KCRag Forum

Lots of these buildings were still standing in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Going downtown was kind of like an archaeological dig back then (it was slightly seedy, but kids from school would go down there during daylight hours). Never heard of any serious crimes except for the brief period of the...

My father recalls back in the 1930s, that Katz would put controversial items on the mezzanine at this location, near the fancy radio consoles where adults would linger. Very, very curious about "controversial items"! I'll ask him what other controversial items he can remember besides the ...

Maybe the pool can be like the zoo where every KC residents gets a one day free pass. My father recalls back in the 1930s, that Katz would put controversial items on the mezzanine at this location, near the fancy radio consoles where adults would linger. The mezzanine will of course soon be the dee...

^LOLOLOL Somehow this topic reminds me that Irving Berlin song from Call Me Madam... I hear singing and there's no one there I smell blossoms and the trees are bare All day long I seem to walk on air I wonder why, I wonder why I keep tossing in my sleep at night And what's more I've lost my appetite...

I posted elsewhere about the historic importance of Penn Valley Park -- suffice it to say that with some moderate re-design, in particular the removal of Broadway and some other roads, it would be an excellent "large" park for the downtown area. Loose Park is clearly successful as a "...

Well, I hope this place is ready to get busy. My division of about 500 people next door at 1KC Place will be back in the office workweeks starting September 7. Mostly people asked questions about parking (always a favorite topic for KC Rag lololol), but a few asked about the amenities nearby. I actu...

Well BNSF wants to re-route the Chief. Maybe Sharice Davids could get on that with Buttgieg (the new Transportation Sec'y) in exchange for a starter commuter line agreement. Foamers would FREAK if Amtrak agreed to re-routing away from the historic "Topeka and Santa Fe" route. Although I wo...

^Both of those lines are BNSF, and the comment upthread is correct. BNSF doesn't like to share. However, Amtrak has some power to coerce sharing of track, and I think a commuter rail could take the same approach. Actually, BNSF has wanted for years to re-route the Chief over the Olathe-Wichita-Amari...

To be fair, it wasn't a "hole" or unoccupied lot -- the IBM building was there, a good example of low-rise modernism. Perhaps not the highest use for this particular corner, but to imply that it was an empty space is incorrect.

One more thing... Dining car service does NOT mean an improvement to Amtrak wine. I strongly advise my fellow travellers to bring your own wines. Remember to partially uncork in your sleeper (saves time and avoids pearl-clutchers). A pre-emptive tip to the dining car steward, and he will look the ot...

LD dining car meal service has resumed. https://media.amtrak.com/2021/06/amtrak-restores-traditional-dining-on-western-long-distance-routes/ This also expands the previously reduced service on the Orlando-DC Autotrain (which apparently was the only train doing any dining car service, and then only o...

My hot take has always been to build a Chiefs stadium on Penn Valley Park so we could actually get some use out of that park for once and it has the amount of land needed for a stadium and lots. But I surmise this will never happen. OMG what is with all the vitriol lately about Penn Valley Park 1. ...

As mentioned upthread, Penn Valley Park is the "central" park of Kansas City -- Swope Park is more akin to Forest Park in St. Louis, and Loose Park is a small scale NY Central Park, surrounded by rich residential areas. Penn Valley Park is however seriously compromised by its sacrifice as ...

Yeah asking for TIF so they can retrofit a pool was pure TIF exploitation. At least for private use. If publicly accessible pool, great use of TIF. If they add a public element as significant as a public market that is generally inclusive to MIdtown demographics, enough TIF to add private pool or d...

Two items stuck out as verboten. first the name Lux when seeking current city incentives/ LOL if that is really how the City Council evaluates proposals. What other words must be avoided? Even at full price and no subsidies, I bet a proposal from the hypothetical Nichols Restrictive Luxury company ...

^ :-| depressing Katz Drug in Westport is iconic Kansas City. Clarence Kivett was at his post-juvenile upswing, full of the energy that KC exuded in the 1920s-1930s. Is it immature deco? Yes, but it bespeaks a period in time. Later he did adult projects (with Myers) like the Truman Sports Complex an...

Bird coming to Prairie Village for a 9-month pilot: https://shawneemissionpost.com/2021/06/23/bird-scooters-prairie-village-125574/ Amusingly, I saw two abandoned scooters last week around 9pm on Indian Lane on the Kansas City Country Club easement -- between 63d and Mission Drive. I wondered how t...

Thank you Dave for posting the TDD notice above -- why is tax-exempt property taxed more than twice what for-profit commercial property pays? So a million-dollar church would pay $3328 per annum and a million-dollar retail building would pay $1536 -- or am I reading the table incorrectly?

I think AA is going to take a run at MCI-BOS and MCI-JFK (they already have loaded MCI-LGA onto the autumn schedule) as part of their new code-sharing with JetBlue. They also recently announced a joint points promotion with JetBlue that makes additional Boston and New York service appear likely. htt...

Taxation is all about incentives, so I don't agree that taxes shouldn't force uses. Their point is to incentivize productive use for the community. Taxation used to incent outcomes (or nudging as Cass Sunstein calls it) is a relatively new function, and not a primary nor historic function. The prim...