What Do You Hate About Kansas City

[westender]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

As for Nichols, what he was building in 1954 (the year my parents purchased 4138 Bellefontaine) was Prairie Village, his answer to Levittown. He would soon get to work on the Red Bridge district in what was then far southern KC. His crowning achievement, the Country Club District - which was what led his descendants to endow the Urban Land Institute fellowship that bears his name,** the ULI's most prestigious individual award - dates to the years immediately after World War I (the Plaza's first buildings went up in 1921). I've seen the literature that promoted the district as "1000 Acres Restricted" and touted "the most scientific protections" to ensure the houses would retain their value. ("The most scientific protections," my a$$.)
...
**Edited to add further: Jesse Clyde would probably be spinning in his grave to learn who the ULI's 2018 Nichols Laureate was.

I think MarketStEl is referring to the (in)famous 1929-30 mural that used to be on the wall of the JC Nichols office on the Plaza (I have it in a poster-format and also as a JPEG). It was removed in the 1980s when the Plaza was sold, and that office closed.

The language throughout the mural (there is a lot of text for what is basically a map) is wildly unacceptable by today's standards, in particular its racial and social-class references. I would note that the word "scientific" was used in advertising in the 1920s and 1930s mostly to sound sophisticated. No real science was involved, unless the copywriter meant something like eugenics or phrenology (again, not part of any acceptable academic universe since WW2).

[SunGrins]

I would like to lay my hands on the traffic engineer that was responsible for the interstate route through the city. It is awful. Apart from that, I pretty much like Kansas City.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by westender

I think MarketStEl is referring to the (in)famous 1929-30 mural that used to be on the wall of the JC Nichols office on the Plaza (I have it in a poster-format and also as a JPEG). It was removed in the 1980s when the Plaza was sold, and that office closed.

The language throughout the mural (there is a lot of text for what is basically a map) is wildly unacceptable by today's standards, in particular its racial and social-class references. I would note that the word "scientific" was used in advertising in the 1920s and 1930s mostly to sound sophisticated. No real science was involved, unless the copywriter meant something like eugenics or phrenology (again, not part of any acceptable academic universe since WW2).

One interesting thing I noted on the map is that one of the off-map sites it refers to is "Jewish Memorial Hospital," which it said was under construction. If (as ISTR) the map was completed in 1930, that hospital had been completed by then; it opened as Menorah Hospital (name changed to Menorah Medical Center in 1961). Both my brother and I were born in Menorah, which was one of the few non-black hospitals that would deliver black babies in the days of segregated hospitals. (KC had two black hospitals: city-owned and (poorly)-run General Hospital No. 2 and privately owned Wheatley-Provident Hospital, succeeded in 1972 by Martin Luther King Memorial Hospital, which closed in 1991 and was converted to senior apartments.)

Originally Posted by SunGrins

I would like to lay my hands on the traffic engineer that was responsible for the interstate route through the city. It is awful. Apart from that, I pretty much like Kansas City.

Which Interstate route? 70? 35?

29 doesn't cross the river into the city, though it is signed northbound from the downtown freeway loop. What would have been 49 had it been built as the freeway the Missouri Highway Department wanted but the East Side didn't is instead a semi-freeway, semi-parkway, Bruce Watkins Drive (US 71).

The Missouri Highway Department cleared the land for the South Midtown Freeway in the early 1970s. It passes three blocks to the west of where my grandparents (Dad's side) had their half-acre lot with two houses near 55th Street. Basically, East Siders sued to block construction, and the road remained tied up in litigation for nearly 20 years until Mayor Cleaver brokered a compromise that allowed it to proceed (the compromise being the non-freeway sections, which were built in such a way that the freeway could be inserted later and the roads now extant turn into frontage roads).

I asked the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department for a copy of the environmental impact statement with an eye on proposing a transit line down the corridor. They told me it would cost $60. Back in 1978, that was a good chunk of change for a broke college student.

[KC_Retiree]

I love KC. I want to move back but there are things I would definitely change about it:

1. Airport. KCI is awful. Thankfully, this is a feat acommpli
2. Lack of Public Transportation. One of the reasons I chose to move back to KC was the proposed extension of the downtown streetcar to the Plaza. Hopefully, this happens.
3. Lack of quality urban housing. There are plenty of apartments. But much less if you are intent on ownership.
4. The spread out nature of the civic infrastructure. This has been changing but it would be nice to get the Royals downtown.
5. Can't do and insular attitude of much of the citizenry
6. Spread out nature of the KC's white collar employment base. Lost a huge opportunity for downtown when Cerner went to 87th and 435.
7. Sprawl
8. Lack of a really well integrated urban park. Penn Valley Park while it has it high spots just doesn't work.


On the other hand, KC has an incredible restaurant scene for it's size, great pro sports teams, nice cultural venues like the Nelson, the WWI museum, Union Station, the PAC, etc..... KC also has a relatively dense urban core, albeit it hasn't come near to reaching full potential but its far more interesting than many similar sized and even larger cities.