Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Northeast, Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.
Low Barrier Shelter plans scrapped, new RFP to come
An RFP (Request For Proposal) that would have created a $7.1 million low barrier shelter at Hope Faith Ministries, 705 Virginia Ave.,died during Thursday’s city council meeting on an 8-2 vote, rejecting the original RFP and issuing a new, thirty-day RFP that dictates collaboration with the city’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department.
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In February of this year, after a series of packed-house meetings with residents demanding the plan be scaled back and services be offered in other areas of the city, the ordinance was sent back to committee for reorganization.
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FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:20 pm
A post on one of the Northeast KC Facebook sites today indicates that the CVS drug store at Independence Avenue and Prospect will be closing in June. Another CVS on Independence Avenue at White Avenue closed two years ago.
CVS Abandons the Avenue: Theft and Sales cited as primary reasons for closure
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The closure comes after the three largest national pharmacy chains, CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid, announced earlier this year that they would be closing over 1,800 stores nationwide in 2024. CVS stated in January of this year that roughly 1,150 locations would be impacted. In a prepared statement released to Forbes magazine in January 2024, CVS said the closures were based on “local market dynamics, population shifts, a community’s store density, and other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community.”
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Well shit, that's my CVS! Not surprised if true, though, the shelves have been way emptier than you'd expect for months. I don't even know how to transfer my prescriptions but I'm sure it's not hard.
The Old Northeast is the last organic neighborhood in KC. I am saddened that businesses are departing. The housing stock is largely intact, unlike much of the East Side. No part of town bespeaks our Kansas City urban memory as loudly as the Old Northeast.
The city government must be more pro-active to protect and to promote this neighborhood. Brookside and the Plaza will persevere on their own. Both were planned (JC Nichols) communities, and they have nearby neighborhood wealth to survive most downturns.
City could start by making infill easier and therefore cheaper to stabilize the surrounding population. Theft reduction would also help in the near term. Longer term streetcar, light rail, or monorail would be beneficial
Part of the problem has been that the Northeast doesn't have the population it once had to support as many stores. Adding more housing units certainly would help that. Several parcels near that CVS need to be redeveloped.
One of the issues with theft comes down to City leadership being determined to consolidate all social services for the homeless in the Historic Northeast. When you have so many people in one neighborhood in desperate living situations, it isn't surprising that there is theft. It makes stores more expensive to operate.
FangKC wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 4:10 pm
Part of the problem has been that the Northeast doesn't have the population it once had to support as many stores. Adding more housing units certainly would help that. Several parcels near that CVS need to be redeveloped.
One of the issues with theft comes down to City leadership being determined to consolidate all social services for the homeless in the Historic Northeast. When you have so many people in one neighborhood in desperate living situations, it isn't surprising that there is theft. It makes stores more expensive to operate.
I’m all for upzoning and reducing barriers to building housing. Think longer term an investment like rail is needed to keep that density
I agree with you on the rail into the Northeast. However, I still wonder if residents would support the effort. The local chat on social media is very anti-streetcar and people there regularly mock the need for the downtown streetcar.
I would guess the Old Northeast needs about 20,000 more residents to support adequate retail.
FangKC wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 8:44 pm
I agree with you on the rail into the Northeast. However, I still wonder if residents would support the effort. The local chat on social media is very anti-streetcar and people there regularly mock the need for the downtown streetcar.
I would guess the Old Northeast needs about 20,000 more residents to support adequate retail.
That I don’t know. Brookside/Waldo I think will happen well before. That’s the place I think would vote yes tomorrow.
FangKC wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 8:44 pm
I agree with you on the rail into the Northeast. However, I still wonder if residents would support the effort. The local chat on social media is very anti-streetcar and people there regularly mock the need for the downtown streetcar.
I would guess the Old Northeast needs about 20,000 more residents to support adequate retail.
That I don’t know. Brookside/Waldo I think will happen well before. That’s the place I think would vote yes tomorrow.
Rail south of UMKC doesn't have the population density or development potential. It would also be a hard no from the Brookside neighborhood. I don't have a feel for how Waldo would vote. If it's going to go south it needs to go east to Troost and south from there. But the priority should be the urban core.
FangKC wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 8:44 pm
I agree with you on the rail into the Northeast. However, I still wonder if residents would support the effort. The local chat on social media is very anti-streetcar and people there regularly mock the need for the downtown streetcar.
I would guess the Old Northeast needs about 20,000 more residents to support adequate retail.
That I don’t know. Brookside/Waldo I think will happen well before. That’s the place I think would vote yes tomorrow.
Rail south of UMKC doesn't have the population density or development potential. It would also be a hard no from the Brookside neighborhood. I don't have a feel for how Waldo would vote. If it's going to go south it needs to go east to Troost and south from there. But the priority should be the urban core.
Curious why you think no?
Most of the families and even empty nesters I’ve met or know in Brookside/Waldo are supportive of streetcar. The few against are going to be in nursing homes in the next few hearts and don’t have the pull or cohesion they did in a decade ago in 2010-2015. Downtown Brookside has limited redevelopment opportunities but Waldo is ripe for construction.
I agree this doesn’t work with the current cost to build Mainstreet. But who says this would cost anything close?
St. Louis broke ground on a true light trail extension this year that will cost about $20 million a mile. Mix of double and single track, few bridges, in a dedicated row. Theirs was not graded ahead of time so cost includes earthwork.
langosta wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 9:02 pm
That I don’t know. Brookside/Waldo I think will happen well before. That’s the place I think would vote yes tomorrow.
Rail south of UMKC doesn't have the population density or development potential. It would also be a hard no from the Brookside neighborhood. I don't have a feel for how Waldo would vote. If it's going to go south it needs to go east to Troost and south from there. But the priority should be the urban core.
Curious why you think no?
their reaction and vote last time it was proposed to go through brookside.
Rail south of UMKC doesn't have the population density or development potential. It would also be a hard no from the Brookside neighborhood. I don't have a feel for how Waldo would vote. If it's going to go south it needs to go east to Troost and south from there. But the priority should be the urban core.
Curious why you think no?
their reaction and vote last time it was proposed to go through brookside.
Sure but that was 10 years ago and the core opposition has, imho, lost power and/or aged out
