All seven commissioners voted against allowing drinking on “pedal pubs," at least for now; Kalamazoo’s summer youth programs are getting a big boost; Burdick Street will soon have bike lanes; and if your car is seized in a drug bust and you want it back, you'll have to pay a fee.
No drinking on quadricycles
Kalamazoo might be famous for its beer, but it’s not ready to allow drinking on so-called pedal pubs. The Kalamazoo City Commission voted 7 to 0 Monday not to allow passengers on city-touring quadricycles to drink as they ride.
The person that does the braking and steering would have stayed sober.
Some board members said they had concerns about fairness. Commissioner Erin Knott noted that city mostly bans people from drinking on public streets, and wondered why it should make an exception for pedal pubs.
“I don’t know how I would say to people, you can’t walk around with a beer, but you can get on this quadricycle and have alcohol,” she said.
The ordinance would have also made seat belt use optional for pedal pubs, which raised safety concerns for some commissioners. But a number of downtown restaurants have said they’d like to see pedal pubs in Kalamazoo. The commission might revisit the issue in the next couple of years.
City expands summer youth programs
City of Kalamazoo programs for children will see a major expansion this summer. The city plans to spend about $900,000 on programs that employ teenagers and give younger kids a place to spend the day.
The money for the expansion comes from the large private donation the city received last year.
Kalamazoo plans to hire about 350 teenagers for summer jobs and offer them career programming. In previous years that program had only about 110 spots and turned many teens away for lack of space.
The city also plans to offer more daytime programming for younger kids.
Bike lanes on Burdick
The City of Kalamazoo plans to add bike lanes to parts of a major thoroughfare. Burdick Street will get bike lanes between Crosstown Parkway to the north and Cork Street to the south.
The City Commission approved the plans on Monday, when it also signed off on easements for the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail expansion. It’s part of a long-awaited plan to connect the two ends of the trail through downtown. The city began work on the expansion last year.
Towing fees
The city says it already charges people found with illegal drugs in their car a fee to get their vehicle back. Now it’s official: commissioners voted 5-2 on Monday to charge $250 for the return of those cars. The city says that covers the administrative, police and towing costs it incurs in the process. Previously the state required a $250 bond in the case of seized vehicles, but that will no longer be the case as of April 4, thus the timing of the request.
Law enforcement authorities can seek to keep cars valued at more than $3000 for “asset forfeiture.” The city says it will not charge the $250 fee to people who would not get their car back anyway.
The fee applies regardless of whether the owner of the vehicle was directly implicated in the drug bust, since the city still incurs costs to tow the vehicle.
Commissioner Shannon Sykes, who voted against the measure said that gave her pause. She asked what it would do to families struggling financially, where a child might have used their parents’ or grandparents’ car to transport drugs without that adult’s knowledge.
“Two hundred fifty dollars is a lot of money for someone barely making ends meet,” she said, even if the driver had acted inappropriately in transporting drugs.
