Kalamazoo Promise...I promise never to return
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11/8/2007
i recently lived in kalamazoo for the past 15 months...15 months i will never get back...where to start, the cost of living isn't bad, but when the local and state economy is as bad as MI it seems much worse...no jobs!!!, minimun wage kinda town...weather is horrid late october til mid april...in these months many residents turn as cold as the climate, just downright rude...roads are terrible...there is a neighborhood which is effectionately labled "the student ghetto" which is named accordingly as Wester Mich. Univ. students and Kalamazoo College students live in nasty conditions while paying too much for college...hip hop culture has ruined the population because too many here are so easily influenced...most white kids think they are black kids or wannabe...most of the black kids are trying to turn it up a notch in terms of "blackness" and are assembling themselves little mini gangs---of course follow the leader---"everyone else is doing it why can't we" kind of approach...they have to do something I guess since the white kids are trying to be blacker than they are...education is not on the upswing, Michigan prides itself on education but most of the young people here have been taught by BET and MTV...STDs run rampant, especially among girls, i read that 72% of girls at WMU had or have had an STD...they pride themselves on beer, and they do have great beer selection, but if I was a lifer in that hole I would need a lot of beer too...
Casey | Charlotte, NC