Northlands view on downtown?
Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2002 12:05 pm
For many of us in the Northland, downtown is OK is as
BILL GRAHAM
Columnist
Downtown Kansas City needs a tweak but not an overhaul to keep us happy in the Northland.
The city will also have to embrace what is genuine and not what is contrived, although a consensus definition of success may be difficult to find.
One Northlander told me they liked Kansas City as is because they can get back and forth to a job south of the river without major hassles. Attending events at Bartle Hall or the Folly Theatre or a nightclub is not the challenge as it is in larger, congested cities.
Easy come and easy go may not be as exciting as gridlock and pulsating street life in other major league cities. But maybe we're actually ahead of the pack and don't realize it.
Of course we're spoiled in the Northland. We've been able to live either a few miles from downtown or 30 miles away and get to anything south of the Missouri River with little trouble.
The old Platte County Business and Professional Association slogan keeps haunting us: "Country Living at the City's Doorstep." Well, we've filled in a lot of that countryside since the early 1980s. But you could still accurately say small-town living at the city's doorstep.
When you like life that way, which is why most of us live north, it's hard to get pumped up about trying to create a metropolis atmosphere to rival Denver.
This topic is front and center because The Star is in the midst of a series: Downtown KC: Mending Our Broken Heart.
Many of us didn't know it was broken.
The tall buildings are still imposing. Many people who live north work in them.
But business growth along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 29 corridors has lessened our dependence on downtown for jobs.
Kansas City, North, is becoming more citified and not just a suburb. Towns such as North Kansas City, Gladstone, Liberty, Parkville and Riverside are becoming more potent commercially and they're within eyesight of the tall buildings.
They're successful in part because the market is strong for offices and shopping that are easy to reach and exit.
Downtown was created in another era and the market forces in our time work against it. Business barons once liked having top-floor offices high above floors filled with employees in their suit uniforms. Business was transacted on paperwork hand carried or whisked around in pneumatic tubes. A centralized railroad carried the manufactured goods.
Computers and the trucking industry have changed the scene. But also, employees prefer jobs that make them feel less like a cold-blooded clone, and close to suburban home.
Bully for high-rise condo lovers. May there be more.
But some of us still like trees, grass and gardens.
The Northland does need downtown to perk up some. Adding more good jobs there will boost our home values and will help revitalize some of our older neighborhoods in southern Clay County. If downtown adds to our fun, great.
But we don't need a motorized mosh pit.
Entertainment options are nice. But the fact that demand has not created a more thriving bar scene downtown may speak highly of the majority's lifestyle priorities.
A planned performing arts center is good. But charity and corporate tax deductions will carry it instead of grass-roots support.
Using large chunks of our tax dollars to boost downtown is suspect. There's a good chance venues contrived to appeal to us will not.
There's a little cafe and coffee shop that spills out onto an 18th Street sidewalk, in what some define as downtown. It's stocked with second-hand furniture, no frills. But the conversation is real and sometimes there's music that's hip. It looks bustling when I drive by.
The people involved are building something of quality from the ground up because there was an affordable starting point in an old unused building.
Expensive redevelopment projects, on the other hand, will likely be overpriced for artists and regular folks to make a go. They may be a bit steep for larger commercial enterprises, too, compared with letting the market take its own time.
Most downtowns are in the core of one city, the hub on a wheel.
Our downtown is a close neighbor to several cities. It's still central. But there's no wheel. Rather, it's near the center of individualistic neighborhoods and communities. Together they make a very livable metropolitan area.
How much we participate in Kansas City's downtown resurgence depends on how well the changes there match our heart's desire.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Bill Graham, reporter and Northland columnist, call (816) 234-5906 or send e-mail to bgraham@kcstar.com.
BILL GRAHAM
Columnist
Downtown Kansas City needs a tweak but not an overhaul to keep us happy in the Northland.
The city will also have to embrace what is genuine and not what is contrived, although a consensus definition of success may be difficult to find.
One Northlander told me they liked Kansas City as is because they can get back and forth to a job south of the river without major hassles. Attending events at Bartle Hall or the Folly Theatre or a nightclub is not the challenge as it is in larger, congested cities.
Easy come and easy go may not be as exciting as gridlock and pulsating street life in other major league cities. But maybe we're actually ahead of the pack and don't realize it.
Of course we're spoiled in the Northland. We've been able to live either a few miles from downtown or 30 miles away and get to anything south of the Missouri River with little trouble.
The old Platte County Business and Professional Association slogan keeps haunting us: "Country Living at the City's Doorstep." Well, we've filled in a lot of that countryside since the early 1980s. But you could still accurately say small-town living at the city's doorstep.
When you like life that way, which is why most of us live north, it's hard to get pumped up about trying to create a metropolis atmosphere to rival Denver.
This topic is front and center because The Star is in the midst of a series: Downtown KC: Mending Our Broken Heart.
Many of us didn't know it was broken.
The tall buildings are still imposing. Many people who live north work in them.
But business growth along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 29 corridors has lessened our dependence on downtown for jobs.
Kansas City, North, is becoming more citified and not just a suburb. Towns such as North Kansas City, Gladstone, Liberty, Parkville and Riverside are becoming more potent commercially and they're within eyesight of the tall buildings.
They're successful in part because the market is strong for offices and shopping that are easy to reach and exit.
Downtown was created in another era and the market forces in our time work against it. Business barons once liked having top-floor offices high above floors filled with employees in their suit uniforms. Business was transacted on paperwork hand carried or whisked around in pneumatic tubes. A centralized railroad carried the manufactured goods.
Computers and the trucking industry have changed the scene. But also, employees prefer jobs that make them feel less like a cold-blooded clone, and close to suburban home.
Bully for high-rise condo lovers. May there be more.
But some of us still like trees, grass and gardens.
The Northland does need downtown to perk up some. Adding more good jobs there will boost our home values and will help revitalize some of our older neighborhoods in southern Clay County. If downtown adds to our fun, great.
But we don't need a motorized mosh pit.
Entertainment options are nice. But the fact that demand has not created a more thriving bar scene downtown may speak highly of the majority's lifestyle priorities.
A planned performing arts center is good. But charity and corporate tax deductions will carry it instead of grass-roots support.
Using large chunks of our tax dollars to boost downtown is suspect. There's a good chance venues contrived to appeal to us will not.
There's a little cafe and coffee shop that spills out onto an 18th Street sidewalk, in what some define as downtown. It's stocked with second-hand furniture, no frills. But the conversation is real and sometimes there's music that's hip. It looks bustling when I drive by.
The people involved are building something of quality from the ground up because there was an affordable starting point in an old unused building.
Expensive redevelopment projects, on the other hand, will likely be overpriced for artists and regular folks to make a go. They may be a bit steep for larger commercial enterprises, too, compared with letting the market take its own time.
Most downtowns are in the core of one city, the hub on a wheel.
Our downtown is a close neighbor to several cities. It's still central. But there's no wheel. Rather, it's near the center of individualistic neighborhoods and communities. Together they make a very livable metropolitan area.
How much we participate in Kansas City's downtown resurgence depends on how well the changes there match our heart's desire.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Bill Graham, reporter and Northland columnist, call (816) 234-5906 or send e-mail to bgraham@kcstar.com.