A nice town, for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice. Kalamazoo had one of the earliest pedestrian malls in the area, in the late 1960s. I went there with a friend who was a planning consultant, to take photos that he used in selling the notion to Huntington, Indiana.

 

Huntington's was unpopular from the get-go and didn't last long. Virtually no traces of it remain. Kalamazoo's fared substantially better, with a fair amount of pedestrian amenities preserved while accomodating limited auto traffic.

I dig Kalamazoo.

Looks to me like a nicer version of Akron, right down to the prominent art deco building that looks to be a mini First Energy bldg.

 

Love the narrow street/wide sidewalk in that one pic. I suppose that's one instance where I'd accept a one way street.

 

Bells looks like a really homely building!! It could use a little....I don't know...livening up?

 

I've been wanting to visit for Akron vs. Western Michigan football for a while. Being around so many super micro breweries would be a huge bonus. Great pics, thanks for posting!

awww, this thread made me nostalgic ! I lived in Kalmazoo (except for the summers) for 3.5 years in college. =)

 

Great pictures of downtown Kalamazoo, you definitely focused on the beautiful parts.

 

As for Bell's, yes, it is a homey building (and the facility itself is quite small - it consists of the Bell's restaurant, a store with beer and homebrewing supplies and the beautiful beer garden building the building ; the actual brewery is in Comstock, a few miles down the road from the brewery shown in the picture).

 

If you don't mind, I found a couple photos of downtown in my collection.

 

As Robert Pence also mentioned, this is the downtown pedestrian Mall. It's a one way street with minimal slow traffic (no more than 10-15mph, IIRC). During the late 2000s, it was relatively stable in vibrancy although its tenants changed. There was a couple fancy restaurants, a couple daytime offices (PNC and another bank were the largest employers on the block, I believe), shoe repair, thrift store, old-time candy store, sub shop, a sports apparel shop, and a few other places.

Some retail businesses, had closed, like a memorable mom and pop bookstore, in 2006, and as far as I know, as did the local food co-op in 09 or 10, (a great place, brought a lot of traffic to the street), but I heard the food co-op opened back up [although about 3/4 a mile away from their downtown location) within the past year.  While I was there, a rock climbing gym.

 

Nonetheless, there usually was minimal traffic and activity (pedestrian or automobile) after 6 or 7pm at night and it was very well maintained.