Walking Tour: Crossroads to the loop

[trailerkid]

Today at about 11:00 AM, because there was no school today, I took a walking tour of downtown going from the Crossroads through the South Loop and into the CBD. It may be a little long, but I hope it's useful.

Park near 18th and Baltimore. First, the sidewalks are in horrible condition. I've seen bad sidewalks, but these sidewalks are literally torn up. There are chunks of them sticking up and are totally uneven. There is little street traffic and no foot traffic (saw one person park in front of a business and go in). The storefronts were either vacant or some weird office that hadn't been updated since the 50s or 60s. Did see 1819 Lofts promoting an "urban lifestyle"

Walk over the freeway bridge. I am surprised by the fact that you don't realize you're walking over a freeway until you're right on top of it. The streetscape as you look down the street is very uniform and the freeway presents no visible disruption in your sight line. It is very loud and a little confusing walking after the bridge as many motorists are going very fast as they don't expect there to be a pedestrian. For improvement: as mentioned before, covering the freeway loop, absorbing the sound on the walls, building an enclosed artistic pedestrian bridge with integrated art so you don't realize the freway is below.

South Loop First thing I saw was the President...very cool old building...lots of neat details and colors on it. I go down 14th to get the SoLo perspective. I don't need to go into much detail, but some of the tens of vacant lots are actually dirt lots that look like something from out in the country. There is a smattering of weird businesses and vacant buildings. HUGE amount of open land along 14th. The biggest slap in the face is that in the midst of all this urban decay and giant surface lots are street signs on electric poles that say "Welcome to Kansas City." ...very sad.

Central/12th Street After I leave the 14th Street area I head to the central part of downtown. I am taken aback a little by how many gaps exist. There are grand buildings with nothing in them and little foot traffic. Once I hit 12th Street things change and there is a lot more people around. I am greeted by a Yellow Coat guy with a "hello" and a "Have a Happy Thanksgiving" to the woman in front of me. This is a very nice gesture of downtown and these people need a raise and need to be moblilized to other parts of the core. I am immediately impressed by 12th Street and its streetscape and start walking towards the Hotel Philips. 12th Street should be the model for every street downtown as it looks clean and gets other foot traffic. Jones Store block needs to be dealt with; it's in a very prominant location and must be replaced with awesome ground retail. All in all there still is little to do or see so far as I imagine myself as a tourist, "Where the hell is everything?"

Library District This area is booming with activity...literally. There is construction all over the place. Really looks like a work in progress and the overall vibe is that something big is happening there.

Grand back to Crossroads Grand is pretty drab and similar to Baltimore. The KC printing press looms over the area. I feel proud until I get to the Star Complex. It is flanked by surface lots all around and has a very "suburban" feel, complete with private outdoor picnic tables, although the complex seems to be in graceful old buildings.

Overall
-- Downtown still needs billions (with a b) in downtown investment to start reaching potential

--The library thing looks like it could really spawn a new attitude downtown. It is a centerpiece of downtown that hopefully will change downtown for the better

--Crossroads (specifically Wyandotte/Southwest Blvd. area) is/will become by far the center of KC culture-- whatever that means.

--The Urban Culture Project really does help. With so many boarded up buildings, bringing well-done art to those spaces adds class and sophistication. We need more of it and on a bigger scale.

--The CBD is actually very close to Crown Center. I was surprised at just how close as I walked back to my car. In the right weather, a walk from CC to the loop is no sweat.

--I was the youngest person(21) I saw outside of the Arts District. There were no young people, no children, no yuppie types...all baby boomers and older. This must change for downtown to suceed.

--Don't worry about luring a "blockbuster" tenant and worry about land a tenant period. There are so many holes and hundreds of abandoned storefronts and buildings. The city should take the hundreds of thousands of dollars they're giving to Cordish and use it to hire a general downtown leasing agent from the suburbs to bring small offices and retail downtown.

[FangKC]

First, the sidewalks are in horrible condition. I've seen bad sidewalks, but these sidewalks are literally torn up. There are chunks of them sticking up and are totally uneven.

You are right about that pal. When they fix the sidewalks, they should also plant decorative trees along the streets and place large planters there too.

Walk over the freeway bridge. I am surprised by the fact that you don't realize you're walking over a freeway until you're right on top of it. It is very loud and a little confusing walking after the bridge as many motorists are going very fast as they don't expect there to be a pedestrian.

Yes, it's very disorienting. I imagine people with vertigo freak out.

South Loop First thing I saw was the President...very cool old building...lots of neat details and colors on it.

Trailer, that fact that you are young and appreciated that old building gives me hope for the future.

--The library thing looks like it could really spawn a new attitude downtown. It is a centerpiece of downtown that hopefully will change downtown for the better.

It already is.

--Don't worry about luring a "blockbuster" tenant and worry about land a tenant period. There are so many holes and hundreds of abandoned storefronts and buildings.

Wiser words were never uttered.

Of course once the City got tenants in the buildings, they'd demand they move out so that redevelopment can begin. Then the buildings would sit empty for 20 years while developers twiddled their thumbs.

[trailerkid]

Fang...isn't that exactly what happend with the South Loop. Every building got leveled because of "development" and when nothing happened they became parking or just vacant dirt? Pretty sad, but leaves a great opportunity for redevelopment. I think we should keep the Empire and a lot of the scattered old South Loop buildings and integrate them into the new South Loop. I also like the idea of putting art or remodeling the exterior of that big AT&T building to fit into the South Loop area.

Honestly, there are buildings downtown that look like they're from Beirut. 12th Street is very nice and a good environment, but many empty spaces. I just can't imagaine Waddell and Reed down there having some huge impact--mostly just prestige. Again downtown needs positive leasing agents willing to go toe to toe with the suburbs and other cities. Parking is not an issue as I was able to park for free on Baltimore in the Crossroads-- only a short walk to the loop.

Something I really enjoyed was the amount of small local, mostly ethnic, hole-in-wall restaurants in spaces in the loop. I also wanted to try that BBQ place where the motto is "Eat it in a Beat It."

I would tell a tourist not to walk around downtown just because it's embarrassing (right now). In certain spots it felt like I was walking though Metcalf South-- just out of place and "why the hell are you here?" type of vibe.

[FangKC]

Fang...isn't that exactly what happend with the South Loop. Every building got leveled because of "development" and when nothing happened they became parking or just vacant dirt?

Yep. That's what happened. Not only did it happen here, but in most large cities in the so called "rustbelt." You think there's a lot of empty space and a Beirut-like atmosphere here, you should walk through downtown Newark sometime.

I think we should keep the Empire and a lot of the scattered old South Loop buildings and integrate them into the new South Loop. I also like the idea of putting art or remodeling the exterior of that big AT&T building to fit into the South Loop area.

Yay! I'm liking you more and more trailer (saving the Empire). I also would like to see the old buildings scattered about the South Loop saved (the ones in better shape or just interesting looking). They could be fixed up and included in the new entertainment district. However, I think the current plan is to level all of them and start anew. What's proposed requires the entire block in most instances.

[KCPowercat]

no picutres??? I just drove around downtown and if the wind stops might take a photo tour....need project updates

[QueSi2Opie]

Currently the city can't even give away those empty spaces to retail/restaurants. We need to work on our infrastructure, add residents, and make downtown a destination as well as a vibrant neighborhood if we want to fill in the gaps and empty/boarded up storefronts. I also know that streetscaping is planned from the last bond issue Kansas Citians passed.

Right now KC is doin' a good job of adding housing for future residents, so let's drop the coin in the water and feel the ripples. I think this can be done with a well-developed entertainment district featuring a PAC and a possible Arena. After that happens, small businesses and major chains will want to surround the vibrant district as well as cater to the new residents wanting to live near all the action.

We can't get too far ahead of ourselves either. There's areas of downtown that we need to realize will never be more than 9 - 5 districts and shouldn't promote any kind of restaurant/retail sprawl downtown (yes, sprawl in downtown). Let's pick a location, inject it with new life by adding something that lures both outsiders/city-dwellers (nightclubs, popular restaurants/retail, and entertainment) and surround it with something that's useful for downtown residents (grocery store, pharmacy, laundry mat, service station, affordable retail, etc.), and hope that the rest of downtown will naturally begin to come to life.

[trailerkid]

I looked forever for my camera...couldn't find it. I will be back with pics once I do. Believe me...there's a lot of stuff I want a picture of.

I disagree with the sprawl comment. Every street should be a mix of offices, restaurants and bars, industry, retail, and housing designed in an urban street-level oriented way. The only exception would be an entertainment district where nearly every storefront would be bars and clubs.

[scooterj]

I got to do a similar walking tour today. I had to take my car in for service this morning at a place in the Crossroads and then when I called my friend who was supposed to come by and give me a ride back home, I was unable to rouse him. (We had both been up late last night.) Rather than get mad, I decided to use that as an opportunity to do some walking.

I ended up originally at the Power & Light building where my plan was to go to my office and hang out there until I could reach my friend. But when I got there I realized I had only been walking 10 minutes and was already a third of the way home. To hell with it, I decided, and continued onward to the River Market.

The thing I saw that made the biggest impression on me was the number of sidewalks that were closed, forcing me to have to cut back and forth across streets or shift onto different blocks. But this was no a bad thing. Every single one of those closed sidewalks represented a construction site. It was great seeing so much construction going on.

I ended up back home about 30 minutes after I started... making a quick stop along the way to stand under my friend's window and continue trying to wake him to that we could walk down to the City Diner for breakfast. No luck. He finally woke up about an hour later and couldn't believe that I had walked back or that he had slept through a dozen or so phone calls from me.

[FangKC]

I used to walk from Hospital Hill to the Garment District a couple times a month with no problem. Same goes for Crown Center and Penn Valley Park to Quality Hill. It's not a big deal to me to walk that far since I lived in NYC for 10 years and walked everywhere. I kind of like walking along the streets because you notice all sorts of things you never would if you were driving. There were times that I walked 50 or more blocks at a time when I was living in Manhattan. As a result, I developed good calves.

[scooterj]

Now that I've seen how easy it is I'll probably start walking to work whenver the weather is nice and I know I won't be needing to go anywhere over lunch.

Not only did I notice construction that I normally disregard while driving by, I noticed all sorts of cool detail on the buildings I see daily that I never noticed before.[/i]

[FangKC]

I've always thought if more people walked around downtown and took the time to notice the details on the buildings, they'd be more supportive of efforts to preserve them. For example, if you walk to E. 9th Street and Grand--and look up at the top of the old building on the SW corner (UMB I think), you will see these massive sheep heads (rams) aligning the roofline. I'll bet most people don't even know they are there.

On the NE corner of W. 9th and Wyandotte (the New England Building--the brown Romanesque one), if you look up under the bay window, there is a cherub there. How many people have actually walked into the old lobby of the Muehlebach Hotel (right off Country Club Bank) and admired the woodwork. Another building worthy of standing and admiring is the Deramus Building on the SW corner of Central and W. 11th streets. The lampposts that are on each side of the main entrance are wonderful. They are serpants. The Deramus is especially wonderful at night when it's lit up. Even the old National Garage on the SW corner of 11th and McGee has wonderful decorative details. The building itself is shabby, but if one looks at the terra cotta decoration, one can appreciate the detail that went into such an utilitarian structure. The Bunker Building on the NW corner of 9th and Baltimore has wonderful decorative detail above the main entrance. The old Virginia Hotel (now the United Way headquarters) on the NW corner of 11th and Washington is a lovely old building. One can especially see it now that the leaves are off the trees.

[trailerkid]

Did an accompanying photo tour here: http://www.kcskyscrapers.com/kcforum/vi ... php?t=1815