Named after a neighborhood school, the Edison Environmental Science Academy, a magnet elementary school, which was in turn, named after Thomas Edison, America’s best-known inventor, the Edison neighborhood is largely comprised of production, service and construction workers, people who have literally helped build and rebuild the city, as well as healthcare, office, and food service workers, people who take care of the city and its residents. And in the spirit of its namesake, Edison continues to invent itself, even when growth and revitalization have failed to deliver on hoped-for promises.With recent economic upturns both for the neighborhood and the city, as well as community and police efforts to lessen violent crime, the future looks bright. Edison is the first neighborhood being covered in the “On the Ground" series which amplifies the voices of Edison Neighborhood residents. Over three months, Second Wave journalists will be embedded in the Edison Neighborhood to explore topics of importance to residents, business owners, and other members of the community. The On the Ground program is made possible by funding from the City of Kalamazoo, LISC, the Fetzer Institute, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, Michigan WORKS!, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.
The Gun Violence Resource and Resilience Rallies in Kalamazoo bring in people to learn about resources in not only prevention of gun violence, but to help those directly and indirectly impacted by it.
Matthew Schmidt bought a former factory in the Edison Neighborhood in October of 2020 and has been working to convert it into a studio for himself, as well as an art gallery and performance space for other artists. Other people's trash is slowing him down. Now the neighborhood wants to hold property owners like Schmidt's neighbor who allow illegal dumping accountable.
Venues are lined up and artists are confirmed for a jazz festival in Kalamazoo's Edison Neighborhood this fall. "We are literally putting it out in the streets and making it accessible to everyone for free," says Edison Executive Director Stephen Dupuie.
“I started to talk about what I really wanted to see happen,” says board member Stephen Dupuie, “and then the board members one by one kept tapping me on the shoulder and saying, ‘I think that you should do it. We really like your ideas.’” He's the new Executive Director of the Edison Neighborhood Association.
The Boy & Girls Clubs of Greater Kalamazoo is more than halfway to its $9 million goal for the construction of a 30,000-square-foot central headquarter in the Edison neighborhood. That goal is closer to being realized thanks to a $1 million donation from craft brew entrepreneur Larry Bell.
The nonprofit health clinic serving citizens of Kalamazoo County has implemented a sweeping change in employee compensation that puts Family Health Center on the leading edge of pay practices in health care.
The Kalamazoo City Commission has put in place the steps needed to assess properties that could become the location for POD housing for those who currently do not have stable housing conditions.
The president of the Milwood Neighborhood Watch Association has died. The Executive Director of the Edison Neighborhood Association will retire this month. Two other core neighborhoods have executive directors who are planning their exits when major projects are finished. How will this transfer of leadership affect Kalamazoo's neighborhoods?
There have been many accomplishments in the Edison Neighborhood over the past 21 years that Tammy Taylor has been Exective Director. But she says it has been the small things she and the association have done to help people that have meant the most to her.
Residents can look forward to a cluster of new projects that are in the works for the Edison Neighborhood.
Our Sponsors
Our Media Partners
We want to know what's on your mind.
