KCRag Forum

Kansas City, KS's citizens are really working hard to bring "The Hill" back.

Among efforts on the city's part is the reconstruction of 5th Street coming off I-70 that will bring back a little nostalgia with the old fashioned street lights and rehabbed brick sidewalks that were laid by W.P.A.  New crosswalks and speed bumps will be added to slow traffic coming off the interstate.

Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC) is doing their part with new single family and townhomes being built on the Hill. They now have a second townhome development moving through the planning process and multiple infill homes have gone up in the past few years.

Community business entrepreneurs are doing their part with new shops and restaurants, many of which are doing well.

Unfortunately the local catholic school is closing as part of a reorganization, which is a major blow to the Hill.

The Hill has a lot of charm with close built homes and small lots and the Victorian Cottage look. The view of downtown from St. Johns Park and old buildings from the turn of the century. There is still so much of the original Hill here that it is ripe to become a great renewed urban neighborhood and I think it will.

does strawberry hill have it's own community center?

DaveKCMO wrote: does strawberry hill have it's own community center?

I don't think so. They have the Strawberry Hill Museum, which I think kind of serves as a de-facto "community center".

justin8216 wrote: I don't think so. They have the Strawberry Hill Museum, which I think kind of serves as a de-facto "community center".

I haven't been over that way in a long time, but I remember that museum thing looked like it was falling apart. I hope they've fixed it by now. It was an ornate, large house that looked like it had fallen into dilapidation.

The problem with Strawberry Hill attracting people of any means is the housing stock.  Most were small packing house worker cottages, nearly touching each other, no garage or driveways.  Most people do not want to live in such a Spartan manner nowadays.  The best bet is modern townhouse type infill.

I'm 27 and just bought a house a couple months ago on Strawberry Hill.  I hope it gets better, it's not bad now by any means, I really like my block and am not complaining at all,  but it could be really cool down there.

The townhomes will help.

is there a neighborhood association?

im from Topeka but I used to live in kck very near strawberry hill there are some very beautiful homes ther unless the townhouses kept in style of the lovely old victorian home i think it would be  a shame to put any thing moderen and contempory there

moderne wrote: The problem with Strawberry Hill attracting people of any means is the housing stock.  Most were small packing house worker cottages, nearly touching each other, no garage or driveways.  Most people do not want to live in such a Spartan manner nowadays.  The best bet is modern townhouse type infill.

CVM is planning 5 townhomes at 451 armstrong ave on the southeast corner of 5th and Armstrong directly accross from the EPA building. They will face 5th street and have a back driveway access off of Armstrong. Two old homes will be demolished to make way for them.

They are trying to incorporate a lot of brick and make them blend in with the rest of 5th street which is being rehabbed along with decorative period street lights.

This is supposed to be the first phase of 6 different sites with between 60-65 units they are looking at along Armstrong.

They are desinging them to be two story with a two car rear garage in each unit.

facing downtown KCMO in strawberry hil.

Thie Strawberry Hill Museum, formerly an orphanage.  By the way the new streetscape of 5th Street looks charming.

justin8216 wrote: CVM is planning 5 townhomes at 451 armstrong ave on the southeast corner of 5th and Armstrong directly accross from the EPA building. They will face 5th street and have a back driveway access off of Armstrong. Two old homes will be demolished to make way for them.

This development is now well underway. Concrete is being poured, and the 5th St. improvements are almost complete. This will be a very cool intersection soon!

Strawberry Hill is completely badass. Got a chance to hang out there last night for a party. Brick sidewalks. Dense clusters of housing. Very nice storefront possibilities. PEDESTRIAN oriented in terms of scale. Incredible access to/from downtown KCK/I70. Can't really think of any existing area of KC that recalls Strawberry Hill. Very unique. Nothing like having some beers outside on a patio and noticing One Kansas City Place peering over the top of a ramshackle bungalow porch. 

It's amazing this area doesn't seem to be gentrifying faster. I heard someone at the party (all whites) describe the neighborhood as "literally in the middle of the ghetto" which made me cringe a little. Is there resistance to outside investment in this area? I could see it becoming a tres chic area of Kansas City for dining in the future.

As you may know there are already several great restaurants, although I'd hardly call it a trendy part of town. I also wouldn't call it "in the middle of the ghetto" as it isn't anywhere near the nasty parts of KCK, really. Unfortunately I don't think it will gentrify much faster than it is. KC isn't exactly a hotbed of pro-urban revolution.

Strawberry Hill is completely badass. Got a chance to hang out there last night for a party. Brick sidewalks. Dense clusters of housing. Very nice storefront possibilities. PEDESTRIAN oriented in terms of scale. Incredible access to/from downtown KCK/I70. Can't really think of any existing area of KC that recalls Strawberry Hill. Very unique. Nothing like having some beers outside on a patio and noticing One Kansas City Place peering over the top of a ramshackle bungalow porch. 

It's amazing this area doesn't seem to be gentrifying faster. I heard someone at the party (all whites) describe the neighborhood as "literally in the middle of the ghetto" which made me cringe a little. Is there resistance to outside investment in this area? I could see it becoming a tres chic area of Kansas City for dining in the future.

great post, I've always wondered the same thing.  Strawberry Hill and DT KCK have so much potential and could really be a tremendous asset to the region.  SH feels like a delightfully grizzled old slice of, say, Pittsburgh, with the old workmen's cottages, brick sidewalks, overhead lines, churches, hills and such.  It's a very different and very cool vibe, and it's literally right across the river from DT KCMO, with the fabulous views to prove it.  There is a completely sweet Studio 804 (KU Arch. School project home) house perched up along one of the streets there that I've wanted bad since the first day I saw it.

somewhat aside, I used to attend church many years back at Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox church on what was then Russian Hill, and there was a fantastic old school deli/meat counter right down the street where my dad would buy meats, cheeses, etc.  I always loved the vibe there, but the church, and most likely the deli as well, have since left the area for greener pastures (out south, in fact, though I've not been back).  I really wish this area hadn't declined to quite the degree it has, keeping some of the ethnic families that were hanging on even in my relatively short lifetime, many of whom have now died or moved.  If DT KCK can get anything going, i.e. more walkable shops, places to eat, places to work (!), etc.  SH will really and truly take off.  But that could be a while 

Mayor Marinovich wanted to try to get gay people to move onto the hill to gentrify it!

The problem with redeveloping Strawberry Hill was that it was/is relatively isolated from commercial/retail amenities that go along way toward complimenting previously gentrified areas.

But as this forum post indicates, the importance of the 500 block development can't be understated:

http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=14721.0

Insert Quote
The problem with redeveloping Strawberry Hill was that it was/is relatively isolated from commercial/retail amenities that go along way toward complimenting previously gentrified areas.

In a broader sense, I find this to be the case with many "up-and-coming" hoods in KC.  Northeast, the Westside (pre-P&L and downtown boom), to a lesser degree Hyde Park  (north and central HP).  They all, in one way or another feel isolated from what should be thriving commercial districts containing many of the appealing shops, grocers, restaurants, etc. that folks want to live near in the first place, even if nearby areas are pretty sketchy.  The exception to this rule in KC is probably Volker, where 39th St. provides exactly the kind of impetus for a move that many "gentrifiers" are looking for.

The broad nature of our urban core makes it more difficult to attract people to all of our awesome inner city neighborhoods, because unlike in more compact cities, where the good and bad are kind of mashed up together (with a great old neighborhood on the way back near a vacant, abandoned hood near a hot new bar district) KC has been able to sprawl (in a historic, broad green boulevardy, only in KC kind of way) it's way into isolating so many older neighborhoods from centers of nightlife and retail. 

The scope of our urban core gives us powerful potential, but it will be difficult to fill it back in and bring large chunks of it back without the walkable commerical aspect that appeals to so many people.  Bringing Troost back into a reasonable neighborhood commercial spine is one example.  If and when that happens, Hyde Park will become one of the most desirable hoods in the metro, for example.  At any rate that's my take on it.

Way off topic on Strawberry Hill, but similarly if Village West and the casino and Reardon etc. can start some major reinvestment into DT KCK, and DT KCMO continues its roll, SH will be well positioned to benefit.  Does anyone on here know anybody that lives or has lived on SH?  Do they enjoy it?  What kind of work would one of those old cottages take to modernize and make more livable?

The houses are really small for the most part, small rooms, but most are well maintained.
But to modernize would really only require a few wall knockouts to open up the rooms.
Most have some great old woodwork, nice wood floors.  I grew up in the area and still really like it, it was a great little neighborhood, corner market, bakery, Snow's Meat Market.  There is the parking problem, few houses have a driveway, the small yard thing I see as a plus.

Strawberry Hill is kind of a niche neighborhood. It will never be something like Brookside or even Hyde Park and understanding that may be helpful. Because of the modest scale of the housing, you could really have a blended neighborhood with a great variety of people. What would attract me is a historic neighborhood that is still very much intact, yet a neighborhood that is still very much working class and authentic. Kind of like a smaller Columbus Park built for meatpackers?

OPIchabod wrote: The problem with redeveloping Strawberry Hill was that it was/is relatively isolated from commercial/retail amenities that go along way toward complimenting previously gentrified areas.

I'm confused about this? Are we talking about basic retail services or what exactly?