[chh]

Originally Posted by wmubroncos89

What are you guys talking about! Kzoo is a horrible place to live. I'm from Logan square Chicago and moved to Kalamazoo for school so I have seen what this town is capable of. The violent crime in Kalamazoo is extremely high. Kzoo is a poor/depressing town that there citizens try to hide. Every night you will hear gun shots, more often on the North and East side, but not saying the other parts of town are that less dangerous. If you want to move to Michigan for school or just move up here, take my advice and stay far away from the Zoo. Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor are way better choices. I'm from the city limits of Chicago and I believe Kalamazoo is a lot worse then the city.

As someone who regularly visits Kzoo, pretty much everything here is false, from my experience.

[MS313]

Someone from Chicago criticizing Kalamazoo on their violent crime? haha... only on C-D. Kalamazoo's worst areas don't hold a candle to the south and westsides of Chicago.

[pistonslova17]

Idk you guys Kalamazoo is pretty rough. Been through there a few times and the town itself ( outside the college) is very dumpy. My wife and I grabbed dinner in the downtown area and we felt shakey the whole time. I would never move there for the fact it is a poor town with a lot of visible problems. I would like to say Kzoo does have some decent dive bars in some areas if people want to stop in town for a drink, but that's as far positive I'll go on the town.

[upperhaven]

Originally Posted by MS313

Someone from Chicago criticizing Kalamazoo on their violent crime? haha... only on C-D. Kalamazoo's worst areas don't hold a candle to the south and westsides of Chicago.

He's actually some what right....[mod]link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed[/mod]
According to this and other sources Kalamazoo violent crime does rank pretty high among crime ridden places. Move to the UP! no worries about anything here��

[westernwilly]

Originally Posted by pistonslova17

Idk you guys Kalamazoo is pretty rough. Been through there a few times and the town itself ( outside the college) is very dumpy. My wife and I grabbed dinner in the downtown area and we felt shakey the whole time. I would never move there for the fact it is a poor town with a lot of visible problems. I would like to say Kzoo does have some decent dive bars in some areas if people want to stop in town for a drink, but that's as far positive I'll go on the town.

When did you last go through Kalamazoo!?!
Downtown Kalamazoo is very safe, clean and real estate there is high priced. There is only one dive bar out of dozens of bars and breweries. That one dive bar is only in appearance as it only looks so to cater to it's hipster clientele.

As for it being a poor city? That statement alone shows that you are just making this crap up. It is a white collar city with a lot of money.
Dumpy!?! There are several billionaires that have chosen to live in this "dumpy" city even though they could live anywhere. The CEO of Kellogg as well as most of that company's executives live in the city and commute to their jobs in Battle Creek - in fact they tried to get away with moving their HQ to Kalamazoo in 2006, but were persuaded by the state and the City of Battle Creek to stay where they were by means of tax breaks and BC building a new corporate campus for them.

I could go on and on about the constant stream research, engineering,bio medical ect jobs that have relocated to Kazoo in the last 10 years, but I do not have time, nor do I feel that you would even listen. But I will end with this, Newman Rubbermaid just closed all of their design engineer facilities around the country (Atlanta, California, Chicago, ect.) as well as their over seas offices and moved them all to one new location. Where? Kalamazoo. This move brought over 100 high paying positions that have an average pay range of $90k - $120k. I do not think that they did that because they thought the city was dumpy and that it is easier to recruit to talent to dumpy towns. They were think quite the opposite.

[westernwilly]

Originally Posted by upperhaven

He's actually some what right....Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
According to this and other sources Kalamazoo violent crime does rank pretty high among crime ridden places. Move to the UP! no worries about anything here��

That site is pure garbage using inaccurate data. They got the population of the city wrong (way low) which that alone screws up the multiplier. Further they have multiplied all crime under a Kalamazoo zip code by their population (wrong population) of the city. If they do that then the multiplier should be over 160,000. Just because you find it on line, it does not mean that those statistics are true or put together properly.

Instead, go to a respectable site. Try City-Data.com
2012 Kalamazoo Crime Index is 438
2012 Chicago Crime Index is 550.2 I used 2012 because that is the latest date for Kalamazoo. Chicago, like most American cities, including Kalamazoo has been experiencing a yearly drop in crime. So far this year, Kalamazoo has only had 2 murders. There are not many metros of over 329,000 that can boast that few murders (Only Ann Arbor in Michigan is better).

[westernwilly]

Question: wmubroncos89/pistonslova17/upperhaven what is your beef with Kalamazoo?
It is obvious that you are the same person and that you are just making new screen names for the sole purpose of trying to drag Kalamazoo through the mud. Why?

[Republic of Michigan]

I think the poster is confusing Kalamazoo with his visits to Rockford, Galesburg, Moline, Cairo, Peoria, and Springfield.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by westernwilly

When did you last go through Kalamazoo!?!
Downtown Kalamazoo is very safe, clean and real estate there is high priced. There is only one dive bar out of dozens of bars and breweries. That one dive bar is only in appearance as it only looks so to cater to it's hipster clientele.

As for it being a poor city? That statement alone shows that you are just making this crap up. It is a white collar city with a lot of money.
Dumpy!?! There are several billionaires that have chosen to live in this "dumpy" city even though they could live anywhere. The CEO of Kellogg as well as most of that company's executives live in the city and commute to their jobs in Battle Creek - in fact they tried to get away with moving their HQ to Kalamazoo in 2006, but were persuaded by the state and the City of Battle Creek to stay where they were by means of tax breaks and BC building a new corporate campus for them.

I could go on and on about the constant stream research, engineering,bio medical ect jobs that have relocated to Kazoo in the last 10 years, but I do not have time, nor do I feel that you would even listen. But I will end with this, Newman Rubbermaid just closed all of their design engineer facilities around the country (Atlanta, California, Chicago, ect.) as well as their over seas offices and moved them all to one new location. Where? Kalamazoo. This move brought over 100 high paying positions that have an average pay range of $90k - $120k. I do not think that they did that because they thought the city was dumpy and that it is easier to recruit to talent to dumpy towns. They were think quite the opposite.

I think he meant that the residents of Kalamazoo are poor (relatively speaking)....thus leading tending to increase the propensity for crime and violence. He is accurate. How can a city have so many problems and so called residents who KNOW the city....not even KNOW this is true? I guess one half does not know how the other half is living due to concentrated poverty and class and racial segregation.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...e+in+kalamazoo

[westernwilly]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

I think he meant that the residents of Kalamazoo are poor (relatively speaking)....thus leading tending to increase the propensity for crime and violence. He is accurate. How can a city have so many problems and so called residents who KNOW the city....not even KNOW this is true? I guess one half does not know how the other half is living due to concentrated poverty and class and racial segregation.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...e+in+kalamazoo

Kalamazoo is like every other college town with a high number of students (more than 1/3 of the city's population). Nearly every student lives under the poverty line and it is not because of lack of opportunity or education, but it is by their own choice. In other words, they are students for Christ sake!

Here is the link to the full article:
Does the city of Kalamazoo really have one of the highest poverty rates in the country? (Julie Mack blog) | MLive.com

Read the full article instead of cherry picking figures and you will get the truth. Those are bad figures and article exposes them as the data did not take into account large student population that are not working by choice or need.

Here is a link to the NYT list in question. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ml?ref=us&_r=0

Note: Kalamazoo is #5 on the list. Bloomington,IN (University of IN) is #3 and College Station,TX (Texas A&M) is at #9.
It is a list of only cities that are over 65,000. Most towns with large universities are smaller than 65k so they do not make the list, other wise all ten would be college towns. Cities with populations over 100k with large universities have enough non students to off set the non working or part time working student population. That 65k to 95k is the sweet spot were students can really effect the demographics of a city. Note: the average age in Kalamazoo is 26.

Now, please stop showing bad data to justify a bogus claim that Kalamazoo is a stink hole. Nobody that has been there in recent years would ever think that.























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