KCK impressions

[Cyburbia]

I spent a few hours this afternoon driving around KCK. Here's some of my impressions:

* KCK has a fascinating landscape - lots of hills, valleys, outcroppings, and so on. Unfortunately, if you have a house perched on the top of one of these hills, you'll likely be looking down on some factories.

* It seems like there's a disproportionately large amount of very small hosues built before WWII. There are very few older middle class areas; although there's some larger homes scattered among the clusters of tiny older houses, there's really no old middle class neighborhoods. The only area I saw that could have been middle or upper middle class at one time was west of downtown, and along Quindaro. KC might have been "prosperous" at one time, but it was never "middle class," or even middle-class blue-collar. If the demographics of old KCK were closer to that of KCMO, the place might not be in such a rut.

* Strawberry Hill - it's a tiny enclave east of downtown, not really "ethnic" in the sense that there's a lot of restaurants or social clubs. Kinda' sad, actually.

* In some areas west of downtown, there were signs of European ethnic holdouts; a bar flying a Polish flag here, a little old lady with a babushka walking down a street there. The scenes reminded me of some areas on Buffalo's East Side, where the population might be 80% minority, the last long-time residents too stubborn, too old or too poor to move.

* Unlike KCMO, KCK actually has retail downtown. Unfortunately, most of it consists of thrift stores, fast food restaurants, Mexican dry goods stores, places like "Jesus Christ Loves You Bookstore," and so on. There was more pedestrian traffic than what I've seen inside the KCMO loop, but it seemed as if at least half of the folks walking around were in a drug-filled haze. It reminded me of downtown Niagara Falls, New York, outside the touristy areas.

* KCK is much dirtier than KCMO. There's less sign and billboard clutter, but quite a bit of litter and debris laying around.

* KCK has alleys! This results in fewer curb cuts along residential streets, but it also means that those tiny houses are packed in tight, with no driveways separating them. Density in and of itself isn't bad -- look at the Plaza area -- but densely populated lower income neighborhoods in the US tend to be troubled places.

[KCforumer]

Sounds like very accurate observations.

If you drive around inner-city KCK again, be sure to drive down N 17th St between Minnesota Av and Grandview BLVD and the area west of 14th St, east 18th St, south Tauromee Av, and north of Grandview BLVD. That area is probably the best area of inner-city KCK. Basically, it's just the largest pocket of nice single-family homes.

I'd say the Central Av corridor is the densest area of inner-city KCK, besides downtown. There are large houses in many of the neighborhoods adjacent to Central Av that are close together, have alleys, and few curb cuts. But most of them are not particularly 'nice' neigborhoods.

The Quindaro BLVD corridor is, or at least was urban at one time. It looks to have been a nice area at one point in time. But I haven't explored that area much. It's a pretty secluded and a bad area. There are some used-to-be-nice large houses there.

There are too many low-income housing complexes and high-rises downtown and in inner-city KCK. Downtown, there are 3 low-income high-rises and many low-income complexes surrounding downtown. Also, there are 2 low-income high-rises along Central Av within a few blocks of each other, and even a few in the Argentine and Rosedale/KU Med area. That can't be good. I'm sure this contributes to the druggy, dirty pedestrians you see.

Overall, inner-city KCK is in bad shape.

[QueSi2Opie]

You described the urban area almost perfectly. However, there are many more KCK neighborhoods to explore.

One urban neighborhood which has managed to remain in mint condition is between 12th and 18th Streets along Orville and Sandusky near Donnelly College.

I also don't know if you travelled down Central Avenue between 5th and 18th Streets...this is slowly becoming the new Southwest Blvd with less "yuppie" traffic (except for the private bars like Old Chicago and gay bars such as View On The Hill).

There are also some nice long established Mexican-American neighborhoods along Metropolitan Avenue betwen 18th and 42nd Streets. Many beautiful murals dot the area...one I can think of at the moment was near my old neighborhood between Woodland Ave. and Ruby Trfwy. jus' a block North of Metropolitan Ave. and 32nd Street.

If you're in the area, don't forget to visit the most impressive mansion in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area (a.k.a. Haunted Castle) at 935 Shawnee Rd. which was once owned by the Sauer family which seen several members tradgically die in the home (tuberculosis, drowning, suicide, etc.). You can access the home by Ruby Trfway goin' East from Woodland to 14th Street, turn North and go several blocks to Douglas Ave., turn East and go about a quarter mile to Shawnee Rd., then turn left on Shawnee which will wind around a half mile until you see a spectacular brick mansion built with 18th Century German Gothic architecture in 1871 (on the right side). To get out of the neighborhood, continue to follow Shawnee Rd. and Greystone Ave. until you reach Cambridge Circle and I-35. The mansion was built on the hilltop location overlooking the Kaw River Valley because it reminded the Sauer family of the Rhine Valley in Germany. It's now surrounded by smaller lower-middle class homes. I haven't visited the home in four years, but I do know it's on the National Registery of Historical Places.

The area along Southwest Blvd. and Rainbow Blvd. near Rosedale Memorial Arch and KU Medical Center in KCK remains an area of development despite some of the poverty to the west. If you're in that area, take Southwest Blvd. west, under I-35 and across the tracks until you reach Mill Street. Turn left and take Mill Street south, go across some tracks and under I-35 again, over Turkey Creek until you reach the home of the "Crazy Monkey Lady". It's an unusual home with animal faces carved all over the property. To exit this area, from Mill St. you can take Seminary Rd. left one block to Puckett Street, turn right and go to either Rosedale Park which leads you to Mission Rd. or continue up Puckett until you reach County Line near Westwood.

As far as Strawberry Hill in downtown KCK, you can see several Croatian flags (fewer than a dozen) on resident homes...but the area has been drown out by Mexican immigration much like the Italian neighborhood in Columbus Park has been drowned out by Vietnamese. And yes, small industry and railroads do dominate the areas along Fairfax and Kansas Avenue although there is some light retail/restaurant businesses between 2nd and 18th Streets along Kansas Ave.

While the most interesting places to see are east of I-635 in KCK, there are also some areas along and between State Avenue and Parallel Prky. that need to be seen out towards KCK Community College and 78th Street. Swing south on 78th Street towards the river and view the Grinter Place on K-32 (Kaw Rd.)...it's the oldest home in KCK built in 1856 by Moses Grinter. He operated a ferry on the Delaware Reserve which helped Indians cross the Kaw River as well as troops on the historical military route between Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Scott. [/i]

[phxcat]

These are some good observations. I was just up there today too, looking at the downtown area. There is a lot of nice new housing directly north of downtown, some of it multi family, but there is also a nice suburban neighborhood there too, toward the east. That arial photograph that is a few threads down looks to be of Quindaro. I drove throgu hthat area alittle bit, and I can see from the groud where all those empty lots are, but it doesn't have a rural look from the ground. It really seems to be more of an urban area that is in bad decay.

I was disapointed to see that there are several buildings and storefronts that seem to be unoccupied downtown, even on Minnesota. I can see the spread of the Hispanic area into that area, and that is not a bad thing, because I think that that will bring more of a middle class into those areas, in addition to the added population. Since moving to Phoenix last year, the Spanish storefronts don't stands out like they used too! You were right about Strawberry Hill, if I didn't know that it was an ethnic Croatian area, there wouldn't be much there to show that.

If the arena plan falls through for KCMO, I hope that KCK will step up to the plate and build one downtown!

[Cyburbia]

Thanks for the great, well-informed replies! I'm going to have to take everybody's advice, and dig a bit deeper next weekend. By then, I should have a digital camera, and I'll be able to post a photo tour of the place.

Another place in the metro that gives me the same vibes as KCK is what I've heard called the "historic Northeast," by the KC Museum. The area has some huge, architecturally significant homes on well-maintained lots, but for the most part it's dominated by tiny 2/1 bungalows. Rapid demographic change, with the affordability of the small bungalows being a major contributing factor, seemed to lead to the decline of the neighborhood. Still, areas closer to Gladstone seem to be holding their own ... even some of the older brick apartment buildings are in decent shape. When did that area fade from glory? Is there any gentrification, or are the huge houses mostly owned by bargain-loving middle-class residents?

Again, I'm reminded of a neighborhood in Buffalo, Kensington ... mostly smallish (~1,200-1,500'^2) bungalows on ~3,000 '^2 lots at the core, with very large homes at one far edge. The area was the equivalent of being on the east side of Troost in the 1960s. Kensington is now about 70% middle and lower middle income minority, with some elderly and lower-middle-class ethnic holdouts. In the more affluent fringe, it's about 70% white ethnic, 30% minority. The business districts now cater mainly to a low income minority population (check cashing, beeper/pager stores, hip hop clothing stores, fast food, etc), with a few old school businesses remaining.

Mods ... feel free to move this to one of the KCMO sub-forums if necessary.

[nota]

...a few days ago, I went down to Kemper with a friend. We went down 635, across the Fairfax Bridge and through the industrial area and the bottoms.

I hadn't been through that way in at least a couple of years. It has sure changed. The rundown dingy look is gone. Hustle and bustle and lots more places of business than I remember. The litter which used to be rampant is almost totally gone everywhere in those areas.

I believe that these areas are looking up in a big way.

[KCK]

There sure are a lot of threads about KCK.

Anyway are you talking about Fairfax, or are you talking about the KCK part of the West Bottoms? I'm a tad bit confused.

[GRID]

The Fairfax corridor has always been a very busy and vibrant industrial area.

[nota]

There sure are a lot of threads about KCK.

Anyway are you talking about Fairfax, or are you talking about the KCK part of the West Bottoms? I'm a tad bit confused.

I'm not sure of the boundaries. We came across the Fairfax Bridge and then went east and south through the industrial area to 70 and then to 12th street and then to Kemper. It all looked nice and lots more bustling than when I've been through there before.

[justin8216]

My dad works in Farifax. They have a very active "neighborhood group" I guess you might call it. It represents the interests of the Fairfax industrial business "community" very well. They also promote maintaing indsutrial properties with landscaping and such. Fairfax is very unique with alot of interesting vintage industrial buildings.