[QUOTE=deja vu;10088226]A mishmash of things today, including several aerial views that I have been saving up, from some of our local, talented drone photographers -
City skyline, from about a month back, with the changing leaves -
Source:
Facebook | William Dolak
Another angle, with a closeup on the new(ish) 180 E Water St. / Catalyst Development -
Source:
Facebook | William Dolak
A late summer aerial photo from near Kalamazoo / Battle Creek International Airport, right beneath the final approach vector for runway 35. This is a great shot that really exemplifies the natural "valley" topography of the city -
Source:
Facebook | Caleb Stauffer (Stauffer Aerial)
These next three are all aerial views concentrated on the four blocks of Arcadia West, which are being cleared & vacated for the future event center. The last few of the old buildings on these blocks are now cleared -
Source:
Facebook | Caleb Stauffer (Stauffer Aerial)
A unique, low-altitude fish-eye rendering of an empty downtown Kalamazoo on Thanksgiving day -
Source:
Facebook | William Dolak
It’s great to see Kalamazoo getting a event center it’ll help open the doors to even more opportunities with its already remarkable run of downtown development over the past decade or so.
Great set I picked out a few favorites. Downtown has come a long way from my school days when we’d pack up for the weekend and decide to hit up wastern for a spot of drinking. The difference in Western’s campus is night and day from what I’ve seen it was a bit bleak with the 60’s-70’s era student housing and student center especially if your walking hungover for some T-Bell in the am.
Downtown improved in ever way shape and form perhaps there was more to it 12-14 years ago but I didn’t interact with it like I did would in Ann Arbor though that’s a bit unfair. The Kalamazoo promise seems to be one of the unhearled success stories of our time. Perhaps because it involves free education. The caveat if I remember being a district graduate and it’s only up through the junior college level (though with a nice easy transfer potential) it’s disappointing that more cities haven’t taken up the idea.
Kalamazoo has had a remarkable turnaround and it’s kept right on going. West Michigan’s strong economy certainly hasn’t hurt but Battle Creek was in a similar position to Kzoo a back in the day. It’s not apples to apples each city has its strong and weak points but Kalamazoo has been able to use its strength in education as a springboard and tapped into the strong regional economy.
BC is a bit further east though there are some nice lakes in the forest north of 94 between the two cities it’s not within as easy reach of Lake Michigan though it’s less snowy. Kzoo doesn’t have a major corporate HQ like BC does in Kellogg’s although the opportunities for the white collar jobs aren’t plentiful like the cereal production jobs were. BC seems to be making some strides towards improving its rather stagnant position the Marshall battery plant and the HSR line continuing on from Detroit to Toronto both offer some opportunities.
I think there’s a good tale of two cities tale to be examined what Kzoo has done and succeeded at what BC has done to improve its downtown and didn’t succeed the pedestrian street in the downtown shopping district comes to mind. A pedestrian street isn’t necessarily a bad idea perhaps bad timing and execution can be partially blamed. Battle Creek has an opportunity to capitalize on its riverwalk and plenty of parking to redevelop or expand green space across from downtown. Getting some more mixed use redevelopments in its quite nice downtown for a city it’s size is another opportunity.
Love the fisheye aerial.