PORTAGE, MI – Portage officially became a city 60 years ago – more specifically, at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve in 1963. “Vigorous new-type city will be born Tuesday,” a Dec 29, 1963, Kalamazoo Gazette headline reads. In the post-World War II suburban boom, Kalamazoo’s neighbor to the south had the opportunity to shed its “century-and-a-quarter-old mantle of township” to become the county’s fourth city.