Best and Worst Suburban Downtowns

[brewcrew1000]

I think I've been to my fair share of our Suburban Downtowns, so I was wondering how would you rank them? What are your top and bottom suburban downtown in terms of walkability, commercial opportunities, historic charm, safety, etc.

Here are mine
Best
1. Parkville
2. Liberty
3. Lee's Summit
4. Overland Park
5. North Kansas City - Edit (Totally forgot about this one)

Worst
1. Olathe
2. Blue Springs
3. Grandview
4. Grain Valley

[grovester]

I'd throw in MIssion, at least for effort.

And your worst list is way too short.

[brewcrew1000]

I like Mission's Downtown but I think the housing charm in that area is really lacking. Same with Shawnee

[shinatoo]

I think Grandviews downtown in nice enough to not be on the worst list. They have done a really good job with making the streets walkable, there is a good retail scene. I would put Raytown on the worst list, they are however starting to make an effort, bike lanes, back in parking and what not.

Independence is pretty solid.

[flyingember]

The best examples are the downtowns where the city grew away from it's downtown before the suburban-style growth picked up, you can reach is easily on foot or bike from newer parts of town, it's not parking centric

There's a lot of smaller towns making an effort to change things. I would call this the list of ones making an effort and already seeing results

Top tier:
1. Liberty- parking around the edge and good control, strong walkable area from neighborhoods, lots of jobs and restaurants and mixed use, roads from six directions meet at it. A major streetscape project jumped over downtown KC for walkable design.
2. North Kansas City- stupid easy to get to from lots of town. recent development is reasonably dense. focus on transit. Good parking that doesn't hurt walkability, adding more biking capabilities. They have long had neckdowns and wide sidewalks

Second tier:
1. Lee's Summit- good walkable core but is too small relative to the town size to be strong. Too many commuters leave town. Easier to avoid than go downtown.
2. Parkville- good core but disconnected from too much of the town and itself. Hard to walk around without a lot of effort. commercial centers aren't nearby
3. Mission- good movement to be walkable, access from neighborhood, tight amenity design in a small area but also big parking lots mixed in. US 56 is a barrier to figure out

Third tier-
1. Independence- too much parking, fill this in, bridge Truman Rd good and it will be better
2. OP downtown is decent, but Metcalf is a bad barrier a couple blocks away and it's really small. Rethink Metcalf and will help a lot.
3. Gladstone's new downtown is a decent change, but it's too suburban too close to it. N. Oak needs an overhaul to be more walkable

[grovester]

I like Mission's Downtown but I think the housing charm in that area is really lacking. Same with Shawnee

Downtown Shawnee's housing is atrocious. Almost like the city is deliberately neglecting it so they can eventually do some sort of large scale renewal.

Surprised to hear your thought on Mission, as I see them and old OP neighborhoods as pretty similar.

[earthling]

Some of these suburban downtowns along rail lines could become major multi-use centers if commuter rail became a reality.

[grovester]

You'd think. Merriam is hamstrung by the floodplain.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/co ... 49779.html

[Highlander]

Not really suburban as it constitutes a separate city in itself (At least by the way we define the metro), but Lawrence has the second nicest downtown in the entire metro area. Although it's not considered formally part of the KC metro area - we all know the reality is quite different. While very different to KCMO, it's the best small downtown in the area.

[FangKC]

I would also add Leavenworth to the list--mostly along Delaware Street. It has several good blocks of historic building stock that are decently maintained. The one thing that would improve downtown Leavenworth would be to add some street trees. The City also needs to really do multi-tenant residential infill downtown.

[brewcrew1000]

I forgot about Leavenworth, actually Leavenworth to me feels like a different metro but Its actually one of my favorite downtown's in all of Kansas probably due to the history of the city, i think most of the Kansas downtown's are very ugly.

[AlbertHammond]

Similar thread worth referencing here: If you HAD to move to the Kansas side, where? (POLL)
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19754&p=541256&hilit=poll#p541256

[AlbertHammond]

Best in this order:
1. Lawrence (if you consider it a suburb)
2. NKC
3. Liberty
4. Lee's Summit
5. OP (getting better with more development going in)
6. Parkville (if Lawrence doesn't count)

Most interesting suburban retail nodes or downtowns with potential:
1. Independence Square
2. Mission (they keep trying, but keep miss stepping on the details and screw it up)
3. Englewood (E. Winner & Sterling) (an area waiting for someone to care about it)
4. Downtown Raytown
5. Gladstone (I like the progress they are making)

Worst in this order:
1. Blue Springs (what a sh!thole)
2. Olathe (extra points for once having a good DT, then tearing it apart)
3. Grain Valley (yuck!)
4. Oak Grove (was better before they "improved" the high-speed highway thru it)
5. Shawnee (the city hall building with a proud parking lot kills it)

[bobbyhawks]

Does Lenexa get its own category?

[FangKC]

If you are going to include Lawrence, then why not include Weston, which has a pretty good downtown as well for a small town.

[AlbertHammond]

Does Lenexa get its own category?

Lenexa gave up on that poor little thing and threw their chips at City Center....which is coming along nicely.

[brewcrew1000]

Is the actual downtown Lenexa at Pflumm and Santa Fe Trail? I would have put that on my worst list but I really didn't think that could possibly be its downtown. Also I was thinking the City Center stuff was the actual downtown part

[grovester]

I don't know about worst, but it went downhill quickly after Ryckert's Market closed.

[shinatoo]

If we are including Leavenworth and Lawrence we might was well include Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville. Both solid Downtown's.

[AllThingsKC]

I'm including a few cities that aren't actually suburbs, but not including Lawrence because I think it's pretty much a given their downtown is awesome.

The best:
1. NKC - Nice street grid, easy to walk and bike, nice mixture of shops and urban housing. Not much "history," but still charming. I'm also giving NKC brownie points for being close to downtown KCMO.
2. Lee's Summit - Charming, easy to walk, fair to bike. Street grid could use a little work. Not much "history", but nice urban feeling.
3. Leavenworth - Nice size, very walkable, urban feel, great shops/restaurants. Can feel a little crowded, but nice overall.
4. Liberty - Lots of history, nice square. Fair to walk or bike, streets in the immediate downtown area are nice, but street grid gets weird after that.
5. Parkville - Lots of shops, charming. Hills make is hard to walk or bike, but not impossible and there are walking/biking trials near by.
6. Warrensburg, MO - Very charming & active downtown. Great for walking/biking.
7. Overland Park - Old part is fair, could be better. Nice farmer's market.
8. Sedaila, MO - Very charming, but needs work being active. Though, the city has been slowly improving it over the last several years.
9. Platte City - It's just one street, but impressive for a town of Platte City's size.

Fair:
1. Grandview - Some surface lots, but lots of history, and offers some shops/restaurants/lofts/housing for an urban feel - for about 3 blocks on Main Street.
2. Mission - Easy to walk or bike, charming, but lots of surface lots.
3. Ottawa, KS - Haven't been there in years, but downtown area was active & charming, especially for having a Walmart in that town. Hopefully, that's still the case.
4. Smithville - Nice size and pretty active. But narrow streets make it hard to bike or walk in places.
5. Pleasant Hill - Decent downtown area for a city it's size, train tracks kind of ruin the continuity, though.
6. Gladstone - The "downtown" area is still being contrived. But it's going the right direction: urban housing, city parks & pools, fair to walk or bike. Not much in shops or restaurants and North Oak could use some updating, but that's all being planned. For a city that didn't have a downtown area, Gladstone has is certainly doing the right things.
7. Belton - Somewhat charming, but not very active and odd street grid.
8. Harrisonville - Nice square, but not very active. So much potential.
9. Raytown - Not much to say, just lots of potential.
10 - Independence - Nice size downtown, easy to walk and bike, but isn't very active. Lots of potential here.
11. KCK - Not the worst downtown area by any means, but could stand to be more active. Also, surface lots.

Worst:
1. Olathe - Poor planning has hurt it, train tracks kind of ruin the continuity, not much of an urban feeling
2. Shawnee - No "ubran" feeling, just feels kind of "blah" overall.
3. Lenexa - Just like Shawnee, but at least they are trying to improve it.
4. Blue Springs - You get somewhat of an urban feeling, but it could stand to have some more shops and housing.
5. Grain Valley - It's historic. But the downtown area is basically just one block, on one side of the street.

So basically, the consensus seems to be that NKC is probably among the best while Olathe is probably among the worst.