Staying Safe In Kent...

Whenever there is a news story about a serious crime in Kent, people worry.  We worry too but we also try to keep things in perspective and we rely on data to do that.  When you look at the snapshot of crime data in Kent over the last 4 years (from January thru October of each year) you can get a good idea of how safe we are this year versus the prior three years by the numbers rather than the stories that make it into the newspaper headlines.   

What got me thinking about all this was receiving Chief Peach’s October Police Statistics report.  The numbers for 2009 show total calls for service are running about the same as last year while total arrests are down (-8%).  Accident incidents are up 5% but serious crimes are down 10% from the same period in 2008. 

That got me wondering about the trends over the last 4 years so I plotted the data on 3 charts.  Our job is to protect against all crimes but serious crimes, e.g., assault, rape and homicide are the categories that really define what safety is all about in our community.   The good news is that incidents of serious crimes in 2009 are 20% below 2006 figures, 13% below 2007 and 10% below 2008.  7 out of 8 types of serious crimes in 2009 are below 2008 and 7 out of 8 are below 2006 numbers as well – so despite the few recent news stories, the City is justifiably safer than it’s been in the last 4 years.

Boil Water Alert Lifted...

I now have something else to be thankful for — the City’s water tests all came back great — so the temporary boil alert that was imposed 2 days ago after a water line break for residents in the north end of town (around Riverbend) is officially over.  Drink to your heart’s content.  Now that the immediate crisis is behind us we can have a nice long talk with the gas company about their contractor who caused the water line break in the first place.

Here’s the official press release:

BOIL WATER ADVISORY LIFTED

It is no longer necessary to BOIL water used for drinking or cooking.

 The BOIL WATER ORDER was in effect for the following section of the City of Kent:

The area to the North of Fairchild Avenue
East of Wheeling and Lake Erie Rail Road Tracks (Fish Creek) and
West of the Cuyahoga River including all of the River Bend Subdivision
(The entire River Bend Subdivision both East and West of the river)

A break in a 12 inch water main caused depressurization of the water distribution system in the affected area. Water service was restored at approximately 10:00PM Monday, November 23^rd 2009.

 Water tests have been completed to insure that the water is safe for drinking. There is no longer any need for concern regarding the quality of the water.

 Please accept our sincere apology for the inconvenience caused by this untimely water service disruption.

 This NOTICE issued at 1:00PM Wednesday, November 25^th, 2009.

Eugene K. Roberts, P.E.
Director of Public Service
Kent, Ohio

Giving Thanks To Kent Businesses...

In the spirit of the season, the Kent Chamber of Commerce held their annual awards dinner last week.  Nothing warms a City Manager’s heart like a room filled with successful Kent businesses — so with about 110 Kent business folks in attendance, I had a whole lotta thanks for every one of them.     

• Employee-owned since 1979, celebrating 30 years of employee ownership this year
• Davey is in the top 20 employee-owned companies in the U.S according to the National Center for Employee Ownership.  Largest employee-owned company in Ohio.
• The Davey institute of Tree Sciences, our signature training and education program celebrated its 100^th anniversary this year
• Grew customer count to highest level in 2008 and record revenues of $595, 797, 000
• Grew employee count to record level in 2008 with more than 7,000 employees through U.S. and Canada
• Completed the largest acquisition (Wolf Tree) and largest merger (The Care of Trees) in 2008

Water Boil Alert For Parts of Kent...

The three most dreaded words in a utility manager’s vocabulary are water boil alert but no matter how hard we work to make sure we don’t have to use them very often there are times when advising customers to boil their water is the most prudent course of action.  And that’s exactly what we’ve got in the north part of Kent adjacent to SR 43.

Leaf City USA...

Nothing says Tree City USA like the miles of leaf piles that you’ll see being vacuumed up by the City’s 6 leaf trucks around town from November 2 to December 18th.  As you attempt to navigate streets that have been narrowed down to almost a single lane due to the ginormous rows of leaves raked into the curb lanes you can see that the City deserved the Tree City USA designation that it has received each year over the last 2 decades. 

In the old days, these leaf piles would be a 10 year old’s dream come true — run and jump to your heart’s delight.  Of course today with a lawyer lurking around every corner, liability issues have sucked the fun out of leaf pile diving so kids please stay out of the piles in the street. 

Leaf collection is one of the most popular services offered by Public Service.  Each season the City collects hundreds of loads of leaves that are passively composted and then made available to residents later in the next year to be used as a soil supplement for landscape projects. 

Leaf service is an expensive public service — as anyone who has ever raked leaves knows it’s very labor intensive, and labor costs money.  It doesn’t help that leaves aren’t always the most cooperative bunch;  they blow, they freeze, they get mixed in with other debris and they get so matted down that the turbo-vacs have a hard time sucking them up, so we resort to good old fashioned hand labor.  Hand labor at your own house is hard enough but hand labor over miles and miles of streets can get crazy — and it’s that crazy that gets expensive. 

It’s been an early leaf drop this Fall and over the first month I’ve watched those neighbors with mature trees out raking and blowing leaves every day; seriously every day.  I love trees as much as the next guy but that kind of raking is a bit insane.   The tree canopy around town is gorgeous during the summer but you pay the price, and at this time of year it’s a curse.   

Which I guess is why Kent residents love the City service.  It gets the leaves off their back and on ours — and we’re happy to take it.  In the interest of trying new things and experimenting with different leaf collection procedures, Gene Roberts, City Public Service Director, reports that the crews are going to a more diversified method of collecting leaves this year.  Rather than focusing all the crews in one neighborhood at the same time, this year they’re trying to spread the crews all over town so that no street has to wait too much longer than any other for the service.  Time will tell whether it works but I applaud the effort and the willingness to stick their necks out in the hopes of providing a better service. 

Through the years, the sights and sounds of the City’s leaf crews have become a part of the landscape that mark the passage of autumn.  The changes introduced each year are intended to ensure the success of the service for generations to come.  Here’s a more detailed description of this year’s change from Gene. 

MEMO FROM GENE ROBERTS, KENT PUBLIC SERVICE DIRECTOR

This year Gerald Shanley, City Arborist,  recommended and I concurred that we change the pickup schedule.  In the past all trucks would be sent into a specific area of the City (typically a quadrant or half).  This year one truck is assigned to each quadrant of the City with a fifth truck assigned to work in the quadrant that has the most leaves down.  Additionally, this year Gerald removed the street by street assignment given the crews in past years and instead he is working with each crew in an attempt to allow for greater productivity.

 The reason this schedule was selected was based on complaints from past years when the leaf matter fell early and no truck was assigned for up to three weeks in one area of the City while at the same time 4 or 5 trucks were working across town collecting leaves; residents complained that they were being neglected in favor of others as their leaves went uncollected for sometime.  Additionally we have been advised of residents’ concern that their tree lawn grass would be killed if the leaves were not picked up the day that they placed them at the curb; I must state that I have seen some brown colored grass after a delayed pickup but in every case the grass has returned to normal growth the following spring.

 During years when the leaves fall late we have spent considerable time collecting little leaf matter from one quadrant of the City while maintaining our published schedule.  However, during years when the leaves fall early we spend the full scheduled time in a specified area of the City only not to finish and then not returning for up to three weeks to complete the area.  In either case collection efficiency was not at the highest that it could have been resulting in an increased cost to collect leaves.  The efficient delivery of service is directly related to cost; by example in past years City staff would work overtime on weekends and holidays in an attempt to finish one area in order to maintain the schedule for the following week.

 This year most of the leaves dropped relatively early and as such most residences have cleared their lawn resulting in a lot of leaves at the curb earlier as compared to past years exascerbating the collection problem.  Crews work main City streets first pass and then back into the neighborhoods – the logic being more cars with faster average speed blow more leaves around resulting in more work for residents and more return trips for our crews.  Sometimes residents call stating that they have been missed when in reality what has happened the truck fills with leaf matter and must by dumped, crews typically return collecting the balance of a block.

 In past years I have followed our crews around and have found that after they have cleared a street of all leaves at the curb some resident will call advising that we have missed them and that we need to come right back to get their leaves.  We never call them dishonest and do try to get back in a timely manor but honestly it always comes at a loss of productivity and disadvantage to another resident waiting to be collected.  The current process in place is reported by Gerald as being more successful in terms of productivity as compared to previous methods tried. 

 You can guarantee residents that call you that we will not stop until all leaves are collected that are placed at the curb or the program is suspended due to winter.  In the event that you have specific locations where a resident is reporting that we have missed picking up their leaves please let us know so we can contact them directly to advise an approximate time they can expect to receive service.  As always we are open to suggestions but at this point I believe that Gerald is doing a great job given the resources available to provide the leaf collection service citywide. 

 Hopefully this short narrative answers your questions, if I have missed anything please advise.

_____________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fall Leaf Collection Service Guidelines

1. Please rake leaves into a pile at the curb.  When the leaves are in piles City crews can move more quickly through the neighborhoods.
2. Where possible, avoid piling leaves where cars are parked or where tree limbs make access difficult.
3. Please remove tree limbs, rocks, bricks and any other debris that might be mixed in with leaves.  These materials damage the equipment and will cause service delays.
4. If you have bagged leaves, place them at the curb and call the Leaf Line at 330 678-8105 to schedule pick up.
5. The vacuum motor on the leaf trucks generates noise and a certain amount of dust.  The City replaces dust filters as often as possible, but if the season is dry it is nearly impossible to eliminate dust.  We apologize for the inconvenience and we will continue to do our best to control dust.
6. To prevent fires, please avoid parking cars on leaf piles. 
7. The crews work on a tight schedule, so once they complete a pass in your neighborhood they cannot come back until the next scheduled pass.  Each neighborhood as many passes as possible during the 6 weeks of collection.

Kent Community Dinner...

Like clockwork the Kent Community Dinner has offered a standing invitation to partake in a monthly dinner for a couple of years now thanks to the hard work of Laura Mazur and All Together Now, Inc.  I posted about them fairly frequently early on to help build the word of mouth advertising but now the food and the event has taken on a life of it’s own, growing in numbers and participants each month without any help from me.   It really has become a microcosm of everything good about Kent — our unique people, our foods, and interesting conversations in unexpected places. 

I figured it was time to give new readers a formal introduction to the Community Dinners so here’s Laura’s notice of tomorrow night’s (Saturday, November 21, at 5:30 n the Kent State Student Center Ballroom) monthly Community Dinner:

Kent Businesses Featured on SaleHop.com Web Site...

True to their mission, Main Street Kent has been working hard to help the small shops in downtown Kent be successful.  Last year Main Street completed a detailed survey of downtown business needs and earlier this year Main Street got a grant to bring in some small business retail experts to help fill those needs.  They’ve provided assistance on merchandising, advertising, financials, store operations, and internet sales. 

One of the things that surprised me from the business survey was learning that about three-quarters of downtown Kent businesses do not have an internet presence.  I figured in today’s day and age just about everybody had a cyber-space home but it looks like the realities of small businesses in Kent suggests otherwise. 

Small boutique shops have always been about word of mouth sales but it seems to me that doesn’t mean that the internet business model can’t help supplement walk in business.  As a matter of fact, the combo-deal (internet and walk in sales) seems to offer the widest customer net possible and at least a couple of the new downtown businesses have touted the value of both channels.  Now we just need to spread the word and once again that’s where Main Street is stepping up. 

Main Street is approaching the interent through a couple of different ways.  First off, Main Street has been in the process of revamping their web site — with the hope of being able to give the Main Street businesses another place to be seen.  It’s the principle that Main Street (as a cumulative body of small businesses) can do for the little guys what the big guys would do for themselves.  I’m not sure how far along in creative development the new Main Street site is but I think it will go live in 2010.

In the meantime I noticed that Main Street has been making sure businesses know about existing business advertising sites that get in front of customer eyes.  A good example of that is www.salehop.com which I was told by Main Street happens to be featuring small businesses in Kent during the month of November.  It’s a great way for businesses to post information about their products and to offer coupons and discounts to lure customers into their stores. 

A quick check of the 44240 Area Code on the SaleHop site revealed a free pizza from Guys Pizza, a 20% off coupon from Vintage Rehab Clothing, a whooppee cushion from Off The Wagon, and a 10% off  coupon from Spin More Records. 

My advice is to bookmark the SaleHop site and before you shop, download some coupons, save yourself some money and suport a local Kent business all in one easy transaction.

Creative Class Without Age Limits...

Richard Florida’s book the Rise of the Creative Class flags the presence of what he calls members of the creative class (think social diversity on steroids) as being a bio-marker for economic success.  Dr. Florida is careful to say that he’s not intending to advocate the idea as a political pundit as much as he is trying to report data findings that he saw as a professional researcher.  Fair enough. 

Intuitively his observations ring true — it makes sense that folks that feel less bound by convention as a lifestyle are also more likely to push the envelope in business which gives them a higher probability of stumbling upon the garage invention that becomes the next Microsoft or Google.  These outliers are the ones that led someone to say that all progress is made by unreasonable people — with reason being defined as conformity of mores, practices and beliefs.  These are mold breakers that can turn into trend setters. 

I’m a big fan of Dr. Florida’s work because we happen to be a town half filled with the members of the creative class.  Even among the college towns in Ohio, Kent’s culture seems to like to draw a little further outside the lines so I find Dr. Florida’s economic prognostications for success in the natural habitat of creative classers reason for optimism. 

My only modification to Dr. Florida’s hypothesis would be to say I’m not sure the creative class is as much a demographic as it is one of Dr. Jung’s archetypes.  The only distinction I’m trying to make is to say I’m not sure the creative class is limited to a certain age demographic — I think it’s bigger than that.  I’d argue that it is a lifestyle and personality type and while there is certainly examples of attitudinal-sclerosis that coincide with each tick of the biological clock, I’ve also seen a fair share aging bohemians around town that line up in every category with the creative class criteria except for their age.

I won’t go so far as to call Kent the modern equivalent of Pan’s Neverland but it’s definitely got a similar sensibility that encourages a youthful spirit for people of all ages.  For obvious reasons college towns are notoriously youthful.  When you’re immersed in so large a youth based culture it’s hard not to be influenced by the water you’re swimming in.  It may not be the fountain of youth but it sure helps keep the dreams of youth alive and kicking.  And whether it’s nature or nurture, Kent has broad appeal to folks with the enthuisasm of youth and ideals to match.    

If the physical environment has something to do with it as the nurturist camp would contend, then I read with interest the following article that talks about where the creative types like to live, work and play.  The themes noted in this article define the kind of spaces we’re trying to advocate as Kent, especially downtown Kent, is busy re-inventing itself to stay relevant and interesting to the folks that call Kent home. 

–

19 urban development types for creatives

Thanks to Chris Leinberger, author of the The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream, we know what the rather uninspired, industrial age 19 standard product types are that institutional investors put their money in:

Office: Build to suit; Mixed-use urban; Medical
Industrial: Build to suit; Warehouse
Retail: Neighborhood center; Lifestyle center; Big-box anchored
Apartment: Suburban garden; Urban high density
Housing: Entry level; Move-up; Luxury; Assisted living/retirement; Resort/Second home
Miscellaneous: Self storage; Mobile home park

However, what would be the 19 urban development types for the creatives that fuel the knowledge economy? Here’s one look at it, based on a list initially produced by renowned urbanist Andres Duany:

A. Primarily Commercial Mixed-Use Buildings
1. Pedestrian-Only Town Center Retail Entertainment Grouping:  Providing at least a 50% tenant mix of restaurants, cafes and bars with a predominance of outdoor dining fronting a pedestrian-only paseo or plaza, or pedestrian-oriented street, supported by personal services and unique shops. The principal surrounding building types would include triple mixed-use mid-rises and flats (see following building types.) The Town Center has a typical g.l.a. (gross leasable area) of 30,000 to 100,000 sq. ft.

2. Standard Town Center Retail Entertainment Grouping:  Mix of restaurants, personal services and unique shops. The principal surrounding building types would include triple mixed-use mid-rises and flats (see following building types.) A supermarket (often a co-op as chain supermarkets follow a more suburban model) would be a major tenant. The Town Center has a typical g.l.a. (gross leasable area) of 30,000 to 100,000 sq. ft.

3. Neighborhood Center Retail Entertainment Grouping:  Providing a neighborhood- determined tenant mix of third-place-oriented restaurants and pubs (neighborhood-friendly places beyond home and work), personal services and convenience goods. It has a typical g.l.a. of about 20,000 sq. ft. It is anchored by a popular restaurant or pub.

4. Triple Mixed-Use Flat:  Three-four story flat, one or two units/rods in width, with independent retail on the ground floor, loft office space on the second floor, and loft-type residential on the third/fourth floors, with roof deck.  Parking in the rear or below. These can be used as infill or as modular buildings to develop either the Town or Neighborhood Center Retail Entertainment Grouping.

5. Triple Mixed-Use Mid-Rise:  Three-six story mid-rise building, three to eight units/rods in width, with independent retail on the ground floor, loft office space on the second floor, and loft-type residential on the third/fourth floors, with roof deck. Maximum floor plate size: 25,000 sf. Parking in the rear. These can be used as infill or as modular buildings to develop the Town Center Retail Entertainment Grouping.

B. Primarily Residential Mixed-Use Buildings
6. Mixed-Use Loft Apartment Mid-Rise:  Three-six story mid-rise building, three to eight/rods in width, with independent retail on the ground floor, loft-type residential on the second-third/sixth floors, with roof deck. Parking in the rear or below. These are located on primary streets and not in any Retail Entertainment Groupings. Loft Apartments are defined here as lofts with enclosed bedrooms.

7. Mixed-Use Loft Apartment Flat:  Three-four story flat, one or two units/rods in width, with independent retail on the ground floor and loft apartments on the second to third/fourth floors, with roof deck. Parking in the rear. These are located on primary streets and not in any Retail Entertainment Groupings. Loft Apartments are defined here as lofts with enclosed bedrooms.

8. Mixed-Use Mini-Condo Mid-Rise:  Three-six story mid-rise building with 300-500 s.f. units and limited to no parking over ground-floor retail.  These are located in very urban, transit-oriented locations for people seeking attainably-priced units and don’t own cars.

9. Loft Apartment House:  An unconventional apartment building with every apartment available for residential and/or commercial use. The ceilings must be taller to pemit the commercial depth (a distance from windows greater than that necessary for a residential unit.)

10. Live-Work Units:  Rowhouses with the first story available as a commercial space, either independently leased or in association with the residential unit above. These are more costly units for the higher end of the market. Parking in the rear. These can be located in the Neighborhood Center Retail Entertainment Group or on a primary street.

C. Exclusively Residential Buildings
11. Loft Apartment House:  Conventional apartment buildings with parking behind or below. These are preferable as vertical buildings (two, four or six units per floor) rather than as continuous hallway buildings, as the scale of the smaller buildings yields a better urban fabric more compatible with houses and other mixed use. The trick here is to avoid the requirement of contiguous clustering of the type in the minimum of hundreds of units.

12. Courtyard Apartments:  A building that occupies the boundaries of its lot while internally defining one or more private patios. This is the most urban of types as it is able to shield the private realm from all sides. The front of the building is identical to a Loft
Apartment House.

13. Townhouses with an Ancillary Building:  The conventional types with the addition of a detached outbuilding or attached backbuilding to its rear. These premises are available for home occupations or as an ancillary rental units. They generate well over $1000 a month with a kitchen and separate bedroom at about 400 sq. ft.

14. Green-fronting Townhouses:  Conventional attached types on small lots with the addition of shared enfronting square, green or close in condominium association. A variant to the open space is a shared area within the inner block, usually a playground. The trick here is to have the common open space rated in the appraisal.

15. Paseo Housing Grouping:  An arrangement of any of the above residential building types fronting both sides of a pedestrian-only street (paseo). Parking in the rear. These were easily the fastest selling units at Kentlands, MD and largely responsible for the success of the Rosemary Beach development in Pensacola, FL.

16. The Inn:  A small hotel ranging from 30 to 80 rooms. Many towns do not have lodging available because the minimum standards are in the hundreds. It is as important to note that some excellent urban locations are too small for large hotels. These inns do not need to have restaurants and other costly services as the rest of the town would provide them in seemless proximity. The trick here is to get the size down.

D. Exclusively Commercial Buildings
17. Loft Office Mid-Rise:  A two-six story open floor plan office building with high exposed ceilings; large floor to ceiling windows with great views; and ample daylighting. These are the types of buildings that are often candidates for green building and high-tech real estate awards. Maximum floor plate size: 25,000 sf. Parking in the rear. Some alternative uses afforded by such a flexible building type is a series of artist studios on one floor such as the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, or for an open market on the ground floor for merchants like at Faneuil Hall in Boston or the Fells Point Market in Baltimore, even a live music venue and/or cafe. Essentially this would be the entrepreneurs’ dream workplace.

18. Avenue Office Grouping:  A converted office building enfronting a mixed-use thoroughfare rather than associated to a specialized office park. The parking is relegated to the rear of the building. This building has the capability of being seamlessly connected to other supportive building types. There are many still-successful historic examples. Palmer Square in Princeton is one of the best. The largest building should have a footprint no larger than 25,000 sq. ft.

19. Urban Villa:  A building similar to a large house, able to accommodate a wide variety of uses, including conventional apartments, single-room occupancy units (the old boarding home), bed & breakfast inn, small professional office, restaurant. The model is the old, converted mansion of the inner city. This is a useful and resilient building type which can evolve organically.

Zoning Review Session: Design Guidelines...

Here is the agenda and informational items for tonight’s latest public Zoning Code Review Sessions.  Tonight’s topic is architectural design guidelines.

EMAIL FROM GARY LOCKE, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Good Morning Everyone:Attached you will find the materials for next Tuesday’s meeting regarding our continued work on the zoning code update. The topic will be the continued discussion of design guidelines. With this in mind, I refer to two items. The first is the below link to the Main Street Kent website. The design guidelines that have been in preparation and have been presented to Council and approved in Council committee are available on the Main Street Kent website for review (in pdf format – Thank you Mary Gilbert!!!). The document is 81 pages long but I wanted to give everyone a chance to at least look at it, if they had not seen it before.

Download The Design Guidelines

 Even with the design guidelines being adopted by Council motion (this is on the full Council’s agenda next Wednesday), there still is another component required to formally build a design review into the City’s Development Review process. I have attached a copy of a draft ordinance that can be eventually considered so as to accomplish this. The draft is my first take on the implementation ordinance so I am looking for input. You will note that the draft is mainly focused on design review. It may be best to have a second ordinance dealing with Historic Preservation and the process involved with that. This is certainly something we can discuss. At next week’s meeting I will present an overview of the draft implementation ordinance and discuss it in some detail.

Gary Locke, Community Development Director

Download the draft design guideline ordinance that is up for discussion.

Downtown Kent Design Guidelines...

After about 12 months of drafting, editing and refining it looks as if the Downtown Design Guidelines are actually ready for publication.  If you didn’t happen to remember, Main Street Kent thought the design guidelines were a natural fit with their mission so they volunteered to lead this effort and they partnered with the City to hire a consultant with experience in developing guidelines to manage the Kent project.  The consultant held meetings with downtown businesses and with the general public to gather a sense of what the community was expecting and wanted to see in the design guidelines. 

Initially the design guidelines are just that — guidelines — but there are folks who think these should be adopted as mandatory.  To do that would probably require setting up a new design review process for site plans and/or permits for new construction in the central business district to evaluate conformance with the guidelines.  Right now City Council just wanted to adopt them as guidelines but I would not be surprised to see the issue of mandatory re-emerge down the road.

The final product turned out very good and I’d encourage you to at least take a thumbnail tour of the document:

Pages 1 to 10

Pages 11 to 20

Pages 21 to 30

Pages 31 to 40

Pages 41 to 50

Pages 51 to 60

Pages 61 to 68

Pages 69 to 74

Pages 75 to 85