Michigan’s ‘Cool Cities’ Initiative – For Kalamazoo, efforts to be a ‘cool city’ are a solid economic development strategy.

Kalamazoo strives to be a ‘cool city’

Rhonda Hughes pounds out oldie after oldie at Monaco Bay Piano Bar & Grill in downtown Kalamazoo while a wave of patrons does an impromptu dance at the side of her piano.

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On any night, the age of the average song may rival the age of the average patron. But that’s good. The 20-something to 50-something crowd that regularly frequents the downtown nightspot freely quaffs beers, buys food and tips Hughes and the other piano players there.

That’s exactly what Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants. And it’s exactly what Kalamazoo wants to see more — places that give people with discretionary income somewhere to spend it, and places that make them want to be in Kalamazoo rather than Ann Arbor or Chicago or anywhere else.

People in the 25- to 34-year-old range with college degrees or technical training have the potential to make about $40 an hour, said Kalamazoo-based urban planner Ken Dettloff. They can be expected to spend at least 10 percent of that on shopping, entertainment and other discretionary spending, according to research by local officials.

The trick is to have places like Arie’s London Grill, Kraftbrau Brewery and Monaco Bay to provide them the opportunity.

Dettloff, who sits on a 22-member Cool Cities advisory panel for Granholm and chairs the local Cool Cities Initiative, said he thinks Kalamazoo has made a good start since Granholm announced the initiative last year.

The initiative recognizes 25- to 34-year-olds as an economic force: They are people who need houses, medical care, clothing, books and everything else a community has to offer, and Granholm has said she aims to keep them from leaving the state.

Some were drawn here from January 2001 through last year, when Bronson Methodist Hospital hired 1,900 employees. Sixty-five percent of them were age 35 or younger, said Robert Doud, vice president of public affairs for Bronson Healthcare Group and a member of Kalamazoo’s Downtown Development Authority.

However, Dettloff said the Kalamazoo area is not retaining enough of that age group, based on what he hears from local employers.

"We’re nowhere close to where we want to be. A reasonable goal would be to have the addition of 5,000 residents in that age group by the end of the decade."

Dettloff, whose job with Kalamazoo-based urban-planning firm McKenna and Associates takes him to other cities, said Ann Arbor and Royal Oak have set the standard for the 76 Michigan cities that have signed on to the governor’s Cool Cities Initiative. He said he thinks Kalamazoo is somewhere in the middle.

The East End district of Kalamazoo’s downtown has a mix of bars, restaurants and coffeehouses — like the Water Street Coffee Joint, District 211 restaurant and the Kalamazoo Brewing Co. — that attract a mixed-age clientele.

"On the other hand, there’s the Radisson Plaza Hotel that hits another target audience — the cool, creative class," said Kenneth Nacci, president of Downtown Kalamazoo Inc., the central business district’s lead promotional organization.

Another group being tapped is college students.

"We need to continue to work at increasing the connectivity between downtown and the university," said Robert Miller, associate vice president of community outreach for Western Michigan University and a member of Kalamazoo’s Cool Cities Initiative.

Miller said efforts need to continue to help college students feel that Kalamazoo is their home and not just a place to go for their higher education.

"We are evolving an environment in downtown that is attractive to the Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College student," Nacci said. "We don’t yet have an environment where things are integrated like Ann Arbor," but that’s being pursued.

© 2004 Kalamazoo.