KCK...This aerial shows just how un-urban KCK is...

KCgridlock · Post by **KCgridlock** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 5:17 pm

I was doing some work in Wyandotte and while checking out aerials of the area I noticed just how non-urban this place really is. KCK is weird. Most of the "developed" areas of the city are not developed at all by most standards. It's halfway developed along State Ave, Parallel Pkwy and Leavenworth Rd, but again compared to just about any other city there is so much room for more stuff. Here is a recent pic of the "dense" area of kck and most small towns have more homes per sq mile than this. I'm sure most homes have been torn down in the pic, where in many other parts of the city, they were never built in the first place.

KCK has always interested me. Growing up in urban KCMO, going to KCK was like going to a small spread out town in the South like Arkansas or Mississippi only kck had more poverty, blight and crime. That's why I have always called it a rural ghetto. It's just nothing like S Chicago or E St Louis or E KCMO. It's just weird. Having done plenty of work in the west part (in the field), it can be so hillbilly and or redneck out there it's amazing. A drive down K-32 can make you think you are anywhere but within a major metropolitan area.

People always make fun of Raytown, Riverside or Belton, but KCK makes those places look like an urban and sophisticated.

Am I alone in this?

phxcat · Post by **phxcat** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 7:53 pm

What part of the city is that? You are right, KCK does have its rural side to it, but I think that most of the eastern parts of the city are more dense than that, from what I've seen. I'm from Shawnee, but I used to substitute teach in KCK district, so I got to see a lot of the city. I would really like to see it develop, as an urban sister city to KCMO.

The speedway development is a nice start, but the city has a lot going for it on the east side too- I'd like to see them get some more development downtown.

By the way, have you looked at the buuilt St.Louis site? They have a lot of pictures of E. St. Louis, and those look a lot more liike Mississippi than that picture of KCK!

KCforumer · Post by **KCforumer** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 9:17 pm

Who claimed KCK was urban?

KCK, as you said, is built much like a small town. A lot like St. Joseph.

The K-32/Kaw Dr. corridor is pretty sh**y. It does feel like your out in some small, dirty town. That area is somewhat similar to 40 highway in east KCMO and west Independence.

KCforumer · Post by **KCforumer** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 9:20 pm

KCK is about 130 square miles. The entire city does not look like the area in the photo gridlock provided. That photo is not a dense area.

KCK is just as urban as East St. Louis, from what I have seen on skyscraperpage and skyscrapercity (there were a couple extensive E.St.L. photo threads not too long ago). KCK's downtown is larger than East St. Louis' downtown.

KCgridlock · Post by **KCgridlock** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 12:46 am

That photo is about two blocks north of Downtown KCK. Right in the heart of old NE KCK.

Like I said, most of the homes have been torn down, it was probably fairly dense at one time by KCK standards. It's obvious the type of contstruction and architecture simply could not hold up over time. In urban kcmo for example, the older areas of town have far more multi level brick apartments rather than single story frame houses.

The area south of Downtown (Strawberry Hill) is doing much better and looks more dense. Areas to the west along State Ave etc are built up, but nothing even close to what KC is like on arterial streets leading out of town like Wornall or Holmes or Independence Ave.

The speedway area is completley rural, even with the speedway and surrounding development, it would take decades and decades of double digit growth to build that area up.

I'm not slamming KCK here, this has just always interested me.

KCgridlock · Post by **KCgridlock** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 12:55 am

Having said that, there are some very nice pockets of suburban type developments in the west part of the county. I hope some homes come with all the investments by the speedway. I'm talking about thousands of new homes not dozens. But it appears to me that KCK will never, at least in my lifetime, become are real player in the kc area. Except a small suburban submarket in the speedway area, the city just has too far to go to redevelop into a dense, vibrant city or suburb.

Cyburbia · Post by **Cyburbia** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 1:50 am

KCforumer wrote:KCK, as you said, is built much like a small town. A lot like St. Joseph.

I think KCK and St. Joe have two very different feels. St. Joe seems frozen in time. Except for some subdivisions and the ugly commercial/retail development along the Belt, St. Joe to me looks like it was once an extremely affluent city, and then somewhere around 1917, things just stopped cold. The downtown is huge for a city its size. In 1900, St. Joe was the 34th largest city in the United States. Omaha was the 35th largest, Los Angeles was number 36, and Memphis 37.

St. Joe isn't booming, but there's still a sizeable middle and upper middle class, no larger than other cities its size in the US. It's a bit on the 'necky side, though ... more auto mechanics and building tradespeople than engineers and programmers, more Ford F-350 crew cab trucks with metal tool boxes than Toyota Camrys. Disposable income is spent on deer huntin' supplies, more so than home theater systems.

KCK was the 76th largest city in the US in 1900. Unlike St. Joe, it was always second cousin to KC, with an industrial base. No huge downtown, because KCMO was the region's business center. Being from Buffalo, I think KCK is the equivalent of Niagara Falls, New York, while St. Joe is more like Utica. Niagara Falls had a population of around 100,000 in its glory days, but no downtown like what you'd see in similarly sized cities. Today Niagara Falls is predominantly ethnic white working class and poor, with only a very small middle and upper middle class, just like KCK.

Was there ever a time when KCK was considered middle-class, or a desirable community?

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 12:46 pm

I hate to dissect KCK, but maybe it could be compared to the some of the poor areas of New Orleans or Baton Rouge--spread out and very country looking. I was downtown KCK not too long ago and it didn't seem very small or rural looking. It just looked like a small city's downtown.

By the way, I thought KCK was predominately Afro-American??

phxcat · Post by **phxcat** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 8:24 pm

The African American population is not a majority, but its large, probably about 1/3 of the county. Quindaro is mostly African American, but when I was subbing, Central, Argentine, and Rosedale Middle Schools all had surprisingly large White minorities. Then I don't know how many people are there, but Strawberry Hill is mostly Eastern European. It would be nice to get some suburban developent going out west, but in the Eastern part of the city, I would like to see KCK take advantage of the cultural diversity, and try to become a destination for immigrants- from Latin America as well as Eastern Europe, which is apparently once again an immigration hot spot. I think that it is starting to attract more Hispanics, and is making some efforts to welcome them, like the new theater at Indian Springs. That is what could make the Eastern part of the city a more thriving urban area.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Sun Dec 22, 2002 10:26 am

I lived near Minnesota Avenue in downtown KCK for 6 months before moving to 39th & Rainbow. As a kid, I would walk up and down Minnesota Avenue between 5th and 10th Streets listenin' to my favorite rappers, Whodini and Grandmaster Flash, on my "ghettoblaster"

The Eastern half of the city which rubs up against State Line and the Kansas River is very urban.

Everyone take a trip to the Strawberry Hill Museum...they have some excellent b&w photos of downtown KCK in its hay-day...the trolley line, the houses and businesses that once hugged the Kansas River. Many city blocks were literally erased to construct the interchange I-70 intercity viaduct (the original 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Streets are now gone).

The Western portion in KCK was once the Delaware Indian Reserve. The Wyandot Tribe owned everything between the Kaw River and 14th Street. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a few white businessmen bought the City of Wyandot and began development of the city (1st to 14th Street). Armourdale, Armstrong, Argentine, Riverview, Rosedale and Quindaro were seperate towns altogether until the late 1800s along with land owned specifically by Union Railroad. It wasn't until 1966 when the city finally was able to annex land up to 86th street because they spent the whole first portion of the 1900s tryin' to annex Fairfax. In the early 1970s the city attempted to annex Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, Piper and Turner...they succeeded on capturing two of the four. So basically, the annexation war contributed to KCK's awkwardness. Racism also played a major part along with the cities inability to establish any long-standing ethical roots. African-Americans were ignored...the Irish, Germans and Swedes were pushed out because the meatpacking companies dumped them for cheaper Croatian labor...the railroad workers were laid off for cheaper Mexican labor.

Okay, I'm done with the rough history lesson

KCforumer · Post by **KCforumer** » Sun Dec 22, 2002 3:23 pm

Photo of Downtown Kansas City, Kansas, before I-70 was built:

Photo 2 of Downtown Kansas City, Kansas, before I-70 was built:

This was Downtown KCK when it was most built up. Many of the street front 2-4 floor buildings have been razed. The dark brick (12 story) Huron Building was razed in the past 5 years. But, several low-rise buildings have been constructed since then.

KCgridlock · Post by **KCgridlock** » Mon Dec 23, 2002 2:14 pm

Cool old shots of kck!

KCgridlock · Post by **KCgridlock** » Mon Dec 23, 2002 2:21 pm

Some more:

KCforumer · Post by **KCforumer** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 3:12 am

Click Here: http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/ ... 0&z=15&w=2

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