City/University or Town/Gown, Dave Dix Shares Word...

Last Thursday was the Bowman Breakfast which brings together City residents and City business owners with representatives from the administration and faculty at Kent State University to share breakfast and good conversation. Held twice a year this event is used to break bread, catch up on relevant happenings both on and off campus and to listen to a keynote speaker who generally speaks to issues important to all of us. The Bowman Breakfast typically draws between 250 and 350 people so as you might imagine it’s not always easy to find speakers with something to say to everyone — but last week Dave Dix had a lot to say that was too good to leave in the Legion Hall so here’s the transcript of his speech.

As only a newspaper man can do, Dave Dix didn’t spare any punches but he did it with his typical style, grace and sincerity to see Kent and Kent State be all they can be.  He loves this city and he loves the university, and it was evident in his choice of words that he sees Kent’s potential trying to break out of the box that we have built around it and this was his wake up call to lend a hand to bring those walls down.

Although he’s far too diplomatic to say it directly, I kept thinking that what he was saying is we’ve met the enemy and the enemy is us.  If we want a better future all we have to do is reach out and grab it, and then all pull like heck because that’s the only way we’ll ever move this mountain forward.

The breakfast was reminiscent of a fireside story with one of our resident tribal elders imparting sage advice mean’t to get our attention and shake us up a little bit so we would see that we’ve got to stop being a hazard to ourselves.  Whether we listen and accept his hopes in the spirit that he offered them in is up to us but I have to say I was personally moved by his call to arms and his words will ring in my ears like Jiminy Cricket until we co-create that future for Kent that Dave Dix and all of us are wishing for.

Town and Gown Forever
Speech about engaging Kent State University in improving Kent as college town

David Dix
March 27, 2008

Town and Gown forever — or as Kent State University goes, so goes Kent
and, to some extent, Portage County too.

I may be exaggerating, but not by much.

With more than 3,000 employees, Kent State is the proverbial 300-pound gorilla of Kent. Only Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna begins to approach it in terms of jobs and yet with its 1,100 employees it remains a distant second.

Kent State University’s annual area expenditures approach $400 million. If the economic multiplier is 2, we’re talking about $800 million flowing into the area economy. Its payroll taxes contribute nearly a third of the payroll tax of the city of Kent.

The University annually brings about 20,000 students to Kent. Of these about 6,000 live on campus in dormitories and another 6,000 in the greater Kent area in apartments that are cash cows and pump money into the local economy. The students may not have large personal incomes, but most have credit cards backed up by Mom and Pop and they buy groceries, gasoline, clothes, movie tickets, alcoholic beverages, pop, snack foods, hamburgers, pizzas —- the list goes on.

Were there no Kent State, the city of Kent would be a shadow of itself and as heavy manufacturing continues to leave town, the University looms ever larger as Kent’s economic future.

When Chamber President Dennis Missimi asked me in January to be the Chamber’s presenter at this Bowman Breakfast, I said I’d do it if I could focus on the town-gown relationship because it is so central to Kent’s future and so important to Portage County’s future.

My game plan has been to talk to figures in leadership positions at Kent State and in Kent city government, to talk to local business leaders, to county officials, to student landlords, to police, to people who’ve known the University and its role in Kent and Portage County and to present a picture of how they see the relationship. I promised everyone I interviewed confidentiality, but did say I would use the content of what they told me to assemble a picture of town-gown relations.

I’ve found that the town-gown relationship involves several categories, most of them very positive plus some challenges and opportunities and I’d like to describe them briefly to you.

Overall, most community leaders I interviewed have very positive feelings about Kent State and appreciate its presence.

“How many communities would die to bring in a business that is a stable employer of 3,000 people, most of them highly educated or highly skilled, that is non-polluting, supports city government and contributes hundred of millions of dollars annually to the local economy,” a prominent Kent attorney said, summing up the feeling of many. Most in Kent and Portage County realize we are indeed fortunate to have a state supported public university in our midst.

We appreciate the collaborative relationships that enrich our lives. Voters in the Kent School District have never turned down an operating levy and although the school district exists in a community whose average income does not match Hudson’s or Aurora’s and whose population has much greater diversity than those two white collar suburbs, the Kent Schools remain stable and excel in many respects and are one of the reasons families choose to live in Kent. It is unlikely that the school district’s record would be possible without the presence of the University and its faculty, many of whom live in Kent, although in recent years some have chosen to live elsewhere. We’re the “education community” of northeast Ohio in that sense and it is because a significant number of the people who live and work in Kent are employed either by the University or the Kent public schools. Kent State has occasionally commented it might encourage professors to live in Kent with modest financial incentives. Were that done, Kent would be even more an education committee.

The College of Education, by teaming up with Kent schools and other schools in the area too, further enriches us by supporting and in some respects staffing and guiding cutting edge initiatives to help better educate our children.

The College of Business has been generous in working with area businesses lending expertise when it is sought. Especially under George Stevens, it has established a very positive working relationship with organizations like the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce. With the support of former President Cartwright, The College of Business started housing the Kent Area Regional Business Alliance, an organization that uses the resources of Kent State and its branch campuses to support small start-up businesses throughout northeast Ohio and help them grow. That continues under President Lefton.

Kent State since 1996 has housed the Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Growth Consortium, whose members include 10 counties, and whose president most recently was Portage County Commissioner Chuck Keiper. NEOTEC helps set up and then manage foreign trade zones that enable manufacturers to ship the products into the United States duty free for assembly and resale elsewhere. L’Oreal, the French producer of cosmetics, occupies nearly 1 million square feet of space in Streetsboro, Ohio in a foreign trade zone set up by NEOTEC. Ron DeBarr, the hands on executive who runs NEOTEC day-to-day was recently named chair of the Grantee Committee of the National Association of Foreign Trade Zones.

The School of Architecture has been generous with its expertise. Former Commissioner (and one of our best ever Kent mayors), Nancy Hansford told me that when Portage County was ordered by a federal judge to build its new jail in the late 1980s, all it took was a call to then President Michael Schwartz and the commissioners got free of charge the consulting services of a faculty architect. A faculty member of the School of Architecture sits on the city of Kent’s Architectural Review Board, a board that regrettably I think, has only advisory powers, but having a faculty member on that board nevertheless raises its prestige and lends it gravitas.

On a somewhat personal level, I can tell you the Record-Courier has over the years staffed its newsroom thanks to the School of Journalism and Mass Media at Kent State. We’re a small newspaper, we know, but we’re better than many small newspapers because of that relationship. I think the larger papers and TV and radio media in Cleveland, Akron, and Canton are better because of Kent State too.

Fine arts and intercollegiate sports enrich our lives too. The Sinfonia, Porthouse Theater, free student and faculty concerts, the Blossom School in the summer, give us the opportunity to grow intellectually and culturally. The Wick Poetry Center’s outreach program to area high schools exposes teenagers to a dimension of life that might otherwise pass them by.

The School of Art’s decision to support a studio in the downtown has been a factor in downtown rejuvenation and that is only going to get better now that its studio has teamed up with the McKay Bricker gallery on East Main Street.
Without Kent State’s great basketball program, many of us would find winter far less bearable. Many of us continue to hope for a great football season so we can all tell our grandchildren someday, “Hey! We were there.”

A less structured, but equally important contribution is the fact that many of Kent State’s faculty members decided to sink their roots into the area and call it home. They participate in the life of the community and we are better off for it.

Faculty members and spouses have served on city council, city commissions, township, county boards, on the judiciary, and in the Ohio House and Senate. I am pretty sure we would not have had the Kent League of Women Voters without volunteers from the University. The Kent Environmental Council would probably not exist and we’d probably still be cursing the foul smelling Cuyahoga River were it not for its members. We would probably not have River Edge Park or Heritage Park. Herrick Fen in Streetsboro and contributions by Art Herrick in this regard throughout Portage County would not have occurred. Biologists like Dennis Cooke have been generous with their expertise in analyzing our fresh water lakes.

Consider these names and they are just a few. Joe Giancola, Gene Wenninger, TN Bhargava, Walter and Barbara Watson, Walter and Nancy Adams, Barbara Hipsman Springer, Brynsley Tyrell, Kathleen Chandler, Harriet Begala, Leigh and Anita Herington, Bill and Craig Stephens, Ben Foote, Doug Fuller, Mary Gilbert, Don Schjeldahl, Gordon Keller, Frank Wiley, David Creamer, Tom Clapper, Glenn and Ruth Saltzman Henry and Sandra Halem, Laing and Saundra Kennedy, Carol and Phil Cartwright, going way back, the late Edgar McCormick,and more recently Tim and Margie Chandler. The list could go on and I risk offending you by not adding more names, but for the sake of time, just consider these people and imagine how much poorer we’d all be were they not active in Kent and Portage County. They and many others who have adopted us as home and play a role in the community would not be here, but for Kent State University.

Consider KSU’s talented alumni. We’re lucky many reside in Kent and Portage County and we need to keep more of them living here. Membership in the Kent State Alumni Association offers limited discounts for some University services including guest passes at the Wellness Center, some athletic events with coupons and library loan privileges. My advice is to aggressively expand any of these discounts and advantages you can afford to do. It will make this community even more appealing to KSU graduates. An investment like that would show you a great return and quickly.

Like any relationship, the town-gown one has its complexities and issues and I want to touch on one or two.

First, let’s talk about students because they are the reason Kent State exists and without whom, Kent would be so much poorer. One Kent State leader I interviewed told me when I asked what I should tell the people of Kent in this talk had this comment: “Tell them to make our students feel welcome.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Our students do not feel they are welcome in Kent,” he said bluntly.

As I interviewed KSU leaders, I would often end my interview with the question, “Do students feel welcome in Kent?” To a person, the answer was, “No!”

As I looked into the issues of student relationships with communities that host colleges and universities, I quickly learned we are not alone. I “Googled” the topic of student-town relations up on my laptop, one of the first references I found concerned a bunch of townies beating up on students in Paris, France 800 years ago. Then, I read an excerpt that showed that in the year 1209, vigilantes in Oxford, England scared many of faculty and students of England’s oldest university into fleeing for safety to nearby Cambridge where they proceeded to found another great university.

Turning to more modern times and in the United States, we’ve seen in the last 40 years, student protests in college towns across America, particularly during the Civil Rights struggle and the Vietnam War.
More recently and more locally, we’ve read stories of student party disturbances not just at Kent State, but on the University of Akron campus and its neighborhoods, occasionally at Ohio State during football season, and at Ohio University, especially the weekend a week prior to final exams.

Let’s face it. Young people are going to be young people. I do not want to relive all aspects of their age, but I wouldn’t mind a spoonful of all that energy and spark to liven up my morning cup of tea.

Does Kent’s police department profile Kent State students, the way African Americans are still unfairly profiled by America? I do not know, but city officials say the claims of students and some faculty and administrators are not born out by statistics.

More than 60 percent of Kent’s police department are graduates of the Kent State criminal justice studies program and were once Kent State students themselves. That makes me wonder if the profiling claim is a pattern or an occasional aberration.

Kent’s police force normally puts about seven or eight officers on the streets in a shift and they have plenty to do. I believe they’d prefer to be solving burglaries and real crimes than enforcing a noise ordinance that city council approved several years ago. The police have a difficult job. They are the thin blue line, the people who answer complaints and enforce the law.
The city has passed much better ordinances lately. Its nuisance ordinance puts some of the responsibility on the student landlord, appropriately. It has ordinances and laws to deal with disorderly conduct.
It probably would improve things if representatives of the University, the police, and city council jointly evaluated the city ordinances that actually require the police to arrest students. I know one ordinance the police have to enforce that even the police think is pretty ridiculous and makes them look like bad guys.

A joint review might conclude some ordinances are better than others. If the ordinances not sensible were eliminated, the police, relieved of enforcing them, might be perceived by the students in a more positive light.

The relationship of students and the city was helped a great deal when former President Carol Cartwright with the support of then Mayor Kathleen Chandler initiated regular get acquainted sessions between herself and the university vice presidents and their counterparts in city government. These enabled the people in charge in the city and at the university to have relaxed face-to-face time together. Sometimes, these encounters may have been too formalized, but becoming better acquainted enhanced communication and understanding. It prevented “shoot from the hip statements” about whose fault it was that something slipped through the cracks. Lack of teamwork contributed to KSU’s worst moment, May 4th, 1970, and the University and the city have worked much more closely since that time.

I do not know if these meetings continue, but I’m told, they were very useful in building relationships between key players.

Trouble-makers represent a very small minority and some not are even students, just young adults who find a college town full of young people appealing.

By contrast, hundreds of idealistic Kent State students every year volunteer in the community and many of our charitable organizations and benefit. A partial list includes the Red Cross, Birthright, Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Center of Hope in Ravenna, Coleman Professional Services. the County Clothing center, Habitat for Humanity, the Hattie Larlham Foundation, Haven of Rest, Head Start, Haven of Rest Ministries, the King Kennedy Center, Miller Home, PARTA, the American Cancer Society, Robinson Memorial Hospital, Safer Futures, the Salvation Army, Townhall II, Skeels-Matthews, the United Way and others. During spring break, another group of KSU students volunteered to head south and help with still on-going Katrina relief for the third year in a row, where among their chaperones has been Ralph Kletzien.
Those volunteer efforts speak volumes about the quality of the students.

Several years ago Fred Skok, who ran a wonderful book store in downtown Kent, and I were discussing town and gown relationships. Fred observed that, Kent has never decided whether it’s a university town or simply a town that happens to have a university in it.

I think he was referring to several aspects of the town-gown relationship. One is the geographical divide. The 1965 campus master plan followed the thinking at that time: spread out, sprawl out and keep the students out of the way of us townies. The center of the campus used to revolve around Rockwell Hall, which was the old library, and the president’s office on Hilltop Drive. Both moved over to Summit Street and now face the Route 261 by pass built in the early 1970s. Geographically, the big players at Kent State became more removed from the downtown. A George Bowman or Bob White, on a sunny day might walk from his office on Hilltop Drive to his home on campus, to the downtown to buy a copy of the New York Times at Thompson’s or Donaghy’s Drug Store, or even to a Rotary meeting. (That’s when presidents actually participated in local life and if may digress, seeing George Bowman walk across campus or anywhere was memorable. With his dark suits, dark horn rimmed glasses and dignified formality, he had the bearing of an old fashioned New England schoolmaster. I’m told that for all his formality President Bowman used to like to stop in the Smoke Shop when in the downtown and talk with Virgil Roberts, who had the “skivvy” on everyone in Kent.)

That ended with Glenn Olds and once his successor Brage Golding moved his office over to the Library, he might walk home to what is now the Alumni House, but downtown rarely. It was too far away.

A second disconnect occurred because in the 1960s, the state of Ohio created the University of Akron, Youngstown State and Cleveland State University. Prior to that, Kent and its sister institutions in Athens, Bowling Green and Oxford plus Ohio State were about all there was as far as publicly supported higher education was concerned. Kent State had northeast Ohio all to itself. It built up some great relationships through branches in Stark, Trumbull, Columbiana, Tuscarawas, Ashtabula and Geauga Counties. Kent State’s main campus was projected to grow to 32,000 students.

But after the 1960s, Kent State had to compete for students in its own backyard with state supported universities newly created in Akron, Youngstown and Cleveland. Kent State had always had a regional focus because when the Normal College was founded a century ago, it was the designated state funded teacher’s college for northeast Ohio.

By the early 1970s, with three other universities competing for many of the same students, Kent’s regional focus became one of survival. Presidents had to be visible in places like Cleveland and Akron and visit alumni to keep the Kent State name in the public. Presidents started looking for deep pockets, especially with successful alumni in the big cities, to find extra money to cover what the state of Ohio would no longer fund. This gave presidents less time to play the role of first citizen of Kent.

The third disconnect that occurred was senior vice presidents moving out of Kent entirely, to live in Stow, to upscale Hudson, to Tallmadge to Akron or Cleveland suburbs or wherever. Tradition has it that Kent State’s president lives in Kent and to President Lefton’s credit that tradition has been upheld.

The net effect of the senior vice presidents leaving town in the evening was that the Kent community ceased to be their community and became instead a town where they happened to hold a job. The same disconnect has happened in private industry. The president of Davey Tree lives in Aurora. The Japanese team that runs Gougler lives in Aurora where they play golf together. I don’t even know where the Ametek local executive lives.

The net effect is a loss for Kent because the top people, who can make things happen, once their workday is done, leave town. What happens after they do leave is, “not my problem.” Town deterioration or issues that do not directly affect their jobs or their families concern them less. They are less willing to invest in local relationships that can make town-gown the team it could be.

A Cleveland businessman who as a KSU trustee did a lot for the Kent State Museum remarked to me 15 years ago that he felt ashamed for his friends to come to see it, not because of the Museum, which is wonderful, but because of Kent’s shabby looks.

I understood his feelings because Kent is not the college town it could be and should be, but I thought, “What have you, Mr. Trustee, done to get the University to engage the community and help guide it to what it should be?”

The thinking of urban planners has changed a lot over the last 40 years. They realize a sense of community creates synergy, but that a sense of community depends on spaces that are pedestrian accessible, interesting once you’re in them, and bring people together. The Esplanade, the walk-way the University has extended across the campus, is part of that thinking. It eventually will go right into the downtown and the sooner the better.

Campus Link, a great idea, is part of that thinking too. It envisions an attractive transition neighborhood between the downtown and the campus. The Bicentennial Plan, drawn up with University resources, that designates this neighborhood would probably require the acquisition of some of the student rental properties whose owners want a buyout reflecting their cash flow earnings.

Buying a unit here, a unit there is one way of making this happen, but it is a slow process. Property owners, if they choose, can stage a legalized holdup like what has happened with the old Hotel, an eyesore for 35 years that gives Kent an aura of blight and a reputation for lack of pride.

Maybe it is time for the city and the university, perhaps leveraging some of the resources of its foundation maybe with the federal grants that are available for universities to rehabilitate their communities, to sit down with the property owners and talk and maybe work out something. That will take commitment, imagination and limited risk. It never hurts to talk though!

On another topic, the recently formed Kent Main Street organization, which has the know-how of the National Trust for Historic Preservation at its disposal, is making headway thanks to funding by the city of Kent, the Burbick foundation, some smaller private gifts, and a silent gift from the University.

Working with the city, the possibility of developing limited frontage along the Cuyahoga River into a whitewater park look very good. A whitewater park accessible by the hike and bike trail that is coming through town could transform downtown Kent and make it a true destination point for students and townies alike and hundreds beyond as well.

The Kent Main Street Organization and its supporters and a consensus on City Council in favor of teaming up with the University, has created a window of opportunity, but it requires the will of Kent State and a designated vice president or an aide who has the full confidence of the president to move the town-gown partnership to a higher level. Without commitment from the top, we’ll be spinning our wheels.

That may be difficult to elicit because in talking with University and Foundation people, I sense an inordinate aversion to risk consistent with Kent State’s tradition. George Bowman, one of my all-time favorite presidents of KSU, set that cautious tone in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s, when his successor Bob White pushed ahead in growing Kent State way beyond what Bowman had had in mind during his presidency, Bowman came to resent White. Olds followed White and KSU came unglued. Golding put hammered things back together. He stepped on some toes, but he saved the Kent State University. Schwartz consolidated and built on that. Cartwright labored under exceedingly stingy legislatures and governors, but never gave up and did amazingly well in pushing KSU ahead. The Lefton era is manifesting itself currently.

The city of Kent has worked with the Downtown Kent Corporation, a group of local businessmen, by being a guarantor on loans to acquire and redevelop property. Over 20 years they have proven themselves. I know most of the Foundation’s assets are encumbered, but why couldn’t those assets not encumbered be pledged to enable the Downtown Kent Corporation to borrow and buy up and redevelop property and then sell it to pay off the loans. The Foundation would have no real expense, but it would have limited risk.

If the city of Kent has been willing to take that chance, why not Kent State or at least its Foundation? Why not consider long-term leases of downtown property to create student learning opportunities in downtown retailing. What about the issuance of bonds on a limited basis? There are trustees on the foundation who know a lot about money. Couldn’t they lend their expertise to turning Kent into a first class college town?

Taking town-gown relations to a higher level could begin with a joint strategy of key representatives from the city, the university, the local business community, and the county.

I agree that Kent State needs to keep up its regional focus and be a player in places like Cleveland, but it also needs a strong local focus. If it played a leadership role in local economic development, the difference could be enormous and accrue to Kent State’s and the area’s benefit.

Locally, the University is the biggest kid on the block. Regionally, it is one of many players. Locally, with some strategic thinking by people familiar with property and development, the University can help transform Kent and Portage County in a manner that parallels what the University of Akron, the Akron hospitals and Mayor Don Plusquellic are attempting in Akron.

The University has buildable acreage it controls. Kent and Brimfield have a Joint Economic Development District along State Route 43 and Mogadore Road. It has a similar arrangement along State Route 59 with Franklin Township.

The University would like to benefit from spin-off opportunities that arise through the Liquid Crystals Institute and other science programs. Joint planning with Kent and the county and securing economic development grants could create “ready to go” sites to house high tech businesses that Kent State research can spin off.

Alpha Micron, a business that originated because of the Liquid Crystals Institute and was nurtured by the Kent incubator, the one sponsored by KSU’s Kent Regional Business Alliance is so successful now that it needs a 40,000 square foot building on a campus like setting. We need a ready to go site for Alpha Micron or we’re going to lose it. If we had ready to go sites, we might attract and hang on to many Alpha Microns.

I’m not advocating jeopardizing Kent State’s great bond rating, the strongest in Ohio, but having a great bond rating and not working with the passion that currently exists for positive change in this community is like the Biblical servant, who given a talent, hid it under a bushel for fear of losing it.

I realize you need a finance guy to make sure we are on solid footing financially. If you don’t like bridge or gap financing or being signatory on a loan, maybe there are bond instruments available to raise money. I know matching federal money could be accessed to rebuild and improve the town because other colleges and universities are doing this.

I am not advocating Kent State do anything too adventurous either because other colleges and universities have long ago blazed this trail. Yale University bought up downtown New Haven because it thought a nice downtown could be a great recruiting tool. Closer by, the University of Akron is buying up downtown Akron realizing that property values in downtown Akron, like some of those in Kent, are at an all-time low. In other words, there are great deals out there.

To name just a few, the University of Chicago, Cleveland State, Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the University of Massachusetts, and even good old Southeast Missouri in Cape Giardeau where our friend Ken Dobbins is president are hard at work making things happen. How much easier in a small college town like Kent!

The city of Kent by optioning the downtown block east of the Municipal Court has put its full faith and credit on the line and it is about to pay off. Kent State says it has $36 million worth of upgrades to complete on the campus, but most of that money will come from Columbus. What about a Kent State commitment to the downtown and a research park?

Steve Colecchi, president and CEO of Robinson Memorial Hospital, along with Summa is making a multi-million dollar investment in Kent and adding probably 100 jobs to the community. When he saw the news about Akron’s planned for medical corridor and research park in its downtown backed by Mayor Plusquellic, the Akron hospitals and the University of Akron, he wrote this in an email:

“I am not trying to make an political comment – but we are seriously missing the boat in Portage County if we do not come together to promote the area. I believe we are kidding ourselves if we think the Akron Regional
Development Board or Cleveland Plus will focus on promoting Portage County.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This is the age of globalization. It has opportunities unheard of and risks. Communities that take measured risks and seize opportunities will rise. Those that do not will be left behind despite the rosy outlook Team NEO keeps putting out as the Rustbelt and Ohio fall further behind.

Windows of opportunity open and close. Right now, in Kent and Portage County, in terms of desire, that window is wide open. Taking the town-gown relationship to a higher level that lets us plot out a better future is a risk well worth taking.

If you agree, then let’s all work together and bring positive change to Kent, to Kent State and to Portage County too. The reality is if we do not work together, we may go down together. If we do go down, we’ll have no one to blame, but ourselves. The city of Kent, Portage County, and its businesses and citizens are ready to work together and would very much like to team up with Kent State.

Thanks for listening and have a good day.

Robinson Hospital’s Significant New Investme...

Kent Multi-Modal Study Status Report...

Quick Rewind:  The City of Kent, Kent State University and the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority (PARTA) obtained federal transit funds to evaluate the possibility of building a multi-modal transportation center in downtown Kent.  With as many students as we have commuting to campus each day, it seemed to make sense to explore opportunities to reduce car use and expand transit use which these days eventually leads to a discussion of multi-modal centers.  Cities have found transit centers to be activity hubs concentrating people in a public space and where there’s people businesses are soon to follow.  Working that formula backwards, many cities have turned to multi-modal centers to be a catalyst for economic development.  Here’s a short update on where the Kent study is at.

The Steering Team for the Multi-Modal project includes representatives from the University, City staff, downtown businesses, City Council, PARTA, and Kent residents.  This group has been working with the consultant, Transystems, to lead the study and guide the feasibility analysis.  The study has been underway for nine months with the consultant hosting a series of public input sessions to understand the community’s expectations, hopes and concerns related to consideration of a possible downtown transit center.

Using this data the consultant proceeded to evaluate possible sites in the central business district based on the criteria identified from the public meetings.  Some 6 to 10 areas were explored and rated based on the criteria and through that process the consultant found 2 areas to have the most to offer for a possible transit center.  Those areas included the north and south sides of Haymaker Parkway between Lincoln Street and Depeyster.

Those areas were shared with the community in public meetings and more feedback was received that led to further quantitative and qualitative analysis.  In particular, the consultant has been looking at numerous scenarios for how to lay-out the transit center.  In the vernacular of planners and architects the consultants are looking at building massings and assessing the pro’s and con’s of the various scenarios.

Should the center be built into the hillside?  Should the center run parallel to Haymaker Parkway or perpendicular?  How should the bus lanes and lay-by’s be configured?  Is there room to build in retail to the center?  How much community space can be built into the center?  How can the pedestrian connection be built between downtown and the campus?  Where will the bike center be located?  How much parking is needed?  Is the parking located on the site in a way that allows it to support other downtown retail needs?

To be able to answer these sorts of questions the consultant has been developing different schematics that might work.  The next step is to take those schematics that have the greatest prospect for success and to share them with the public for additional feedback. We met with the consultant last week to talk about those next steps and it seems that they are shooting for another round of public meetings in April for people to poke and prod at the different concepts.

From my perspective, the transit center is another piece of the downtown puzzle that we are working hard to put together.  At this point, we’re still just trying to determine if the piece belongs in the downtown puzzle at all and if so where.  But now is definitely the time to be having this conversation since our downtown work is still fluid enough to allow changes but likewise it has enough form around the edges to determine if the idea has merit or not.

As I listen to merchants on Main Street talk about the constraints that parking has put on their plans to expand their businesses, I can’t help but wonder if we can’t leverage the transit center to get more bus and bike riders in downtown stores and also expand our parking base to support adjacent business growth.  These are the kinds of conversations that I think would greatly benefit from the downtown reinvestment plan that I talked about on yesterday’s blog post.

That’s it for now, I’ll keep you posted as the dates for the next round of public meetings are scheduled.

And if you’re wondering what could be done in a transit center to promote more biking, here’s some good descriptions of the bike centers that are often found in transit centers (source: springwise.com).

Gas prices, urban congestion and environmental concerns have brought about a veritable renaissance in bicycle riding, spawning initiatives like citywide bike-rental schemes and bank-sponsored bike-sharing programs, among others. A trend we haven’t yet highlighted, however, is the growing number of urban bike stations.

The most recent example we’ve spotted just opened in New Zealand. Located in the Britomart in Auckland (a public transport hub), BikeCentral offers bicycling enthusiasts and commuters a welcoming place to park their bikes and transition into the next part of their day. In addition to safe, secure bicycle parking, BikeCentral members have access to private lockers, showers and changing areas. Coffee, fresh food and free wireless internet are also available, as are rental bicycles and an on-site repair service for minor repairs. All-inclusive rates start at NZD 25 per week.

Chicago’s McDonald’s Cycle Center at Millennium Park, which launched in 2004, is a 16,448-square-foot heated facility that includes free indoor parking for 300 bikes, showers and lockers, bicycle rental and repair, and a cafÉ. A monthly membership pass costs USD 20. Finally, on the West Coast, Bikestation is a not-for-profit organization that offers secure bicycle parking and more. Stations in five California cities plus Seattle offer a variety of services including bicycle rentals and repair, showers and lockers as well as 24-hour secure bike parking. Monthly fees are USD 12.

The way things are going, demand for centers like these will only increase. And how a combination of bike stations and shared working spaces? Help consumers reduce their carbon footprints, help the planet, and help yourself to some well-deserved profits!

Keeping Downtown Redevelopment Rolling Forward...

If you’ve been in downtown Kent in the last 12 months you have seen plenty of evidence of steady private investment.  Main Street Kent is living proof that small investments can add up into something significant with a tally over $750,000 for 2007 and more underway in 2008. The City’s challenge is to keep that figure climbing while we also work to bring some new retail, restaurant and office space with our Downtown Redevelopment Project.  I thought it was worth repeating that the success of the new redevelopment project will be measured by how well it fits with and complements the many smaller investments that are already earning returns.

To ensure that happens the City is working on pulling the many little pieces together with those projects that are already in the pipeline and other emerging business opportunities to form the basis of redevelopment strategy for downtown Kent — or as I prefer to call it a blueprint for public and private reinvestment.  That’s planning with a purpose.

On April 2nd the Redevelopment RFQ Review Team will present their recommendation to Council for the selection of the most qualified development partner.  We interviewed three exceptional teams, each of whom bring great resources to the table, and based on those interviews and independent research on each firm’s qualifications, the Review Team has prepared a ranking of the firms for Council’s consideration.

The good news is that we have three firms that have the vision, the expertise and the resources to deliver a first-rate project in downtown Kent.  The great news is that we have one that we believe brings the best combination of experience and capabilities, and that’s who we’ll recommend Council authorize us to begin negotiations with.  Negotiations will occur in parallel with project design and that project design will be done in concert with the larger downtown reinvestment strategy.

Our goal is to make sure that as we work with the preferred developer we’re in a position as a community to translate the “bigger” picture to the developer that began with the Bicentennial Plan.  To me, the Bicentennial Plan provides a great summary of the community’s hopes and aspirations for how the central business distict, neighborhoods and Kent State University can come together to create the kind of synergy that consistently puts university cities at the top of the list of best places to live, work and play.

The time is now for Kent to have it’s share of that synergy — all we lack is a blueprint for how we specifically want to do it.  The Bicentennial Plan is bigger than just downtown but with all the private investment interest in downtown right now we need to take advantage of that momentum and use it to push us through another round of planning that will produce specific action plans at its completion.  We did the planning for planning sake 5 years ago, today is about planning for the purpose of acting and guiding public and private investment to its maximum effect.

We’ll be meeting with City Council over the next couple of weeks to lay out a path to do just that.

In the meantime, as one Blog reader pointed out to me last week, we have to keep a sense of urgency about this task not only because windows of opportunity only stay open so long but also because our peer cities are getting aggressive themselves.  I don’t know if you saw the article about Twinsburg’s new $100 million retail center that they announced last week, so I copied it below.  Interestingly they talk about trying to build a new downtown style shopping experience because that’s what’s hot in today’s marketplace.  We don’t have to build a new downtown because we’ve already got one, we’ve just got to get smart about how to combine the best of the old and the new to highlight our terrific downtown in a uniquely Kent way.

New retail complex proposed for Twinsburg

Plans unveiled for shopping complex in Twinsburg that could mean about 1,200 jobs

By Connie Bloom
and Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal staff writers

Published on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008

A proposed retail shopping complex will be the first of its kind in the country, a development group said Tuesday evening, when it unveiled plans for the $100 million Twinsburg Fashion Place to a roomful of public officials at Twinsburg Township Hall.

Summit County Council members and Twinsburg trustees seemed enthusiastic about the prospects of the proposal that could mean up to 1,200 jobs.

The development would straddle land in Twinsburg and Twinsburg Township and could open as early as 2010.

The 95-acre complex would feature a pedestrian-friendly, ”open-air lifestyle”
with pricey architectural accents, public gathering spaces.

Developers say potential tenants would be unique to the area.

There would be outdoor seating, fountains and compartmentalized parking with its own landscaping, said James B. Heller, president of ka architecture of Cleveland.

In good weather, the outdoors will come in and indoors will go out, he said. Walls will slide open in some of the development’s stores.

The project could bring more than 1,200 jobs to the area, with significant economic return to the community, drawing in $2.25 million annually in real-estate taxes alone, Heller said.

Studies have been completed that show the project to be highly desirable for the area.

The development is projected to draw shoppers to the complex just southwest of Interstate 480 and west of state Route 91.

The project is a joint venture between BG & Sons and the Glimcher Company, the developer that redeveloped the Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, according to Sheldon Berns, attorney for BG & Sons.

Dr. Bahman Guyuron, a Lyndhurst-based plastic surgeon with University Hospitals, purchased most of the land and envisioned the project nearly four years ago.

Guyuron said he’s been working on it ever since.

”A project 31/2 (years) in the making has finally come to fruition,” he said.

He was originally planning a medical office inside, but dropped the idea due to the wealth of medical facilities in the area.

Summit County Council President Nick Kostandaras likened the project to Legacy Village in suburban Cleveland and the Polaris shopping center in Columbus.

”I think this development could bring 1,000 to 1,500 jobs, which is a sizable work force,” Kostandaras said. ”I’m glad to see that happening in Summit County.”

The mixed-use, two-story retail center will have a Main Street theme and be anchored by two department stores, Berns said.

He estimated the project would employ the equivalent of 1,200 full-time employees.

Portions of the site in the city of Twinsburg are already zoned appropriately, but Twinsburg Township officials would need to make some revisions to township zoning for the project to move forward.

Kent’s Contribution to Ohio Taking the Top S...

A Talk Worth Hearing...

Colleges Practicing What They Teach...

I was going through some old files this week and I came across a 1996 Town/Gown Relations Committee Report.  With 12 years having passed since the completion of the report, it provided an interesting chance for retrospection on what has or in some cases has not been accomplished.  Perhaps not surprisingly the issues today remain much the same as they were in 1996 — the Committee called for more coordination, collaboration and communication.  The committee urged improving neighborhoods and downtown vitality.  I guess the question we need to ask ourselves is have we lived up to the challenges of the 1996 Report?  I’d say we’re working on it.  Part of that work is learning what other town/gowns are doing to respond to the same issues and here’s two interesting articles from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that talk about colleges that practice what they preach.

Colleges Teach ‘Urban Development 101′

One of the most ambitious real-estate-development projects in Philadelphia involves revamping a 42-acre eyesore on the banks of the Schuylkill River into a hub featuring gleaming office towers, apartments, a hotel and restaurants. The catalyst for the $2 billion redevelopment: the University of Pennsylvania.

Universities, increasingly, are extending their reach to off-campus development in an effort to give their surrounding areas and town centers a vibrant and modern feel. In the process, they are becoming major drivers of economic development after concluding that their fortunes are directly tied to those of their cities.

The completion date for Cira Centre South could be pushed back by the credit crunch.

“The future of Penn depends on the future of Philadelphia,” says Penn President Amy Gutmann. “If we don’t take on the challenge of helping to redevelop our part of the city, nobody else is going to do it as well as we are going to do it.” University officials say the campaign could eventually bring 4,000 new jobs to the area.

Another reason for the push is that institutions are recognizing that, along with lucrative financial packages and strong academic reputations, they need to have attractive and exciting college towns to lure top faculty and students.

The University of Maryland in College Park is converting a 38-acre tract of industrial development on its campus into a shopping district with a hotel, theaters and a music center to further spur redevelopment along a depressed stretch of U.S. Route 1, the town’s main thoroughfare.

“We’ve actually lost some [potential] faculty who have driven down Route 1 and said, ‘We’re not going to move here,’ ” says Douglas M. Duncan, who is overseeing the $700 million redevelopment project.

Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University is developing an arts and retail district in a neighborhood on its campus border that students and faculty consider unsafe. “We’ve been living around it for years,” says Margaret Carney, Case Western’s architect and planner. Other universities, including Harvard and Columbia, have begun to develop recently acquired, large parcels adjacent to their campuses.

Penn’s project is part of a $6.7 billion 30-year expansion and follows a separate effort that began more than 10 years ago to improve blighted parts of its residential community after a crime wave threatened student and faculty recruitment. The university renovated homes, converted a parking lot into a bookstore and movie theater and opened a public school to spur community development. “It turned into a competitive advantage,” says Judith Rodin, who served as Penn’s president for 10 years until 2004.

But real-estate deals aren’t always an easy sell. While a private developer will handle Penn’s current project, the university couldn’t find a partner during its first wave of development in the 1990s, forcing university leaders to justify the school’s decision to invest $100 million on its own, as some faculty preferred to see more money go toward faculty endowments.

Neighbors also eye some expansion projects warily, such as New York University’s proposal to add six million square feet to its campuses in the next 25 years, half of that in Greenwich Village. “There are more and more parts of the neighborhood where you feel like NYU is the sole defining entity, and that footprint is growing and growing,” says Andrew Burman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Developers are eager to join ventures with colleges, which they see as providing a steady stream of business. “Universities are fairly reliable partners,” says Sal D. Rinella, president-elect of the Society for College and University Planning, who argues that universities are recession-resistant: “As the overall economy gets worse, higher education enrollments tend to go up.”

Penn’s campus expansion will allow the school to move administrative and nonessential activities to the campus periphery while bringing academic and residential units to the campus center.

Penn has partnered with Brandywine Realty Trust, which has a 90-year lease on the property it plans to develop. Construction has begun on one parcel, but the 2012 completion date for the 43-story Cira Centre South office building could be pushed back by the current credit crunch. The developer says it is looking for partners and will decide next year whether to change its timetable.

Private Cash Sets Agenda for Urban Infrastructure

NEW HAVEN — Conceived as a freeway, the Route 34 Connector still promises to whisk motorists across New Haven as they exit Interstate 95. But in less than a mile, the three broad lanes abruptly end, forcing traffic onto side roads that skirt the unbuilt right-of-way — a wasteland of elongated asphalt parking lots and scrub grass.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. calls the aborted project a tragic example of public infrastructure gone awry. He has drawn up detailed plans to rip up the highway and parking lots and restore the neighborhood of homes and stores that once existed. But lacking money, the mayor’s project only inches forward.

A few streets away, there is no such obstacle. On either side of New Haven’s highway to nowhere, city streets throb with construction activity. A different kind of infrastructure spending — unrelated to roads or rapid transit, airports or levees — is under way.

Yale University is rebuilding itself — drawing on its huge, rapidly growing endowment and on multimillion-dollar gifts, mainly from alumni — to renovate 54 buildings and construct 16 new ones. Not since the 1930s has Yale undertaken so ambitious an expansion.

The message in this outburst of activity, here and in other places across the country, is that private spending, supported handsomely by a growing number of very wealthy families, is gaining ground on traditional public investment. In the case of New Haven, once the recipient of more federal dollars per person for urban renewal than any other city, private investment now far surpasses public outlays.

“For us,” the mayor said, “infrastructure spending has come to mean growing the university. Yale has the money, and what they get from us is the approval to grow.”

But for all the wealth going into private philanthropy, its reach is limited. Richard C. Levin, Yale’s president, is not committing money to the mayor’s reconstruction plan or to other items on Mr. DeStefano’s wish list, like high-speed rail service to Manhattan or lengthening the runway at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport so more airlines will fly here.

Philanthropic spending adds mainly to the nation’s stock of hospitals, libraries, museums, parks, university buildings, theaters and concert halls. Public infrastructure — highways, bridges, rail systems, water works, public schools, port facilities, sewers, airports, energy grids, tunnels, dams and levees — depends mostly on tax dollars. It is hugely expensive and the money available, while still substantial, has shrunk as a share of the national economy.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that government should be spending $320 billion a year over the next five years — double the current outlay — just to bring up to par what already exists.

A few decades ago, after the Depression and World War II, the nation rapidly added infrastructure and “maintenance was a less pressing issue,” Casey Dinges, a society spokesman, said. The entire interstate highway system, for example, was built in just 35 years.

But now 14 years are likely to pass before a widening of just one bridge in that system, spanning the Quinnipiac River here on I-95, is completed. The traffic-congested bridge is to become six lanes in each direction, from the present three.

Nearly six years into the expansion, the approaches are gradually being widened, but the bridge itself is untouched. The first pilings have yet to be sunk to support the additional lanes. The state transportation department, which is handling the $2 billion project, blames the slow flow of money, mainly from the federal government. That flow has averaged less than $45 million a year, according to Albert A. Martin, the department’s deputy commissioner.

“If we had had the $2 billion in hand right from the start, that would have reduced the construction time by half, to seven years,” Mr. Martin said. “The problem is, we don’t have the dollars readily available. That is one of the big differences between us and Yale.”

Yale’s Expansive Makeover

Yale’s reconstruction proceeds at warp speed. Scaffolding and gauzelike scrim, to protect pedestrians from falling debris, cover buildings on nearly every block of the urban campus. The emphasis is on those devoted to science and medicine, to enhance Yale’s stature in these fields. But every other department is a beneficiary, too, and all of the 12 residential colleges are being renovated. To keep this work going year-round, Yale built a four-story brick dorm, almost large enough to fill a city block, as temporary student housing.

The 90-year-old football stadium, the Yale Bowl, got a share of the largesse. A mansionlike field house is soon to be built alongside it, which, among other things, will allow the opposing teams to spend halftime in greater comfort. For years they have rested in roped-off exit tunnels beneath the stands; the locker rooms are too far away.

“The field house is a luxury item in a way,” Laura A. Cruickshank, an architect employed by Yale as university planner, acknowledged. “But when you have a stadium that is so old and iconic, you have to do things differently. And how much of a luxury is it when you have players who play the way they do and you have to tape them up at halftime in the tunnels?”

Propelled by the construction on campus, Yale has become a big owner of commercial real estate in the surrounding downtown, engaging in a form of urban renewal not unlike what Mayor DeStefano wants for Route 34. But while the mayor has to extract state and federal subsidies, Yale goes forward with its own money.

Biotech start-ups, restaurants and stores now occupy Yale-owned buildings. Wanting its new campus in upscale surroundings, the university even employs two people full time to recruit boutique retailers in New York and Boston as tenants on spruced-up streets.

“The mayor was far-sighted enough,” said Mr. Levin, who has been Yale’s president since 1993, the same year that Mr. DeStefano first won his office, “to recognize that working with us, with our capital, we could actually revive the downtown, which we’re doing.”

The person in charge of improving the neighborhood around Yale is Bruce Alexander, 64, a former real estate entrepreneur who helped develop the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Mr. Levin recruited him in 1998 and, during a recent tour of the city, Mr. Alexander pointed out one of his favorite achievements — the purchase of a group of contiguous buildings occupying a square block in the heart of the city.

The owner had gone bankrupt, and to avoid having the buildings auctioned piecemeal, Yale bought them all, at the mayor’s request, and filled them with stores and restaurants at street level, and apartments and offices on the upper floors.

“When you own a block of property,” Mr. Alexander said, “you can create an identity.”

Infrastructure Spending Lags

The shift from public money to private wealth in shaping the nation’s cities is evident in national data. Government outlays on physical infrastructure have declined to 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product, from 3.6 percent in the 1960s. Philanthropic giving, in contrast, has jumped to nearly 2.5 percent of G.D.P., from 1.5 percent in 1995 and 2 percent in the ’60s.

Most of this money goes into endowments and foundations, or comes in the form of individual gifts, and then is increased through leverage. Of the $3 billion that Yale has spent so far on its vast building program, for example, slightly less than two-thirds came from gifts and from the endowment, which now totals $22.5 billion. The rest was borrowed, Mr. Levin said.

Yale now spends more than $400 million annually on its renaissance, nearly six times its outlays for construction and renovation in the mid-1990s. New Haven, by contrast, budgeted $137 million in the current fiscal year for all its capital projects, including those subsidized by state and federal governments. That is less than twice the amount budgeted in the mid-’90s.

Government investment nationwide has lagged for several reasons, say business leaders, academics and public officials. Tax cuts have helped to hold down overall government spending. So has the view, widespread in recent decades, that public investment is often inept and wasteful. And politics intrudes, with the widely criticized earmark process in Congress cited lately as a prime example of misdirected spending.

“Governments are accountable to the democratic process, which has many, many virtues; I would not trade it for anything else,” Mr. Levin said. “But it is not particularly good at focusing resources and driving things efficiently.”

Perhaps most important, big businesses no longer put as much clout and attention behind public infrastructure investments. In an earlier era, corporations, many with deep roots in local communities, lobbied government for the railroads, highways and many other facilities they needed to operate successfully. And they served as a crucial fountain of local tax revenue.

But companies are more mobile today. And many of the urban manufacturers most dependent on public infrastructure have moved or gone out of business. The Winchester Repeating Arms Company, once New Haven’s largest employer, is among the departed. Yale, which pays some taxes and escapes others that most corporations pay — particularly property taxes — is now the city’s biggest employer.

Anthony P. Rescigno, president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, is struggling to revive the commitment of his members. He is trying to drum up stronger support among local businesses to lengthen the airport runway to 5,000 feet from the present 4,000 so that commercial airlines will bring in more flights. His members favor the longer runway, but not passionately.

“We had an example of a biotech company in New Haven bringing people here all the time,” Mr. Rescigno said. “Because he couldn’t bring them here easily by air, he would bring them to New York. The meetings and conferences took place there, not here. He had an option.”

Some government-business alliances still carry weight. In the Seattle area, for example, Microsoft has pushed its headquarters city, Redmond, to spend millions to upgrade roads for its expanding campus, along with the millions that the software giant has spent.

Now Microsoft wants the state to replace a 40-year-old, two-lane bridge on a highway that connects Seattle and Redmond. “We joined the city in arguing for the new bridge,” said Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman, “and that was instrumental in bringing the issue to the forefront.”

But such examples are increasingly rare these days.

“If you had 30 C.E.O.’s saying, ‘Damn it, we need new bridges or faster trains,’ then that would happen,” said Peter R. Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office. “The fact of the matter is that public infrastructure spending does not have much momentum behind it at all.”

Money Tight, Progress Slow

Mayor DeStefano, 52, an intense man who grew up here, has chosen to spend most of his limited capital budget to renovate New Haven’s public school buildings and add three high schools.

His goal, he says, is to raise the quality of the education so that families will choose to use the public schools, even moving back from the suburbs. His argument is not unlike Mr. Levin’s: Newer buildings, better equipped, make for a better education.

“The high school dropout rate has been cut in half,” the mayor said, arguing that the multiyear reconstruction project is showing results. “Eighty-two percent of the kids go on to two- and four-year colleges. That is higher than the state average.”

Mayor DeStefano’s efforts to rebuild New Haven as a city of middle- and working-class neighborhoods represent a reversal of the large urban renewal projects that once dominated public infrastructure spending. New Haven was at the forefront of that movement. Under an earlier mayor, Richard C. Lee, federal tax dollars poured in for slum clearance, highway construction, big public housing projects, a coliseum and a huge downtown shopping mall.

Most of this is gone now. A community college rises where two department stores stood, and the mall is closed. The 10,000-seat coliseum, a Mecca for wrestling matches and minor-league hockey, was torn down last January.

The Route 34 Connector would have linked I-95, south of the city, to the existing Route 34 in the north. Environmentalists helped to halt the project, objecting in particular to a section of the freeway that would have crossed wetlands. More recently, low-income families living near the right-of-way petitioned the mayor to return the land to streets, stores and homes.

“They want to recreate the neighborhood in which they grew up, or where their parents and grandparents grew up,” said Karyn M. Gilvarg, executive director of the New Haven City Plan Department. She estimates the cost of doing so at $150 million, a relatively small sum for Yale, but too expensive for the mayor to proceed quickly.

There are other delays. The mayor would like Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line to offer a high-speed service to Manhattan, cutting the 80-mile run to an hour, from an hour and 40 minutes.

“The largest cluster of hedge fund managers after New York and London is in Fairfield County,” the mayor said, arguing that New Haven would get some of that business “if it were a half-hour or an hour closer” by train to Midtown Manhattan.

The state government, which owns the New Haven line, is indeed gradually building up an infrastructure to make faster train service possible. Three hundred new rail cars, built to run at high speeds, will start arriving in 2010.

“We are in the process of repairing bridges and upgrading power lines,” Mr. Martin, the transportation official, said. “And we are looking at installing concrete ties as replacements for the wooden ones.”

Given the limited pool of federal and state money, however, the project moves at a snail’s pace. Under the best-case schedule, high-speed service will not arrive in New Haven for a decade.

“We don’t have the big companies pushing the government to get the work done, because they don’t need it,” Ms. Gilvarg said. “They are all going to China or wherever, and the business sector is smaller in New Haven than it was.”

Blurred Lines in New Haven

For New Haven, that leaves Yale.

“There are no corporate citizens left in New Haven except Yale,” Mr. Levin, the university president, said. He, too, would like to see the airport runway lengthened and high-speed rail service to New York. But they are not central to what he considers his mission, which is to make Yale pre-eminent among universities, not just in science and the arts, but in the students’ daily lives.

Eight of the 12 residential colleges have already been rebuilt, at a cost of at least $40 million each. In appearance, the colleges are the same elegant gray sandstone Gothic structures dating from the early 20th century. The new comforts and efficiencies, though, are evident on closer inspection.

Visiting Trumbull College, next to Sterling Library, Ms. Cruickshank, the university planner, points to the leaded glass windows, which are double paned now, eliminating the unsightly plexiglass that had been screwed to the windows to keep down heating bills.

The bedrooms are still small, but they are organized for the first time in clusters of four or five around a common room, creating a much more social environment. “You cannot walk from one place to another without passing students,” said Janet B. Henrich, the master at Trumbull.

Reconfiguring rooms and passageways is costly without being as noticeably expensive as the changes in the basement, which long housed a small theater for student productions, a gallery for their art, a music practice room and a snack bar. But exposed pipes ran along the ceiling, limiting the space.

That was solved by enlarging the basement and encasing the intrusive mechanicals, so that the basement no longer seems like one. The theater in particular benefited. It has 60 cushioned seats, banked steeply over the stage, and equipped with the latest lighting and sound devices.

“I am not sure it makes for better performances,” Ms. Henrich said, “but it is probably safer and easier to learn the basics.”

As Yale invests, pursuing its goals, Mayor DeStefano falls increasingly into step, blurring the line between public and philanthropic infrastructure spending. Yale has acquired land to build two more residential colleges, and the mayor contributed by closing off and giving portions of two streets to the university.

In return, Yale has agreed to spend $10 million to repair bridges, streets, lights and sidewalks in the neighborhood — in effect, picking up a bill that would strain the city’s budget.

“The streets of their campus are the streets of the city,” Ms. Gilvarg, the city planner, said. “They are part of the public infrastructure, not private roads.”

Retail Industry Stable So Far in 2008...

Obviously with all our interest in new retail in Kent we’re paying close attention to what’s happening in the industry.  Retail is like any other business, it’s subject to economic highs and lows and with all the uncertainty right now in the real estate industry we’ve been worried about a possible chilling effect that the real estate troubles could have on new store openings.  According to a recent Banc of American Securities Report, retail openings and closings are on track with previous years so that bodes well for our retail goals.

One thing to keep in mind is that many brand name retailers are publicly traded so they are constantly looking to improve their stock value, and the best way to do that is by opening new stores that generate new revenues.  As a result the pressure to expand new stores is significant which probably explains why nearly 6,000 stores close each year.  It’s a risky business which is why retailers are becoming more and more selective in their site decisions — but still they have to expand to keep stockholders happy.  Our job is to show them why expanding in Kent is going to be good for their stock performance.

But retailers don’t just stand there and take a beating. They slim down, shut stores, trim inventory, slice payroll and take other strategic steps they hope will help them endure the pain. Some stores even thrive in recession even as others struggle.

With fears that the coming months could be the toughest for them since the 1991 recession, retailers are fighting to gain any edge they can over their rivals and to cushion themselves from the slide in customer spending. Many of them are redeploying staff and revising promotions; some are putting a new stress on low prices. In the end, they know, some of them will be winners, others losers.

“I see clients being more aggressive about promotion and reviewing the strategy by which they promote and how often they do it,” says Madison Riley, a retail strategist with consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, whose clients include most major retailers.

The stores’ strategies vary. So do their prospects for success. Much depends on how vulnerable they are in the first place.

Retailers that specialize in furnishing or refurbishing homes have been among the hardest hit. Specialty stores with highly discretionary products, such as the high- and low-end tchotchkes sold by Sharper Image and Lillian Vernon, respectively, may be worst off of all. Both retailers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.

Specialty apparel stores are struggling, too. Even though some clothing, especially for growing kids or for career women, is regarded as essential, sales figures suggest that many of those purchases are being postponed.

Home Depot has slashed 500 jobs at its headquarters. Jewelry store chain Zales has announced plans to close 60 stores, and Ann Taylor plans to slash 180 jobs and close 117 stores within two years.

“The retailers accept that we’re in a recession — smack in the middle of it,” Riley says.

Among the most visible ways that stores are trying to ease their pain from the spending slowdown:

•Merchandise. Retailers must take care not to stock too little of the latest hot fashion or product — or showcase it too late. Many stores, Riley says, are working more closely with overseas suppliers to settle quickly on designs and shorten the development process.

•Pricing. Even retailers that try to avoid across-the-board price slashing are embracing the deep discounting trend, which Wal-Mart capitalized on so successfully last fall and holiday season.

•More consumer input. Retailers can’t afford to wait until the end of a season to determine which trends will prove most popular. Riley says stores are stepping up consumer research and using their websites to gather real-time opinions from shoppers.

Thanks to luck, foresight or a bit of both, some retailers are better positioned to manage a downturn. Those with low, low prices — think Wal-Mart and off-price retailers including T.J. Maxx — and those that cater to the wealthy are tending to outperform those in the middle.

But opportunities exist for midlevel retailers, too. If shoppers are trading down to Wal-Mart, as its sales suggest, then more affluent people may be ready to cut back on their Bloomingdale’s trips in favor of Kohl’s. Tough economic times tend to diminish loyalty to stores across the spectrum.

“In this type of economy, the super shoppers get coupons out and check things online; they’re going to be loyal to themselves first,” says Phil Rist of the consumer insights firm BIGresearch. “Everyone’s trying to find ways to make their money go as far as they can so there’s something left for things they really want.”

Christopher Maddox of Washington, D.C., says he’s not giving up on Macy’s, one of his favorite retailers, but is being far more cautious about his purchases this year.

“I’m only buying essentials due to the economy,” Maddox says. “Luxury and big-ticket items are not in my budget due to increased costs of gas, food and utilities.”

What follows is a look at the strategies of four retailers — Target, J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Neiman Marcus — that draw from often-overlapping segments of shoppers.

As they brace for a possible recession, these stores are re-examining, in particular, four areas that will be most evident to shoppers: inventory, staffing, store openings and promotions.

J.C. Penney

Damn the economic naysayers, J.C. Penney is designing its most ambitious five-year plan for store openings in its history and last week oversaw its largest-ever merchandise launch. Still, facing a persistent drop in consumer spending, CEO Mike Ullman says the chain is scaling back those store openings from 50 to 36 this year and will adjust its inventories to reduce the need for hefty markdowns.

Ullman hopes that Ralph Lauren’s new American Living fashion, home and footwear line for men, women and kids will further invigorate the Penney brand, which has drawn more and younger customers with the addition of the Sephora makeup line and two private-label lingerie lines designed, in part, to compete with Victoria’s Secret. The American Living line will be found in 600 of the chain’s 1,000 stores, often with its own in-store shops.

Deutsche Bank senior retail analyst Bill Dreher questions whether now is a good time for Penney to launch a line that’s about 25% higher-priced than similar merchandise already in its stores.

Under the deal, Ralph Lauren’s name won’t appear anywhere on the new merchandise or displays, Dreher notes. Kohl’s, by contrast, was able to connect the Lauren name with its Chaps line for many years, which helped keep customers aware of the connection. The new line is “no panacea,” he says.

Still, Dreher notes, Penney has successfully reinvented itself over the past decade from a chain known for “dowdy, older-lady-type fashions to one that’s very much hip, on-trend and cool.” More recently, Penney has recognized that its catalog business is less important now than its website, he says.

About six months ago, Penney decided to merge its store, catalog and online marketing operations; the change will result in 100 to 200 job losses. Ullman insists it’s “not a cost-driven exercise,” but rather one that’ll give shoppers “one view of our merchandise.”

“People expected us to have cost-cutting, but that’s not how you grow a business,” Ullman says.

Ullman says Penney benefits by serving the “middle third” of the country, where people aren’t “living paycheck to paycheck.” Still, all bets are off if a weak economy grows really sick.

Nick Birchfield of Garden City, Mich., is still shopping at Penney, but that could change. If the economy gets much worse and gas prices rise higher, he says, “I will not be shopping at J.C. Penney unless they are giving their merchandise away.”

Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus is preparing for a possible sales slowdown, recognizing that while affluent customers might not trade down to lower-quality stores, they might buy less even if they remain loyal.

The luxury retailer may adjust the amount of merchandise in stores, but otherwise is “just continuing business as usual,” says spokeswoman Ginger Reeder.

Neiman “knows how to react,” to economic troubles, Reeder says. That means preserving its customer service and high-quality merchandise but adjusting its inventories to concede the reality that its customers may be tightening their snakeskin belts.

“We’ve found our customers are very resilient,” says Reeder, referring to Neiman’s history during past economic slowdowns. “They’re not trading down but might potentially buy less.”

As at other luxury retailers with strong presences in California and Florida, Neiman’s sales have suffered along with their customers’ finances during the housing recession, says Craig Johnson of retail consulting and research company Customer Growth Partners. But for the “premier luxury retailer in the U.S,” in Johnson’s words, suffering means merely moderate sales growth — down from double-digit increases in recent years. “As the economy stabilizes and spring returns, we look for improving results,” Johnson says.

Neiman’s focuses its promotions on two major sales a year, which Reeder says won’t change.

In this economy, sales figures show, the safest demographic spot for retailers to occupy is either the low end or the very high end. “Middle-market department stores continue to bleed market share to discounters such as Wal-Mart and TJX, to high-end players like Saks and Neiman Marcus and to hot specialty stores such as Anthropologie,” Johnson says.

As Reeder suggests, those who remain loyal to Neiman’s through economic turmoil are typically those who prize quality over price.

“I still shop at Neiman’s and will continue to,” says Amy Cavers, of Skillman, N.J. “If things worsen or my budget gets tighter, I may cut back on my volume if anything, but not where I shop. I still want the same quality in my purchases. … I would rather have fewer shoes and dresses but with the same uniqueness and flair or style that I expect.”

Jennifer Stillman of Atlanta says that rather than cutting designer labels out of her apparel budget, she’s buying groceries at Wal-Mart and Costco over pricier markets such as Whole Foods.

Macy’s

The nation’s largest department store chain concedes that the economic slowdown has forced it to put off plans to scale back its sales and promotions.

“We still believe the strategy is a good one, but the timing not necessarily good,” says CEO Terry Lundgren.

In 2006, Macy’s said it was trying to wean customers off frequent sales in favor of its “Every Day Value” pricing. Though Lundgren says there were slightly fewer promotions in 2007 than in 2006, he says Macy’s won’t reduce the timing or the number of sales until consumer spending starts to bounce back.

All the great deals now in stores are one benefit of the depressing economic news, says Marietta Landon of Cambridge, Mass. She finds sales everywhere she goes. “Especially Macy’s — they make every weekend a sale with saving passes and advertising galore,” Landon says.

Macy’s says its plan, announced earlier this month, to eliminate 2,300 management jobs in the company’s central office and create 250 new ones in its local markets wasn’t necessarily driven by the economy. But saving about $100 million a year sure doesn’t hurt. The plan to localize decision-making “was conceived long before there was talk of a credit crunch or mortgage crisis, but executing it now in the face of a possible recession does have its benefits,” says Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski.

The addition of Tommy-Hilfiger-branded men’s and women’s apparel this fall, which will make Macy’s the only place to buy the brand in the USA outside of Hilfiger stores, should further boost sales, he says.

Macy’s has also announced plans to close nine poor-performing stores this year. Though struggling with some of the same issues that its rival J.C. Penney faces in catering to the middle class, Macy’s holds an advantageous position, says Phil Rist of BIGresearch. That’s because Macy’s enjoys the image of being something of a novelty in many areas since it renamed the former May department stores in the fall of 2006.

Its clientele is generally more affluent than Penney’s, notes analyst Bill Dreher. Still, in times like this, even a Macy’s will likely be hurt by the tendency of customers to cut back on non-essentials.

“All the department stores are vulnerable because they are about 80% apparel and 20% home goods,” Dreher says. “After years of strong apparel sales, customers have full closets, and with a weak fashion cycle, there’s nothing fashionistas have to run out and buy.”

Target

“Hello goodbuy.”

Couldn’t that be a Wal-Mart slogan?

As the economy struggles, Target, long known as the purveyor of the well-designed product, is increasingly spotlighting its low-priced goods. “Hello goodbuy” is the tag line for ads that now focus as much on the price of its products as they do on their style. After all, in a down economy, hand-painted toilet-bowl-brush covers that cost several bucks more than the next one are seldom a major consumer priority.

That leaves Target more vulnerable in this economy than, say, Wal-Mart, says Deutsche Bank senior retail analyst Bill Dreher. It may be a discounter, but it’s hard for it to compete with Wal-Mart on price, Dreher says.

“Target has historically focused more on being fashion-forward and having value-added design,” Dreher says. “The problem is, consumers don’t want that now. They’re not redecorating or refurbishing their homes. They’re looking for everyday life staples.”

At the same time, Dreher says, Target is better positioned than department stores these days.

Target has been trying for years to get its low-price message across, says spokeswoman Lena Michaud. And she says its business plan will carry it through hard times: “We are very confident in our strategy going forward.”

That includes trying to rein in costs in a way that customers won’t notice. That may be difficult given that a key target is hourly payroll expenses. Michaud says Target is investing in technology to make sure workers are scheduled at the right times. Unlike some of its competitors, Target is sticking to its plan to open stores, about 100 of them, which Michaud says is consistent with the number it has opened in recent years.

The chain is also preparing for the departure this year of designer Isaac Mizrahi, who has a line of popular private-label apparel at Target but is leaving to join Liz Claiborne. Spokeswoman Susan Giesen says Target will still offer apparel from trendy designers, which, along with the new Converse All-Star apparel and footwear line, should fill any gaps in its clothing lines.

That might not be enough to keep clothing customers loyal. Based on BIGresearch’s survey data on people who shop at Target primarily for at least one category of merchandise, these consumers are shopping around. “The folks who shop at Target for health and beauty aids — a lot of them go to Kohl’s, Macy’s and Penney’s first for clothing,” says Phil Rist of BIGresearch. “There’s a lot of cross-shopping.”

Contributing: Erin Kutz

HOW THE VIEWS OF THESE STORES’ REGULAR SHOPPERS COMPARE

	Target	Neiman Marcus and Saks	Macy’s	J.C. Penney
Optimistic about the economy in next 6 months	33%	35%	36%	33%
Shopping closer to home	38%	26%	36%	44%
Shopping for sales more often	42%	22%	39%	45%
Spending less on clothing	39%	28%	35%	42%
Taking fewer shopping trips	39%	11%	34%	44%
Source: BIGresearch survey using national sample; responses are percentages of 2,434 people who said they regularly shopped at Target, 1,632 at Macy’s, 2,723 at J.C. Penney and 32 at Neiman Marcus or Saks

STORES AND THEIR SHOPPERS

Here is how these retailers’ shoppers compare with the U.S. population as a whole. Depending on who the store is targeting, they want to have close to or a higher composition of shoppers than the U.S. average. An index of 100 is considered average.
	Target	Neiman Marcus	Macy’s	J.C. Penney
Age 18-34	104	99	92	89
Age 35-64	110	112	110	105
Age 65 and older	69	70	82	97
Education high school	82	71	78	92
Education college	112	115	113	105
Household size two or fewer	88	91	91	95
Income less than $40,000	63	55	56	75
Income $40,000-$99,000	121	96	116	120
Income $100,000 and more	155	240	186	122
Source: Claritas, a Nielsen company

Here’s My Kind of Bar...

Yesterday I posted about some alternative fast food restaurants — and don’t worry, we are aiming higher than just fast food for new restaurants in Kent — but after any good meal you have to good places for dessert.  Let me introduce you to my favorite kind of bar, the dessert bar.

Consumers can buy blended fruit concoctions at just about any shopping mall but a Malaysian chain called Dessert’s Bar adds a twist by serving them up in a sophisticated bart atmosphere. The menu at Dessert’s Bar is an unabashed homage to fruit, including items such as smoothies, sorbets, fruit salads, along with pancakes and crepes heaped with strawberries, melon balls and berries.

While sticking to non-alcoholic offerings, as befits a country where two-thirds of the population is Islamic, the fruit drinks at Dessert’s Bar are served in martini and wine glasses. Which adds a level of sophistication and makes the establishment a welcome alternative to bars and coffee houses.

Dessert-only restaurants have been around for a while. But most specialize in admittedly delicious yet calorie-laden creations. By contrast, Malaysia’s Dessert’s Bar focuses on flavourful indulgence without guilt. There’s a concept which could find a ready market in any city with a large health-conscious population.

Recruitment Room...

With Dan Smith officially on-board as the City’s new Economic Development Director, we now have someone dedicated to working those contacts 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – because that’s what it takes to recruit new businesses.  As we’ve heard from Don Schjeldahl (Austin Company, Industrial site selection) and Joe Fackel (Buxton Company, retail site selection) recruiting new businesses takes tons of preparation, strategic thinking, fierce persistence and lucky breaks.  I give Dan a lot of credit because economic development is today’s version of the old traveling salesman who has wears out a lot shoe leather knocking on doors with no guarantees of a sale.  But after his first week I can already tell we made a great choice. Dan gets it.  He knows what it takes and he understands that at the end of the day his success can be defined with one number — how many new jobs he brings to Kent.

New jobs is actually a part of every city employees job so Dan is not out there by himself.  From the paramedic to the city planner and everyone in between, Dan’s got a lot of help from co-workers who are all working to make Kent a great place to live, work and play — which is something every new business looks for and frankly expects in today’s competitive global environment. When a business can choose to be anywhere in the world, site decisions increasingly come down to the quality of life available in the community and quality of life is exactly what city employees produce so everything city employees do everyday helps Dan improve his numbers.

Dan and I were talking this week about recruitment.  He’s putting marketing packages together and setting up meetings with retailers at the national retail conference held in May out in Las Vegas.  He’s checking-in with existing businesses and cold calling new ones.  He’s also working on creating a new web presence for Kent.  All this in just his first week.

I told Dan that a couple of years ago I had a chance to go inside the University of Tennessee football program’s inner sanctum.  Besides having amazing facilities, they had a really cool recruiting room.  All over the walls in this room were 3×5 cards listing players names by position.  The names near the top were the recruits they want to land but in case those don’t pan out they have other names right beneath them.  The story was that their hated rival, University of Florida, used high powered telescopes to look through the windows to steal their recruits so Tennessee installed special windows and blinds to prevent anyone from seeing in.  Trust me, they take this stuff seriously in the SEC — I laughed at the story but no one else in the room was laughing.

Anyways, the point of this story is to say that I told Dan that we need to start our own business recruitment room.  I’ve listed a few of my favorite stores and restaurants on the blog before so I thought I’d share a few others that I saw recently that sounded like some possible good fits for Kent.

We certainly have our fair share of fast food in Kent but given the sizeable student body that tends to eat it, I suspect our market has more room to grow.  So if it’s going to grow I hope we can bring in some slightly different types for our slightly different city.  Here’s a couple that caught my eye and will show up on our wall:

Zen Burger
New York’s Zen Burger aims to revolutionize the fast food world with natural, wholesome vegetarian foods that have the look, feel, texture and taste of meats without the negative effects on health and the environment. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurant specializes in meatless comfort foods that mimic those sold in traditional fast-food environments, such as the ZenSausage breakfast sandwich, ZenBeef burgers, crispy ZenChicken sandwich, ZenTuna sandwich, ZenHotDog, ZenChicken tenders, ZenShrimp and French fries.

The midtown Manhattan eatery, which just opened a few weeks ago, even recreates the ambience—if you can call it that—of the big fast-food chains, with bright lighting and a 1970s colour scheme heavy on the oranges and greens. Also available at Zen Burger are organic soups and chili, organic salads, non-dairy ice cream, organic teas and coffees, and natural sodas, as well as kids’ meals complete with tiny toy. Pricing for a standard meal is about USD 7.

Zen Burger was founded by James Tu, owner of Zen Palate restaurants, and reportedly the plan is to take the chain nationwide, with the next restaurant slated to open in Hollywood in the middle of this year, according to Midtown Lunch. While vegetarians make up a still-small but rapidly growing part of the U.S. population, “flexitarians”—or those who eat a vegetarian diet some of the time, but not always—are a much larger group, and Zen Burger’s real target, Tu told TheStreet.com. “The key is the taste,” Tu said. “Ideally, I don’t want people to know what they are eating is vegetarian.”

Appealing to serious and sometime vegetarians alike, it’s hard to imagine anything but a warm reception to this concept around the globe. One to get in on early?

McCalister’s Deli

People today crave fresh tastes, quick service and a welcoming friendly atmosphere where they can relax for hours or eat and run. And that’s precisely what McAlister’s Deli delivers, with a special touch that’s uniquely their own. You’ll see it in their menu, in their service and in their faces. And it will change the way you do deli.

As soon as you enter, you’ll be greeted by our massive chalkboard menu filled with over 100 different items; sandwiches, spuds, salads, soups and sweets. The only thing missing is food that’s fried or greasy — everything at McAlister’s is made exactly the way you like it. Just don’t forget to add a tall glass of McAlister’s Famous Sweet Tea to your order. You can start sipping on that while you relax in our cozy dining area. And there’s no need to get up when your order is ready, our servers will bring it straight to your table, as well as any other little extras you may need. It’s all part of the McAlister’s touch.

KnowFat! LifeStyle Grill is what you want—a restaurant that offers a better way to enjoy the food you love. Our food tastes incredible and is prepared so that it’s healthier than the usual alternatives. Knowledge is power and we want you to know what goes into your body. Nutritional information for each menu item – including calories, fat grams, carbohydrate grams, and protein grams – is accurate, accessible and clearly listed on the menu and on your receipt. Pretty cool, right? But here’s the kicker, we’re more than just a restaurant! Our in-house nutrition center stocks a carefully edited selection of products to help you live a balanced lifestyle, not just when eating in the store, but all day long. So, maybe the better question is, why not KnowFat!?

We’re committed to providing our guests with a one-of-a kind experience.

Our mission: KnowFat! Lifestyle Grille promises to provide great tasting, nutritionally packed food and products to help you look good, feel good, and achieve optimal physical and mental performance.

KnowFat! aims to pioneer the phrase “lifestyle grille”. A lifestyle grille is a place where you can come in, eat at a restaurant, and then buy products for the rest of your healthy lifestyle. We are squarely on-trend and poised to become the leader in the new healthy fast-casual category.

KnowFat! concentrates on mainstream food by offering up better-for-you menu items like chicken meatball wraps, honey mustard turkey tips, super lean cheeseburgers with low-fat cheese, and sides like colorful broccoli and our proprietary “AirFries™.”

Our customers don’t just want to eat well while they’re in the restaurant; they want to buy products that support an overall healthy lifestyle. Each KnowFat! combines a quick-serve restaurant with a convenience-style retail store that carries the best health-oriented nutrition products on the market.

There is nothing like this concept on the market today. KnowFat! Lifestyle Grille is the only concept of its kind- and we’re ready to roll.