KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Kalamazoo City Commission will get an update this evening on efforts to prevent local gun violence, and receive preliminary plans on how to continue that work.
The homicide rate spiked locally and nationally during the pandemic, to its highest rate ever last year. City and County officials jointly began planning a response, setting aside $2 million in COVID-19 relief funding, but little got done until this summer.
The two boards separately allocated $500,000 each to the United Way to expand the efforts of local nonprofits who were already working to reduce gun violence in Kalamazoo. There has been no update on that effort until now.
County Commissioners were asked to allocate more money last month, but declined until they got a report on where the first one million went.
City Commissioners will also be asked tonight to join a countywide effort to make the area safer for birds. The Kalamazoo Nature Center and the local Audubon Society are seeking a designation of the region as an Urban Bird Treaty Area by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
They are also asking the city, and other local governmental units, to adopt practices to make the area more bird-friendly.
(reporting from John McNeill)
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