KCRag Forum

scooterj wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:02 am

FangKC wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:07 am
Members of the jury. please click here for evidence of the crimes I've described.

https://tinyurl.com/y7vhfvrr

If you zoom in on Street View you can clearly see that he has a poo bag in his hand. Making this one of the few good guys.

Also that guy is my neighbor. Nice dude, big dog.

scooterj wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 10:02 am

FangKC wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:07 am
Members of the jury. please click here for evidence of the crimes I've described.

If you zoom in on Street View you can clearly see that he has a poo bag in his hand. Making this one of the few good guys.

If you know the history of that area, landscaping is dying from dog urine. In some tree wells, the landscaping has already died, been removed, and not replaced.

Office tenants and commercial realtors notice this type of thing. The City's ability to keep up things like landscaping, and how quickly things deteriorate in the public domain after the City spends millions upgrading an area, is observed and remembered.

There is conversation about why employers don't come downtown, and why new commercial towers aren't going up. This is among the reasons why. It's the complaints about the pigeon droppings around the former Federal Reserve Bank, and all those security planters with no plantings in them.

It is why they rent, or build, in places where their environment is better-controlled. They rent on the Country Club Plaza, which does a good job keeping up the physical environment, in Corporate Woods, or their own campuses in Johnson County.

smh wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:08 am

FangKC wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:07 am
Why is the default proposal always to take a vacated parcel and add green space?
...

Because a local banker who has a fountain on this site wants a pleasant view and for the fountain to be preserved. Therefore DTC has jumped immediately to the conclusion that "it's what the neighborhood wants". What the neighborhood wants is more retail, preferably on the ground level of a new office building.

A modest two-story, mixed-use building could be constructed on the wedge shown, and still retain the fountain location. limiting the height to 2-stories (maybe 3-stories) would still allow light for apartments to the west of the parcel.

For the purchase price you’d probably need to be a bit more dense than 2-3 stories.

I am rarely on the side of folks calling for additional "greenspace", but downtown could use more small pocket parks, and I've always thought this site specifically could be a nice public square in the heart of the downtown loop. Think like a micro Fountain Square in Cincy.

It is small enough, on the streetcar line, and there enough office/residential uses surrounding it that it might be reasonably popular, especially if the library could get involved in some arts programming, or there was some type of more active use added. Library Square?

It could have shades of the old Junction, given that one can't even walk up to or sit near the river fountain down the street (another idea - take out lane width and build some seating space and shade trees around that one in the middle of Main).

All things considered, I'd rather have a large multi-story Macy's on this site, however.

A retail only use would probably be feasible on this site. but if you wanted to do apartments, you couldn't put many units per floor due to the irregular shape and small size. I don't see many apartment buildings build under 100 units downtown, to get that on this lot, you'd probably need 18-25 stories. You would need to work around the fountain and the streetcar line, so that adds complexity. You would most likely have opposition from the people in the building to the west. This is not an attractive site at all for an apartment developer, not when there are plenty of much easier building sites that are only a block or two from a streetcar stop anyway.

For comparison, 53W53 in NYC is on a lot 10% smaller. It's 77 stories of apartments with ~2 per floor

Building will be finished in August, and 10th & Main will close.

DaveKCMO wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 9:59 pm Building will be finished in August, and 10th & Main will close.

Is there any idea what will be done with 10th and Main or will it just get sold off?

What is going to go where that dirt patch is?

FangKC wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:45 pm What is going to go where that dirt patch is?

Lawn, it looks like

Eventually, TOD. Same for the tiny paved lot to the south.

DaveKCMO wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:52 pm Eventually, TOD. Same for the tiny paved lot to the south.

This is referring to the east village transit center, right? Not 10th and Main?

Last I knew 10th and main was going to be a greenspace?

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 11:24 am Last I knew 10th and main was going to be a greenspace?

Last I knew it was slated for development. Mr. Kemper is about the only person I'm aware requesting greenspace.

That seems like a significant barrier

Isn’t Kemper gone? Thought he was now working in DC?

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 11:24 am Last I knew 10th and main was going to be a greenspace?

Nope.

horizons82 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 12:16 pm Isn’t Kemper gone? Thought he was now working in DC?

I should have been more specific. This would be Jonathan, not Crosby.