[Rutt Roh]

hi everyone,

i'm coming up from mississippi (yeah i know) because i was stationed there and am moving up to michigan to the kalamazoo area for my new job. i'm a single guy and i've been reading up on the "good" places to go to in kalamazoo and its surrounding areas in this forum, based off of what people have recommended. i'm just looking for an apartment or townhome that's of decent quality and price... and to be picky, i want to have a garage (because of the snow...) and not a car port and with a washer/dryer already part of the place. although i'd be traveling a lot all over the US for the job, work would be in downtown kazoo near the radisson hotel so i was told that everything should be a 13-15 min drive.

i've read up that places in portage were nice. i tried looking at westnedge hill but i couldn't find anything... because i wasn't sure what the actually town was called.

so after a bit of research, i think i've narrowed it down to a few so please let me know what you guys think:

1. Gull Prairie Apartments (wonder if it's in a good area)

2. Tall Oaks Apartments (i'm really looking into this one... i guess it's so new that i couldn't even google map it lol)

apparently those two apartments offer the garage if you choose to have one and the prices rent-wise aren't bad. and both properties are owned by edward and rose or something.

any other areas that are relatively new that you guys would recommend?

couple more questions:

1. how bad is the traffic and getting to place to place? is it anything like DC or LA? how easy is it to get around?

2. how small is the kazoo airport? the airport here has to make connecting flights which is a PITA.

3. how's the general vicinity of the two apartment complexes i listed like? meaning is there a lot of stuff to do around the area (nightlife, restaurants, shopping, malls, grocery stores, barnes/noble, starbucks, etc.?) or do you have to go into the downtown of kazoo to do anything?

4. public transportation... probably train or bus? how easy/cheap is it to get around to say chicago or other areas?

if there's anything else you guys come up with, i'd be glad to know. thanks so much in advance!

[xlabel]

I don't know about the 2 apt's you mention. Traffic is kinda bad right now the on/ramps are closed to get on 131 from 94 and there is construction on 9th st in Oshtemo and where Red Arrow crosses 131, thats making things a pain. Overall traffic is not near as bad as where I come from. The airport here is very small, I always have to go from K-zoo to Detroit to fly to Tampa, FL. There's alot of shopping and malls, etc. on Westnedge south of 94 and also some on W. Main. K-zoo has a Greyhound and Amtrak station to get to Chicago. I prefer to live in Paw Paw, it's small town out here, a 15 min. ride to k-zoo. I pay $550 a month to rent the upstairs of a charming old house here in Paw Paw and I get the garage included.

[wagonproject]

agreed with xlabel. The construction on the highway is not bad, its just once and a while when there moving lanes over or when theres a crash it gets backed up. Where red arrow crosses 131 I believe the construction is done, they were patching/replacing parts of the road from 11th st into downtown Kalamazoo. And yeah every time I fly I am usually making connections in Chicago, though I don't really mind it but if you fly it might be a pain.

Although I can't say I'd live in Paw Paw as there really isn't much to do/going on and I wouldn't want to drive to portage/kalamazoo each time.

And Im not sure on the two apartment complexes you listed, I am familiar with a lot by WMU and surrounding though. Ill do some looking for ones with garages/etc. for you.

[Rutt Roh]

that's cool... yeah i figure the area of oshtemo is kinda under construction... google maps and mapquest couldn't find the location of the new place (tall oaks). aside from the construction, how busy does the surrounding areas including downtown get?

regarding flying, does the kazoo airport only service to detroit? i'm asking because the airport here in mississippi is regional but still connects to different airports like atlanta and memphis, depending on your airline.

[mofromcheboygankalamazoo]

i remember gull prairie from when they were brand new-you are a bit out of the downtown-but they looked soooo nice when they were building them-i student taught not too far from them....it is a fairly nice area!

Kalamazoo is significantly smaller than those big cities you mentioned so traffic is not too bad-the longest it ever took me to get across the entire city during rush hour was a half hour-(of course thatwas traffic only-i am sure that an accident or construction would make that longer)

GRR-grand rapids airport has flights that go all over the country and it is only about 45min from kzoo....chicago is only about 2.5 hrs away and detroit too!

by way of nightlife near gull prairie-not so much-might be a few bars-but nothing as fun as downtown-there are plenty of places to get groceries and other general stuff right there-and you can easily get to westnedge to go to the mall....lots of restaurants there...

the bus system is not that bad-pretty efficient-i used my student id card to get around for free on it-so to be honest i don't know how much-that is the only public transportation-again it is not a huge city so you can't really compare public transport to chicago!
like somebody said amtrak and greyhound-as well as other bus/coach systems run through kzoo and it is easy to get to chicago-amtrak was always expensive though-i ended up driving most of the time! some people drive to michigan city in indiana then hop amtrak or regional rail for a cheaper ride!

[deslok]

Gull Prairie is basically out in the prairie (spelling) literally. For a bit more fun, and a place to park in a covered underground area, try the skyrise apartments. They are right downtown, close to anything Kalamazoo has that is fun, and are more akin to a Chicago style apartment.
Traffic in Kalamazoo is more annoying then bad. Westnedge can be a surbanite nightmare at times making for commutes much longer then they should be. The Kalamazoo airport is small and easy to get around in. They have flights all over, not just to Detroit.

[Bydand]

Westnedge blows when it comes to traffic. Agreed that it is more annoying than "bad" when compared to other cities across the country.

[Rutt Roh]

haha, funny you mention the skyrise apartments... i was looking into that but was looking more for a quaint place just out of the city.

it's great to hear that the airports (both kazoo and grand rapids) arerelatively decent. i sure hope so because i'd be doing a lot of flying around... and it's also good to know that the average commute time even during rush hour isn't too bad.

regarding the two places i've narrowed down to, they came across to me as very decent places for the rent price and what they have to offer. they look relatively new and the tall oaks place was built this year! here's the link to them... i hope they are in nice/decent/safe areas:

Gull Prairie Apartments

Tall Oaks Apartments

everyone keeps mentioning "westnedge"... i'm not sure exactly where that location is aside from the fact it's in the portage area somewhere, i gather. is westnedge an actual town? or is it just an area of shopping malls and restaurants?

when i mentioned nightlife, i just meant was are there things to do around the surrounding area. i figure that downtown would have most of it but i was wondering if the neighboring safe suburbs (i guess) have anything else similar in nature. that would definitely be a plus if other areas were great in that respect too.

[wagonproject]

Westnedge is a main street in portage. Its where a lot of things are on or off of (i.e. crossroads mall, a ton of restaurants, stores, etc) a very mini strip if you will, lol. I travel it daily and don't find it bad at all and I am use to the country, yes you have your rush hour times, but what place isn't going to.

And I just remembered, lol, my dad did a lot of the work at tall oaks. (there isn't a single real oak tree around, lol) It is a very nice place (though I didn't get to see it finished, now I think I may go check it out tomorrow, lol) its close to the highway, right by the oshtemo park. Between it and the highway theres SWAT - fitness club, a lot of your fast food restaurants, etc. Also it is a very safe area. Also right across from it is a US postal facility.

If you head south on 9th street over I94, there is KVCC, and there is WMU off of stadium and west main, so during college months you'll see a lot more people on the road/college kids places.

Im not sure if you've mapest it out to see how long it would take you to get to the radisson vacinity, but its a commute that I would think would be very easy as your just traveling stadium all the way there (though 5oclock traffic coming out of downtown towards oshtemo sometimes can take a few minutes (but nothing like a big city).

Also right now there rebuilding a bridge on 9th street (north of stadium), but if you travel north a little you'll get to m43 where theres more resturants, starbucks, target, meijers, etc). Also it will take you into downtown (staduim and m43 come together in downtown).

Im not familiar with Gull Prairie as I really don't go out that way as Im only 20 and gas is killing me already, lol.

Also m43 is also called west main. And stadium is also called red arrow.

[mofromcheboygankalamazoo]

Originally Posted by Rutt Roh

haha, funny you mention the skyrise apartments... i was looking into that but was looking more for a quaint place just out of the city.

it's great to hear that the airports (both kazoo and grand rapids) arerelatively decent. i sure hope so because i'd be doing a lot of flying around... and it's also good to know that the average commute time even during rush hour isn't too bad.

regarding the two places i've narrowed down to, they came across to me as very decent places for the rent price and what they have to offer. they look relatively new and the tall oaks place was built this year! here's the link to them... i hope they are in nice/decent/safe areas:

Gull Prairie Apartments

Tall Oaks Apartments

everyone keeps mentioning "westnedge"... i'm not sure exactly where that location is aside from the fact it's in the portage area somewhere, i gather. is westnedge an actual town? or is it just an area of shopping malls and restaurants?

when i mentioned nightlife, i just meant was are there things to do around the surrounding area. i figure that downtown would have most of it but i was wondering if the neighboring safe suburbs (i guess) have anything else similar in nature. that would definitely be a plus if other areas were great in that respect too.

looking at that map for tall oaks-i believe it is close to texas corners (a township) and there are some uber nice homes in that area-you'd be right on 9th which has a culvers (i really miss culvers!!!!!!) but you'd be in a generally really really nice area-basically on the other end from gull prairie!