dnweava wrote: ↑Mon Jan 08, 2024 4:35 pm
A month ago I preferred EV. Now, I like both sites and think the city is wins with either site. but with the rumors that the Royals prefer the crossroads site, we might as wells start warming up to it instead of being so negative about it. (y'all need to get off of toxic twitter)
Things that changed my mind:
1) newest drawing showed keeping Oak open (this was a MAJOR deal breaker for me as Oak and Broadway are the only 2 streets that completely cross the downtown corridor and even connect across the river.
2) Preserving as much street grid as possible. 16th Street is already cut off on both ends of the x-roads site at the star bldg and at 71 so we don't lose any additional E-W streets with this site. (assuming we don't close Oak) I think the East Village site with it's in-tact street grid would be better off redeveloped with dense residential.
3) The Star building is a huge building that overshadows that crossroads site that wouldn't overshadow the stadium.
4) We aren't losing anything architecturally significant. After giving the site an in person look, the buildings are mostly very bland 1 story buildings, a suburban tire change place, etc that would eventually be replaced with new developments anyways.
5) The area east of this site is equipment rental lots and such, an area that will very easily be redeveloped while I don't see the area east of the EV site developing. I don't see people lining up to building Apartments and hotels across from the City Union the way they would want to around 17th/Locust
6) The crossroads site will have way more synergy with the surrounding neighborhood. It has breweries around it and places to eat already on 18th, that will develop into a wriglyville of sorts. 18th Street will become a baseball themed street that connects the Royals to the urban youth fields and the Negro Leagues Museum. Plus it will be adjacent to the new highway park cap and have better synergy with P&L area. This site will help bridge the gap between P&L, east crossroads, and even push development towards 18th/vine. The EV site is at the edge of downtown and won't bridge any areas together in the same way.
7. More walkable. People will say that "but it's NOT that much farther from the streetcar"... have you seen the suburbanites and old people that go to Royals games, it will matter to them. Telling a non-urbanist that it's 3 blocks vs 6 blocks uphill, from the streetcar stop will make them want to drive from the plaza rather than take transit and walking. Also visiting fans will find walkign across the highway park cap much more pleasant and they'd be more likely to walk than take a cab from the convention area hotels.
Good post.
I know you guys like the east crossroads as it is now, but I honestly just going get it. Maybe because I don't live there anymore I guess. But when I'm in town, it's not all that impressive. Right now, it's not a "neighborhood". At least not an urban one. It has some renos of some of the little one or two story buildings, but it's not well developed or walkable. It's like parts of industrial NKC, only even less dense because there are even more parking lots than NKC. Plus a lot of the businesses are not really ideal for a downtown district. Industrial, stirp clubs, U-Haul, storage, churches etc. But mostly it's barely developed at all.
I mean if the east crossroads is ever going to build up, most of those older little industrial buildings will go away anyway.
I just don't see the stadium in the EV doing much other than giving a few people the option to walk to the P&L district. It's just not going to be well interwoven into the downtown fabric. I mean if you want any chance of EV and Paseo West to actually develop into a residential neighborhood then simply stop land banking it for a stadium. A stadium there will likely cause Paseo West to be paved over with parking lots. In this case, a few blocks makes a huge difference.
I just keep going back to a stadium would enhance the crossraods in that location despite the minor losses that would occur. It really seems like a stadium would not displace much. I mean down south it's more developed into an urban neighborhood like along 18th near Grinders etc. But the section east of the Star to 71 and south of 670?
I just want to see a real plan. What are they planning to do? Exactly what blocks? Will the star press stay or go? Will the 670 park become part of the stadium project? What exactly will the Royals build near the park that they keep promising? Nobody seems to know. So I don't know how you can really 100% decide one site over the other.
