The Zoo v.s Portage

Ok as some of you may know by now, i live in Kalamazoo Michigan. Great city, great place, great people. Sadly connected to this great city is a place called Portage..... Portage is all Suburbs and store's. The biggest building in Portage is there Walmart.

Drugs~
Kalamazoo is far more known for its drugs then Portage is. But everyone loves to overlook there precious children in Portage. There "barrowing" of there parents money to buy there "stuff". There is a good size chuck of parents slowly going into debt trying to provide for there "kids". These "kids" are about in there 20s and still living at home doing nothing. And some of them have some addictions they picked up in high school. Basically alot of these kids have these dreams and instead of trying for something they can actually accomplish they end up wasting there parents money, ending back at home, mostly cause of drugs. Then waste more of there parents money till there parents figure out a way to make there kids provide for themselves. Theyll do anything as long as it doesnt involve just kicking them out the house cause the real world is too scary for there precious kids.

Sadlly though these drugs come from either the outlying area's in the middle of nowhere or they come from kalamazoo.

Area~
Kalamazoo is the city, it has the tall buildings and urban landscape. Portage has its laws against signs and any building taller then 3 stories. Portage is litterally mostly stores. Kalamazoo hosts most the buidling based businesses. Though portage still has some pharmatheutical drug company jobs. Kalamazoo has Western Michigan University, which sadlly would probaly love to move out to portage cause western trys to be like the major colleges and treats there students like sh*t.

Middle Ground~
Kalamazoo and Portage both have there extreme's. Bad and Good. But in the middle, where the real people lay, its good. Michigan is something many people do not understand. I like to think of michigan as the cold hawaii. There is many nature based things to do here. And PLUS.... the fricken Great Lakes are here!!!! why the hell does no one come here. Really this is a great relaxing place. The single best thing to do here is to relax, sit back and just enjoy being alive. Were beyond laid back around here if you ask me. Alot of other states are like this but we just dont capalize on it like they do. Were not going to party hard every night, were not going to do it "big". Were just going to be here, and thats cool.

Conclusion~
I may not like the extreme's of The Zoo or Portage, but i love the people of michigan and who we are. Though if your from Portage and your repping The Zoo like you live here or something..... just dont do that, its sad ok. And dont say you live in kalamazoo when you live in portage then rip on The Zoo. To me if you live in Kalamazoo or the surrounding connected area's your part of the kalamazoo family, were all in the same boat, accept portage, that is a totally different place.

We are all Michigan, we may be from The Zoo or from Portage. Love where your from, own it, breath it, live it. You may be from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Mt.Pleasant, or even the UP. But we all share one thing in common, were from Michigan. Love your state. love are people. There is no other place in the world like Michigan.

P.S Forgot to mention the Kalamazoo Promise. basically if you attend the kalamazoo public schools they pay for your college education. research it up if your interested.