KCRag Forum

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I'd rather see lanes dedicated to transit before we remove lanes.

Minneapolis apparently did this to good effect.

This is an old topic but needs attention. Something needs to be done about curb cuts. They kill the streetscape. Can somebody take this up?

cdm2p wrote:This is an old topic but needs attention. Something needs to be done about curb cuts. They kill the streetscape. Can somebody take this up?

we talk about it a lot, but the city hasn't been very aggressive in reclaiming them. the only notable example is on 20th street. not one curb cut was reclaimed on the streetcar, so that should tell you something.

there is a standard, however, so public works should be more forceful with that going forward like they were on 20th street.

So, is the standard very new?

missingkc wrote:So, is the standard very new?

my guess is no, just never enforced.

The problem with standards is that the city is not standard. The city is different. A suburban standard does not apply to the city. At some point the discussion over land use becomes intertwined. Does a car intensive use (gas station, oil change shop) belong in retail-destination area? Hard to see how a gas station could function with one commercial driveway. Drive through restaurants and bank tellers are another problem. With the exception of Arvest at 13th and Grand, I can't think of a good example of how to handle them.

cdm2p wrote:With the exception of Arvest at 13th and Grand, I can't think of a good example of how to handle them.

Missouri Bank (11th/Main) has had their drive thru in their garage for longer than Arvest has been in Kansas City.
Country Club Bank and Bank of America have the same model on the Plaza

As parking demand drops the drive thru in the garage space seems to be the best model. The fast food space fronts the street. The drive thru lane takes the parking lane for overflow, enters through a dedicated entrance and comes out on the other side, just like Arvest. Just need to tailor the length to the demand. Reduce garage space not by closing upper levels but by repurposing the first level with an active use.

That said, I don't think there needs to be a good example for every situation and not all garages are designed to work with that model. Not all businesses need a drive thru downtown even if they would like one. There was a McDonalds on the Plaza for years without one and they're an easy go-to example of a restaurant that always seems to have one. I'm just pointing out that Arvest shows the model that can work even if it shouldn't.

flyingember wrote:That said, I don't think there needs to be a good example for every situation and not all garages are designed to work with that model. Not all businesses need a drive thru downtown even if they would like one. There was a McDonalds on the Plaza for years without one and they're an easy go-to example of a restaurant that always seems to have one. I'm just pointing out that Arvest shows the model that can work even if it shouldn't.

You're referring to the McDonalds in Seville Square? In addition to no drive-through, It didn't even have street frontage. I always thought it was funny that you had to wander around inside Seville Square to access its most popular tenant.

herrfrank wrote:

flyingember wrote:That said, I don't think there needs to be a good example for every situation and not all garages are designed to work with that model. Not all businesses need a drive thru downtown even if they would like one. There was a McDonalds on the Plaza for years without one and they're an easy go-to example of a restaurant that always seems to have one. I'm just pointing out that Arvest shows the model that can work even if it shouldn't.

You're referring to the McDonalds in Seville Square? In addition to no drive-through, It didn't even have street frontage. I always thought it was funny that you had to wander around inside Seville Square to access its most popular tenant.

There was a street entrance.

There was a McDonald's inside City Center Square.

Honest question: Why can't most streets be like Baltimore, between ninth and tenth? Aside from it being a one-way, two lane street, the bump outs and landscaping is quite nice.

hartliss wrote:Honest question: Why can't most streets be like Baltimore, between ninth and tenth? Aside from it being a one-way, two lane street, the bump outs and landscaping is quite nice.

I used to work on that block

One side the street is almost entirely side of buildings with no public active use and there's two parking garages
For the buldings that are there, none have an active street use. All four buildings are private entrances.

The landscaping is done wonderfully, theres better examples of building design

flyingember wrote:

hartliss wrote:Honest question: Why can't most streets be like Baltimore, between ninth and tenth? Aside from it being a one-way, two lane street, the bump outs and landscaping is quite nice.

I used to work on that block

One side the street is almost entirely side of buildings with no public active use and there's two parking garages
For the buldings that are there, none have an active street use. All four buildings are private entrances.

The landscaping is done wonderfully, theres better examples of building design

Yea, the landscaping is probably my favorite part. I just don't understand why more of that can't be done...

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Grand needs re-built completely, I would image something like 47th street on the Plaza. Brick sidewalks extending from the PnL to the River Market, medium planters, sidewalks lined w/trees and hanging plants, bike lanes, consistent lighting, café style restaurants, etc....man I can dream, but I doubt it ever comes to that.

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pash wrote:Via Twitter, this just happened at 36th & Wyandotte:



Does anybody know the story of how this happened, and how we can make it happen basically everywhere?

Yea! About 8 months ago I started a committee on the OHP neighborhood association to study diy crosswalks. At the time the city manager tweeted that the city would provide paint if you could get people together to paint crosswalks. Long story short is that there was nothing behind that tweet but I did work with BikeWalkKC to push the idea. A member of BikeWalk that lives in the area met with Jolie Justice and she was able to secure funding for the crosswalk. It cost around 6k. We're currently doing a walkability study for more pedestrian improvements in OHP. There's a young group of residents in the neighborhood that are really pushing for change and I think we're making progress!

We live on this block and on the corner lives someone that works for BikeWalkKC. I assume that had something to do with it.

ULCajun wrote:We live on this block and on the corner lives someone that works for BikeWalkKC. I assume that had something to do with it.

Yep that's him. His house being at this intersection was purely coincidental. We had selected this intersection prior to him being involved because it was one of the few 4 way stops in OHP.