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Old 05-31-2019, 02:01 AM
 
38 posts, read 27,766 times
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I spent a couple of weeks there and I remember going to the library downtown, and it was old and seedy. There was a security guard who looked unhappy at the entrance. It was an old building. Just gave me the heebie jeebies. Everything seemed old: the car wash I went to was old, I remember. The roads seemed busted up. I am from Denver. I have an opportunity in KC, but I shy away from it because of my impression of it. Can you comment on this?
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Old 05-31-2019, 10:23 AM
 
709 posts, read 1,481,722 times
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Is this post for real? Yes, the Downtown library is in an "old" building. It is a beautiful, historic structure:






And you are judging a city based on an unhappy security guard and a car wash?

How long ago was it when you visited?
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Old 05-31-2019, 10:25 AM
 
28 posts, read 35,644 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CDScoop View Post
I spent a couple of weeks there and I remember going to the library downtown, and it was old and seedy. There was a security guard who looked unhappy at the entrance. It was an old building. Just gave me the heebie jeebies. Everything seemed old: the car wash I went to was old, I remember. The roads seemed busted up. I am from Denver. I have an opportunity in KC, but I shy away from it because of my impression of it. Can you comment on this?
You can't be serious? The library is old and seedy? Yes, it is an old building, but it is beautiful and the inside is extremely nice as well.

https://www.kclibrary.org/library-lo...entral-library
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Old 05-31-2019, 11:13 AM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,715,042 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CDScoop View Post
I spent a couple of weeks there and I remember going to the library downtown, and it was old and seedy. There was a security guard who looked unhappy at the entrance. It was an old building. Just gave me the heebie jeebies. Everything seemed old: the car wash I went to was old, I remember. The roads seemed busted up. I am from Denver. I have an opportunity in KC, but I shy away from it because of my impression of it. Can you comment on this?
I'm not sure what your problem is with the library. Do you think Denver's Union Station is "old and seedy"? (today, not prior to the renovations).

Having said that, KCMO can come across as old, run down, dead and void of life, even today, compared to cities like Denver.

However, I think now is the time to move there. KCMO is where Denver was about 10-15 years ago. Give KC another 10-15 years and it will pretty amazing. It's changed drastically in just the last 5-10 years and it's a pretty cool place.

KCMO does have a lot "old" structures, most of which have been re-purposed and re-developed. From dozens of warehouses that are now residential to all the large art deco towers, union station etc. Combine those with the ultra modern structures built recently like the Performing arts center and Sprint Center and KC has a really nice mix.

While Denver is 15 years ahead of KC and I'm not sure downtown KC will ever catch up to Denver in size ever again mainly due to lack of downtown companies, KC pretty much destroys Denver when it comes to architecture. I love Denver, but it could use some of KC's gritty old built environment to compliment all the new bland development there.

Move to KC. It's a great city. Unless you have it in your head that it sucks before you ever even try it out.
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Old 06-01-2019, 08:43 PM
 
13,721 posts, read 19,135,088 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CDScoop View Post
I spent a couple of weeks there and I remember going to the library downtown, and it was old and seedy. There was a security guard who looked unhappy at the entrance. It was an old building. Just gave me the heebie jeebies. Everything seemed old: the car wash I went to was old, I remember. The roads seemed busted up. I am from Denver. I have an opportunity in KC, but I shy away from it because of my impression of it. Can you comment on this?
Live on the Kansas side (Johnson County) and work on the Missouri side.
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Old 06-01-2019, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,961 posts, read 8,825,433 times
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The main Kansas City Public Library building is a successful effort to rectify a mistake made in 1960.

That was the year the library moved out of its handsome Romanesque Revival home on East 9th Street at Locust, built in 1895, and into a new midcentury modern tower built to house both it and the Kansas City (Mo.) Board of Education. (At that time, the library system was actually part of the School District, and most of its branch libraries were located in city public schools. I believe the two are now separate.)

The building it now occupies was the main banking hall of the First National Bank of Kansas City. The building dates to 1906; the library renovated it and moved into it in 2004. They've done a marvelous job of restoring it, and the new Central Library IMO is a vast improvement over both of its predecessors (it had outgrown its old home by 1960). I guess you didn't take a look at its parking garage:



or the main reading room on the third floor, above the lobby you saw?



If the roads seem "busted up," which they didn't to me on my last trip Back Home last spring, well, I can't say.

Urbanist guru Jane Jacobs once said that "new ideas need old buildings." Seems the Kansas City Public Library board took that admonishment to heart.

Frankly, I think the city's stock of older buildings gives it lots of character. I guess you might have found this building a block away from the library depressing too. I found it grand when I was a kid and still do now. This building dates to 1890 and was the first skyscraper in the city:



But as they say in France, a chaçun son goût.
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Old 06-02-2019, 08:40 AM
 
Location: Alamogordo, NM
7,940 posts, read 9,419,569 times
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CDScoop - your view of Kansas City is too quick and judgemental. My wife and I spent a year in Grandview, a small suburb south of downtown KC. Give KC a chance, we eventually found the places we liked. We liked the River Market area uptown, amongst the taller buildings of KC. We loved the Country Club Plaza, south of the tall buildings a mile or tow. I've driven for decades in different parts of the West and Midwest, and, KC's roads aren't all that bad.

Yes, you can live over on the Kansas side of Stateline Avenue. A commute to downtown from the Kansas side is nothing to fear at all - KC's freeway system is the best I have ever seen in America. You get whisked to where you want in the KC Metro with just standard concentration on your driving. Knowing your route on the freeway will help, but, for a large Metro U.S. city, Kansas City's freeway system is a marvel of American engineering.

And as for the library, my wife and I didn't come across that beauty when we lived there. I wish we did. They did a great job on it. Give Kansas City a look if you've got an opportunity to, I think that after being there and exploring a while and giving it a chance, I think you'll change your mind and enjoy Kansas City, MO. I was offered my job in Lenexa back about 6 months ago and my boss said if you need work again, look him up. I've returned to another former employer here in southern New Mexico and we bought a house that we love, so it's quite doubtful we'd leave this situation while it's here for us.

But, don't be too quick to judge KC. If I needed employment again, I'd jump at the chance to get back to Kansas City. It has everything a large metro has in the way of shopping and parks and the country's finest freeway system to shoo you around, too. One last comment about cool things in KC. The Kansas City Zoo in the Swopes area south of town is a fantastic zoo. It has a train ride that takes you around the loop and drops you off at stops along the way. It has a great elephant display and the Siberian tiger was gorgeous. It's definitely work checking out - lots of time and money and upkeep has been spent and is continually being spent on the Zoo there and it shows to visitors. Check it out.

I hope my perspective on Kansas City helps you to think about it some more.

Last edited by elkotronics; 06-02-2019 at 08:49 AM..
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Old 06-02-2019, 12:14 PM
 
38 posts, read 27,766 times
Reputation: 40
Quote:
Originally Posted by WiseOwlSaysHoot View Post
Is this post for real? Yes, the Downtown library is in an "old" building. It is a beautiful, historic structure:






And you are judging a city based on an unhappy security guard and a car wash?

How long ago was it when you visited?

Yes. when you are an outsider, you tend to be more sensitive to such impressions. Don't get mad, bro.
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Old 06-02-2019, 12:18 PM
 
38 posts, read 27,766 times
Reputation: 40
Thank you for your replies. I will try and readjust my thinking. It is hard when you only have a glimpse of a place.
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Old 06-02-2019, 01:27 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,961 posts, read 8,825,433 times
Reputation: 10265
Quote:
Originally Posted by CDScoop View Post
Thank you for your replies. I will try and readjust my thinking. It is hard when you only have a glimpse of a place.
I don't know how much time you spent in the city, but a two-day visit (minimum) will reward you. For a quick intro, be sure to visit:

--The Country Club Plaza
--the City Market in the River Market
--City Hall; I think you can still ride the elevator up to the 29th-floor observation deck
--National World War I Museum and Memorial (aka Liberty Memorial); you can also ride the elevator up to the top of the 280-foot-tall memorial column at its center
--Union Station, across from the memorial
--at least one barbecue joint, preferably two, more if you have the stomach for it. Include one of either Bryant's or Gates', as these are the legends everyone knows, but neither are the best in town now; if you can hit only one, choose Bryant's

If you spend a weekend in the city, spend one night in Westport. You will probably wind up having a drink at the oldest building standing in Kansas City, Kelly's Tavern (1855) at Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue, in the course of your carousing. If you get there before 10 pm on a Friday or Saturday night, do not park your car on Westport Road between Broadway and Mill Street or on Pennsylvania Avenue from 40th Street to Archibald Street - it will be surrounded by barriers erected to protect the huge crowds of pedestrians who enter the area, and you won't be able to extract it until 4 a.m.

If your visit includes the first Friday of the month, also do the art gallery crawl in the Crossroads on Friday night. There are a lot of cool shops in this district too that are open during the day.

The 18th and Vine Jazz District is also worth a visit: you can visit the museums during the day and come back for a performance at the Blue Room at night. If you're a jazz fan, you might want to hang out at the Mutual Musicians Foundation on a Saturday night; the all-night jam session is the longest-running all-night jazz jam in the country.
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