Shawnee Declining?

Post by **dangerboy** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 8:10 am

I hadn't been out there for a couple of years, but recently was on the Shawnee Parkway west of I-35 and was surprised to see some signs of blight creeping in. There are 4-5 empty big boxes, several half-empty strip malls, and some other buildings that don't seem to be living up to their potential. Also noticed one of the cross streets (Neiman?) seemed pretty run down as well. Is the new mega strip wall west of town hurting the older area?

Brooksider · Post by **Brooksider** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:40 am

Yes and No. Some of those empty big boxes are national companies that went out of business. Venture and Pharmor. The Price Chopper closed because they opened a new store way out west and a new one east that replaced the Sun Fresh.

Brooksider · Post by **Brooksider** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:41 am

Oh, and Payless Cashways.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 11:09 am

Seems to me that the stores are closing near I-35 while new stores are opening even further West in Shawnee near I-435 and K-10. Stupid sprawl...

StL_Dan · Post by **StL_Dan** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 11:53 am

QueSi2Opie wrote:Seems to me that the stores are closing near I-35 while new stores are opening even further West in Shawnee near I-435 and K-10. Stupid sprawl...

Things are getting a little ugly up there due to western sprawl.

Brooksider · Post by **Brooksider** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:56 pm

I think Merriam Town Center sucked up a lot of that business also. It's at I-35 and Johnson Drive.

eliphar17 · Post by **eliphar17** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 8:06 pm

The street is Shawnee Mission Parkway...

It could be said that the eastern part of Shawnee is declining. That area is about 40 years old, so it's going the way of the middle-aged suburb. The western part of Shawnee, west of I-435, is primed for a lot of growth in about 10-15 years (as is Lenexa to the north of K-10). And there have been plenty of new subdivisions built by Rodrock Development inside I-435 in the last decade (as well as the new shopping center on Shawnee Mission Parkway at Lackman and the ). So while the eastern part of the city near I-35 is going somewhat downhill, the western half is seeing pretty constant growth.

Post by **bahua** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 6:03 am

It's simply the cycle of sprawl. It ensures that prosperity passes over an area, like the wave over a crowd at an NFL game. It "uses up" an area, and leaves it relatively useless.

That's why I hate sprawl.

GuyInLenexa · Post by **GuyInLenexa** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 2:57 pm

Gee Bahua, that sounds like the Borg on Star Trek The Next Generation.

phxcat · Post by **phxcat** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 6:57 pm

I guess I should pipe up since you are talking about my hometown! There has been some decline in Shawnee for some time now. The SM Parkway strip east of Nieman had gone to pawn shops and stuff several years ago. The strip at SM Parkway and Pflumm (SE corner) almost immediately after that was built has a Price Chopper and no more than two or three other stores open. If not for the fact that Shawnee is the westernmost city in NE JOCo, and therefore able to annex land out west all the way out to the river, Shawnee would be thought of the same as Merriam, Mission, or Roeland Park. That part of the city has had the housing projects, Goodwill store and all that for many years. I remember when apprasals came out in the 80's they said that an $80,000 in Shawnee woiuld be worth 100,000 in Lenexa. I was also given a "Johnson County Exemption" at K-State because I was from Shawnee! (They said that didn;t count as Johnson Coutny, so they didn't make fun of me!)

I don't think that the new development out west is affecting the East side because the businesses are mostly different (except for Garetts, Stevensons and Vans groceries, which were on their way out anyway because of the proliferation of supermarkets) than the ons in the east, and because those new busineses are supported by new residential that wasn't there before.

phxcat · Post by **phxcat** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 7:01 pm

And, I should point out, that although I like the idea of Shawnee being a large city by theory, I hate that the character of the city will be changing from lower to middle income to rich. I wish that Western Shawnee would break off so that I could tell people where I was from without them assuming I was a rich JoCo kid.

Post by **bahua** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:05 am

I'm telling you, if the slash and burn style of sprawl continues, Shawnee, OP, Lenexa, and even Olathe will become like Raytown, much of Independence, Gladstone, or KCK within a few decades, while places even farther out(like Grain Valley, Raymore, Peculiar, Osowattomie, Gardner, DeSoto, Bonner Springs, Smithville, and Kearney) become the great suburbs with great school districts and freshly-watered lawns.

Stop the cycle!