KCRag Forum

Several townhomes are being constructed on the parking lot where the Farmers' Market used to operate on the Independence Square. Ken McClain, an attorney who is responsible for keeping many of the Square's shops afloat, is the man behind all the action. Each townhome will sell for $250,000. Part of me is really happy to see new development in my hometown, but it seems a bit like gentrification.

http://fox4kc.com/2016/01/11/described- ... ependence/

ah, independence. where a brand new home selling for below the national median is considered gentrification...

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MSPNHSUS

Can you even gentrify a parking lot? Who is being gentrified out? The farmer's market?

If the square was ever gentrified it was in the 90s and 2000s, when the sea of boring antique shops and law offices anchored by that military surplus store, Turner Music, and Clinton's (not to neglect the Rheinland and Courthouse exchange) slowly began converting to more interesting retail and restaurants and the shitty, falling apart dollar theater and Diamond Bowl got renovated. Seems to me these townhomes are just the latest in an ongoing series of improvements to the square that date back to a time when people did the macarena non-ironically.

"Definition of gentrification
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents"

I wasn't trying to stir anything up or even make this controversial. It just seems like it could push out the people who make less, which there are plenty of, in that area. Instead of bashing me for it, why don't you explain to me why you disagree?

apologies, but that word gets tossed around a lot these days. use it when you know people have actually been displaced.

There is room for words like stabilized, revitalized, or improved.

Downtown Independence will have greater stability and be more attractive for everyone, with some more affluent neighbors in the mix.

There is a lot of room for a wide variety of people and the poor have a solid foothold.

These turned out to be the most awful monstrosities that could be conceived--in their faux-Victorian Lego-Disney style.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom ... 22#photo15

Looks like it was designed with SimCity software.

That's not a bad description.

The materials look nice, the scale is off. The structure feels compressed

They remind me of oversized doll houses...

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I don't think it would look as bad if they weren't set back so far