KCRag Forum

Demosthenes wrote:Get rid of the fast food and dumpy houses, build nice apartment buildings on both sides of street, and give Linwood a road diet and beautification and it could suddenly be a great street to live on.

On the Midtown Marketplace thread you were just lamenting the loss of local grit in that neighborhood.

keep in mind the area referred to was river market to the plaza.

which obviously is doing well for residential.

chaglang wrote:

Demosthenes wrote:Get rid of the fast food and dumpy houses, build nice apartment buildings on both sides of street, and give Linwood a road diet and beautification and it could suddenly be a great street to live on.

On the Midtown Marketplace thread you were just lamenting the loss of local grit in that neighborhood.

True . I could do without fast food grit though lol.

flyingember wrote:keep in mind the area referred to was river market to the plaza.

which obviously is doing well for residential.

Yea it is doing alright, but how much of the residential can be directly attributed to Midtown Marketplace? That was the question, and there is none.

Not new residential units but many of the old units and owners can be very thankfull to the Marketplace for the funds its provides for home repairs and improvements.

The place serves a purpose but it's flat out one of KC's biggest urban planning disasters - if not its biggest. The development, right smack in the middle of a major American city, is not even dense by southern Johnson County or Blue Springs standards. It could have been done so much better but city management was really brain dead during that period.

Highlander wrote:The place serves a purpose but it's flat out one of KC's biggest urban planning disasters - if not its biggest. The development, right smack in the middle of a major American city, is not even dense by southern Johnson County or Blue Springs standards. It could have been done so much better but city management was really brain dead during that period.

The Midtown Marketplace thread is hopping right now.

chaglang wrote:

Highlander wrote:The place serves a purpose but it's flat out one of KC's biggest urban planning disasters - if not its biggest. The development, right smack in the middle of a major American city, is not even dense by southern Johnson County or Blue Springs standards. It could have been done so much better but city management was really brain dead during that period.

The Midtown Marketplace thread is hopping right now.

It's among my great pet peeves about KC. The idea that somehow suburban development was needed in the urban core - that was the intent of this development, the sprawl isn't there by accident, it's how it was conceived, it was seen as a good thing. For many years, KC leaders had the idiotic notion that to compete with the burbs, the city had to become burb-like. It was poorly conceived and executed project. Like I said, it has a function but that's meaningless and its not the issue, the fact that it takes a square mile of land in the core when it could have been fit easily onto a quarter of that footprint is the obvious problem. The city was absolutely desperate to get something there and desperation has never led to much good in KC.

Highlander wrote:

chaglang wrote:

Highlander wrote:The place serves a purpose but it's flat out one of KC's biggest urban planning disasters - if not its biggest. The development, right smack in the middle of a major American city, is not even dense by southern Johnson County or Blue Springs standards. It could have been done so much better but city management was really brain dead during that period.

The Midtown Marketplace thread is hopping right now.

It's among my great pet peeves about KC. The idea that somehow suburban development was needed in the urban core - that was the intent of this development, the sprawl isn't there by accident, it's how it was conceived, it was seen as a good thing. For many years, KC leaders had the idiotic notion that to compete with the burbs, the city had to become burb-like. It was poorly conceived and executed project. Like I said, it has a function but that's meaningless and its not the issue, the fact that it takes a square mile of land in the core when it could have been fit easily onto a quarter of that footprint is the obvious problem. The city was absolutely desperate to get something there and desperation has never led to much good in KC.

No, I was hinting that the best place for this discussion is over on that thread.

Back to the original discussion....whatever became of the Midtown/Plaza Area Plan started last year? Is it published?

I believe it's due out this summer.

......crickets.......

AlbertHammond wrote:......crickets.......

we're only halfway through summer. approx June 20 to Sep 20.

it's not late yet

Rumor has it the plan died on the vine. The process ran out of steam because the planning staff is not capable of completing it in a meaningful way. I hope I am wrong, but it sounds like it wasted not only a great opportunity, but a lot of time from concerned citizens.

I can verify that's not true.

chaglang wrote:I can verify that's not true.

GREAT NEWS!

Has anyone noticed that there is construction on the VFW parking lot across from Browne's? What is being built there? Looked like foundations being set today.

beautyfromashes wrote:Has anyone noticed that there is construction on the VFW parking lot across from Browne's? What is being built there? Looked like foundations being set today.

Kiva suggests parking lot improvements.

smh wrote:parking lot improvements.

Oxymoron alert.

chaglang wrote:I believe it's due out this summer.

Ummm..........

If you're genuinely curious about this - as opposed to just complaining here about it every couple of months - the KCMO Planning and Development phone number is 816-513-1500. Last I heard, they're still working on the plan but are criminally understaffed.