Kalamazoo County (/ˌkæləməˈzuː/ KAL-ə-mə-ZOO) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the population was 261,670. The county seat is Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo County is included in the Kalamazoo–Portage, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Kalamazoo (/ˌkæləməˈzuː/) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan area in southwestern Michigan, which had a population of 261,670 in 2020.
One of Kalamazoo's most notable features is the Kalamazoo Mall, an outdoor pedestrian shopping mall. The city created the mall in 1959 by closing part of Burdick Street to automobile traffic, although two of the mall's four blocks have been reopened to auto traffic since 1999. Kalamazoo is home to Western Michigan University, a large public university, Kalamazoo College, a private liberal arts college, and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, a two-year community college.
A charter township is a form of local government in the U.S. state of Michigan. While all townships in Michigan are organized governments, a charter township has been granted a charter, which allows it certain rights and responsibilities of home rule that are generally intermediate between those of a city (a semi-autonomous jurisdiction in Michigan) and a village. Unless it is a home-rule village, a village is subject to the authority of any township in which it is located.
Of Michigan's 1,240 townships, 143 are charter townships. A number of charter townships are among the most populous municipalities in Michigan. For example, Clinton Township and Canton Township, both in Metro Detroit, were respectively the 8th and 9th most populous municipalities in Michigan at the 2020 census. The most recent township to become a charter township is Brady Township in Kalamazoo County, which adopted charter status on January 3, 2024.
Brady Township is a charter township of Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 4,445. The township adopted charter status by a vote of the board of trustees on January 3, 2024.
Portage is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States. The population was 48,891 at the 2020 census. It is the smaller of the two main cities included in the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 261,670 in 2020.
Michigan's 5th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It includes all of Branch, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Monroe (except for the city of Milan), and St. Joseph counties, southern Berrien County, most of Calhoun County, and far southern Kalamazoo County. The district is represented by Republican Tim Walberg.
From 1873 to 1993, the 5th was based in the Grand Rapids area of Western Michigan. Its most notable member was Gerald Ford, who in 1974 became the 38th president of the United States upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, at the height of the Watergate Scandal.