Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Northeast, Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.
KCMax wrote:
This thread is really quite depressing.
NO KIDDING! My wife and I went on a long drive through the city on Saturday. We started in the River Market and headed over to the West Bottoms and on the way home we drove all the way down Troost. After seeing these photos and comparing the area to what it looks like now, I was SO bummed out. It is RIDICULOUS that these buildings were allowed to decay.
If I had a time machine, I would go back and find a way to prevent white flight
How about Habitat For Humanity uses the existing Uncle Jim's building for a second ReStore location. The ReStore in the East Bottoms does not really serve the inner city to the extent this location could. It could be like a neighborhood hardware resource. The building could be rehabbed in a "green" way, capturing all the storm water that falls there and utilizing it for irrigation on a community garden on adjacent property, install photovoltaic panels on the roof, install a green skin on the building of living plants to cool the building in the summer, employ some artists to paint appropriate mural on the canvass like wall on the Troost side, make the corner of the building (right at Linwood & Troost) into a bus shelter for the bus stop on that corner, expand the parking lot to the west and use permeable pavement to allow storm water to soak into the ground vs. running into the overloaded storm sewers. The store would be a great resource to the community, it would also act as a catalyst to rejuvenation of this once thriving business district. The foot traffic would increase which entrepreneurs would see as an opportunity (shoppers!!) to open independent stores along the 3100 block of Troost. This would lead to more and more legitimate activity along the Troost Corridor and that means that illegitimate activity such as drug dealing and prostitution like the area far less. Not a cure but at least that kind of stuff moves on.
There is actually a great deal of life going on along Troost that most do not see. There are several artists and craftsmen/women that live and work in studios and apartments that have been reclaimed from crumbling status to vibrant places of creativity and living. ReStore can be an important part of this urban life and bring others to the community with new eyes. ReStore acts as a fund raising activity for Habitat for Humanity so that the money that is spent in ReStore will be returned directly to the surrounding community in the form of new homes built by Habitat. What do ya think?!
Another thought: One of the big concerns I hear from those that live and work in the Troost Corridor is "how do we stop the drug deals, prostitution and other illegal activities along Troost". I would say the easy answer is to increase the LEGITIMATE activities...increase the pedestrian traffic by creating an environment that is conducive to local businesses. Increase the number of people that are out and about, that are present in the neighborhoods. Driving south on Troost from around 31st to 47th, count the number of vacant lots that could be gardens, that could be growing food that could be the supply for a revitalized Troost Market, that could be furnishing locally grown, nutritional foods, pesticide and herbicide free at reasonable prices at a market in the neighborhood...say as an extension of the property at 3200 Troost...there is ample crop land that could be providing food to the neighbors but also creating an atmosphere that has people working outdoors and engaged with one another.
I was involved in creating a recycling buy back center at 9th & Euclid several years ago. We were told by the police, by the sheriff's dept and by COMBAT that that parking lot was a haven for drug deals and that it was way too dangerous to be a place for legitimate activity. We put the center there any way and low and behold, the drug deals moved elsewhere. We did not solve the crack epidemic that was rampant at that time but it did go somewhere else. That is what can happen on Troost if we engage the neighborhoods with one another, activities that are bringing people together in gardens and at markets. This is the wonder of community. dr
you make some great points donreck. I think if Troost is ever to become a desirable, vibrant street again it will have to begin with such grassroots community involvement. The difficulty in securing many of those vacant lots for community gardens, an idea that I love, would be convincing the current property owners to sell and/or lease the land, many of which probably have no desire to do so. Also, is the market for urban agriculture such that more than one or two large gardens would be sustainable?
I love hearing ideas for this corridor, it's so ripe for experimentation and revitalization.
I noticed yesterday that the City was doing streetwork on Troost between 31st and Linwood. They are expanding corner curbs to add landscaping, and street trees have been added on the east side of Troost.
midtown wrote:
Is that related to the MAX line going down Troost? I've seen a lot of work along those lines down Troost with MAX signs prominently displayed.
Yes -- and the empty lot on the SW corner of 31st and Linwood is going to be used as a Park and ride. Not that a park and ride 20 blocks from your final destination makes any sense, but hey, it's marginally better than the empty lot.
Man. I really want to like Troost, and want it to come back (I live a couple blocks west of Troost), but man, I would definitely not leave my car in a park and ride at 31st and Troost all day.
The former Firestone Tire building on the NE corner of Troost and Linwood is for sale for $1.2 million. Ad says the tenant is vacating. The could be a great opportunity for the right tenant, and a boost to the retail block if the right one is found.
FangKC wrote:The former Firestone Tire building on the NE corner of Troost and Linwood is for sale for $1.2 million. Ad says the tenant is vacating. The could be a great opportunity for the right tenant, and a boost to the retail block if the right one is found.
$1.2m seems pretty high. It's a great structure, but it needs work. That said, it would be an amazing place to have a farmer's market.
Regarding the other corners, I've heard that Habitat is likely to move offices (not the ReStore) into the old Katz building on the SW corner. They're losing their space at Linwood & Paseo.
A few years ago the Family Dollar on the NW corner wanted to abandon that building and build a new place on the SE corner. The neighborhood batted that idea down.
3115-3119 Troost Avenue is also for sale for $1.2 million. It is called the Shankman Building, was built in 1930, and is adjacent to the former Firestone Tire Building.
FangKC wrote:The former Firestone Tire building on the NE corner of Troost and Linwood is for sale for $1.2 million. Ad says the tenant is vacating. The could be a great opportunity for the right tenant, and a boost to the retail block if the right one is found.
$1.2m seems pretty high. It's a great structure, but it needs work. That said, it would be an amazing place to have a farmer's market.
I think the former Firestone Tire Building property also comes with the two buildings to the north, since Best Deal has one continuous store space in all three.
FangKC wrote:The LaSalle Hotel was located on the NW corner of Linwood and Harrison. This photo is looking east towards Troost.
Does anyone remember the old LaSalle Hotel having a sign on the top of it that read The Defenders? I found this site on terra cotta, and there are photos of the building with that sign on top of it.
I found this earlier comment on this thread.
voltopt wrote:
Michael® wrote:
The Lasalle Hotel tower on 31st gave this corner a distinctive urban feel before it was destroyed.
the Lasalle Hotel was torn down about six years ago... it had a large neon sign on top that read "Defenders"
it looked really neat - its a stupid loss that that building and that entire corridor was abandoned. i've been fascinated by linwood, troost, 31st, and points east for some time - it looks like we have similar interests!
What was The Defenders? Was it the name of the building before it was demolished?
FangKC wrote:The LaSalle Hotel was located on the NW corner of Linwood and Harrison. This photo is looking east towards Troost.
Does anyone remember the old LaSalle Hotel having a sign on the top of it that read The Defenders? I found this site on terra cotta, and there are photos of the building with that sign on top of it.
I found this earlier comment on this thread.
voltopt wrote:
Michael® wrote:
The Lasalle Hotel tower on 31st gave this corner a distinctive urban feel before it was destroyed.
the Lasalle Hotel was torn down about six years ago... it had a large neon sign on top that read "Defenders"
it looked really neat - its a stupid loss that that building and that entire corridor was abandoned. i've been fascinated by linwood, troost, 31st, and points east for some time - it looks like we have similar interests!
What was The Defenders? Was it the name of the building before it was demolished?
I'm confused. The LaSalle/Defenders was at the NW corner until 2002? The Family Dollar is there now, and that building looks MUCH older than 6 years. Also, where is the Paul Messner building in that photo? Not yet built?
The lot it used to sit on was vacant for a decade, until the new gas station at the NW corner of Linwood and Harrison was built, to the east of the Athenaeum.
