KCRag Forum

PumpkinStalker wrote:Interesting article on the empty water reservoir in the Historic Northeast...

http://northeastnews.net/pages/?p=11619#more-11619

I think they should turn the empty reservoir into a remote-controlled sailboat pond. The one in NYC's Central Park is very popular.

I've always thought it could become the worlds largest and best skateboard/BMX park

Hi again! I'm thrilled to see this thread is as active as ever. Wow!

So much has happened in my neighborhood since I last visited here, I almost don't know where to start.

You probably have already heard about this, but down zoning was unanimously approved earlier this year, making it more attractive to buy a home in Pendleton Heights, or to invest in improvements if you're already a home owner. If you don't know what "down zoning" is, basically it makes it so that no more multifamily dwellings can be built in the neighborhood. It also makes it illegal to split single family dwellings into apartments. Yea!

Residents of PH, Scarritt, along with Parks dept. cleared away the overgrowth from inside and around the reservoir this spring. Go look- you can actually see inside the reservoir for the first time in a long time. Bring a picnic with you, because there's a new picnic bench nearby for you to sit on (thank you for working on that, PHNA).

PH has been in the news a lot lately, and the coverage has been extremely positive because, well, there's only been good things to report! The story in last week's edition of the Pitch highlighted the amping up of old fashioned neighborliness (and how much we enjoy our monthly cocktail get togethers!). The housing stock, friendliness of the neighborhood association, and friendliness of residents who weren't even actively involved in it is what compelled us to decide to buy into PH. I didn't think it could get any better than it already was, but I'm glad to say that after 5 years, it just keeps getting better all the time. http://www.pitch.com/gyrobase/historic- ... toryPage=1

We held our third Bingo, Burgers & Beer fundraiser at the Brick and raised $3.4k-ish (still more coming in, hence the "ish"). All monies are going towards hiring private security 3 night per week. They'll mainly hang on the southern boundary of the neighborhood, but if needed, they'll be mobile and free to respond to any concerns further north. Northeast News (Northeast's newspaper) covered the event in advance, and the article goes into more detail about why we're looking forward to the added security. http://northeastnews.net/pages/?p=12133

Oh, and before, after, and during BBB we also had some televised coverage! I can't find the direct story links for channel 4 or 41, but I do have this one-

Channel 5: http://vidcache.newsoverwireless.com/kc ... 087921.mp4

Those things are high points, but the every day stuff that's happening lately is pretty cool too-

The Dog & Walking Group started out as a dog walking group that also picked up trash on their strolls, but then some canine-free folks joined in. So it's both things: dog walking and plain ol' walking, with a trash bag in hand.

Book Club is what it sounds like. It's a good mish-mash of people who like to bat around ideas about what they've read. Food and alcohol is typically involved in the mix.

Mom's Group: The women who have kids over here are all kick-ass and smart. They get to socialize with other kick-ass, smart ladies while their kids play together.

Knittin' Kittens: Okay, it's just called the knitting group, but I call them the knittin' kittens because I'm really fond of them. If you don't know how to knit, they will teach you. If you prefer to crochet or mend clothes, you can do that too. Me, I learned from the first meeting that I don't like to knit at all. Instead, I poured the wine, and I'm good at that! Food and wine is always a part of the equation, but when the wine runs out, there's always whiskey. And snacks.

Last but not least: Thanks to a handful of dear neighbors/volunteers, we now have something no other KC neighborhood has: monthly curbside glass recycling and tire recycling. Glass recycling has been going on for 3 months now, and tire recycling begins this month. Woohoo!

This is the point where you get the Mr. Rogers theme song stuck in your head if it's not there already. "Would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be my neighbor..."

That is really great news. Welcome back!

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I'm sorry that doesn't sit well with you, pash. I do mean that too.

I tend to agree with pash, although I understand that the underlying thought is to prevent the type of "ghettofication" that burned the once-glorious Northeast back in the day. Still, I think that, overall, density is good.

I think there is a place for everything. That doesn't mean that we need density everywhere. When the cbd and main thouroughfares are maxed out, we can talk.

I don't buy that argument. You don't only send police to murder scenes because traffic violations aren't as serious. You deal with all the problems at once to the best of your ability, yeah?

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pash wrote:

grovester wrote:I think there is a place for everything. That doesn't mean that we need density everywhere.

No, but it's hard to argue that one of our most central neighborhoods—a neighborhood that already has plenty of apartments—is an inappropriate place for it. It's also hard to imagine that the change in zoning laws wasn't instigated by entitled, self-absorbed bobos grasping for both the vitality of city living and the security of the suburbs. But what the hell, I guess you can have your cake and eat it too, at least so long as you know how to please the Planning Commission and the City Council.

I guess if they're willing to put a little skin in the game, I'm going to defer. Off of the main drags are not urban areas. The thought of anyone being "self-absorbed" due to the "security" in the NE is really a funny thought.

The Old Northeast has probably the most dense distribution of Section 8 housing, and Housing Authority-run housing projects, in the City. Many of these apartments are spread throughout mostly residential neighborhoods. In addition, many of the social services for the poor and homeless are located north of Truman Boulevard (ReStart, City Union Mission, Kansas City Community Kitchen, Don Bosco Center, etc.).

Independence Avenue still has problems with prostitution and open drug sales. There are still problems with copper theft and burglaries by people looking for money for drugs. Many of users and dealers appear to live in the cheap rental housing.

A lot of progress has been made cleaning up Independence Avenue, and the City is finally started to reinvest in the parks and infastructure here. Monuments along The Paseo have been fixed up. The Kansas City Museum is being restored. Benton Circle has been redone. Improvements have been made to The Concourse. A new intersection is planned at Benton and Independence Avenue. A new community center and sports complex is going to be built on Van Brunt and E. 9th. Cliff Drive has been cleaned up. New trees have been planted in Budd Park. Neighborhood associations have regular community clean ups where junk and trash along streets and in parks are cleaned up by volunteers. There is a graffiti remediation team that acts quickly to cover it. University of Kansas City continues to add new buildings. Some neighborhood associations are planning to add additional security to patrol some neighborhoods.

I don't think anyone is opposed to the existing apartment buildings. They just don't want more of them. The Old Northeast isn't getting new apartment complexes built for middle class residents, and the few old apartment buildings that already exist aren't getting renovated for middle class residents, or converted into condos.

Most of the older existing apartment buildings scattered throughout the Northeast weren't built to house low-income residents. They were built during an era where you mixed apartments in with residential houses under more urban principles of the time. Through neglect, they became low income housing. Then additional new apartments were built specifically for low income people on tear down sites. I cite for example those around the intersection of Lexington and Garfield. They aren't maintained well, and don't really fit into the neighborhod.

There are also still a lot of rental houses in these neighborhoods that are not maintained well by landlords.

Old Northeast residents are trying to stabilize these neighborhoods after years of decline, and government policy that concentrated too much low-income housing here. This includes promoting single family home ownership where residents have more of stake in the community.

It's hard for a homeowner to justify putting $30,000-$100,000 into renovating their homes if it sits next to a Section 8 apartment complex. They just don't see the value of their homes increase after the improvements as if you put the same amount of money into a house on the West Plaza, or in Brookside.

The Old Northeast (outside of Columbus Park) has yet to see anyone really invest in building new single family homes, or townhouses. In the future, the neighborhoods need to work on planning for new infill houses on vacant lots that fits into the neighborhood. That is really when one can say the Old Northeast is coming back.

I don't think the worry was about new construction but the conversion of a single family house into multi-family. If one were to buy a fixer-upper a fast way to recover your costs would be to convert some of the space into rental. Of course I wonder how this affects mother-in-law type of space?

I imagine that a City ordinance could be fashioned to allow for mother-in-law spaces as long as the property owner could prove that the tenant was a relative.

Just curious. Have some friends who built a house in Winterset in LS with just that type of set-up, have a house down the street with that set-up, there are a few houses like that in the Red Bridge area, and there was a recent article about guest houses and such increasing in JoCo.

Yeah, I saw that article I think. Isn't there some part of Johnson County that is proposing a change in code to allow for mother-in-law development?

Believe so.

grovester wrote:I think there is a place for everything. That doesn't mean that we need density everywhere. When the cbd and main thouroughfares are maxed out, we can talk.

Agree 100%. It's a complex issue but there is a very good case for zoning. Wish we had more of it here in Houston.

Single-family is denser than vacant.

There is a facebook page that is an online petition to "save the reservoir" and it indicates that the city and JE Dunn is in the process of removing/filling in the reservoir in North Terrace Park.

Is this true?