"The East Side" crowdsource definition

[chingon]

Where is "the East Side" to you?

[beautyfromashes]

East of 71.

[chingon]

East of 71.

I assume you mean north of Brush Creek. What about Ivanhoe, Squier and Manheim Parks? Are they "midtown" in your scheme?

[chaglang]

I'd say east of 71 as well. Squier Park feels like Midtown to me, but that may be because I spend most of my time in SP or Midtown.

[beautyfromashes]

East of 71.

I assume you mean north of Brush Creek. What about Ivanhoe, Squier and Manheim Parks? Are they "midtown" in your scheme?

Yes, I would consider them Midtown.

[pash]

.

[beautyfromashes]

^ Used to think this. Of course, I never would have thought anything east of Oak would have "Brookside" anywhere in its title. Lines change.

[chaglang]

^ Used to think this. Of course, I never would have thought anything east of Oak would have "Brookside" anywhere in its title. Lines change.

Not 10 years ago a friend bought on Rockhill and claimed to be in Brookside. We jokingly told him he was in East Brookside. Today, that's a place. Realtors.

[voltopt]

This is a generic map I made ten years ago, trying to group geographic features (for example, the ridge east/west through midtown) with highways,
watersheds, neighborhood self identity, and development time period. These 'overall' districts would include the neighborhoods, for example, Northeast includes Sheffield, Lykins, Scarritt, etc, and Midtown includes Squier, Ivanhoe, Volker. Downtown is mostly the city's definition of downtown, adding everything west to the state line.

Looking at it now, I'd probably move the Midtown border back west a bit just to align with Ivanhoe's east boundary, allowing Oak Park to not be 'split' Honestly, I'd also try to claim up to 27th for Midtown, at least east of Gilham.

To the original post, I think East Side mostly means Truman (15th) to 75th, Troost to Blue River. 50 years ago, East side just meant the east side of downtown, from Charlotte to Paseo - but back then, Midtown was the area between Truman and 31st. So things do change, and some places are invented (the Crossroads, for example)

[pash]

.

[chaglang]

For whom does it have to change, in what ways, and by how much? The boundary of the east side TIF that passed in April was telling - the western edge was along Paseo. We've seen a huge change in the last 6 years we've lived here, but it has more to do with who is living along Troost and who we see (and don't see) on the street. The development aspect is running behind that, but not by much. But we still run into people who are surprised that anyone lives near Troost, and they'll probably never get past what the street has been for last 50 years.

[town cow]

"The Ease Side": a term coined by white people for white people.

[flyingember]

I've been into 90% of KCMO neighborhoods and make an effort to visit different parts of town.

At one point it would be a clear black vs white definition.

East Side these days is a definition based around general economic support for the neighborhood in that it's an area dominated by low income housing and low property values rather than being a minority area.

10 years ago it would have started at Troost. Today I would say this line is at the Paseo north of Brush Creek and US 71 south of it. Troost has a lot of new development efforts but they haven't really gone too far east of there.

[WSPanic]

Lines change.

Lines do change, but Troost is the hardest line in this city, and it hasn't changed yet. (The biggest thing that could help that change, in my opinion, is much more development on Troost itself.)

Troost doesn't really seem like a hard line anymore from downtown to 39th street.

Maybe I'm just showing my white privelage, but I don't look at the East side of the Crossroads or Beacon Hill and think "East Side".

I think US 71 is the harshest dividing line, but I could see Paseo as well. Not much of a difference in my mind.

[beautyfromashes]

Lines do change, but Troost is the hardest line in this city, and it hasn't changed yet. (The biggest thing that could help that change, in my opinion, is much more development on Troost itself.)

I think it is changing, but slowly. Personally, I think a redevelopment of The Landing has the potential to show single biggest change to the barrier, at least south of Swope Parkway. The same could be said for 47th St, but Gates has done a terrible job in that area. We're still 10 years away from a disappearance of the barrier east and west of Troost.

[pash]

.

[FangKC]

The City should try an experiment. They should rename streets. Troost would be given a new name. Then Prospect would become Troost, and Cleveland would be renamed Prospect. Then we would see if it had any effect on what was called the "east side"--especially by the media, and if real estate values would improve or not just based on that one change.

I have seen TV reporters refer to KCMO neighborhoods east of the Blue River as the "east side," as well as parts of KCMO that are east of Raytown. This type of reporting usually tells me nothing. Reporters need to refer to the neighborhood name, and cross-streets, if they seek to be accurate.

It's completely crazy to use the term "the east side" in the way the media and public does, because it refers to a vast section of the city; whereas the media doesn't refer to the "west side" of Kansas City in the same way--except a small neighborhood west and north of I-35. Let's assume that--in turn-- the "west side" of Kansas City is all neighborhoods west of Troost--since it often is used as the dividing line. Now, when the news media is reporting on anything in this area, see how they use specific neighborhood names instead of "west side:" River Market, Downtown, West Bottoms, Columbus Park, Crossroads, Union Hill, Hospital Hill, Longfellow, Hyde Park, Midtown, Westport, Coleman Highlands, Roanoke, Volker, West Plaza, Country Club Plaza, Southmoreland, Brookside, Waldo, Sunset Hills, and Armour Hills, etc.

They never seem as specific when talking about happenings on the "east side."