How do you create a city that people love? Peter Kageyama has some ideas

The person who does not look like your expected city solution provider -- say the one who has the city’s zip code tattooed on his arm -- may be the very one who has an idea that will make your community thoroughly lovable.

Whether those people feel they have permission to be their creative best can mean the difference between a community people leave and one that brings a huge grin to someone’s face and convinces them they to stay put.

That was just a small part of the message lovable city expert Peter Kageyama offered to a crowd in the Radisson Plaza Hotel ballroom for the Kalamazoo Community Foundation annual meeting.

With examples he has collected through visits to communities across the country, Kageyama showed illustrations big and small that can lead to "attachment" with a community -- ways in which people invest some of their identity in a community the same way car lovers do when they buff and shine their vehicles and leave them in the drive for the neighbors to see.

Kageyama says a study by the Gallup and Knight foundation shows that only 24 percent of people are attached to the communities in which they live. It matters because the things that are loved -- from children, to pets, to plants -- are those that thrive. People who love their cities will often go to extraordinary lengths for them.

He challenged the community to engage just one percent more of its population -- or 74 people to see what the ripple effect their actions could create.

At a minimum cities have to be safe and functional. The potholes have to be fixed. But fixing the potholes is not what makes people love a community. Instead, lovable communities are those that are comfortable, but also those that are fun. Kageyama showed a picture of a woman with a huge grin on her face having fun in a park as an example of the type of reaction cities can evoke.

"The next time you are in a committee meeting trying to decide what to do for the city ask the question: Where’s the fun? It changes the whole dynamic," Kageyama says. "If the conversation is all about paved roads and providing police and fire services -- that’s not what keeps people in a community over time."

Cities can become more lovable by creating "love notes" for residents, he says. These often are small things that create "outsize impact." These are measures that allow people to connect emotionally, that feel personalized, in the same way a handwritten note on a gift does.

Exampes of "love notes" are renovations to Time Square that have turned it into a place to sit and watch people, and which are bringing New Yorkers to a place they once left to tourists, the development of High Line Park from an abandoned elevated frieight rail line in Manhattan, and Chicago's $475 million "love note" -- Millennium Park.

Communities also foster connection through rituals and traditions. "Ahh," broke out across the ballroom as Kageyama put up the picture of a community where once a year a bridge is closed so 400 people can sit down to a meal together.

Another has a ceremony that begins with lighting torches and leads to a circle of lights being lit on a lake that brings people together to watch the mesmerizing firelight flickering on the water and shadows dance on the neighboring buildings of the downtown.

Kageyama pointed to Kalamazoo’s Do-Dah Parade -- the annual parody of parades everywhere -- as the type of grin-inducing event that can bring a community together. Even if you don't go to it every year it is good to know that it happens.

From expensive water features to a hose in a playground, steps taken that please children are bound to please parents, Kageyama says. Amenities for dogs also can turn neighborhoods around as they encourage people to be out walking and often the dog serves as a bridge between strangers when one stops another to talk chat about the dog. Such interactions generally lead to a feeling of greater safety in a community because the number of "eyes on the street" goes up with more people walking. Being bike friendly is also lovable.

On the more creative end of the community engagement scale, Kageyama showed what artists are doing in some communities. In New Orleans, Candy Change with a stencil and spray chalk leaves the message: "It’s Good To Be Here."

"Imagine the impact of that in New Orleans, a community people had thought they might have lost. And they see this message over and over and over again. It is simply elegant and a symbol of love. You can’t pay for that kind of marketing."

People who love their communities have put up swings in places where no swings should be -- like overpasses. (City officials made the swings come down but on the side told the swing installers to keep putting them up -- in safer places.) "This is a spontaneous community building exercise," Kageyama says.

They have created inflatable monsters that can dangle out windows of buildings to give a community a sense that is it creative and distinctive. And they have had pillow fights.

Smaller communities will always lose to bigger cities if they try to compete with amenities like sports stadiums, Kageyama says. But there are people who will want to be in a smaller community where their ideas can be heard.

"They want to be in a place where their work means something," Kageyama says."You can invite them to come here and fill the gaps. You can tap into that notion they can make a difference and extraordinary things happen."

He challenged the community to take more of the steps it has taken that make people love it and to build on those: "When you love something, you go above and beyond" Kageyama says "You fight for it."

Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor.

Photos by Anthony Steinberg of ASI Photography for the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.