Downtown Evaluation

1. Downtown Kalamazoo is an area with much potential. The strengths of the downtown lie in its variety and individuality. Stores like Gazelle Sports and Climb Kalamazoo generate visitor traffic. The downtown's proximity to the Radisson Hotel offers visitors some nice places to shop and/or eat. Downtown Kalamazoo's problems arise from a few factors: the area's one-way streets can be confusing and thus deterring, and the area is known to be suffering economically. While generally a nice place to be, downtown Kalamazoo is not extremely successful as a business area.

2.
a) Even more stores, more variety. The area has many successful generators, but as many of us noticed while walking downtown, there is a lot of empty space. Kalamazoo needs renters.
b) Kids spend money, try to appeal to them! There are some aspects of the area that my generation enjoys, but certainly not enough. The area could take a few hints from Gibbs' ideas about urban space and let in some mall-like businesses.
c) Kalamazoo needs to use the downtown mentality in its favor and sell lifestyle. Presently, boutiques far outweigh any other kind of store. Sure, these are nice to have, but they are not generators, and they do not actually sell a high-class lifestyle. Kalamazoo needs more stores with expensive wares that cater to the upper-middle class.

3. From Lagerfeld's writing: "As Gibbs sees it, Clematis Street is fighting the same problem that a lot of other American main streets are: it doesn't have a purpose anymore. During the 1920s it connected the train station, on the west end of town, with the ferry to Palm Beach, on the east end. But after two bridges, on either side of town, began funneling traffic around Clematis, its fate was sealed. The Woolworth's, the McCrory's, and the Sears, Roebuck all continued to prosper for a while, but business inevitably followed the cars."
One of the problems with Kalamazoo's downtown is that save for purposeful guests, the roads there have little or no purpose. The main thoroughfare runs past the downtown, but it does not slow enough to provide retailers a chance to draw traffic in. The highways around Kalamazoo unfortunately do very well at funneling traffic all around downtown. The area is relatively isolated from all the other major retail centers (South Westnedge, West Main, etc).