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I think quote a bit honestly. We are on a good pace, but it's been hurt by the recession.
I think light rail got killed for 3 reasons:
1. Recession
2. The plan sucked
3. gas prices dropped a ton just before the vote
The plan, really needs to be regional. We have a ton of sprawl, and even with all the developments going on downtown and midtown and those areas increasing in population, I don't see the sprawl going away anytime soon, just look at the new soccer arena, it's being built at Bannister. Try as I might, we can't ignore our JOCO neighbors... but all these areas need to get on board and help pay for it too, and personally I think it should be an equal amount they pay because they all are set to benefit from it.
The starter line proposed was horrible. It needs to go from the airport through the northland and downtown and midtown/plaza. The proposed one cut off the northland which is a huge population of voters, going up to just Vivian is crap, and not including the airport is also crap. I honestly don't know what they were thinking with it.
Downtown is on the right track, but Union Station needs help. Science City is kinda cool, but it needs more attraction for adults... some of the things they brought have been interesting, but its not enough. I think we need a true history and/or science museum. There is also proposals on the line for an Aquarium... which I DO think should be downtown as well, but Kansas also wants one and is gonna put up a huge fuss (and rightly so really). If we had a regional light rail plan I wouldn't mind KS having it, but if not i really wish more things were focused centrally downtown.
Our zoo, is weak. I went there a few years ago, and was like... WTF is this crap. On the plus side though it looks like they have good plans for it, redoing the african exhibit so people can get closer, adding polar bears and penguins, etc.... and I belive an indoor rain forest. It's a good start...
I think the city needs to strive to get more attractions. I like what they have done with Midland theater... it looks amazing. Unfortunatly of the stuff going there this isn't a damn thing i'm interested in seeing.
The city is doing well on improving. Probably better than most cities right now. But, we were behind in so many areas and much of the improving is overdo.
I like that they are bringing downtown back to life. Everything going on there is positive.
But, we need public transportation. We need lightrail. We just need to get started. I dont care how bad the plan is, we just need to pass it and get started. Once the engineers start working on it, they can make the plan work. We just need to get started. The longer we wait, the longer we go without.
I have never been to another zoo so I really dont have anything to compare it to. I like the idea of an indoor rain forest.
I would like less shopping districts being built and more unique, entertainment places.
The city is doing well on improving. Probably better than most cities right now. But, we were behind in so many areas and much of the improving is overdo.
I like that they are bringing downtown back to life. Everything going on there is positive.
But, we need public transportation. We need lightrail. We just need to get started. I dont care how bad the plan is, we just need to pass it and get started. Once the engineers start working on it, they can make the plan work. We just need to get started. The longer we wait, the longer we go without.
I have never been to another zoo so I really dont have anything to compare it to. I like the idea of an indoor rain forest.
I would like less shopping districts being built and more unique, entertainment places.
I agree with that...i've had a lot of ideas on it too, but no clue how to ever implement them.
I also agree with lightrail, I voted for it... even with the plan sucking, but i was worried that it would fail since they skipped over such a huge chunk of the northland.
First off, try to keep things in perspective. KC has PLENTY of room from improvement, but it really does offer a lot of culture and entertainment options. I have been to every single major city in the country and some abroad and I can honestly tell you that KC stacks up well with 90% of them when it comes to things to do and see. You can find things to do every single weekend in KC. Major concerts, festivals, urban entertainment districts, live theater, decent amusement parks, pro sports, world class museums etc. We are no Chicago or NYC or San Francisco, but when you compare KC to any city of around 2-3 million people, KC does VERY well. The grass is always greener to KC residents, but there are only a handful of cities I would leave KC for and that says a lot.
So, I will dream a bit and tell you what I like about the cities I would leave KC for (Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and San Diego).
All of those cities are comparable in size to KC to slightly larger, but not so big that living there becomes a total nuisance.
KC is in the middle of farm country. KC’s location pretty much blows. There is nothing around us. In Seattle or Denver or Portland or San Diego, you have a vibrant bustling city (something KC lacks still) in a location near mountains, oceans etc.
If you drive out of KC, you are in boring, ugly farmland. We can’t change that. So since we can’t mountain bike or go to the beach or ski you would think our city would make up the difference. Well, as of today, we are not quite there yet although we have come a very long way in the past 7 years or so.
KC needs the following:
Transit.
KC doesn’t need a 4 billion dollar light rail system like Denver has. KC just needs a spine in the city to connect the River Market to the Plaza/UMKC.
One of the main reason LRT failed in KCMO is because the system served such a small part of the city. We really have no business building light rail when our bus system is ¼ the size it should be. Denver has a great light rail system, but they have an even better bus system that still moves the vast majority of the people around the metro. Any light rail plan in KC has to be part of an upgraded regional bus system.
We just have so many highways and our congestion levels are so low that it doesn’t make sense to build rail outside the core in KC. But we could build one hell of a BRT system that covers the entire metro for a fraction of the cost. A BRT system could use our highways as the primary infrastructure. BRT systems are popping up all over the country and world and this technology would fit perfectly in KC and tie into a rail spine in the core.
BRT lines function much like light rail by running in dedicated right of ways etc, but are much more flexible and less expensive.
I don’t think KC needs any more attractions, we have our hands full with the ones we have. But we can make the attractions we have better.
Union Station.
KC needs to build a regional history and transportation museum inside Union Station as well as move the Steamboat Arabia there. The KC area (both sides of the state line) is loaded with history and a well done regional history museum would seem like a good fit. Transportation could also be a big part of the museum as KC is a national transportation center. So do a timeline starting with the steam boats and Hannibal bridge and the steam engines to the intermodal facilities of today. It could be a smaller version of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Union Station should also try to bring in more retail or entertainment that other areas of the city have not done yet like a Gameworks or something to bring families down.
The Zoo is not a horrible zoo. I don’t get why people hate the KC zoo so much. Zoo’s in general are not that great and KC’s zoo is average to above average for a major zoo. But we could easily make it a top zoo. The polar bear exhibit opens next year I think and penguin exhibit is supposed to open the year after. Both of those should go a long way in making the zoo better. The best thing the zoo can do today is make better use of its spread out grounds. There is a lot of underused and under-utilized land in the Zoo. I like the African Exhibit and it should be better when they add paths through it this year, but there is way too much dead space between the front entrance of the zoo and the African section.
Both the Zoo and Union Station need a funding source for any of this to happen though. I know asking for help from the KS side is simply impossible, but Jackson, Clay and Platte should step up and fund a regional culture tax to fund assets like the Zoo and Union Station. KCMO simply can’t do it alone.
Same with transit.
I have written off any chance of bi-state regional cooperation, but the MO side has got to step up at least. There is no reason why the MO side counties can’t put together a regionally funded transit plan as well as something to better fund the zoo, union station, liberty memorial, the nelson, the new performing arts center etc.
Another thing KC really needs is more bike trails. This is one thing that JoCo excels at while the urban core and the MO suburbs really lag behind. Why is Brush Creek, Penn Valley Park, the MO river etc not integrated into a regional bike trail system. Again, money is the biggest obstacle.
We also need to continue investing into Downtown. Like I mentioned, we have come a long long way in bringing downtown KCMO back from the dead, but compared to most large cities, we still have a long way to go. If we quit investing now, everything we have done so far will never reach its potential. Downtown still needs more hotels, more condo towers, more office buildings etc. We have to continue that momentum even though the economy and mayor have brought downtown revitalization to a halt for now.
So….
Build a transit system, upgrade the zoo, put union station to good use, build a better regional bike trail system, continue investing in Downtown and create more opportunities for regional cooperation. That’s my answer to the original question.
Having said that, don’t forget what we have done in just a few short years.
We are building a 420 million dollar performing arts center that will be a world class structure and attraction.
We are basically building two brand new sports stadiums for our NFL and MLB team.
We have put billions into bringing downtown back to life with the Sprint Center and P&L district and thousands of condos and apartments.
We have recently finished a 250 million dollar expansion of the Nelson, maintaining its world class status.
We have recently re-opened the Liberty Memorial and built a top notch WWI Museums that is a smashing success so far.
The other very good thing about KC is its location. I mentioned earlier that the city is in the middle of nowhere. But at the same time, it’s in the middle of everything. It is so easy to see the rest of the country while living in KC. The entire country is within a day or two drive. Flights are short and inexpensive from MCI (although we need a new terminal which would be another great long term investment). Cost of living is typically lower than in most major cities. If I lived in San Diego or even Denver, no way would I able to see the country like I do while living in KC.
But like I said, we still have plenty of room for improvement.
Our zoo, is weak. I went there a few years ago, and was like... WTF is this crap. On the plus side though it looks like they have good plans for it, redoing the african exhibit so people can get closer, adding polar bears and penguins, etc.... and I belive an indoor rain forest. It's a good start...
I think the city needs to strive to get more attractions.
What are some others thoughts?
I don't think the zoo is all that bad. More animals would be nice.
KC seems to have a very large number of attractions for a city its size. Maybe too many, because nothing ever seems crowded. I like the lack of huge crowds, but sometimes I get concerned about the sustainability and survival of some of our attractions.
I don't think the zoo is all that bad. More animals would be nice.
KC seems to have a very large number of attractions for a city its size. Maybe too many, because nothing ever seems crowded. I like the lack of huge crowds, but sometimes I get concerned about the sustainability and survival of some of our attractions.
I hated the zoo, honestly I really do.... I went there with some friends a few years ago and we just were so bored. Maybe we went a bad time of the year..
I hated the zoo, honestly I really do.... I went there with some friends a few years ago and we just were so bored. Maybe we went a bad time of the year..
What time of year did you go? Spring and fall are best for the zoo. October is great. The temperature is usually just right for the animals to be out and active.
What time of year did you go? Spring and fall are best for the zoo. October is great. The temperature is usually just right for the animals to be out and active.
I think it was around April but I could be wrong... I was just very disappointed. There were several exhibits closed too.
KC seems to have a very large number of attractions for a city its size. Maybe too many, because nothing ever seems crowded. I like the lack of huge crowds, but sometimes I get concerned about the sustainability and survival of some of our attractions.
I don't think many residents of KC know what KC has to offer.
For example my girlfriend, her sister, and one of my good friends were hanging out the other day... her sister is a complete book nerd, she loves to read.
We were downtown and I took her by the Library, she had no clue of it... never been do it. It's very nice too... anyone whos been in it would know, but she had no clue.
They have never been to Liberty Memorial, they had seen it but didn't know there was a Museum, or that you could go to the top of it. I told them about it when we went to see Obama speak there.
They've never seen steamboat arabia, only been to the rivermarket with me.... etc etc... never been to the botanical gardens...
I honestly think if there is a lack of people at certain things KC has its cuz KC needs better PR in its own city.... just seems to me a lot of people don't realize what is out there....
I agree, many people dont know what is out there. One of the problems is that KC is so spread out, that when you travel to certain areas it is like you have travelled to entire other city.
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