anonkcmo wrote:
Exactly. Rebuilding the city works exactly the same way as when it was originally built; from downtown (center) outward.
The suburban mindset that failed is to rebuild and developed disparate areas piecemeal to appease that area - that doesn't work.
it most certainly did not just develop from the center outwards. It developed piecemeal from the beginning.
It was developers being able to buy a specific farm at a preferred location far away from Westport that jumpstarted the city. Westport didn't build outwards, developers built something new far away.
Many developers ran track to their land well before the space in between was filled with anything to sell the space. Overland Park is the best example of this. The Hocker Line started running in 1903.
This happened all across the east side. Buy whatever land you could, lay track to reach it, profit, let others sell later.
We're still doing this, only with roads instead.
Also, KC annexed other towns and villages for much of it's history. The modern city developed in tons of tiny little areas, many predating KC itself that already had development around them
Here's some of the piecemeal places the city annexed:
Westport, Leeds, Dodson, Holmes Park, Centropolis, New Santa Fe, Harlem, Waldo, Martin City, Hickman Mills, Nashua, Barry, Moscow, Arnold, Minaville, Maple Park, Northern Heights, Milton.
Waldo was on a train line into KC for decades before the city reached it with development. It was founded in the 1840s and not annexed until 1909. It had 50 years to build up far out from the city.