Kalmazoo Mall, delightful

The central business district of Kalamazoo is comprised of various notable establishments including a mid-level hotel, large banks and other firms, among others. These locations seem to serve as underpinnings for the smaller, lesser known retailers that nestle between and around these much larger structures. During business hours, I observed the area to be filled with corporate types and the common shopper who strolled the area dubbed Kalamazoo Mall, often entering one of its quirky boutiques, restaurants, or other establishments. This Kalamazoo Mall area, while fortunate in the impeccable upkeep and overall appeal of its infrastructure, is lacking a great deal in variety of retailer and storefront allure, as I call it. Many of the retailers, while quaint and somewhat charming, are boring and nondescript--they wholly lack a contemporary, cosmopolitan flair both in concept and store design. Moreover, I found the storefronts generally drab, uninviting and in desperate need of modernization. In passing various of these stores, I oftentimes couldn't tell which were vacant and which were occupied due to this drabness that melded into the scattered vacancies making the two almost indistinguishable.

In improvement of downtown, the area would benefit from:

• A greater variety of retailers that reflect a cosmopolitan image; Kalamazoo is, after all, a city of much high-tech industry.
• An overhaul of dated, unattractive storefronts
• More distinction: in view from adjacent major roads, the mall area almost feels like an alleyway, much of the rapid moving nonresident traffic flow would surely miss its entrance.

The following excerpt from Steven Lagerfeld's "What Main Street Can Learn From the Mall," is applicable to Downtown Kalamazoo, particularly the mall area:

"And the distinctive granite paving stones--'so beautiful that people will stare at them as they walk by the storefronts'..."

While the mall's pedestrian paving is not forged of granite, I found my eyes drawn down to the brick-paver sidewalk that line the area's storefronts. While they are not overly distracting, I simply found them to offer more visual appeal that many of the storefronts purposed with attraction of shoppers.