Westport

[KCPowercat]

You can never have a walkable neighborhood if we don't design walkable neighborhoods. Kind of feel silly saying that.

[WSPanic]

But, why does it make sense to have cars treated as a third priority in an area of town where 75% of the residents (if not more) consider automobiles their first-priority mode of transportation?

Because in 100 years when you're dead and all the buildings built today are still standing, individual automobile ownership will probably be a thing of the past. The entire concept of wasting massive swaths of land for personal automobile storage (not to mention the resources used to build storage facilities, and have them attached to your house, even!?)--and let's not forget burning huge amounts of fossil fuel propelling multiple thousand pounds of giant steel and rubber contraptions around so that one little person can get to work--will probably all be seen as the ridiculous, self-indulgent, and wasteful squandering of natural resources by self-absorbed hedonistic nihilists that it actually is. This shit is a blip on the radar of human existence, and I don't get why people can't understand that building our cities to preferentially accommodate cars, and particularly to accommodate individual automobile ownership and the presumption that people will be conveyed to particular places in a vehicle that they will then need to store there until they decide to leave, is a madness that will necessarily have to be undone at some point, and at unfathomable expense and effort.

So just don't do it that way in the first place!

I mean, not to be overly dramatic or anything, but car ownership is going away. It just is.

1) None of these buildings are going to be standing in 100 years.
2) I hope individual car ownership goes the way of the Dodo, but we're not there yet. And, to be honest, we're not particularly close.
3) Acting like you know what's going to happen in 100 years may make you feel better about your argument, but you're full of shit - you have no idea what's going to happen.
4) I want positive development in my neighborhood and I have no faith in KC to be able to legislate what you guys deem "good" or "acceptable". You guys think it's fine to piss away a good development and sit on a surface lot for 50 years because the fucking front door faces the wrong fucking street? Get out of here with that shit.

[beautyfromashes]

They have removed the cover facade on the old Thriftway space at Main and Westport Rd. It’s interesting because behind was the original brick and arch rock entrance. It’s big enough it almost looks like a firehouse truck entrance. Does anyone know what was at that location originally?

[WinchesterMysteryHouse]

1) None of these buildings are going to be standing in 100 years.
2) I hope individual car ownership goes the way of the Dodo, but we're not there yet. And, to be honest, we're not particularly close.
3) Acting like you know what's going to happen in 100 years may make you feel better about your argument, but you're full of shit - you have no idea what's going to happen.
4) I want positive development in my neighborhood and I have no faith in KC to be able to legislate what you guys deem "good" or "acceptable". You guys think it's fine to piss away a good development and sit on a surface lot for 50 years because the fucking front door faces the wrong fucking street? Get out of here with that shit.
[/quote]

Wow, you contribute constant contrarianism to this forum.
Posters here examine trends and extrapolate. There's plenty research, that I'll allow you to google, speculating Post-Oil, Post-Car outcomes for the Midwest. And yeah, we are getting particularly close in the urban core especially that the younger folks are involving themselves in civic duty now.

Yes, the built environment will be different in a century, and I'm of the thought that it'll be pedestrian-friendly at the very least. Not everyone will have flying cars, but I'm guessing antique F1500s transporting one person apiece, like now, will be extinct. Shit.

[WinchesterMysteryHouse]

You can never have a walkable neighborhood if we don't design walkable neighborhoods. Kind of feel silly saying that.

Good post. Yes it has to be reiterated.

[flyingember]

1) None of these buildings are going to be standing in 100 years.


3) Acting like you know what's going to happen in 100 years may make you feel better about your argument, but you're full of shit - you have no idea what's going to happen.

Hmmmm

[Critical_Mass]

Clearly, there are no buildings older than 1919 still standing in the urban core...oh wait

[mean]

4) I want positive development in my neighborhood and I have no faith in KC to be able to legislate what you guys deem "good" or "acceptable". You guys think it's fine to piss away a good development and sit on a surface lot for 50 years because the fucking front door faces the wrong fucking street? Get out of here with that shit.

No, I think it's our responsibility to push to develop for a future with a completely different transportation model--indeed, to design cities more or less the way they were designed for the entirety of human history excluding primarily the period after WW2--because we changed literally everything to accommodate a cars-first mentality (and individually-owned-cars-first at that) and it's going away. Probably a lot faster than you think. I bet we'll be around for it. Check back here in twenty years.

[FangKC]

The walkable urban trend keeps going

Walkable Urban Places (WalkUPs) continue to outperform other forms of real estate development in the nation’s largest metro areas, according to a new report Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America's Largest Metros • 2019. The report finds a huge unmet demand for new WalkUPs, the construction of which could drive the US economy for another generation. Metro areas that are not meeting the demand for walkable urbanism are paying the price in reduced economic performance and social equity outcomes, according to the authors.

... WalkUPs are regionally significant mixed-use urban centers with substantial commercial development. Drivable suburban real estate products have been losing market share in the 30 metro areas since 2010 relative to WalkUPs.
....

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/0 ... eeps-going

[johnmatrix]

Hopefully the city council isnt as stupid as they seem and they change the MMJ buffer to 300 ft. Really would help Westport and surrounding areas.

[KCPowercat]

There shouldn't be any buffer. Any buffer hurts the urban core.

[flyingember]

There shouldn't be any buffer. Any buffer hurts the urban core.

Buffers should exist but the existing system is appropriate for control. Zoning. If it's ok for a cigarette shop, bar or such to be in a spot a MMJ store should be too.

[kboish]

How about a pharmacy? Since, ya know...Doctors orders and all

[johnmatrix]

The Opus project is moving along nicely

[FangKC]

The retail building on the SE corner of 43rd and Main, which most recently housed Nature's Own grocery, is undergoing interior renovation.

https://tinyurl.com/y8mtdvza

July 19, 2018

Ragazza Food and Wine Will Reopen On

The date of Ragazza Food and Wine’s reopening has been one of the great mysteries of life—not unlike whether Tupac is really still alive or will the Chiefs win another Super Bowl. For owner Laura Norris, she promises soon. Like in-the-next-several-weeks-soon. (Pinky swear!)
...

https://www.inkansascity.com/eat-drink/ ... reopen-on/

Finished building renovation. Let's all give a hand to reusing another building.

[FangKC]

4140 is the single story building just south of Westport Ale House.

So the new restaurant will be built on the corner of 42nd and Broadway (currently a parking lot) and the existing building will be torn down for parking (11 spots).

They are asking for variances in the Boulevard Standards, saying those are necessary in order to meet the parking minimums (11 is the minimum requirement). I really wish those priorities were reversed.







I like the idea of a restaurant going in this space to help bring activity south of Westport and bridge the gap with the Plaza. However, this design seems bad and this would be a big missed opportunity to combine this site with the lot next to Ale House for a nice mixed-use development completely fronting Broadway.

The building has been demolished.

[earthling]

The building that was torn down was not appealing and not from Westport's original era but the replacement is pretty bland too, almost a pad site building. Agree, lost opportunity.

[chaglang]

It’s close to the lot line, has huge windows that face Broadway, and an outdoor patio space. If we are going to argue that all single story buildings on arterials are default missed opportunities, fine, but for what this is it does a lot of good things. And it avoids the Ye Olde Westporte design tropes.

[FangKC]

Denver-based Snooze Coming to Westport Early 2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/electi ... r-n1044961

[FangKC]

Historic Westport church hits the market

A Westport church built in 1900 is for sale for nearly $1 million.

Located at 3931 Washington St., the 21,200-square-foot church was built for the First Swedish Baptist Church. Until the building was put up for sale for $975,000, it was occupied by the Broadway Church.
...

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... =e_me_set3