West Terrace Park - Cleanup?

[Midtownkid]

Talking about the work done at Roanoke Park has me thinking about our other overgrown parks.

One place I really wish they would clean out is the bluff at West Terrace Park. It is bordered by the highway which would make this cleanup very difficult without closing a lane of the highway for a day with dumpsters or something. Still the cliffs were not totally destroyed by the highway, they are still there and very majestic.





Here is how it looked before the highway. Most of you have seen this:



I did some exploring the other day to investigate what is left of the stairs. I was very happily surprised to see that only the very last section was gone (circled in RED). The rest of the stairs are still intact. However, dirt is taking over and even some honeysuckle is growing on portions of the stairs.



Here is the bottom of the stairs now: Photos taken at the bottom where the blue arrow is.





Cool little cove could become a drinking fountain or something. A little scary now:



I know it would take the highway moving or the creation of a bridge over the highway to really make the stairs useful.

We could still clean them up and have them exposed for people on the highway to see. (people are at a standstill here at rush hour often.)

Better yet, they could create a small system of nature trails on the bluff with the stairs as part of it. There are already bum-made trails all over the hillside.

Here is view from the top of the bluff on one of those trails:



I just hate to see such an asset wasted.

Would anyone be interested in helping organize a cleanup? It would be a major task.

[droopy]

bum-made trails

That name cracked me up. I walk my dog by here daily and often see those trails getting use. Surprisingly, I've never explored them to the extent you did (thanks for the photos!). Do they lead anywhere useful? I just assumed they are accessing a camp down there, or maybe the bottoms but sounds like it's still no access under the highway there if you're talking about a bridge. All of Case Park could use a little TLC right now. The parks people usually do a good job cleaning up the weekend's mess but haven't been by in a month or so. A lot of trash in the bushes lately.

I'd be happy to help clean-up but am not much of an organizer...

[Eon Blue]

My goodness, I never fail to be amazed by the amount of things destroyed by highway construction.

[FangKC]

MidtownKid, when I lived on Quality Hill, I explored the stairs down to where you went, so I knew the stairs were mostly intact.

I agree with your sentiments. I've thought it would be wonderful if a lot of the brush could be cleared away and the stairs and towers at the top exposed again to see from the west. The stairs could simply be left as "ruins" for people to explore. The area could be replanted with low-growing landscaping and made "pretty again" with ornamental trees, and bushes. A lot of it could just be low-growing grasses.

With some work, I think it might be possible to even put in a basic running path along the bluff from 12th Street around to 7th and Pennsylvania.

The trees have grown too tall and they block many of the views from Case Park, and the towers. The entire bluff doesn't have to be stripped of trees, but it does need to be cleaned of trash.

Then trails could be carved out for people to use. The usage would deter the homeless from nesting in there, which they do.

That area is noisy as all get-out, but I don't think people exploring it would care about that.

[TravisKCMO]

I would be glad to help. I suggest we start small and remove the brush/trees inside the stairwell. Those roots are working on the steps and walls as we speak. Would probably want to drag those up to the top of the stairwell (and avoid the wrath of 35 below), and collect it near the corner of 10th/Kirk for pick up. The soil would be more of a challenge, but there are ways. We could expand the effort later if this worked to tackle some of the bigger stuff.

Does anyone know who to contact within the city about this? I know I've read about other park cleanups where the citizens did the grunt work and the city hauled off the yard waste.

[grovester]

You might see if you could coordinate with Historic KC or some such group as a community service event.

[Midtownkid]

Midtown, you need to change the headliner on this post. It's West Terrace Park, or Case Park. North Terrace Park is in the Old Northeast neighborhood. It's misleading.

Oops! I know that, just a typo

I would be glad to help. I suggest we start small and remove the brush/trees inside the stairwell. We could expand the effort later if this worked to tackle some of the bigger stuff.

Does anyone know who to contact within the city about this? I know I've read about other park cleanups where the citizens did the grunt work and the city hauled off the yard waste.

Maybe we should contact the city and start a little facebook page. I'm sure we could get a lot of people involved.

After an initial clean up, perhaps we can generate enough interest to get more done...even a connection to the Bottoms. That would be my ultimate goal.

[KCthomas]

The Downtown Neighborhood Association has worked with the Parks and Recreation Department to address maintenance and upkeep issues in the park, but I believe that because this portion of the Park is wedged between a highway and the bluff, reducing access and visibility, and because there are concerns about crime and general debris generated from homeless in the area, the City discourages access to this part of the bluff. I haven't been there too recently, but they used to lock a gate a the top of the stairs, and what I mentioned above is the reason why. These same concerns are also why access was restricted to the circle where the Lewis and Clark statue is located.

You may be thinking that excluding people from areas of the park discourages activity, and is therefore counterproductive to the goal of increasing safety. I agree, but might suggest that the usable portions of the park also need a lot of help, and that may yield more immediate benefit to the surrounding residents.

[Midtownkid]

I just talked to someone with the Parks Department and they seemed very interested in helping me.

I am starting a Facebook page for this project and will try to generate interest. All we need is a date!

Will post a link on here soon.

[shinatoo]

Check with the Boy Scouts also. These make great Eagle projects.

[Midtownkid]

https://www.facebook.com/TakeBackWestTerracePark

Please help me promote this page. Help with the actual cleanup too!

[FangKC]

Ok MidtownKid, I posted your Take Back West Terrace Park Facebook page (which sounds like an effort to stamp out rape in the park, but I won't quibble ) to several other KC area group Facebook pages--seeking volunteers. One of the pages is where the legendary grand poohbah of the North Terrace Park and Cliff Drive cleanups and rehabilitation hangs out, so maybe he'll notice and take pity. I hope you're happy.

The Advertisement

https://www.facebook.com/TakeBackWestTerracePark There is a new Facebook page called Take Back West Terrace Park, which is seeking people to join in an effort to reintegrate the stairs back into Case Park. This is fancy talk for volunteers to remove trash and brush from the bluff around the stairs, and work slowly over time to rebuild the stairs, and make walking trails along the bluff. There's other plans as well, but this is the starting point. Join up and get your exercise.

[DaveKCMO]

https://www.facebook.com/TakeBackWestTerracePark

Please help me promote this page. Help with the actual cleanup too!

i just invited a bunch of peeps to like the page!

[moderne]

About 10 years ago a member of one of the prominent local banking families sponsored some repair work on the outlook shelters and donated lighting that uplit the curved retaining wall. Maybe he would still be interested in supporting any community effort.
This reminds me of old prints of the urban roman ruins buried with trees growing out of them. And then we put a freeway through the palatine hill. In any major city downtown an escarpment of this magnitude would be a feature. What about help from the River Club?(Anyone ever been in that anachronism?). An intact West Terrace Park and Kersey Coates Drive along with the stairs could have been a real connection between DT and the post industrial west bottoms.

[FangKC]

I agree it was madness to take out Kersey Coates Drive, and ruin those stairs. That area around the stairs was actually a landscaped area at one time.

I have never understood why, if they felt a freeway loop was needed there, that they didn't align it with Beardsley Road and Bluff Street further down the bluff instead.

Sure, it would have meant probably reworking the 12th Street Viaduct, but it would have been worth doing in the long run.

If it would have been done correctly, they would have put the interstate loop following Beardsley and Bluff and stacked the lanes on top of each other in a double viaduct. Then, on top of the upper deck, they could have placed some sort of pedestrian terrace to hide the freeway from Kersey Coates Drive, and also muffle the noise from the freeway. The upper pedestrian deck could have been quite nice with good lighting and a promenade feature.

Example of double decked viaduct.



The current view of the West Loop configuration.



How the West Loop could have been accomplished using a double deck structure over Beardsley and Bluff roads.



Aerial view of the West Loop now.



Aerial view of the realigned West Loop following Beardsley and Bluff roads using a double decked viaduct with a pedestrian promenade deck.



The West Loop is a two-lane highway for part of the way around the West Bluffs.




Beardsley Road is also two lanes going under the 12th Street Viaduct.



The 12th Street Viaduct is so high over Beardsley Road, that it seems a double deck viaduct could have run underneath it with two lanes going in each direction. Beardsley Road might have had to been excavated to a lower grade to accommodate the lower deck of the loop, but it would have been feasible I think.



If engineers would have taken Beardsley Road down to the same grade as Bluff Street, I certainly think they could have run freeway decks under the 12th Street Viaduct.

[chaglang]

Near where Beardsley intersects with 17th, you can see the remains of the southmost end of Kersey Coates Dr. It runs north about 100' and disappears into some undergrowth. On google earth the roadbed appears to run all the way across the west end of Jarboe Park.

[FangKC]

We should all get together and go exploring down there, and you could show us Chaglang.

There also used to be a building right at the top of the 12th Street Viaduct by Kersey Coates Drive where is connected with Mulkey Square Park. I've seen a photo of it. It sat on a stone foundation on the bluff. It was there when the first 12th Street bridge was there, before they rebuilt the viaduct larger. I think the new viaduct construction took it out.

The building was Victorian in style, and had a little cupola tower on it.

[chaglang]

Here's the street view. KCD veers off to the right:

imagehost

[FangKC]

How I-35 should have been routed.

[Eon Blue]

Not sure I'd enjoy a highway on top of one of the best railfanning spots in the country, but the tradeoffs might be worth it.