad mental diagnosticable a lo largo de un año. Sin embargo, más de la mitad no recibe tratamiento. ¿Un obstáculo considerable? El costo, dicen los expertos.
It’s estimated that about 20% of Michigan adults experience a diagnosable mental-health condition in a given year. Yet more than half will go untreated. A major barrier? Cost, experts say.
A panel discussion on Environmental Justice and Housing Stock in Kalamazoo County: Location, Equity of Cost, Energy Efficiency, Support Services, with community housing advocates was recently hosted by the League of Women Voters. Second Wave's Mark Wedel was there.
Tami Rey has been certified to run for re-election to the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners. But those who support her wonder about an election system that – for the second time in less than a year – was poised to exclude an African-American from contention because of apparent mistakes in their paperwork.
A two-mile section of the historic Fruit Belt Rail Corridor was added to Oshtemo Township’s park properties last fall and a new grant award will allow it to begin to be readied for use this summer.
NACD in Kalamazoo plans to begin the construction this year of four single-family houses on what are now vacant parcels of land as part of the neighborhood’s plan to see an increase in the amount of affordable housing as well as an increase in home ownership and business ownership.
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