Washington Sq Park between Crown Center/Union Station

[missingkc]

Come again? I don't understand.

[mgh7676]

Come again? I don't understand.

I believe the facepalm was in reference to, and correct me if I’m wrong, the thought that it would be ok to block the parks view of the downtown skyline and instead to use it as an office park amenity.

[normalthings]

We're looking pretty much due north. This is the western building. Can't visualize where this building is to sit. Is it going to sit in a sea of parking connected to the park and street grid only by drives/sidewalks on causeways? That's sure what it looks like.

[missingkc]

So, it looks like it is in fact very disconnected from the surrounding streets and the park. I guess that's OK Street arcing across the foreground.

[normalthings]

I guess that's OK Street arcing across the foreground.

Yes.

There are multiple potential designs floating around to show potential tenants the flexibility the site offers. Don’t get caught up on anything yet.

[FangKC]

Kevin Collison is reporting that Blue Cross/Blue Shield has purchased the 5-acre parking lot from Union Station that is just north of Washington Square Park.

Blue KC Buys 5-Acre Lot From Union Station, ‘Flexibility’ for HQ Decision

Blue KC has purchased a five-acre parking lot owned by Union Station adjoining its offices on Main street, a move that will allow the health insurance firm more flexibility as it anticipates the future of its headquarters.
...
“Blue KC is pleased to acquire the five acres of parking lot space from Union Station,” Christa Dubill, Blue KC vice present of communications said in a statement.

“This purchase provides us with more flexibility as we consider our future real estate options, including ongoing considerations for our headquarters.”

The firm also is exploring other options including the 1400KC building at 14th and Baltimore, according to downtown real estate sources. That 18-story building was erected for Waddell & Reed, but the deal fell through after the investment firm was bought.
...

https://cityscenekc.com/blue-kc-buys-5- ... 0Kzvspf28A

[Cratedigger]

Every year, Boulevardia reminds me just how cool this park could be

[DaveKCMO]

With enough resources, every open space can be that cool. It shows you how underfunded our parks system is.

[beautyfromashes]

With enough resources, every open space can be that cool. It shows you how underfunded our parks system is.

We should have more parks funding than ever before. Property taxes have skyrocketed the last several years. Is it really a resource issue or an incompetence issue?

[smh]

With enough resources, every open space can be that cool. It shows you how underfunded our parks system is.

We should have more parks funding than ever before. Property taxes have skyrocketed the last several years. Is it really a resource issue or an incompetence issue?

Or is it a sprawl issue? Too many parks, not enough people.

[FangKC]

Yes. The original KC park system, which was so lauded, was when the city and population existed on about 20 percent of the land area we have now.

KC was 60 square miles in 1940 with a population of 400,178;
130 square miles in 1960 with a population of 475,539;
316 square miles in 2001 with a population of 441,545.

The City is physically so much bigger now and so are infrastructure costs, but the population hasn't grown five times to pay for it, or at least the tax base hasn't.

[KC_Ari]

With enough resources, every open space can be that cool. It shows you how underfunded our parks system is.

We should have more parks funding than ever before. Property taxes have skyrocketed the last several years. Is it really a resource issue or an incompetence issue?

Or is it a sprawl issue? Too many parks, not enough people.

Sprawl. At least based on a very quick search.

This is over the entire metro, but KC is #2 on this list, and it's a big jump from 3 to 2. https://stacker.com/environment/cities- ... ace-capita

KCMO has the most park + open space on this list per 1000 residents yet even then it only makes up 6.6% of the total area. (This is an old one from what looks like 2001.)http://www.demographia.com/db-uscityparklist.htm

[beautyfromashes]

Yes, but park money should be flowing in at a good pace right now with property values increasing and the county adjustment. Also, you can’t compare the maintenance from when we first started the park system to now. We have huge riding lawnmowers now and modern technology that should make it quicker and easier to maintain. I don’t think this is a money issue. The piles of trash are in the same spots as last year. Same homeless people during Covid. Same crumbling concrete.

[Cratedigger]

We should have more parks funding than ever before. Property taxes have skyrocketed the last several years. Is it really a resource issue or an incompetence issue?

Or is it a sprawl issue? Too many parks, not enough people.

Sprawl. At least based on a very quick search.

This is over the entire metro, but KC is #2 on this list, and it's a big jump from 3 to 2. https://stacker.com/environment/cities- ... ace-capita

KCMO has the most park + open space on this list per 1000 residents yet even then it only makes up 6.6% of the total area. (This is an old one from what looks like 2001.)http://www.demographia.com/db-uscityparklist.htm

Sprawl makes sense to me. I'm sure you're familiar with the Trust For Public Land's ParkScore

Despite the city's vast greenspace, a significant portion of Kansas City residents are not within a convenient distance of a park. In fact, only 69% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. This sprawl poses challenges for maintaining and monitoring parks regularly, as they may be geographically distant from neighborhoods which could activate them and be "eyes on the street."

Kansas City also stands out for having some of the highest median park sizes in the nation. While large parks provide ample recreational opportunities, they demand more resources and manpower for maintenance. They can be too large a space to utilize or maintain and therefore become neglected.

Also KC scores very high on park equity - which is great! However, many parks are situated in communities with limited resources. While I know these communities value their parks, they lack the financial means to contribute significantly to maintenance efforts.

[TheLastGentleman]

The fact that so much of KC’s parkland was initially built on land developers didn’t want doesn’t help. Instead of building parks amongst neighborhoods, we instead built a lot of parks on the leftover land, on craggy cliffs and hills that are just tougher landscapes for parks

[Cratedigger]

Another stat that jumped out to me: low-income neighborhoods have 82% more park space as those in high-income neighborhoods

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdf ... ity_MO.pdf

[beautyfromashes]

Another stat that jumped out to me: low-income neighborhoods have 82% more park space as those in high-income neighborhoods

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdf ... ity_MO.pdf

the massive size of Swope Park probably skews this a bit. Actually, it probably skews all the numbers listed above. It's more a nature reserve than a park. I don't really agree with the belief that we have outsized numbers and sizes of actual parks.

[TheLastGentleman]

Another stat that jumped out to me: low-income neighborhoods have 82% more park space as those in high-income neighborhoods

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdf ... ity_MO.pdf

the massive size of Swope Park probably skews this a bit. Actually, it probably skews all the numbers listed above. It's more a nature reserve than a park. I don't really agree with the belief that we have outsized numbers and sizes of actual parks.

Yeah swope is more of a greenbelt than anything. Penn Valley has to be the largest thing in KCMO that actually resembles a traditional park, right?

[Cratedigger]

Another stat that jumped out to me: low-income neighborhoods have 82% more park space as those in high-income neighborhoods

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdf ... ity_MO.pdf

the massive size of Swope Park probably skews this a bit. Actually, it probably skews all the numbers listed above. It's more a nature reserve than a park. I don't really agree with the belief that we have outsized numbers and sizes of actual parks.

You're probably right but what also skews the data is the Boulevards being classified as parks

[Cratedigger]

Another stat that jumped out to me: low-income neighborhoods have 82% more park space as those in high-income neighborhoods

https://parkserve.tpl.org/downloads/pdf ... ity_MO.pdf

the massive size of Swope Park probably skews this a bit. Actually, it probably skews all the numbers listed above. It's more a nature reserve than a park. I don't really agree with the belief that we have outsized numbers and sizes of actual parks.

Yeah swope is more of a greenbelt than anything. Penn Valley has to be the largest thing in KCMO that actually resembles a traditional park, right?

I think that's right with Loose being the 3rd largest