Downtown Kalamazoo

Downtown Kalamazoo is very nice and inviting, but I think people might walk into the Kalamazoo Mall and wouldn’t know they did, because it is not a big building that has stores inside. It is an “outdoor mall.” The streets have benches, which invites people to sit, have meetings, eat lunch, or just relax for a while. There are nice shrubs around, makes the street look environmentally friendly, very clean. The stores have nice merchandise displayed in their windows. Some have big clipboards that say the word “sale” to attract costumers, and restaurants have lunch specials. There is one-way parking for cars. On wider streets, there is parking on both sides. Cars pass by at a slow speed, because there are a lot of people walking around, so it gives the drivers time to look into stores and see something they might like. The “Main Street” looks pedestrian friendly. I don’t think there are any potential threats. I know that some security officers walk around at night.

Recommendations:
1, Costumers might pass by a store that could have been interesting for them, but wouldn’t know because there are no signs protruding out to catch their attention.
2. They should have more lights, at night they should have neon lights, especially restaurants.
3. Get rid of stores that are abandoned, not being used. For example: Dragon Inn, not very attractive, everything looks deserted. It is right next to a really nice restaurant. Can make costumers keep walking and not stop by the restaurant.

“The shade trees and planter boxes? Lovely, he says, but they block shoppers' view of shop windows and signs. Those handsome groupings of benches and tables? They seem inviting until Gibbs points out that they often attract teenagers and other loiterers, who scare off shoppers. The elegant Victorian streetlamps, the expensive trash cans, and the distinctive granite paving stones--"so beautiful that people will stare at them as they walk by the storefronts," Gibbs says--are little more than money down the drain. Their costs must be amortized over many years, but long before they have been paid off (and before the town can afford to replace them) they will be old-fashioned, marking the entire street as out of date and out of step.”-Gibbs

This passage relates to Downtown Kalamazoo, because the most a person sees besides the stores are people sitting on the benches, having a conversation or eating lunch. Benches are really inviting, it gives time for costumers, mostly old people, to sit and look around what stores they want to go into next. I disagree with Gibbs point of view of not having the benches outside. There isn’t much blocking going on on the street where pedestrians walk by. Some stores have signs out their doors with sales signs on them, which attracts the costumers. It is a good idea for it to be in their way, because they will stop, look at it, and then walk into the store.