KCRag Forum

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Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

Or one that connects Union Station with Penn Valley Park.

Downtown KCMO with Downtown KCK.

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bobbyhawks wrote:Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

+1

But gondolas don't put the fun in funicular.

bobbyhawks wrote:Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

Using the 8th street tunnel

I've been to a few cities with urban gondolas/trams. I think they look pretty silly and visually distract from the surroundings (which is why they'd be very bad for the liberty memorial area) and they are not particularly good people movers either. Some cities like Bergen Norway and Albuquerque use them to take people up adjacent mountains which is great, that's why aerial gondolas exist in the first place. A better system is the funicular for short but steep inclines - it would be nice to have a KC version of this but not enough people are moving between the WB and DT to ever fill more than a couple of seats per trip.

bobbyhawks wrote:Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

I always thought a terrestrial cable-car or funicular (complete with the old-timey look) would be more fitting.

The only place I would see a gondola being installed would be across the Mo River, and that assumes there would be something on the other side. Otherwise, the nearest place I would think of a gondola to be appropriate would b the Ozarks.

Highlander wrote:I think they look pretty silly and visually distract from the surroundings

Just curious, what about NYC's Roosevelt Island's Tramway? Or Portland's Aerial Tram?

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harbinger911 wrote:Get the thing off the ground, that's what the people want.

Rockets!

portland continues their "go by [x mode except car]" signage onslaught:

DaveKCMO wrote:portland continues their "go by [x mode except car]" signage onslaught:

Nice! I will try to check that out when I'm out there. Been meaning to ride the tram for a long time.

bobbyhawks wrote:Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

I totally agree! You could even connect KCK?

kboish wrote:

bobbyhawks wrote:Laugh all you want, but I think a gondola that connects downtown with the West Bottoms some day would be seriously cool.

I totally agree! You could even connect KCK?

One thing it would do is give some perspective on the skyline and how downtown is situated on a bluff. The skyline-beyond-the-gondola establishing shots during Chiefs games would help to change the perception of KC being a flat, boring, cultural wasteland (however expensively). There isn't a terrific dropoff point yet without some more development, though.

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I never thought of this as a development tool until now. Everyone is attracted to the smell of frying bacon. Will they cross Troost for bacon?

In broad terms, La Paz is more Western and El Alto more indigenous. La Paz is more urban; El Alto is full of migrants from the countryside who retain their small-town ways. Spanish is spoken in La Paz; in El Alto, Aymara is heard at least as often. La Paz has its banks and a few fancy restaurants, while the center of El Alto’s economic life is the twice-a-week street market where the smell of fried pork hangs thickly in the air.

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