Named after a neighborhood school, the Edison Environmental Science Academy, a magnet elementary school, which was in turn, named after Thomas Edison, America’s best-known inventor, the Edison neighborhood is largely comprised of production, service and construction workers, people who have literally helped build and rebuild the city, as well as healthcare, office, and food service workers, people who take care of the city and its residents. And in the spirit of its namesake, Edison continues to invent itself, even when growth and revitalization have failed to deliver on hoped-for promises.With recent economic upturns both for the neighborhood and the city, as well as community and police efforts to lessen violent crime, the future looks bright. Edison is the first neighborhood being covered in the “On the Ground" series which amplifies the voices of Edison Neighborhood residents. Over three months, Second Wave journalists will be embedded in the Edison Neighborhood to explore topics of importance to residents, business owners, and other members of the community. The On the Ground program is made possible by funding from the City of Kalamazoo, LISC, the Fetzer Institute, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, Michigan WORKS!, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood will host its fall Arts & Culture Crawl on Saturday, Oct. 11, featuring live poetry, music, food, and family-friendly activities along Washington Avenue in a vibrant celebration of local art and community.
The City of Kalamazoo has put together conceptual plans that would encourage143 to 200 homes on the nearly 15-acre lot that was once home to the former Health and Human Services building. Soon, the Edison Neighborhood will be weighing in on the idea.
Open Roads, a youth development bicycle organization, repair service, and shop in Kalamazoo, is moving and expanding. "We run programs that the community needs, when the community needs them," says Executive Director Isaac Green, who envisions becoming "the bicycle hub of Kalamazoo."
The once-crumbling 1890s brick buildings on Fulford in the Edison neighborhood have been revitalized and vow Jerico's spaces are full. The hub for businesses and artisans has grown from its beginnings as a place to build electric scooters to one where projects are shared between those who make Jerico their business home.
Correspondent Mark Wedel recently visited El Concilio's new building to learn how much more work the organization can do for the community in the new location. But the sense that the coming years are going to be years of crisis kept intruding on the visit that included a serious discussion of what could be coming under a second Trump administration for the community El Concilio serves.
What do an "unhinged" taco-buying customer, a spoken word duo, and dancers from Move with Joy have in common? They all recently came together to raise awareness and funds for down payment assistance for Edison neighborhood homebuyers.
"There is a type of performance that, maybe you're not going to buy the record, but you feel lucky to be seeing people doing art that you've never seen before. It's like seeing a strange animal in the wild. Fascinating, amazing, but don't pet that thing, it might bite."
"Outside of work, they just love me, and I'm still teaching them outside of work, you know, how to behave.... Just looking out for the children and making sure that they feel safe in the community, and that they know there's somebody's always there if it's not at work or at the center.
A photograph captures a moment in time — but for a photographer, there's usually so much more to the story. Check out some of Fran Dwight's favorite 2023 photos. She shares a few thoughts about how she connected with the moment the shutter clicked.
A formerly littered path along Portage Creek in Edison is transforming into Literacy Trail and a street near a former dumping ground will become a closed-off playstreet called Literacy Lane — thanks to the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, Edison Resident Scholars, the City of Kalamazoo, and other partners.
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