Before we launch into the new year, we look back and see where we have been. Here is a list of the top stories for Second Wave Southwest Michigan from last year--15 from '15. Food and beverage proved to be favorite topics again this year, but there was an audience for our issue stories, too. These were the best-read feature stories of the year.
15.
The Top 10 rides on Southwest Michigan Trails
Biking the trailways of Southwest Michigan is the perfect way to launch your own voyage of discovery, to have a little adventure for a couple of hours or an all-day long-distance journey.
14.
Putting the focus on Kalamazoo volunteers
Tinashe Chaponda was just a boy when his family moved to the United States from Zimbabwe in 2000. He’s 20 now, a sophomore majoring in human resources and minoring in marketing at Western Michigan University, and he has big plans and big dreams. One dream has already been realized, and Chaponda is carefully giving it shape. It’s called
FOCUS Kalamazoo.
13.
Fifty sweet years of maple sugaring at Kalamazoo Nature Center
Before the first crocus has yet pushed its green spikes above the snow, before the icicles have yet fallen from rooflines, and long before the first robin has braved Michigan cold, rows of metal buckets hang from maple trees. Taps piercing the bark drip with a sweet sap and collect in the buckets. The maple trees know, and spring is stirring deep inside their trunks.
12.
Galesburg Meat Company changes to meet customers' needs
When Jena Christian was a little girl, she remembers her father coming home from work in his long white butcher's apron, splattered with red. • "It's Kool-Aid, honey," her father would say. • Sitting in the back office at
Galesburg Meat Company, Jena, now a grown woman, laughs heartily. Across from her, sitting at the desk, is Arlene Christian, her grandmother. Three generations of Christians have owned and managed GMC since Rich Christian, Arlene's husband, bought the business in 1977. When Rich passed, he left the business in his son Mark's capable hands -- and "Kool-Aid" splattered apron.
11.
Grocery shopping gets complicated for Vine neighborhood
When a tree fell on Mike Nelson's Jeep a few years ago, the PhD student at WMU decided it was time to trade in his wheels for walking shoes. After all, as a student on limited income, walking and occasional bus rides save him a lot of money. Plus, living in the Vine neighborhood offers him walkable access not only to the University, but to downtown and all of the other necessities. Until recently, that is.
10.
Frostburn Studios keeps Heroes of Newerth alive
The Heroes of Newerth live--on top of the Globe. The top floor of the Globe Building, 211 E. Water St., downtown Kalamazoo, is where
Frostburn Studios will be making sure their MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) video game stays addictive. The game is five years old, has 30 million online accounts, and up to 120,000 concurrent users (people playing online during peak times). "How do you keep people doing that?" is the question studio head Brad Bower tries to answer every day.
9.
B C Rides helps people get to work
Sometimes the only thing that stops a person from being employed is having a ride to work. In Battle Creek,
BC Rides is breaking down that obstacle to employment.
8.
Can wasps save the ash tree? Native Americans are giving it a try
Vic Bogosian has an 18,000-strong army--or, rather, air-force--of wasps, and he's looking for more draftees. They're fighting an enemy of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, the emerald ash borer, an invasive species from China that has been wiping out an important part of Michigan's Native American culture, the ash tree.
7.
Guitars and pianos take over north end of Kalamazoo Mall
Those walking down the northern block of the Kalamazoo Mall in recent months might have thought they've gone back in time 50 or 100-something years. • Where a moped shop and a storefront theater used to be, are the
Kalamazoo Guitar Shop (248 N. Kalamazoo Mall, and the
Kalamazoo Piano Company (246 N. Kalamazoo Mall). Mid-century guitars hang on the wall of one, 1800s-early-1900s pianos crowd the floor of the other.
6.
Distilleries want to be the next big thing in Southwest Michigan
The Kalamazoo area boasts a rich distilling history with spirits being produced and bottled in large quantities from 1836 to 1881. Today a new batch of spirits makers are bringing back those heady and productive years.
5.
Tackling racial disparities in infant mortality that reveal a 'sickness in Kalamazoo
Kama Mitchell wasn't thinking about infant mortality statistics when she was pregnant with her second baby. She was unaware of the United States' abysmal infant mortality rate and the large disparity in outcomes between white and black babies. And she didn't know that in a matter of months her experience would become part of that growing statistical gap.
4.
Paw Paw redevelopment brings together craft beer, trails, recreation area
Craft beer continues to be a driver of both economic and community growth in Southwest Michigan. And Paw Paw Brewing Company is the most recent brewing operation to begin a sizable expansion to its operation. • The 5-year-old brewery will soon move out of its original digs on East Michigan Avenue to take over a former Paw Paw Winery building at 145 Industrial Avenue. • The new space is adjacent to a soon-to-be developed community area purchased by the village last year.
3.
Remembering 30 years of growing Bell's to the brewery it is today
Craft beer in the United States--it's a 19.6 billion dollar industry with nearly 4,500 breweries chipping in to create over 21 million barrels of beer per year. As the industry grows, few breweries have had the sustained success and widespread appeal of Kalamazoo's Bell's Brewery Inc. With distribution to 22 states and the ability to produce 500,000 barrels of beer each year, Bell's is not only a staple of the national craft beer scene, it's an icon. • But back in 1985, business wasn't exactly booming. At that time, Larry Bell was an unlicensed home brewer and the owner of a tiny brewing supply store on North Burdick. To make ends meet the young entrepreneur was selling his home brew on the side, a practice that would come with a heavy fine and potential jail time if caught. No longer wanting to press his luck with the law, he decided it was time to go commercial.
2.
Mr. President: A cocktail lounge for the over-30 crowd
This Kalamazoo cocktail lounge at 304 N. Burdick St., Kalamazoo reopened late last summer after 14 years closed. It has been refurbished, but it still feels like time has stopped inside. Jones and his uncle, building owner Fred Jones, are betting that now, thanks to more people living and visiting downtown, they'll get a clientele looking for an adult spot to eat, drink, and dance.
1.
Kalamazoo connections create Principle Food & Drink
A team with lots of Kalamazoo connections is betting the success of Salt of the Earth can be repeated by following their principles. That's the theory behind Principle Food & Beverage. • It wasn’t so much that the owners chose Kalamazoo for a second eatery, Pietsch says. "Kalamazoo chose us. We all have close connections to Kalamazoo, and we were really excited when this space opened up."
Was your favorite story one that resonated with other readers? Let us know what you enjoyed most in Second Wave in 2015 and what you would like to read more about in 2016. Happy new year!
Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Second Wave Southwest Michigan. She is a freelance writer and editor.