Re: Status and future of the River Market area??
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:28 pm
I was more thinking of the RFP. That's a little over a month.DaveKCMO wrote:They are NOT moving quickly. The project started in January 2013.
I was more thinking of the RFP. That's a little over a month.DaveKCMO wrote:They are NOT moving quickly. The project started in January 2013.
The plan all along has been to move the track to the SB side of the street so that the street is "future proofed" should it eventually be converted to two-way. Two-way conversion at this time was not part of that discussion.pash wrote:So I thought Delaware was getting converted to two-way traffic. But now that the rails and the new back-in parking is striped, that's obviously not happening. Right?
I probably would have preferred a two-way street with one lane of parallel parking rather than the new configuration, but I don't really care. Just thought I had heard repeatedly that Delaware was going two-way. ...
I would argue this is the easiest two blocks in the city to remove parking entirely.pash wrote:Ah, I see. Good luck ever getting rid of (half of) those enormous back-in parking spots to put in a north-bound traffic lane!
flyingember wrote:I would argue this is the easiest two blocks in the city to remove parking entirely.pash wrote:Ah, I see. Good luck ever getting rid of (half of) those enormous back-in parking spots to put in a north-bound traffic lane!
That is not a sidewalk. It is loading docks and a parking lot. And ultimately the fact that vehicles pull out from this block of docks and parking is what caused a sharrow to replace the plan for a dedicated east bound bike lane on the south side of 3rd street.Eon Blue wrote:Yes - what's the deal with the south side of Third behind the Market? That "sidewalk" is basically impassable with people parked behind the building. I can't count how many times I've had to walk in the street there.
I disagree. If I wanted everything new and perfect, I would choose 117th and Roe.pash wrote:Can we just say it? The 1940s market buildings, and especially the way they address the surrounding neighborhood, are relics of a previous age, and they're starting to keep the River Market from being as good as it could be.
"It's not a sidewalk, it's a loading dock"—right, and that's a huge problem. Two sides of the City Market are loading blocks. Two linear blocks of city streets right in the middle of one of the city's most bustling neighborhoods are dedicated to unloading trucks! (But let's be clear, the Third Street side is effectively a parking lot, with vehicles always parked there but actual loading and unloading a rare sight. Main Street, of course, is primarily a parking lot with a loading dock attached.) Meanwhile, the interior of the market is mostly a parking lot, and the shops are so disconnected from the neighborhood that merchants don't even want to stay open on weekday evenings.
Opening up Walnut to through traffic isn't going to fix much. We need a new City Market.
I was a little shocked that last Saturday--with the amazing crowd-drawing weather--that the interior was still open to parking. The experience of unsuspecting motorists nosing their way through the crowds was pleasant for nobody.pash wrote:Meanwhile, the interior of the market is mostly a parking lot...
This is one of the reasons the low density of the Columbus Park redevelopment is so frustrating to me. We have several cleared city blocks to work with here, and the opportunity to create more population density to support nearby retail--like in the River Market.loftguy wrote:Edit: And I have to add that the reason the City Market vendors have not been open at night is twofold. The opportunity has not been real. Lack of households and visitors did not provide sufficient numbers to make general evening operation viable by nine restaurants in this neighborhood.
A laudable goal would be to aim for another grocery store. To get there every project the city has to aim to get more stories and more units. If every block had one more residential unit on average that's easily 250 more residents downtownFangKC wrote:This is one of the reasons the low density of the Columbus Park redevelopment is so frustrating to me. We have several cleared city blocks to work with here, and the opportunity to create more population density to support nearby retail--like in the River Market.loftguy wrote:Edit: And I have to add that the reason the City Market vendors have not been open at night is twofold. The opportunity has not been real. Lack of households and visitors did not provide sufficient numbers to make general evening operation viable by nine restaurants in this neighborhood.
We aren't talking about building 15-story apartment towers on infill lots between existing houses in the interior of the neighborhood. We are talking about whole city blocks on the north edge of the neighborhood that are currently vacant land.
I get so tired of seeing posts on neighborhood Facebook pages where people complain about the lack of retail, or the City lacks money to improve their neighborhood, but they don't have an understanding that you need a decent population density to achieve that.
http://tinyurl.com/nlp7ucxSean O'Byrne, vice president of business development for the Downtown Council, said the parameters of the proposal are wide open as long as the final use of the land is good for the city and KCATA. Office, retail, residential and mixed-use developments are all in the realm of possibility, he said, as long as the developers have transit first in their minds.