KCRag Forum

I have begun to think that Main St. between the loop and Union Station is booming:
retail/services: Imij Salon, In the Life, Kilim Rug Store, grocery store (soon), Blue Gallery, Light Box Gallery

Live entertainment: Danny's Big Easy, Bar Natasha, Bazookas (ugh)

Dance Clubs: DB Warehouse, Tootsies

Restaurants: Max's Noodle Shop, Hereford House, Zin, Danny's Big Easy

Bar: Bulldog

This area is going to be a great, walkable link between Crown Center/Union Station and Downtown Live. It'll be interesting to see what the "walkable" nightlife will be like as the weather warms up, especially the first few warm First Fridays. Any thoughts? What else could the area use?

It needs streetscape updates to really become a big metro hotspot. I'm sure as it heats up down there, something will be done. I think the nightlife columnist at the Star went to a few places and so did neighbor Jen Chen from the Pitch. I think downtown is already an insider's night spot.

I think it hurts a neighborhood to have people from the 'burbs and even further out to come, party, and leave. Hopefully, the Crossroads can develop without become a pit stop on the Westport express.

What's really cool is that this is happening without a Big Project from the city and the developers. A lot of people have talked about how this stuff is more appropriate downtown than in Westport or the Plaza, and the market is making it happen before the powers that be have a chance to fizzuck it up. The best thing the city can do is leave them alone and just make sure it does its job with streets, sidewalks, lights, codes enforcement, permits, etc.

It's naturally occurring urbanization, and I love watching it. The folks at city hall(and everyone) need to see that this is how real, lasting development happens: at the hands and expense of local ingenuity and investment. I just hope they can hold on to it for as long as possible, without someone coming in and trying to make it an everything-to-everybody area, thus spoiling the wonderful character it has built for itself.

trailerkid wrote:I think it hurts a neighborhood to have people from the 'burbs and even further out to come, party, and leave.

What are you talkin' about?! I usually pass out drunk before I make it back to my car!!! Jus' add a few benches so I can have a place to rest. I don't think the area will become a party place for homophobic suburbanites. Anyhow, I usually leave places in the same condition I find them.

I want that area to get a couple more big clubs like DB....

I was thinking more live venues, like the Hurricane or Grand Emporiuim. Another restaurant or two, maybe a couple more stores.

tat2kc wrote:I was thinking more live venues, like the Hurricane or Grand Emporiuim. Another restaurant or two, maybe a couple more stores.

I'm hopin' for an Oriental Massage Parlor...

Tat2, why the Ugh about Bazookas? I am gay, and I am fine with it being there...to me, cities are essentially about sex and the promise of sex--or to put it another way, cities are sexy, and they are about human contact, and the possiblity of meeting interesting others....I wish KC had a good gay bath house, like other medium to large size cities, and a regulated, well lit, red light district...

kc_devotee wrote:Tat2, why the Ugh about Bazookas? I am gay, and I am fine with it being there...to me, cities are essentially about sex and the promise of sex--or to put it another way, cities are sexy, and they are about human contact, and the possiblity of meeting interesting others....I wish KC had a good gay bath house, like other medium to large size cities, and a regulated, well lit, red light district...

KCDevin would definitely agree with you!

I guess I don't have a big problem with Bazookas, just not my cup of tea. Hell, I've seen lots of mostly naked men dancing on the bars in New Orleans. Even have a few good friends who are porn stars. I would not mind a few clubs like the ones I've been to in New Orleans. They are much more laid back about sex there. I'd just rather have that chest shoved in my face be covered with hair, and full of muscle rather than silicone!! Kansas City is far too uptight to have a bath house again, although apparently there one a Midtowne Spa here a while back.

I don't have an issue with a more relaxed attitude regarding sex, as long as it is safe sane and consensual. I think I saw my first nude waitress when I was walking with my parents to a very nice old-line restaurant on bourbon st. At that time, the nudes waiters and waitresses in the bars were visible from the street. I was 10 at the time. No one made a big deal out of it, so I never got the feeling it was a "forbidden" thing, so I never gave it a second thought.

I say: go for it, if you want! If you want to do the nasty in the back dark corner of the bar, go for it! As long as that's an acceptable thing in that type of bar, the patrons are cool with it, and you don't force others to watch by doing it in their faces, its ok. If you've seen Queer as Folk on Showtime, you've seen the backroom sex at the club Babylon. I've seen that at many bars around the country. Everyone knows what happens in the back rooms, don't go in if you don't want to see it.

I've heard that Bazookas has a great steak special, and my partner keeps trying to get me to go. Not working for me, sorry to say!!!!

tat2kc wrote:I say: go for it, if you want! If you want to do the nasty in the back dark corner of the bar, go for it! As long as that's an acceptable thing in that type of bar, the patrons are cool with it, and you don't force others to watch by doing it in their faces, its ok. If you've seen Queer as Folk on Showtime, you've seen the backroom sex at the club Babylon. I've seen that at many bars around the country. Everyone knows what happens in the back rooms, don't go in if you don't want to see it.

Bro, only problem is that the man juice has a strong aroma. I get ill when I smell that junk near porno film booths, in gay friend's bedrooms, etc.

OMG!!!!!! This is the first time I have ever blushed when reading a thread in a development website!

...........well sort of blushed

gil

The area is becoming a gay district, which Kansas City needs. The DB is the hub, then there is Tootsies, Bar Natasha, The Backdoor is near and the "gay store" called in the life around the corner. Additionally, I agree, the city really needs to step in and start fixing the roads and sidewalks, they are a mess. I would love to see some fill in happen as well, by this I mean filling in some of the surface lots that dot the area. I think a lot of gay men and urban professionals would be interested in moving to the area if the area was not so brutal. Although many individuals like the brutality of pure urbanity, and I have to admit a touch of it sparks my attention too. However I would like to see some green space and some trees here and there.

paisstat wrote:The area is becoming a gay district, which Kansas City needs. The DB is the hub, then there is Tootsies, Bar Natasha, The Backdoor is near and the "gay store" called in the life around the corner.

So a "gay district" is just a bunch of gay bars and a "gay store" ? It seems that "gayness" includes a lot more than that. I would like to see KC take national leadership in having a fully integrated city with equality of opportunites where everyone is welcome...not pockets of "gayness" or "blackness" or any other oppressed population.

trailerkid wrote:

paisstat wrote:The area is becoming a gay district, which Kansas City needs. The DB is the hub, then there is Tootsies, Bar Natasha, The Backdoor is near and the "gay store" called in the life around the corner.

So a "gay district" is just a bunch of gay bars and a "gay store" ? It seems that "gayness" includes a lot more than that. I would like to see KC take national leadership in having a fully integrated city with equality of opportunites where everyone is welcome...not pockets of "gayness" or "blackness" or any other oppressed population.

One of the reasons KC hasn't had a "gay district" before is that the city is already fairly well integrated in that regard. Except for specific pockets of lesbians in Dutch Hill and gays in Hyde Park, the Plaza, and Old Northeast. There are even a lot on the Kansas side spread around (gasp) Johnson County.

dangerboy wrote:

trailerkid wrote:

paisstat wrote:The area is becoming a gay district, which Kansas City needs. The DB is the hub, then there is Tootsies, Bar Natasha, The Backdoor is near and the "gay store" called in the life around the corner.

So a "gay district" is just a bunch of gay bars and a "gay store" ? It seems that "gayness" includes a lot more than that. I would like to see KC take national leadership in having a fully integrated city with equality of opportunites where everyone is welcome...not pockets of "gayness" or "blackness" or any other oppressed population.

One of the reasons KC hasn't had a "gay district" before is that the city is already fairly well integrated in that regard. Except for specific pockets of lesbians in Dutch Hill and gays in Hyde Park, the Plaza, and Old Northeast. There are even a lot on the Kansas side spread around (gasp) Johnson County.

Yeah, I am being a little hard on KC: the city has been historically known for integrating gays fairly well. And that is the reason there wasn't a need for a gay district to feel safe or a "militant" gay population. We should be proud of that, but it shouldn't stop there. Equality for glbt means equality for all. Equality regardless of race, gender, class or anything else. KC needs to work on a fully integrated city (Troost, hello?) to reach equality for any group.

I lived on Capitol Hill in Denver for 3 years. It's what I'd call a gay "ghetto" or district. The majority of gay bars, restaurants and stores were in this area. People here are saying that KC is "gay integrated", meaning gay people are spread out. True, but I think there is still a need for a more segregated gay area. Why? Because gay people, especially young, single gay people, want to be able to go places where they can feel more comfortable and meet other gay people. Sure, you might run into another gay person at Applepees in Olathe, but the chances are slim. You assume most people there are straight. If you're at a restaurant in a gay district, you can assume the opposite. It's like a little world or "normalcy" for gay people. If I were single and gay, I sure wouldn't want to live in JoCo or Independence. I'd just be driving to the city all the time. Older gay couples tend to be more integrated and many happily live in the 'burbs, but they don't need the social scene to meet other gay people like singles do. I know so many gay people who've left KC for places like Denver, Houston, San Diego, LA, etc. simply because those cities have gay ghettos. KC needs a better gay nightlife to keep these people in KC. I think that's slowly happening and it's something that just has to evolve.

DanCa wrote:I lived on Capitol Hill in Denver for 3 years. It's what I'd call a gay "ghetto" or district. The majority of gay bars, restaurants and stores were in this area. People here are saying that KC is "gay integrated", meaning gay people are spread out. True, but I think there is still a need for a more segregated gay area. Why? Because gay people, especially young, single gay people, want to be able to go places where they can feel more comfortable and meet other gay people. Sure, you might run into another gay person at Applepees in Olathe, but the chances are slim. You assume most people there are straight. If you're at a restaurant in a gay district, you can assume the opposite. It's like a little world or "normalcy" for gay people. If I were single and gay, I sure wouldn't want to live in JoCo or Independence. I'd just be driving to the city all the time. Older gay couples tend to be more integrated and many happily live in the 'burbs, but they don't need the social scene to meet other gay people like singles do. I know so many gay people who've left KC for places like Denver, Houston, San Diego, LA, etc. simply because those cities have gay ghettos. KC needs a better gay nightlife to keep these people in KC. I think that's slowly happening and it's something that just has to evolve.

I don't get this. Many gay bars are stacked with straights. So how does it make someone feel so much better because it is a "gay bar" even though there are glbt, straights, men and women? We need to get past this and only have places where-- whatever you are-- you feel welcome and at home to be yourself.

Do you realize the implications if you were to say the same things about Blacks, Jews, or Catholics?

Not necessarily, trailer. I know if I go to a "gay" bar or restaurant in KC, no matter how many straight folks are there, I won't be hassled. Take Bar Natasha for example. It is not necessarily defined as a "gay" bar, but gay welcoming most definately. I can go there with a big group of gay friends, which I do usually on fridays for happy hour. The couples I meet there know full well that they can hold hands, we can give each other a kiss hello or goodbye, without any problems. In short, we can act like a typical married couples. Not so in most suburban locations. In non gay friendly places, we'd etiher be asked to leave, ignored, or hear rude comments said just loud enough to hear. (Had all three happen). Its not so much about segregating ourselves, as much as it is about feeling free to let our guard down.

I'd love to be able to say I was welcomed everywhere in the metro area. But hell's bells, people of color are still not welcomed everywhere, despite what people may say. Gay/lesbian civil rights are at least 20 years behind other minorities in this struggle, so its no surprise that we still have a long way to go.