YOUR COMMENTS

Thank you Bob S. for mentioning University of New Hampshire-Manchester. (UNHM).

UNH-Manchester may want to see about getting a fundraising drive going that would allow it to have on-campus housing or housing near the UNH-Manchester campus. The UNH-Manchester website discusses current housing options for prospective students. Many downtown businesses may benefit a great deal if a lot of UNH students live in the downtown area. Restaurants and retail stores may have a lot more customers. Verizon Wireless Arena and MerchantsAuto.com Stadium may have more customers. Many more businesses may want to locate downtown helping to increase the business tax base of Manchester.

UNH-Manchester may want to work with other local colleges in getting a medical school in Manchester that would have undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees. A medical school's research programs may help to create many jobs in the Manchester area.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH

I hope local colleges will pay for the building and operating of an engineering school in Manchester that could have undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees. It could have a cooperative education program similar to Northeastern University. Its research programs could help to create many jobs in Manchester.

Students could get a liberal arts education from St. Anselm College and an engineering degree.

Students could get a degree from UNH-Manchester or SNHU and an engineering degree.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH

Ithaca, NY, Boulder, CO, and Ann Arbor, MI are a nice looking college towns! I find it a little surprising that Manchester is mentioned among them. They are towns that are so very different than Manchester, and towns I wish Manchester would emulate. Also I'm stumped that Providence and some other New England towns are not mentioned in the report.

I just visited Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week. Now that's a real college town! Young people everywhere, hip cafes, bookstores, shops, restaurants, nice buildings, and an old town section named "Kerrytown". And they have actual jobs there! Google has an office in town.

Ypsilanti, the next town over, is similar but on a smaller scale. It too hosts a very large university.

Unlike Manchester, Ann Arbor has many beautiful downtown streets lined with nice buildings and businesses. The urban and suburban streets are well planned, landscaped and wide. Manchester still seems to think it's OK to have only one main street. There's a strange attitude that businesses cannot survive unless they are located on Elm Street. The other downtown streets here are pretty much underdeveloped.

Ann Arbor is fortunate to host the huge University of Michigan. Imagine if NH had been smart enough to establish it's main university here? How different would this state and city be if UNH's main campus was here? Or, as an alternative, imagine if UNHM had a real urban campus!

Like other college towns, Ann Arbor has major hospitals due to the presence of UM. Unfortunately, we don't have that here. Instead we have to settle for Manchester hospitals that send all their difficult and emergency cases to Boston or DHMC in Hanover. I often wonder why people here put up with that.

Ann Arbor also has Amtrak service. Imagine that?!

It's true that Manchester has come a very long way in making over its image as a college town. There are a lot of colleges here! Also Manchester has some advantages of it's own, like a nice airport.

But let's not get too carried away here. Manchester is not yet in the same league as these other "college towns". We have the potential, but attitudes have to change...
- Bob S., Hooksett