The City Council just upheld Mayor Funkhouser’s surprise removal of City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Councilmembers Cindy Circo, Beth Gottstein, and Jan Marcason all switched sides after originally voting to keep the Manager back in December 2007.
It seems that for the moment that the Manager is suspended with pay. The Council [...]
The Friends of the Kansas City Public Library will hold their annual Book Lovers Book Sale Thursday-Sunday. More than 10,000 books, videos, and audio books will be on sale for $3.00 or less. The sale happens at the Central Library (10th and Baltimore), and you can find [...]
Local blogger Jason Preu has published swallow, a new poetry collection described as “a collection of thirty-two poems that feature surreal humor and imaginative speculations. Preu won the Kansas City Screenwriters’ Audience Prize award in 2003 for his comedy-horror script Night of the Mullets“. Check it out in [...]
Rainy Day Books is hosting David Plouffe, manager of Barack Obama’s historic 2008 presidential campaign, Thursday evening at Unity Temple on the Plaza. He will discussing his new book, The Audacity to Win, which tells the story of the campaign. Admission to the event requires purchasing the [...]
This week brings news of two dumb criminals. First, in Topeka, an aspiring burglar had to be rescued by firefighters after spending three hours stuck in a ventilation pipe.
Closer to home, a would-be john was recently robbed of his money and car by a prostitute and her pimp. [...]
The City has once again successfully challenged the Census Bureau’s annual population estimate. We are now 480,120 strong. As recently as last year the official count was 450,000. A 2008 study says that the population could be as high as 533,000. In related news, the Star is continuing a weird [...]
Luxury electronics retailer Bang & Olufsen is leaving the Country Club Plaza for 19th and Main Streets in the Crossroads Arts District. The locally-owned B&O store cites the proliferation of non-luxury shopping mall stores that has occurred under Highwoods’ ownership of the Plaza. Consider the departure of Saks 5th [...]
CityBall, MetroSports’ award-winning documentary about inner city student athletes in the KCMO School District, is coming out on DVD. To mark the film’s one year anniversary and DVD release, a special town hall and public viewing will be held Tuesday evening. Many students and coaches featured in CityBall will [...]
No surprise that COMBAT passed, so KC is safe from becoming “Iraq with drugs.” In other election news…
Liberty smoking ban – voters approved increasing the existing smoking, removing an exemption for bars and restaurants.
School bonds were approved in the Independence and Center districts.
Clay County’s jail tax was extended.
The Fairway [...]
If you tried to eat breakfast at Succotash during your City Market run this past weekend, don’t be alarmed. While it is currently closed, it is relocating to Midtown’s Longfellow neighborhood. Succotash’s new location should be open in a few weeks at 26th and Holmes, just east of Crown Center [...]
The end of October is traditionally the end of fountain season here in the City of Fountains, so hurry up if you still need to take wedding photos, class pictures, etc. After Saturday, only the Crown Center fountain and the fountain at Vivion and North Oak will be running year-round.
What would you do if your house was suddenly yanked out from under you because of something that happened to it years before you owned it?
Jackson County’s COMBAT anti-drug program has trapped a well-meaning young couple trying to rehab a former drug house. They recently bought a house in the [...]
Breaking news… KMBC-TV 9 reports that American Airlines will close their overhaul base at KCI. This is a big blow to the city. 500 high-paying skilled manufacturing jobs will disappear by this time next year.
We wonder if American Airlines will give back the nearly $100 million subsidies that the [...]
The Cordish Co. has won a tax appraisal appeal, lower taxes on the Power & Light District and increasing the city’s liability to cover Cordish’s losses in the district. The County has valued the P&L District at $25 million, in between the original value of $88 million and Cordish’s appeal [...]
The 3rd annual WaterFire events occurs this Saturday from 6:00 p.m to Midnight. Brush Creek on the Country Club Plaza will be transformed into a public art experience with bonfires, live music, dance, and other performing artists. The KCATA will run MAX service every 15 minutes all night [...]
The city’s historic Old Northeast area recently lost is Community Development Corporation (CDC), Old Northeast, Inc. In KC, CDCs are local non-profits that work on neighborhood stabilization, revitalization, housing development, crime reduction, social services, etc. The northeast CDC served neighborhoods like Pendleton Heights, Scarritt Renaissance, [...]
The Beast haunted house in the West Bottoms has been ranked as the scariest haunted house in the country. It’s neighbor The Edge of Hell came in at #13. Yay! It’s good to be first in something.
[...]The “controversy” over Johnson County’s plan to cull the deer overpopulation in Shawnee Mission Park is starting to get ridiculous considering the people protesting are participants in the suburban sprawl that encircled the deer on all sides and created the problem.
It’s great to see the beige people finally excited about [...]
The Kansas City Post is back from summer break with a great summary of the West Edge, the gigantic half-finished project in the West Plaza. In short, the city is so eager to give out subsidies that they rarely do enough homework to see if the developer is actually able [...]
Friday night at 7:00 p.m. the Monsters of Design competition will honor a broad range of young local designers in the fields of architecture, interior design, furniture, graphics, and more. KC has a rich design community, and this is a great opportunity to see our up [...]
Things are looking up for the area around 39th and Main Streets. Today the Biz Journal reports that the long-delayed redevelopment of the Hawthorne building isn’t dead, even after the the City Council denied the developer’s request for TIF funding above and beyond the project’s original [...]
Back in August we reported on Ripple Glass, a new glass recycling venture from Boulevard Brewery. At the time they were planning to start service in October, but sadly their web site now says November.
While your glass bottles pile up waiting for the purple collection bins, check out [...]
For the last several years we’ve been hearing over and over about the need to fix up Downtown, build an arena, expand the convention center, build hotels, and create entertainment districts. All of this to attract and retain big conventions, to stop the flow of jobs and residents to the [...]
Wired Magazine notes a Kansas State University project mapping the 7 Deadly Sins across the US, as measured by rates of theft, STDs, etc. KC ranks high in four of the seven:
Envy (thefts) Wrath (violent crimes) Sloth (spending on art, entertainment, recreation) Pride (composite all sins).We are average for greed (income disparity), [...]
Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore subsidiary is planning to rehabilitate the old Katz Drug Store on the southwest corner of Linwood and Troost into a second outlet for selling reclaimed building materials. The original ReStore in the Northeast Industrial District is a giant warehouse of cabinets, flooring, paint, carpet, [...]
WalletPop, AOL’s personal finance site, features the KC Repertory Theatre in a new story looking at how regional theater companies are fairing in the Great Recession. While New York companies are hunkering down and becoming more cautious, regional companies like the KC Rep are taking risks and innovating [...]
Maybe we ought to rename it Perv City. However, recent incidents have been in the suburbs (or Wichita), not KC proper. And be sure to check out the hairband-esque dude in the second story.
[...]This weekend the Plaza Art Fair returns for its 78th year as one of the country’s top juried art fairs. In addition to top notch artists from around the country, visitors can sample great local food and music.
Meanwhile, the UnPlaza Art Fair will once again feature local and [...]
It’s kindof amazing that I-435 in the southern suburbs can be so congested, considering it’s a highway from nowhere to nowhere. With virtually no east/west transit service and no room to widen the highway, MoDOT and KDOT can only tweak the system for maximum efficiency.
One of those tweaks coming soon [...]
Saturday Kansas City’s Waldo neighborhood hosts its annual Fall Festival and the Waldo Crawldo pub crawl. The family-friendly festival runs 10am to 5pm and features music, food, games, rides, etc. The pub crawl starts at 6pm with a $10 fee. This year’s crawl should be quite event with several recent [...]
The Pitch’s David Martin has an excellent article behind the scenes of the Wizards stadium loss to KCK and earlier efforts to redevelop Bannister Mall. The story mentions a transit-oriented, neo-traditional, mixed-use neighborhood proposal that the city passed over in favor of the high-risk, suburban-style stadium/strip mall/office park combination. [...]
Thursday is the day that it appears the firefighters union will finally get full control over the Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust. The City Council has been moving aggressively to absorb the independent agency into city government. Events recently took a turn that confirmed many conspiracy theories – [...]
Just your average weekend here in flyover country…
Art Westport – 30th annual art fair featuring local artists. Friday-Sunday at Westport Road & Pennsylvania Street.
Quixotic – Saturday at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The innovative local dance/music/art fusion performs outdoors as part of the museum’s 75th birthday celebrations.
This week comes news that the Kansas City Wizards football soccer team has been secretly negotiating for an alternative stadium site at Village West in KCK, in lieu of the planned Three Trails stadium/retail/office development at the old Bannister Mall site.
Everyone thought the Three Trails project was a done deal [...]
On Saturday and Sunday the Screenland Crossroads Theater hosts the first KC Urban Film Festival, featuring local, independent, and national African American cinema. One of the festival’s organizers is Fox 4 movie critic Shawn Edwards, who hopes to build the event into national prominence.
The weekend the Irish Festival returns for its 7th year. It runs Friday-Sunday at the Crown Center square. The event is packed full of Irish music, dancing, food, crafts, etc. Admission is $10 at the door or $8 advance tickets. Blankets and chairs are OK, but no outside food or [...]
The folks responsible for the metro area’s air quality are warning that a proposed rail/truck freight hub in Gardner in far southwest Johnson County would pollute Kansas City’s air and possibly move us even further out of attainment of federal air quality regulations. The Mid-America Regional Council says that the [...]
Update: The two ordinances were indeed held for three weeks. The committee won’t hear them or take any action until September 23rd.
The Pitch reports that proposed changes to the City’s liquor license ordinance would essentially limit 3:00 A.M. bars to the Power & Light District and might even restrict [...]
On Sunday the KC Star ran a big front page piece on the city’s 311 Action Center and how the spike in calls about bulky item pickup have overwhelmed the system. It went on to recount tales of woe from residents enduring long wait times to reach a [...]
It looks like gourmet burgers are becoming the new hotness on the local food scene. We already have two successful locally-owned operations – Chef Burger in Downtown’s Power & Light District and Blanc Burgers+Bottles in Westport and the suburbs. Now it seems that two specialty burger concepts are [...]
Senator Claire McCaskill will hold a health care town forum Monday evening at 4:30 p.m. in the Swinney Recreation Center on the campus of UMKC. Insurance companies and the Republican Party have been staging mock “protests” at similar forums, so this could be quite interesting. Over the weekend a [...]
This weekend the 30th Annual Ethnic Enrichment Festival brings together the food, dance, and music of dozens of countries and ethnic groups. It’s a Kansas City tradition that lets us sample food and music from around the world. The festival is Friday-Sunday in Swope Park.
The Star reports that the vacant Westport Osco on Main Street might soon see new life with a locally owned redevelopment proposal to turn it into a bakery and cafe. No word on the name of the bakery, but Farm to Market is one prominent baker that does [...]
MSNBC currently has live coverage of Senator Claire McCaskill’s town hall meeting on health care in Jefferson County, in the St. Louis exurbs. The teagging birther hired “protestors” are doing their best shout her down, but they are learning that they can’t easily mess with health care. She is working [...]
Ripple Glass is a new offshoot of Boulevard Brewing Co. that is building a local glass processing center. This fall the company will build a network of collection sites around the city and suburbs. Their pulverized glass will then be used by a local plant for manufacturing insulation.
While the [...]
Hyperblogal is a cool local photoblog by photographer and Old Northeast resident David Remley.
[...]Today the KC Star profiles several local food bloggers. Sadly we are still waiting for one of our favorites, Noodletown, to make a comeback.
[...]The Pitch’s Charles Feruzza has news that Eljay’s Coffee House on Delaware Street in the River Market has closed. While places like this come and go all the time, it’s a reminder that during the Great Recession we need to support our locally-owned businesses now more than ever.
“if you’re [...]
Two Midtown/Plaza restaurants have reopened after brief closures… Baja 600 on the Plaza has recently re-opened after a lightning-induced fire caused it to close in June.
Also, Cafe Trio is now open for lunch as well as dinner, in the old Frondizi’s space just north of the [...]
This week the KC region is hosting the world championships of disc golf. Over 900 people from around the world are in town competing at disc golf courses all over the region. Check out www.kcworlds.com for details.
[...]
Many KCMO residents and City Councilmembers are upset about the city’s bulky trash pickup program. Due to city budget cuts the program was switched from a regular monthly schedule to and appointment only system. Apparently many people are having trouble making the switch, and perhaps [...]
The KC Fringe Festival is now underway and venues all over Downtown and Midtown. The annual event showcases local and international live theater, music, dance, poetry, film, fashion, and more. KC Fringe runs through July 26th.
[...]
Photo by KC Star
Curbside parking in Downtown is getting modernized. The city is now testing Pay and Display parking stations. The system, widely used in other cities, replaces individual parking meters with pay stations that print a receipt for motorists to display [...]
Today the KC Star reports that both the Legends shopping center and the Nebraska Furniture Mart in KCK’s Village West development are protesting their property tax bills and trying to get their valuations reduced. The story is similar in KCMO where earlier this year the Power & Light [...]
Tony’s Kansas City has an excellent scoop on how a religious conference receiving city tourism funding is featuring a minister with a known history of hate speech towards gay, lesbian, and trans-gendered Americans. The situation is perfect local example of the split happening within African American churches over civil [...]
The New York Times reports that metro areas are getting a disproportionately small share of the economic stimulus transportation money, despite the fact that metro areas are the drivers of the economy. Missouri was called out for MoDOT spending almost half of its stimulus money in small counties that account [...]
The Fishtank is a new performance space along the 1700 block of Wyandotte Street in the Crossroads Arts District. The tiny space is really just a long display window, so audiences watch from the sidewalk. Fishtank is the creation of Birdies and Late Night Theater alum Corrie [...]
Kansas City seems to have a bizarre split personality when it comes to parking. On one hand, there are perpetual complaints that there isn’t enough parking. On the other hand, the city is busy tearing down multi-level parking garages and replacing them with surface parking lots. Last year it was [...]
While Great Recession has caused many local municipalities to cancel fireworks displays this year, Riverfest is soldering on. The big festival in Berkley Park on the KCMO riverfront features live music, carnival rides, games, kids activities, etc. on Friday and Saturday. Saturday night Riverfest has the city’s biggest fireworks [...]
Today the KC Star’s Matt Campbell has an odd story that tries to whip up panic about how the population of Omaha is set to surpass that of Kansas City. He cites 2008 Census data that lists KC with 452,000 and Omaha with 439,000. But his numbers are wrong. [...]
This weekend is the annual KCK Street Blues Festival, essentially the only remaining blues or jazz fest left in KC.
Over at TV Barn, Aaron Barnhart has an update on how the DTV switch is going locally.
The Star’s Joyce Smith notes that Dunkin’ Donuts has finally announced its [...]
Update: The City Council decided not to act today. The loan has been delayed, and if it does come to pass it now looks like it will come from the airport, not capital improvements.
In recent years City Hall has taken a lot of heat for doling out TIFs and other [...]
This week Boulevard Brewing Company is debuting their newest year-round beer, Boulevard Pilsner. It’s an American-style lager that is just in time for the onset of Missouri humidity. At $6 for a six pack, it’s price to compete with Bud/Miller/Coors, and many stores are even stocking [...]
Today convicted killer Curtis Mertensmeyer was released from jail after serving just 120 days for the hit and run death of Daniel Riemann. A drunk Mertensmeyer ran over Riemann while he was trying to cross Ward Parkway, and was going fast enough to sever one of his victim’s legs [...]
A new national ranking of the top 1500 high schools in the country has placed Lincoln College Prep Academy at #129. The KCMO School District school easily beat all other city and suburban schools and was second in Missouri only to #97 Metro Academic and Classical in St. Louis.
In [...]
Over the years the city has made several big changes to the way it picks up bulky item trash like appliances, furniture, etc. – switching back and forth between regular pickups and on-demand appointments. The latest budget cuts saw the program go back to an appointment system tied to the [...]
If you recently bought a new television, or have an old analog set collecting dust, don’t throw it in the trash. Electronics like televisons contain lots of toxic stuff like lead and mercury. Take it to Surplus Exchange in the West Bottoms. The local non-profit will recycle the salvageable bits [...]
Two new events get started this weekend…
Downtown KCK Street Festival – live music, food, and art gallery openings on Friday evening.
Taste of the Crossroads - Sampling of food from restaurants in the Crossroads Arts Districts. Sunday 3pm-8pm. $20/person $35/couple. At the Freight House building at 22nd and Baltimore, behind [...]
The last few days are turning out to be very illustrative of the racial tensions that often lurk just under the surface in Kansas City, even the shiny, redeveloped parts. As people flock back to a newly thriving Downtown, many parts of our deeply segregated community are bumping into each [...]
KC was roiled by by a Twitterstorm last night after the DJ Jazzy Jeff was kicked off the stage in the Power & Light District for playing hip hop music. Which is bizarre, since the Cordish Co. surely knew what kind of music he played when they hired him. [...]
Midtown’s Conklin Fangman Cadillac/Buick/Pontiac at Linwood and Main is one of the many dealerships being cut loose by a dying General Motors. The historic Major Cadillac was renovated by new owners just two years ago.
The dealership’s loss could be a setback to the ongoing revival of the Main Street [...]
The Star and KMBC-TV are in a bit of a spat over this week’s story that the newspaper doesn’t publish same-sex wedding announcements. The Star says they had already changed the policy before the TV story aired, but KMBC is sticking by their version.
Either way, the end result is that [...]
KMBC-TV 9 reports that a gay couple from Independence who were recently married in Iowa were unable to get their marriage announcement published in either the region’s daily newspapers, Kansas City Star and the Independence Examiner. Both newspapers refuse to publish same-sex marriage announcements. The wingnuts who complain about the [...]
Kevin Collison reports in the KC Star that the Downtown Council is trumpetting numbers showing that the Downtown economy has grown 45% since 2001, vs. 33% growth city-wide. Those numbers include city revenue from earnings taxes, sales taxes, business licenses, etc. However, much of the [...]
A local candlelight vigil will be held tonight for Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who was murdered yesterday day by a “pro-life” activist.
8:00 p.m at the J.C. Nichols fountain in Mill Creek Park. 47th and Main Street on the east side of the Country Club Plaza. (via MO State [...]
Bottom Line Communications reports the death of local conservative personality Rich Nadler. Rich was most famously known as most lively panelist on Ruckus, KCPT’s local political debate show a la the McLaughlin Group. Ruckus was never the same after KCPT dropped him for being too raucous.
This new documentary is a must-see for music lovers, local history fans, and aging hippies. It’s centered on the short-lived Cowtown Ballroom, an early-1970s incarnation of the El Torreon Ballroom at 31st and Gillham in Union Hill. For a brief three years the Cowtown was an epicenter [...]
KMBC-TV 9 reports that Silver Alerts for missing old folks have joined the Amber Alert system for missing kids.
Regional law enforcement leaders are also rumored to be working on a system of Beige Alerts for suburbanites lost in the city.
Soon this system will have more colors than the Homeland [...]
Big festivals like Oktoberfest and Rhythm and Ribs have fallen victims to The Great Recession, but River City is also Festival City, and other big fests continue. And in true KC fashion, most of the events scheduled themselves for the same first weekend of June. Culture in this city is [...]
…In exhange for public transit funding! Gone Mild has the scoop.
“Angry fans reacted to the loss of Zack Greinke, who is considered to be THE bright spot on the Royals roster. “It’s not the lack of public transportation that keeps the fans away - it’s the fact that the [...]
The California Supreme Court just upheld the state’s hate amendment banning same-sex marriage. A local rally regarding that decision will be held at 5:00 p.m. today at the J.C. Nichols Fountain in Mill Creek, 47th at Main Streets on the east side of the Country Club Plaza.
Today the KC Star reports that the massive Federal Building in Downtown KCMO is getting $100 million to make the building the more energy efficient. The Feds are predicting they will save $45,000 a month on energy costs, which means it will only take 185 years to recoup the [...]
Be sure to check out the Star Magazine and Aaron Barnhart’s long look into the drama-filled hot mess that is KKFI-FM 90.1. The community radio station has had a long and tumoultuous history, and even today continues to struggle with itself for survival.
Tonight Kansas Citians have a rare opportunity to talk to the people working future funding for MoDOT. So far they are ignoring urban issues like transit, walking, bicycling, etc. - so this a good time to let them know what’s on the minds of the citizens of the state’s largest [...]
Bob Bernstein’s big white whale has filed for bankruptcy. The massive West Edge office/hotel/retail project under construction on the west side of the Country Club Plaza filed after losing a lawsuit with JE Dunn over unpaid construction bills. Hopefully this is just a legal manuever to get out of [...]
Troost Avenue has a history of being a racial dividing line in Kansas City, but the street’s present is more about bridging divides. It is where diverse communities are coming together to create a new future - artists, neighborhood activists, students, bicyclists, regular folks, and many [...]
KMBC-TV 9’s Michael Mahoney examines how St. Louis ends up with millions in emergency state aid for transit and Kansas City gets nothing - and how it’s yet another example of KC being out-hustled in Jeff City. The bottom line is that the entire St. Louis region is much [...]
The Star reports that today Kansas City lost its last chance to get emergency transit funding from the Missouri General Assembly. On June 28th the KC Area Transportation Authority will implement several cuts to its Metro bus service. A third of all routes will be reduced, employees laid off, [...]
New York Bakery, the landmark Jewish bakery at Gregory and Troost in south Kansas City has closed for good. After a long and painful deterioration, the owner has finally decided to give up and lock the doors. The place had been an anomaly for years, since most of the [...]
Last night Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced that Platte County has a probably case of swine flu, the first in the KC metro area and the state of Missouri. Northlanders, brace for an invasion of TV news crews!
Video of Governor Nixon’s press conference: Part 1 and Part 2. [...]Local politicians have lately started embracing social networks. Senator Claire McCaskill is definitely most famous for her use of Twitter, but others have also started using Twitter, Facebook, and blogs to communicate with the public. These networks also provide citizens with a new and often more direct conduit to their [...]
Much hay has been made over the financial failure of the Power & Light District. It was projected to net the City $14 million in sales tax last year, but only brought in $2 million. Taxpayers were on the hook for the difference, which made the city’s budget deficit even [...]
Today the new Kansas City Film Festival gets underway. It’s a new combination of two long-standing festivals that had focused on feature length and short films separately. Now both will be presented together. The festival has booked a great program from around the world yet including some key works from [...]
Two pieces of good news just in time for Earth Day…
First, last week the city announced that weekly curb-side recycling will continue. Recycling was due to be cut back to bi-weekly as part of the massive city budget cuts, but city was able to switch to a cheaper contractor and [...]
The State of Kansas just loosened up their nortiously tight alcohol laws just a bit. The biggest change is the legalization of mail-order wine, which means JoCos will no longer have to ask Missouri friends to receive shipments of their wine from the Internets. Also, wineries will now be [...]
You might not know it, but Kansas City has a long and brutal history of organized crime. From the wide open Paris on the Plains days of the Pendergast era right up to ugly end of the River Quay bombings in the 1970s, the mob was big part of the [...]
