Downtown Kalamazoo

1) Downtown Kalamazoo’s business area is designed in a functional way for shoppers. The streets can be easily navigated on foot, the sidewalks are wide, and the stores appropriately labeled. Along Burdick Street, the main shopping portion, the buildings are fairly new and have a modern look. Once the shopper walks away from Burdick Street, they will notice that the buildings look much older and more run down; also the safe atmosphere is eliminated once off Burdick Street. The streets are also one-way streets, which can create confusion for drivers who do not know the city.

2) The city of Kalamazoo should improve the trash system of its downtown area. The trash containers are very poorly designed, they are not open enough at the top and this can lead to littering and also people attempting to throw away trash but missing the container or the item falling out. Another suggestion is the city should improve is traffic flow. The streets are mainly one way, and traffic on Burdick Street could make people who are walking on the street feel uncomfortable. I noticed that the road seemed closer to the sidewalk on Burdick Street than anywhere else in the city. The city could make Burdick Street pedestrian only traffic, and create more two-way streets elsewhere throughout the city. A third improvement that the city of Kalamazoo could make to its downtown area is to renovate some of the older, run-down buildings that exist on the streets that surround Burdick Street. Revamping the buildings would have many desirable side effects such as an improved safety atmosphere, the attraction of more business to the particular buildings, and they could be potential generators for other businesses in the proximity.

3) “It was a very bad trash container. The opening at the top was so small that much of the trash aimed at it fell on the lid, from which it would soon be redistributed to the street by the slightest breeze. Because of the small opening, furthermore, the trash that did get inside was not compacted the way it usually is, and a relatively small volume of trash would be enough to clog the opening. All subsequent trash people would place on the lid, now functioning as a little dispenser.”

I found the waste system in Downtown Kalamazoo to be very interesting. First of all, there were not enough trash containers that were visible to the people. This is frustrating people who do not want to litter, but are forced to carry their trash inordinate distances to dispose of it properly. Secondly, the trash containers that were visible, were poorly designed. The opening to put trash in was not nearly large enough, and rather than being on top, the openings were on the side of the lid. Lastly, I did not see one recycling container. Recycling containers have a positive reflective design, and Kalamazoo can represent to its citizens and other people who are there to shop, that they care about the environment and are doing what they can to protect it.