Quote:
Originally Posted by deja vu
There's a downtown Kalamazoo placemaking workshop scheduled for tonight -
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I ended up attending both days of the workshop. Mostly out of curiosity to see what the process is, where things are at with design, and what the collective mindset is. Overall conclusions:
- They are still very early in the process (just at the conceptual level).
- SmithGroup is currently contracted only through Schematic Design. Then the city will evaluate.
- They are studying 4-5 different downtown areas for placemaking enhancements. Results will be reported for the city, to help them prioritize and budget for improvements.
- The participation was pretty light (only about 25 folks the first night, and less than that the second night). I don't think the event was advertised very well, and it being on a weekday at 5:30 pm with bad weather probably did not help.
- Demographically, the representation at the workshop was mostly middle class, middled-aged (or older), white / Caucasian. Not too surprising perhaps, though the design team did acknowledge this and explained that they received a greater representation of diversity in the feedback from earlier in the process last fall. There is also an online survey option.
- Lots of discussion around non-vehicular circulation and connections. The most "controversial" probably being whether or not to re-open the two blocks of the Kalamazoo Mall that are north of Michigan Ave. to vehicular traffic.
Overall, I'm excited that they are studying this, but still a bit skeptical about what will actually be implemented. The updated conceptual drawings will be posted soon for online viewing. A little more info / news coverage below-
Separately, this video flyover is out-of-date now, but shows progress at KVCC's Career Connect Campus -
• Video Link