KCRag Forum

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:18 am Crossroads will never be gaslamp no matter a baseball stadium. The problem with crossroads is it's too spread thin and no focus of activity. 18th and oak is the only real example of a focus of activity.

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:18 am Crossroads will never be gaslamp no matter a baseball stadium. The problem with crossroads is it's too spread thin and no focus of activity. 18th and oak is the only real example of a focus of activity.

Highlander wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:23 am

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:18 am Crossroads will never be gaslamp no matter a baseball stadium. The problem with crossroads is it's too spread thin and no focus of activity. 18th and oak is the only real example of a focus of activity.

Another reason why I think the East Crossroads location is ultimately the best. It replaces a couple of square blocks of fairly undeveloped crossroads territory with a high draw venue allowing the Crossroads to focus in a slightly smaller but more dense area. It also removes a two square block building that is otherwise unlikely to be re-utilized or redeveloped in our lifetimes.

KCDowntown wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2024 7:30 pm I am currently on vacation in San Diego, and yesterday my family and I went down to area around Petco Park. We were in the Gaslamp Quarter and there were shops and activity everywhere. This area is adjacent to Petco Park, and spanned multiple blocks in all directions. The stadium had some small structured parking on one side, and was being used for a convention that was in town. There was not a proliferation of surface parking around the stadium. We walked around, ate lunch, shopped, and hit Petco park, and there was not one block without some level of activity.

While it wasn’t baseball season, there was stadium related activity as the stadium was offering tours, I’d guess there were 40 people waiting outside for their time slot. Some of the restaurants were clearly catering to Padres related traffic, but it wasn’t just a bunch of sports bars.

Petco Park was not perfect. There was one side that was mostly blank, and the office part of the building was kind of foreboding. But you could see on the northern side how it dumped people into the active Gaslamp Quarter. The southern side abuts railroad tracks, and the cities light rail/streetcar.

The one thing that stood out was how consistently active the whole area was. We were there on a Sunday afternoon for about 4 hours and there were people everywhere, probably 1 in 8 was wearing a convention lanyard, but the rest just looked like regular traffic. Shops and restaurants everywhere.

It is really mind-boggling to me that we have downtown interests actively fighting against the stadium. We should be doing anything in our power to bring more people downtown. Our downtown doesn’t even compare to San Diego, its skyline is growing (and about twice the size of KC) with multiple skyscrapers going up currently. And here we are with downtown interests fighting against a project that will bring millions of people a year downtown. Yes there are some great buildings in footprint, yes there are a handful of active businesses - but the level of activity in this part of the Crossroads absolutely pales in comparison to what I’ve seen. We’ve genuinely lost the plot.

KCDowntown

Midtownkid wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 4:33 pm Does the Crossroads still offer tax breaks to art-related businesses? That was one of the truly unique aspects of the district.

WoodDraw wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:13 pm Lol go find the spaceship. You missed the early years. That's where we are now

Someone must have the original rendering of Sprint center? I'm avoiding saying who we went against to not draw this off.

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 5:10 pm So many good ideas that could be done. Will the royals do any of them
Remember the talk on here was active every day not just game days

Chris Stritzel wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:17 pm Honestly, that would’ve aged terribly.

kcjak wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 7:27 am How ironic that even if the stadium doesn't get built in the Xroads there will still be continued development in the area like freeway cap and additional population from 18th/Vine, Parade Park, 4L, Midland, Calvert's Lot, etc. that will eventually price many of those businesses out of the East Crossroads. For the artists, in particular, they're going to face an infinite number of transitions from neighborhood to neighborhood until there are some concrete plans for a long-term artist district.