What most changed our downtown?

[trailerkid]

I was watching the AWESOME documentary, "The Place We Call Home" on KCPT which featured a nostaligic and touching look at KC as told through those we have seen it grow from nothing to a large metropolis.

In one particular part they hint at the freeway systems having the most impact on changing/hurting downtown. They showed old video of how busy the streets used to be with pedestrians. One person was quoted as saying "You couldn't even walk down 12th Street." It just looked like KC's downtown was PACKED with tons of stores and people. What was the leading factor in downtown's changes.

[dangerboy]

The freeway system was certainly the root of many of the factors. It allowed people to live further out and still commute downtown, usually in suburbs beyond the reach of the existing mass transit system. Eventually retail and offices followed the residences.

The freeway loop physically separated the central business district from the rest of the greater downtown area. The construction of I-70 also did a lot of damage to neighborhoods on the East Side, not only the disruption of building it but also the resulting disruption and isolation of neighborhoods. This contributed to the decline of those parts of the inner city, which in turn had a negative impact on Downtown. Plus, I-70 itself is ass ugly and contributes to the blighted look.

[KC0KEK]

I agree that the interstate highway system hurt downtown, but remember that many cities -- including KC -- lobbied the federal government hard to ensure that the interstates didn't bypass them. The cities helped bring this problem on themselves by getting what they wished for.

[KCPowercat]

interstate system has helped KC grow as a shipping hub but hurt the downtown core by making it way to easy to live further away from jobs.

[dangerboy]

The block busting and other tactics of the real estate industry also had an impact on Downtown because it destabilized the surrounding urban residential neighborhoods. Real estate agents would purposefully sell houses to black families in previously all-white areas. Then they would go next door and warn the whilte families that minorities were moving in and tell them to get out right away before property values dropped. When the white families sold there were new in suburban tract developments waiting for them - suburbs that were developed by the same real estate companies and that were now more accessible via the new highway system.

[dangerboy]

it also hurt when General Motors bought up street car companies in KC and other cities, and then promptly liquidated the companies and tore up the rails.

[kcteen]

I agree about the streetcars, that hurt. But, I think the biggest problem with KC is the lack of natural boundaries around the city. There's no ocean or mountains to keep us confined. Kansas city is like an "island" in the middle of the midwest with prairie and flatlands all around. Because of this undesirable geography, we could expand outwards more cheaply than expanding upwards. Combine this landscape with automobiles and viola, kansas city becomes a suburban sprawl

kcteen

[DanCa]

I think the boundry issue is true. Here in the LA area, we're being forced up. Recently I was in Honolulu and was impressed with the city. The population of the entire island is under 1.5 million with the majority concentrated in Honolulu. Only 3 freeways on the entire island and basically only one running through Honolulu. The city is squeezed between mountains and the ocean. Looking at the city, you'd think there were millions more people with so many highrises. It's very cosmopolitan. But the rest of the island is very open and rural. You can go from downtown to cool tropical forests in 20 minutes. The only thing I couldn't understand is why they didn't have light rail with such high population density.