HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Downtown Huntsville Inc has an idea to transform the neglected promenade adjacent to the former Heritage Club building off Washington Street downtown in to a micro-park and courtyard for the public to enjoy.

Downtown Huntsville Inc.’s Chad Emerson says every city needs those triples and home runs and grand slams for a successful downtown – those big projects. But you also need lots of good singles and doubles, Emerson says.

“Simpler projects that still add to the experience in downtown. Great downtowns have pocket parks – little simple parks, not over programmed, not huge – just a place e to come and relax.”

The owners of the small parcel of land in the center of the city near the back alleyway of Humphrey’s Bar and Grill offered to donate the use of the plot if the city turned it in to something once the whole community could use.

Partners at Goodwyn Mills Cawood Services have drawn up some proposals for the park. The idea is to make the space level, add some attractive landscaping, seating and even some art to make the concept come to life. The ideas are there – Downtown Huntsville Inc. just needs to find a donor.

“We’re looking for a partner whether it be an individual or whether it be a corporation or foundation to help us reach the $25,000 goal to turn this into one of the nicest pocket parks you’ll find anywhere.”

If you’re interested in helping to make the park happen, you can contact Chad Emerson at chad@downtownhuntsville.org.

The graceful “Winged Figure Ascending,” by the late, internationally recognized sculptor Stephen De Staebler, greets visitors as they approach the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University.

Inside the courtyard at the entrance to Weill Hall is a grander sculptural display: 12 16-foot-tall pieces wrought by Mother Nature over the course of 118 years.

A building as striking as the finely-tuned music box designed by renowned architect William Rawn deserves an approach that conveys venerability. That was achieved with these ancient Sevillano olive trees — six on each side of the courtyard — with their gnarled trunks of multiple branches braided together over more than a century.

The olives trees, harvested from a doomed orchard in Corning, trucked in and then carefully placed in trenches beneath the limestone pavers of the courtyard, are among the most significant features within the outdoor spaces surrounding the hall.

With its barn-style door in a concert hall that opens to terraced grass seating, the center is truly designed to offer music without walls on a fine summer day. So the grounds needed to offer the same serenely simple beauty found inside the hall itself.

Observant homeowners and gardeners can glean ideas from public spaces like the Green Music Center, taking note of anything from natural architecture like trees and plantings to pathways, lighting and courtyards such as the entry to Weill Hall.

The grounds are the work of both Bill Mastick of Quadriga Landscape Architecture and Planning of Santa Rosa and the husband and wife team, Larry Reed and Cinda Gilliland, of SWA, an international landscape architecture firm with local offices in Sausalito and San Francisco.

Quadriga came up with the overall site plan for the 52-acre Green Music Center, including the parking lot, the front of the center and the 12- to 14-foot acoustic berms that provide a sound buffer from nearby road noise.

A total of $8.55 million of the $145 million music center project went into the grounds, from the courtyard and colonnade to the west and south lawns, site grading, structural fill, berms, signage, pathways, trees, landscape plants, lighting and outdoor sound equipment.

The long delay had an unexpected upside. The first part of the project to go in back in 2000 was the parking lot, dotted with London Plane trees. By the time the center opened two years ago, they had grown into the mature shade trees Mastick had envisioned.

In fact, time has softened and cooled the whole front of the center. A long line of Chinese elm trees and blue oat grass also are maturing and helping to conceal the plain walls of the classroom wing of the center.

One of the last areas to be developed was the courtyard, made possible by the $12 million infusion from the Weills that finished off the hall and landscaping.

Old olive trees were not part of the original design for the courtyard. But Reed, whose company was brought in to finish the grounds work, said Sandy and Joan Weill pressed for these ancient trees that project an image of both old California and new Wine Country.

They and Reed hand-picked the trees from an orchard near Chico owned by Troy Heathcote of Heritage Olive Trees.

“The olive industry is really going downhill. They’re tearing out these old trees and starting to plant walnuts,” said Heathcote, who buys up old orchards before the trees are bulldozed and tries to sell as many as possible. But he figures he is only able to find homes for about 7 percent of them. Price is a big factor, with each tree costing up to $3,000 or more. Removal, shipping and planting easily double that cost.

The Semillanos are actually good for landscaping because their fruit is larger — more for stuffed olives and martinis — and thus not as prolific and messy.

The other dominant trees in the Green Music Center landscape are redwoods. The giant evergreens, purchased in 15- to 84-gallon boxes, will provide screening around the periphery of the lawns. The trees also needed to be tall, said Reed, to be in proportion to the stately Weill and Schroeder halls.

The understory plantings are natural and typical of the North Coast — anemones, pennisetum or bunnytails, rock roses.

Reed said the economic downturn also took its toll on the landscape business.

“With the economy going south, growers had to start chipping plant material because they couldn’t sell it,” he said. “These are the last of the trees of a good size that we were able to get.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.

FLEMINGTON — The 12-acre Tuccamirgan Park is due for a reawakening. That is apparently the shared opinion of the Flemington-Raritan Parks and Recreation Committee and Flemington Borough Council.

Councilman Joey Novick dreams of a borough-enlivening blues festival taking place there someday. But more-modest dreams are scheduled for realization — of kids playing field hockey and flag football there and visitors strolling or jogging along rehabilitated paths that curve through the property.

Sal Randazzese, former director of recreation for the two-municipality agency, is still in charge of Tuccamirgan Park and the Morales Nature Preserve. He came to a work session of Flemington Borough Council on Monday evening to supply an update on the improvements that will be done this summer by Interboro Landscaping of Three Bridges. The work will be funded by the committee, whose basic budget is an 80-20 split between the township and borough. But this park-enhancement money has been saved up from participation fees.

— The committee is spending $13,300 to rehab the athletic field, bringing in 252 cubic yards of screened topsoil, filling holes, and patching and reseeding the turf.

Besides being available for pickup games of touch football, kite flying or other casual use, the field could be used by midget soccer or lacrosse teams. It would also be a venue for non-competitive flag football and field hockey programs that Parks and Rec Director Kim Heirling is developing for students at the nearby Intermediate School. “There’s enough competition out there,” Randazzese said, “A kid wants to compete, they know where to find it. But you get that kid who wants to play football and doesn’t have the height, the weight, the skills, she’s providing for that in a flag-football situation. And the same thing with the field-hockey kid. Sports is so high-pressure now…”

Because a coach can walk the kids to the park from the school, he has no doubt that the after-school football and field hockey will be popular.

— The walking path will be cleared of grass and debris and enhanced with 270 tons of stone dust at a cost of $14,500. The path is 8 feet wide and 3,565 feet long.

— A 250-foot-long vinyl-covered chain-link fence will be installed near the end of the playing field closest to the community pool. It will be positioned just before the field dips down. Randazzese explained later that it would help keep kids in sight, and if and when concerts are held there, it would help with crowd control.

Randazzese said that if the park is ever used as for concerts, St. Magdalen’s Parish agreed in 1982 to allow parking in its lot, which is just across Bonnell Street from the park’s main entrance — just so long as the concert does not coincide with a church event. It was agreed Monday that he should talk to church officials again just to make sure the deal still holds.

At the meeting, the last big event held at Tuccamirgan was remembered fondly. For a week in the fall of 2000, the park hosted the Moving Wall, a mobile replica of the Vietnam Memorial that’s in Washington, D.C. Daily ceremonies were held and thousands of people turned out.

Randazzese said the rec. committee asked him to find out if the borough would be willing to bankroll additional improvements at “Tucc,” such as “dressing up the (Bonnell Street) entrances.” He noted that the pedestrian entrance that’s closer to the school doesn’t even look like a public entrance. “You have to let people know it’s a park and that it’s legally accessible,” he said.

Mayor Erica Edwards said that, not counting the $10,000 the borough is going to use to refurbish and re-establish the old iron fence around the veterans’ monument on Main Street, Flemington has $47,189 in its county open-space fund account, and she believes that park improvements fit the criteria for its use.

Besides improving the entrances, Council President Brian Swingle suggested that perhaps the park could be open at night with paths illuminated by low-power solar lights that wouldn’t annoy neighbors. Councilwoman Dorothy Fine suggested that the park could be beautified enough, with a gazebo added, for use as a wedding venue.

In wrapping up the work session, the mayor asked Randazzese to come up with specific ideas with price estimates on what would be “the next level” of improvements. Later, Randazzese said he would go back to the Parks and Rec Committee and get their specific ideas for improving Tuccamirgan Park.

Tuccamirgan Park occupies the low land behind Bonnell Street houses on one side and Prospect Hill apartment complex on the other. It was named for an Indian chief who had befriended early settlers; his body was buried in a small cemetery on the other side of Bonnell Street.

More Hunterdon County news: NJ.com/hunterdon • Facebook • Twitter

Library project

Kyle Bouska, an employee of StewartScape, Inc., is using an impactor to tamp down the rock foundation of the library landscaping project. D

Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2014 11:46 am

Outdoor reading space under construction at Oelwein Library

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OELWEIN — A new outdoor feature is being added at the Oelwein Public Library. Passersby have been witnessing a transformation of the area just west of the building, where local landscaper Jared Stewart of StewartScape, Inc., is developing an outdoor green reading space.

Library Director Susan Macken explained landscaping plans for the area west of the library have been in the works for more than five years, since the former railroad right-of-way was acquired in 2008. Last year library board member Mike Kerns, with approval from the board, contacted area landscaping businesses to get some ideas for the space. Stewart responded and came up with a design that incorporates historic references and artifacts with native plantings for a great outdoor reading/relaxing experience.

The space is outlined with large limestone blocks salvaged from the Chicago Great Western diesel shop demolition, and serve as a point of local historic reference. A large boulder at the front of the project lays claim to the space in another way.

Read more of this story in the Daily Register.

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When Charlotte Schnur retired to the valley from Massachusetts she knew there would be an adjustment period. The summers were a fair trade for the East Coast winters, and the 300-plus days of sunshine seemed like a great added value. But the former art history professor had a hard time adjusting to one thing: desert landscaping.

“I had a true English garden (in Massachusetts),” she said. “My backyard was a showplace. I came here and said ‘Oh my!’ ”

Schnur moved into a home in Henderson’s Sun City Anthem and knew the existing landscaping left much to be desired. We’ve all seen these homes — a yard full of pebbles and a few shrubs randomly planted, all in the name of water conservation.

So Schnur called Mat Baroudi, owner of An English Gardener Landscaping. Baroudi transformed her front yard with jasmine, rosebushes, a trellis and a bevy of wildflowers. It’s now a vibrant space that has even brought a water bill savings and got the neighbors talking too.

“I met half my neighborhood because of Mat,” Schnur said with a laugh. “One of my neighbors hired him too.”

AN ENGLISH TEACHER

Baroudi has been designing local landscapes for the past eight years but has literally been gardening and landscaping since his youth. He grew up on a farm in England, tending to crops, livestock and wildlife.

After years in marketing and sales for a variety of companies, Baroudi finally decided to strike out on his own in 2006. The idea to go into the landscaping business was stirred when — after purchasing a home in the Silverado Ranch area — he hired landscapers for his backyard.

“A company came in, put in grass and a couple trees. … Once I saw that and what was going on around other places, I said ‘We’ve got to do landscaping because we can be so much better than what’s on offer,’ ” he said.

Baroudi dove into his business selling himself as both an artist and educator. He was an informant of sorts on why a tree in a yard was dying while another was thriving or why roots were uprooting a foundation, and plenty of other topics. He’s also tuned and programmed his share of irrigation systems and timers in the past eight years.

“He is a great teacher. Whenever he came out to work on my yard, I stopped what I was doing and went out there because I knew I would learn so much,” Schnur said.

Greening and conserving

A common approach Baroudi takes to adding color to a landscape is bringing together clusters of different plants into an area, like, for example, to the base of a tree. Here he will add colorful low-growing flowers such as daylilies or other wildflowers such as alyssum.

In many cases, the single irrigation line going to an area can easily water several flowers without needing more lines, he says. Those added touches also bring hummingbirds and butterflies.

“You can bring that beauty and still be cognizant of water issues,” he added.

Baroudi’s home has become what he calls his “test kitchen” and “showroom.” He prefers to meet clients in his small backyard to demonstrate how the outdoor space can be so rich and lively. In his yard there’s tons of colorful plants, a sitting area, tortoise habitat, aboveground pool, fountain and fruit trees, all for a monthly water bill of $30.

The yard took first place at the 2013 SNWA Landscape Design Awards. It was the first year Baroudi had entered the contest. Since then, he has been featured on KNPR, a European gardening channel, and will have his yard filmed by PBS in June for a segment of “This Old House.”

“This is our showroom, our proof,” he said. “We are conserving, but we still have all this green, lush landscaping around us. We don’t have to put desert landscaping necessarily (to conserve). … For me this is an artistry as opposed to a landscaping company that shows up and asks ‘what do you want?’ then puts in a cactus here or there and goes home.”

Beyond aesthetics

Baroudi also loves to create a space that invites use. Integrating sitting areas and walkways into shaded areas near plantlife can truly make a useful space for homeowners to entertain friends or relax, Baroudi said.

“To see a backyard or front yard not used and just wasted, that really burns me. That’s part of your property. You should be using it,” he added.

Martin Greenbaum, a Henderson resident, used Baroudi’s company to redesign his front yard. With the front of the home enjoying a good amount of morning and afternoon shade, Baroudi suggested a sitting area made with pavers near the home in addition to adding plenty of green. Greenbaum now finds himself using the space instead of ignoring it as he did in the past.

“He created all these levels. It’s a really natural look and he extended the living area,” he said. “At the end of the day, when the job comes out better than you thought it would, it’s great.”

The future

Baroudi also has spent the past eight years assembling a crew that brings his attention to detail to the job. An admitted perfectionist, the pro is often found working side by side with his team to make sure what is built is exactly as he envisioned.

To help customers better see his artistic view of their property, he is now using fully animated 3-D CAD software that allows the client to better envision the job with the help of video before the first shovel hits the dirt.

Just as Baroudi tests out new ideas and design approaches in his backyard, he’s always on the lookout for new products. He recently signed on with a new fountain provider whose product stands up better to the desert heat, is eyeing an outdoor pizza oven company’s offering, and recently began selling a new 100 percent organic fertilizer product made of fossilized minerals from the ocean floor called Bioyodal.

With Bioyodal, Baroudi’s own fruit trees have already produced up to 10 times what they had in the past and other plants are thriving too.

“Its primary use is for farming and crops, but what we’ve seen locally with plants and trees is amazing,” he said.

Baroudi also hopes to incorporate education into his future, doing seminars and teaching classes on gardening and landscaping to locals. For more information about Baroudi’s company, visit www.englishgardenerlandscaping.com or call 702-496-7326.

Proposed improvements to Madison Street (state Highway 19) were reviewed by representatives of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and property owners along the route during a public informational meeting at city hall May 22.

Fourteen property owners attended the formal presentation on the proposed plans for the highway.

The purpose of the meeting was to give interested parties an opportunity to view, discuss and comment on the project, which is slated to be done in the year 2018.

The DOT officials sought feedback on the proposed improvements during an open house. A comment sheet was also available for participants to voice their concerns or ideas.

The $3.5 million project includes the replacement of aging and deteriorated infrastructure, along with curb, gutter, sidewalks and street lighting. It also includes raising the roadway and adding bike lanes, according to Jeremy Hall, project manager.

The project on Madison Street begins just north of Palmer Street and extends about 0.83 miles east to the bridge east of Monroe Street (state Highway 89).

The existing roadway is deteriorating and in need of replacement, according to DOT officials.

A resurfacing project was completed last summer to extend the life of the cracked and rutted pavement until the roadway could be fully reconstructed.

In addition to the poor pavement condition, there are stretches of the roadway that are narrow and that have steep terrace areas and driveway entrances, the state pointed out. The project limits/lacks proper bike lanes and sidewalks.

The intersection of Madison Street and North Monroe Street (known as the four-corners) does not fully accommodate semi-truck turning movements, according to the DOT.

The project includes resurfacing Madison Street from just north of Palmer Street to the bridge between Palmer Street and Canal Road and reconstructing Madison Streets from the bridge between Palmer Street and Canal Road east to the bridge just east of Monroe Street.

Reconstructing will include removing and replacing the existing pavement, base course layer, sub-base course layer, curb and gutter, storm sewer, sidewalk, pavement marking, permanent signing, and street lighting.

One bridge along the route will be replaced, Hall said. The bridge, constructed in 1938, is located between Minnetonka Way and Van Buren Street.

New sidewalk will be added along the south side of Madison Street from Canal Road to Van Buren Street and new street lighting will be added from Canal Road to Minnetonka Way.

The city of Waterloo will be responsible for the replacement of the sanitary sewer and water lines from Canal Road to the bridge east of Monroe Street.

Currently, the width of the street varies along the route, according to Matthew Lamb, project leader for the DOT. “We are trying to standardize it,” he said. In some locations, the road will be wider than its current boundaries.

The state anticipates purchasing some right-of-way land for the construction of curb ramps to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and to build the new bridge.

Temporary grading easements are anticipated throughout the project for replacing sidewalks, constructing driveway tie-ins and restoring landscaping and front lawns.

From Palmer Street to Canal Road, the project will consist of two 12-foot wide travel lanes, four-foot bikeways, curb and gutter, eight-foot grass terraces and five-foot sidewalk.

From Canal Road to South Jackson Street there will be two 12-foot wide travel lanes, four-foot bike lanes, curb and gutter, eight-foot grass terraces and five-foot sidewalk.

From South Jackson Street to the bridge west of South Washington Street, there will be two 12-foot wide travel lanes, five-foot bike lanes, minimum of eight-foot parking lanes, curb and gutter, and minimum of six-foot sidewalks.

The proposed project includes raising the vertical profile of Madison Street from near Minnetonka Way and extend east to between Harrison Street and Jackson Street to decrease the steep terraces and driveway entrances and improve sight distance at Van Buren Street and Harrison Street.

The project was recently extended to include the intersection with state Highways 19 and 89, Hall said.

According to traffic volume, there are 7,400 vehicles a day that travel through the intersection with 13.9 percent trucks. By the year 2037, it is estimated the traffic volume could reach 9,300 vehicles a day.

The state Highway 19 and 89 intersection is below the state crash average, but it is difficult at times for truck drivers to maneuver the turn. Plans call for increasing or widening the curb radius of the northeast corner and removal of six parking stalls around the intersection.

The intersection will remain a four-way stop.

 DOT officials anticipate removing most of the trees in the terrace areas. The city will receive a credit for the trees to plant new trees behind the sidewalk if desired.

Costs

The estimated cost for the improvements is about $3.5 million. The project will be funded with federal and state funds for roadway improvements.

The city will fund the replacement of sanitary sewer and water main facilities and all construction costs associated with upgrading the standard street lighting system to a decorative system.

Timeline

An environmental review is expected to be completed this fall, Lamb said. The preliminary design work is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2015, with design plans finalized in 2017 and a bid date of December 2017 for work to being in the spring of 2018.

Detours

Madison Street will be closed to traffic during construction. Through traffic will be detoured using state Highway 19 eastbound to state Highway 73 to I-94 eastbound to state Highway 89 northbound to state Highway 19.

North Monroe Street will be closed to traffic during construction of the intersection of Madison and Monroe streets. Traffic will be detoured along state Highway 89 northbound to state Highway 73 southbound to I-94 eastbound to state Highway 89 north and southbound.

Access to residents and businesses on Madison Street will be maintained for local traffic at most times, according to the DOT.

City Clerk/Treasurer Mo Hansen encouraged those in attendance to get involved in the design phase. “Now it is important to speak up,” he told the audience.

Vegetation:

Clematis Jackmanii Superba (climber, purple blooms, cut back early spring, trellises)

Buxus Green Velvet (persistent shrubs, front of veranda)

Heuchera Palace Purple (persistent perennials, white blooms, purplish foliage, mass-planting, front of veranda and island)

Ribes alpinum (2 shrubs, dark green foliage turns to orangey yellow in fall, scarlet berries, trim if necessary, sides of main staircase)

Trapaeolum majus (cascading annuals, orange blooms, flower baskets)

Impatiens (annuals, white blooms, flower baskets and boxes, do not over fertilize)

Lobelia erinus Purple Star (annuals, purple florets, flower baskets)

Calibrachoa Million Bells Tangerine (annuals, orange blooms, flower boxes)

Geum borissii (persistent perennials, orange blooms, cut wilted flower after first blossoming, one or two rows, edge of path)

Ajuga reptans Black Scallop (persistent perennials, purple blooms, dark purple foliage, mass-planting, outer edge of pathway and island, cut wilted blooms after flowering)

Euonymus Emerald Gaiety (persistent shrubs, green white, under tree)

Malus Harvest Gold (medium-size tree, white blooms, golden fruits, near driveway)

Owner’s Hydrangea Annabelle (shrubs, white blooms, cut back in early spring, garage)

Miscanthus Sarabande (tall ornamental grass, slim silver green foliage, behind septic trap)

Physocarpus Coppertina (shrub, copper orange foliage, back right of septic trap)

Potentilla Abbotswood (shrub, white blooms, front of septic trap)

Salvia nemerosa Caradonna (perennials, purple blooms, front of septic trap)

Hemerocallis Orange Crush (perennials, orange blooms, front right of septic trap)

Heuchera Lime Rickey (persistent perennials, white blooms, lime foliage, front right of septic trap)

Asclepias tuburosa (several perennials, orange blooms, front left of septic trap, not shown here)

Most homes can use a little bit of help when it comes to warming up their curb appeal. If you would like some inexpensive ideas on how to improve the appearance of your home, send a clear photo of your house with your commentary to: Suzanne Rowe, designer, suro@bell.net

Pine Forge, PA — (SBWIRE) — 05/28/2014 — Whitehouse Landscaping is now offering landscape design and installation for spring 2014. Now that the weather is beginning to warm up and the outdoors are coming back to life, it’s time to get Southeast Pennsylvania properties looking their best again. Whitehouse Landscaping offers personalized landscape design, bringing whatever wild ideas their clients have in their heads to life with state of the art techniques. Homeowners can count on Whitehouse Landscaping to design, build, and maintain their ideal outdoor designs.

The design process starts with the client laying out their ideas to the design staff and develop a unique vision. The staff will share their ideas to improve the space then assess the property and evaluate any specific issues. After establishing a budget and list of project priorities and discussing the various options available to the client, Whitehouse Landscaping’s team will get the project underway. Homeowners trust the experts in landscape design in Royersford, PA to implement their ideas and make their properties look beautiful.

Whitehouse Landscaping handles all the details of simple renovations, elaborate designs, and backyard getaways to achieve the function and appearance homeowners want. They are able to develop innovative solutions through their decades of experience and with the use of technology such as 3D Landscape Design Imaging. This software allows homeowners to see what their completed landscape will look like before it is installed.

Whitehouse Landscaping is the number one source for landscaping and patios in Royersford, PA. For more information visit them online or call 610-674-0790.

About Whitehouse Landscaping
Whitehouse Landscaping is a full-service, family-owned landscaping company located in Boyertown, PA. With extensive industry certifications, Whitehouse Landscaping has many regular customers in the area. They specialize in safe, environmentally friendly landscaping practices and work the natural flora of the lawn to cultivate a healthy, vibrant appearance.

For more information visit http://www.whitehouselandscaping.com.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/whitehouse-landscaping-now-offering-landscape-design-and-installation-for-spring-2014-513568.htm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You can find them where there’s live music, trendy food, an affordable home and a friendly environment where they feel they can make a difference.

And in some very encouraging ways, both statistically and in the mysterious world of “buzz,” the Kansas City area is holding its own when it comes to appealing to the hot demographic called millennials. A study recently ranked us among the top 20 big U.S. metros when it came to adding young adults.

It’s not just about being hip. Attracting those people born roughly between 1982 and 2004 is considered vital to the metro’s economic future.

In April, MindMixer, an Omaha, Neb., Web-hosting firm, announced it was moving to the Crossroads Arts District and creating 85 jobs, citing the area’s urban vibe and pool of tech-savvy people.

To help further that favorable impression, the Kansas City Area Development Council launched a talent recruitment initiative to help local companies sell the area to young potential employees.

Among its tactics is a scavenger hunt aimed at getting summer interns – brought to the area by big local corporations such as Hallmark, Cerner and Garmin – off the couch and discovering the charms of places including Brookside, Westport and the River Market.

“We’re broadening our definition of what economic development is,” said Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of the development council. “Attracting and retaining that talent is important to company growth. If we can’t get that right, our ability to grow companies is lost.”

Having more young people around also makes this a better place to live for all generations.

Mayor Sly James, whose streetcar push is particularly appealing to the millennials’ affinity for urban living, said keeping and adding that age group to the local mix was a formula for a better future.

“The value and importance is that these are the people who’ll be energizing us,” he said. “We need that creative, young class to keep us sharp and keep us on the edge as we rapidly change.”

When it comes to hard numbers, the area ranked 14th among the nation’s 51 metros with populations exceeding a million when it came to adding young adults, according to a recent report from the Brookings Institution.

The Kansas City metro area had an annual net gain of about 2,200 people in the 25 to 34 age group during the three-year period from 2009 to 2012. Though far below red-hot places such as Denver, which added almost 12,000 young adults each year, it ranked ahead of Atlanta, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

The area also is doing well in the online universe of social media, that place where buzz is generated and many younger adults pick up their impression of places.

Travel + Leisure named Kansas City the 10th best city for hipsters in the nation – ahead of Seattle, Boston and Minneapolis – while the Huffington Post included the area among “20 Awesome U.S. Cities You Need to Visit in Your 20s” and Vocativ ranked us 21st among the “35 Best U.S. Cities for People Under 35.”

That’s not surprising to Chel O’Reilly, who grew up in New England and lived in Brooklyn – considered hipster-central by many of her generation – for a year before coming here.

“I came to Kansas City three years ago to visit two friends for four days and when I left, I had a job offer,” O’Reilly said. “The music is great, and the camaraderie and friendly people here are great. . . . I find it to be very welcoming.”

At age 35, O’Reilly considers herself on the cusp of the millennial generation, but she shares the interests often cited by young adults when it comes to where she wants to live.

“I love it that there’s a great art scene in Kansas City, the Charlotte Street Foundation and First Friday is amazing,” she said. “These are things I like to show off to people.”

One of the bigger draws listed by Vocativ, which bills itself as a “take-no-prisoners” online news source, was Kansas City’s affordability. The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment here was $710, making the city the eighth-cheapest place to live among the 35 cities that made the hipster list.

Adding to the inexpensive allure, Vocativ also found the seventh largest number of vintage clothing stores per capita here.

Living somewhere you can devote more time to your passions and less to paying rent is what appealed to Francisco Alarcon, a 31-year-old native of Spain.

He moved here last fall from Los Angeles after graduating from architecture school to work as a sports architect at Populous, but is an artist in his spare time.

“I was hesitant about the art scene here and I asked my friends in LA who told me Kansas City has one of the best art scenes in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s also cheap to live here.

“Making money in the creative world is a struggle. If you live in a city like New York, your rent is super-high. You don’t have the time to write or paint because you have to worry about paying the rent.”

Another architect colleague at Populous, Geoff Cheong, hails from Vancouver. After graduating from architecture school in British Columbia in 2007, he was invited by Populous to come to Kansas City for an interview.

“I didn’t know where Kansas City was,” the 30-year-old said. “On my first plane into town I was expecting the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ wheat fields and tornadoes. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was lush and green and there was water.”

Cheong’s first home was a downtown loft, and he quickly discovered Kansas City was no Vancouver when it came to urban living. One of the missing ingredients was mass transit.

But with a car, Cheong enjoyed the ease of getting around the area. He now lives in a suburban apartment complex at Interstate 435 and Roe Avenue.

“I enjoyed slowing things down a little,” he said. “The (low) cost of living also was huge. Kansas City blows other cities out of the water.”

And in a surprising twist for a Canadian, he actually has more opportunities to play hockey here than he did in his hometown.

“It’s more affordable and there’s more rink time available,” he said. “I meet other Canadian transplants at hockey rinks. . . . I’ve lived here six-and-a-half years now and I think that’s a credit to Kansas City.

“My friends in Vancouver ask when I’m moving back and I say I’m not.”

Alarcon also has found a welcoming place.

“I have a group of international expats and also artists,” he said. “It’s very diverse culturally and for me, it’s been very good.”

O’Reilly, the New England transplant, says it’s easy for millennials to find an “instant community” in Kansas City.

“Kansas City is rich with a lot of good people who open their arms to let more people in,” she said. “I don’t feel it’s a closed city.

“The tech and start-up community is fantastic, Google Fiber did a good job kick-starting that, and the Kauffman Center’s 1 Million Cups program is now in 32 cities.”

O’Reilly also belongs to a group of about two dozen younger adults who call themselves “Possum Trot,” an early historic name for the area. They include newcomers to the city as well as natives who gather regularly to socialize, discuss the city and invite speakers.

“It’s not an agenda-driven organization; it’s really about what’s happening in the city,” said Havis Wright, coordinator for the group. “It’s about familiarizing people who are new to the city and reacquainting people who’ve left and come back.”

Among those returnees involved in Possum Trot is Kathleen Bole.

The 25-year-old grew up in Prairie Village but left for graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2011. Bole also did internships in Washington and Chicago, so she knows a bit about what’s going on elsewhere in the nation.

“I packed my bags and moved East and didn’t think I’d come back,” she said.

But after graduating with a master’s degree in city planning in 2013, she began to think more fondly of her hometown.

“Kansas City doesn’t have a lot of things other cities have in the way of walkability and transit, but I like the work-life balance you can have here, which you don’t have as much on the coasts,” Bole said.

“Living in Philadelphia, I realized a young professional just coming out of school was not the easiest way of life, and you have a better quality of life here.

“A friend from D.C. visited me last night and she was astonished at how pretty it was, how nice it was and how cheap everything is.”

One of the biggest challenges facing Kansas City when it comes to attracting millennials is it’s an unknown quantity to most people around the country, Marcusse said.

“They think it’s a cow town or flyover place,” he said.

“A lot just don’t have a perception of Kansas City, and you’re starting from ground zero. Once they’ve been here, they fall in love. It’s just getting them here.”

Marcusse traced the roots of the Area Development Council’s talent recruitment initiative to an incident when a local company was trying to recruit a talented thirtysomething executive from Atlanta. The firm spent a lot of time talking about itself, but not much was said about the community.

The candidate turned down the job.

“It struck me that they’d spent a lot of time introducing the person to the company and virtually no time with the community,” Marcusse said. “I thought that was a good role for the KCADC.”

Using the theme of “America’s Creative Crossroads” (KCCreativeCrossroads.com), the organization has developed marketing materials, both online videos and printed, aimed at appealing to millennials.

Attributes included the city’s music scene, restaurants and food trucks, the appeal of professional soccer with Sporting Kansas City, the tech scene and Google Fiber and, of course, the relatively low cost of living here.

One of the more fun initiatives is the scavenger hunt launched last year.

About 1,000 summer interns participated. Each received a booklet listing 11 areas of the metro from greater downtown and midtown, to southern Johnson County and the Village West area of western Wyandotte County.

Five different attractions were listed for each area, and participants were invited to find them, take photos and post them on Facebook to score points. Prizes were awarded based on the places explored.

“The idea was to give them an opportunity to see the city,” Marcusse said. “If they just stayed in their apartment, they may not know the city when it was time to think about a job.”

Looking forward, while Kansas City has done reasonably well attracting millennials, those interviewed agreed the community could do a much better job if it had more walkable neighborhoods and mass transit.

“I think the streetcar is a huge thing,” Bole said. “Knowing it was on the horizon meant a lot to me.

“I’m also someone who loves to walk and I’m used to walking a mile or more. Here, there’s so many dead zones which makes it feel less appealing.”

To liven things up at the street level, the Downtown Council has embraced what’s called “tactical urbanism.” It’s intended to be a low-cost way to show the possibilities of making the city a more enjoyable and engaging place.

For example, in 2012 design students from Kansas State University used inexpensive materials to temporarily transform two blocks of Grand Boulevard into a narrower, more attractive street with wide sidewalks, landscaping and sidewalk cafes. The idea was to offer a glimpse at how a more livable street could be created.

Mike Hurd, marketing director for the Downtown Council, said the new tactical urbanism being pursued by his organization is designed to create a downtown “eco-system” for millennials.

“What we find with millennials is a desire to see more activity on the streets and public spaces on an ongoing basis, not just big event nights,” he said.

This summer, the Downtown Council is planning on holding noontime events twice a month at Oppenstein Park at 12th and Walnut streets with food trucks and entertainment.

A plan also is evolving to hold monthly free concerts in the Crossroads Arts District on a Friday evening other than First Friday, the popular art gallery event.

Dave Scott, chairman of the tactical urbanism program, said the emphasis is on inexpensive ideas to improve the urban environment.

“We’ll win the battle if it’s a good place to live and work, and it’s fun and unpredictable,” he said.

The major reinvestments in making downtown more appealing plus the positive social media buzz have helped companies recruit new talent.

Bob White, director of international marketing at Populous, said his firm is finding it much easier these days, thanks to the improvements that have occurred in the city.

“Ten or 15 years ago, it was extremely difficult for us to recruit young people,” he said. “It was frustrating for us and it was based on ignorance and things they had heard about Kansas City and the Midwest from other people.

“That’s flipped the last six or seven years. There is a groundswell, an undercurrent of young people, making this happen. People are less resistant and more open-minded.

“They’re saying ‘yes, I’ve heard there’s good things happening in Kansas City,’ hearing it from their peers that’s it’s worth a second look.

“We’re delighted by it.”

If you go

When: Noon to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: Anaheim Convention Center, Hall C, 800 Katella Ave., Anaheim

Cost: Free, parking is $12

More information: 800-358-SHOW or home

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Need inspiration for all of the home and garden projects filling up your summer calendar? Check out the OC Spring Home and Garden Show this weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Hundreds of exhibits and displays will feature home improvement, remodeling, decorating and landscaping ideas, including Thompson Building Materials’ backyard display. Foodies can catch some tips and inspiration from watching cooking demos from “Fit Chef” Katy Clark and Susan Irby, the “Bikini Chef.”

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