Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Northeast, Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.
cdm2p
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by cdm2p »

I've seen the drawings. I will post if I find them. Tom Levitt led the charge to kill it.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

I would agree. Downtown was always inside the highways.
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Eon Blue
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by Eon Blue »

voltopt wrote:
Eon Blue wrote:Line Creek Loudmouth has a couple posts on this:

http://www.linecreekloudmouth.com/blog/ ... ately.html

Maybe one more I couldn't find.
This is a separate limited access highway, a little further to the south, although it could be a spiritual predecessor. I think the thing we are talking about is the 22nd/23rd street connector between Cesar Chavez and 22nd and Grand.
Hmm, maybe Wes just posted them on Twitter then. I've seen them, I'm sure of it.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by herrfrank »

voltopt wrote:The area between 15th (Truman) and 31st Street was generally referred to as Midtown into the early 1990s, with everything south of 31st falling under 'Westport', although the naming transition began before then. 'Crossroads' is a made-up thing that stuck, from the mid-late 90s. The 1977 "Kansas City: A Place In Time" from the Landmarks Commission of Kansas City, Missouri utilized the 'Midtown' definition for this area. I'll hunt for my copy of the book and try to scan that page.

https://www.amazon.com/Kansas-City-Miss ... B000KV744O
Yes, the area now known as Crossroads was known, at least until the 1980s, as Midtown. The area now called Midtown was referred to by neighborhood names (Roanoke, Westport, Valentine) or (rarely) Uptown. When I spent time in KC in the 1990s, I was surprised to hear people who lived in Westport and even near the Plaza refer to their neighborhoods as "Midtown."

The big southern expansion was not realized until the 1980s. As recently as 1970, anything south of 95th or west of Metcalf was rural. Blue Valley was a hick high school in the 1970s. (BVN opened in 1986). Even parts of Dodson felt rural (and some of it is returning to that condition).

The trajectory of growth to the southwest, however, was clear by the 1920s. For example, in his novel "Mrs. Bridge" (taking place in the Country Club district around 1940), Evan Connell indicates that Hillcrest Country Club had long been relegated as the unfashionable side of town.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by moderne »

The Crossroads was formerly know as Crosstown, I-670 was the Crosstown freeway. Midtown has always been the area between 31st and the Plaza, even before Crown Center. Areas south and west of Metcalf were well developed by 1970 to past 103rd. Metcalf South mall was opened by 1968. I recall going to the Manor Barn at the nw corner of 95th and Metcalf in 1963 for Sunday dinner and the old French Market (K-Mart) was under construction across the street.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by earthling »

I've seen early diagrams before 1950s that show Xroads area called Midtown. Not sure when it switched.
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normalthings
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by normalthings »

AlbertHammond wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:54 pm I have been told many times about an old HNTB plan to add a south loop thru the crossroads. Seems the plan still had traction into the 1990s. Does anyone know the name of the plan or have info on the exact route it was to take? I seem to recall it was to run just behind Union Station, thru the freight house area (Lydias, JackStack BBQ).
I was told by a former KC planner turned developer from the mid-century that a Crossroads Connector was an alternative to the current 670 south loop.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by DaveKCMO »

normalthings wrote: Sat Nov 07, 2020 7:44 pm
AlbertHammond wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:54 pm I have been told many times about an old HNTB plan to add a south loop thru the crossroads. Seems the plan still had traction into the 1990s. Does anyone know the name of the plan or have info on the exact route it was to take? I seem to recall it was to run just behind Union Station, thru the freight house area (Lydias, JackStack BBQ).
I was told by a former KC planner turned developer from the mid-century that a Crossroads Connector was an alternative to the current 670 south loop.
Then it became "in addition to" in the 90s. The neighborhood fought it.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by FangKC »

What was the point of having a crosstown connector through the Crossroads in addition to I-670?
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by DaveKCMO »

FangKC wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 6:23 pm What was the point of having a crosstown connector through the Crossroads in addition to I-670?
Good question. If pressed, I suppose it was quicker access to car-focused Crown Center from I-35.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by normalthings »

DaveKCMO wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:34 pm
FangKC wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 6:23 pm What was the point of having a crosstown connector through the Crossroads in addition to I-670?
Good question. If pressed, I suppose it was quicker access to car-focused Crown Center from I-35.
The later high proposals were tied to Crown Center access.

I’m not sure, but the later highway ideas may also have been tied to conventions. Not long before the Bartle Hall expansion idea came about, Crown Center was working on plans for a large convention space.
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Re: Interstate Highway thru Crossroads ('80s Plan)

Post by langosta »

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... tory3.html

This was discussed as recently as 1996

Developer has high hopes
But neighbors worry about fate of Freight House area


The road ahead

Vliet intends to provide surface parking for 594 vehicles. But almost half of the spaces could be eliminated if the "23rd Street Connector," a proposed four-lane roadway, is built through the district.

The city's major street plan calls for widening 23rd Street to four lanes through the metropolitan area, said Joe Reichert in the Kansas City Public Works Department. But he said no route has been selected for the section that would run past the Freight House and connect a planned extension of Bruce R. Watkins Drive with Interstate 35 to the west. Further, no money is earmarked or likely to be available until the 21st century.

"When it's going to happen is very speculative," Reichert said.

Nonetheless, TIF Commissioner Tim Kristl said he thinks accommodations should be made now for the connector. Otherwise, he said, the city might have to condemn property around the Freight House to make way for the road.

"My problem is that, at the TIF Commission, we don't know everything that's going on in the area," Kristl said. "I think it's important to know where the connector is going to go."

Officials from the Public Works Department ought to participate in the city's decisions about the Freight House District, Kristl said. The TIF Commission began studying Vliet's plans in June.

"We need to do all our planning at one time," Kristl said. "If we're going to do a Freight House project, we're going to have to make the best guess we can (about the connector's route), and maybe that means delaying the project while we do the engineering."

A loss of identity?

Vliet said the connector wouldn't upset his plans even if it does come through the six-acre parcel his group has assembled. Parking spaces that would be lost could be replaced by construction of a parking garage, he said. It could be located west of Main Street and south of 22nd Street.
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