missingkc wrote:The Plaza' s change from neighborhood center started long before Highwwods.
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They were part of a redirection intended to take advantage of KC' s position in the top ten of convention destinations. But, in usual KC style, powers didn't recognize the economic benefit of being a leader in that field and failed to keep pace with the demands of the industry. Bye-bye Gucci, hello H&M. (Same sad tale as the airport. No vision, no information, no ambition, too few smarts.)
While some blame can be placed on City leadership, there were other reasons Kansas City dropped out of the top tier of convention cities. KC was at its' zenith for conventions in the 1920s-40s, when it was among the top four convention cities. KC had a reputation for being a wide-open city with free-flowing booze all through Prohibition. That was a big draw then--and a very distinct advantage. There was illicit gambling widely available here before Las Vegas became a competing gambling mecca--including a horse racing track in Riverside. There was great entertainment including numerous movie, vaudeville, and burlesque theaters downtown, and were lots of bars, nightclubs, dance halls, jazz, and prostitution basically ignored by law enforcement. The City had a nightclub with totally nude waitresses that served lunch. Downtown had a lot of shopping then as well near the hotels.
The other big advantage then was the fact that KC was the second largest rail center located in the middle of the country in a time when most people traveled by rail. All the big rail lines came through Kansas City. At that time, KC had one of the most extensive streetcar lines in the country. The City had a very active and dynamic downtown. So there were many reasons that KC was among the top convention cities--most among them being that KC was a wild and fun place to visit. Most convention goers at that time were primarily men who sought to have a "good time" out of the sight of their wives, ministers, and friends.
During WWII, the entertainment economy here was quite different as well. KC didn't need conventions per se to support entertainment venues. TV didn't exist, and people went out more often. Radio was big, and KC at the time had a powerful radio station that broadcast live music nationwide from local hotels and venues, which contributed to the allure of the City to people living elsewhere.
The City was teeming with military personnel from nearby bases whose staff took their leave and came here. There were thousands of young, unmarried factory workers who came to the City from rural areas for defense industry jobs. So the City's nightspots were plentiful and busy, and since that industry was so strong it didn't depend on conventions alone, and was stable in and of itself. The fact that there were so many nightclubs, theaters, and bars made KC attractive for conventions--much like New Orleans is today. KC didn't have to be the biggest city to be a top convention town because it had all these tangible attributes--many of which were not available in other bigger cities: booze, gambling, and hookers.
One also has to take into account that Kansas City in the 1920s had more residents than many cities that would later become large convention cities: Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, Columbus, Louisville, Dallas, Austin, Nashville, San Antonio, Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, and Orlando. Even in 1950, Kansas City had more people than all these cities except for Houston. So the dramatic population shift of other cities after 1960 started to draw attention away from KC.
Probably the two biggest reasons KC began its' decline among convention cites was the end of Prohibition, the advent of air travel, and decline of rail. Planes made it easier for convention goers to travel to other distant cities, and many competitors popped up in warmer climates.
Prohibition and WWII ended, and civic reform resulted in many nightclubs and gambling halls closed. Booze was available everywhere, and in more recent times other cities began offering gambling. By the 1950s, TV became widely-adopted so many entertainment venues like theaters, dance halls, and music venues closed down. The streetcar system was shut down, which made it harder for conventioneers to move about the City. With less business, downtown hotels failed to update, and some closed. Urban renewal also slowly wiped out some of the buildings that housed nightclubs and restaurants downtown. KC didn't place enough value on its' entertainment industry.
KC also did allow its' downtown to become too seedy, and that combined with too many surface parking lots gave the appearance of lack of dynamism and safety. New and shinier cities took business.
While KC might have been slow to update its' convention facilities and hotels, the City also lost many of the aspects that made it attractive to convention attendees. It became harder to get around the City. It became less fun. Keep in mind that in those days a conventioneer could take the streetcar to the zoo, or Electric Park at Paseo and Cleaver Boulevard.
Putting our civic arena in the West Bottoms probably didn't help things either--especially downtown hotels, restaurants, and bars.
New Orleans is a smaller city, but it still has a decent convention business, and one of the reasons for that is because New Orleans maintained their entertainment industry much better. There is good food, music, gambling, architecture, historic attributes, and its' downtown is still reasonably concentrated and walkable.
KC could have updated and expanded its' convention center much sooner, and it still might not have made much of a difference because of all the reasons I've stated.
Many of the top convention cities today are in warm year-round climates, or simply much larger cities near oceans/lakes/bays/mountains with built-in entertainment options.
Much larger cities, that aren't in warmer climates, also usually have one distinct advantage in that they usually have a lot more hotel rooms and mass transit already near their convention halls for business travelers, tourists, and non-convention visitors (New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco). Those hotels are less dependent on convention business ups and downs than Kansas City's downtown.
