Urban Living Pet Peeves

New to downtown life? Have questions? Urban living expert, come share your thoughts.
daGOAT
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by daGOAT »

KC is easily the most hostile besides Fort Worth, the pedestrian infrastructure for the entire state of TX leaves much to be desired lol. I would we're neck in neck with St. Louis, I saw a lot of people running stop lights when I was staying out there, especially in the semi-industrial decrepit remains of North City.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Rusty Irish »

On my regular drives and walks around KC since coming back something I've noticed and feel the core lacks is student activity. Yet when I'm driving on 435 and in and around JoCo there seems to be a ton of colleges with their KC base in these areas. Off the top of my head I've seen a presence for KU, Cleveland Chiro, Ottawa, Webster, Avila, Rasmussen, Emporia State, Pittsburg State and probably a number of others I've forgotten. Just seems a shame to me Downtown has nothing in terms of student energy and all these places are concentrated out in soulless suburban office parks.
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FangKC
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by FangKC »

There were plans at one time to have The Conservancy of Music and Dance at UMKC to have a downtown campus near the Performing Arts Center. Land was even purchased for that purpose.

There was also a discussion about moving the UMKC School of Law downtown into the former Federal Courthouse on Grand (Courthouse Lofts).

There was also talk at one time of having Kansas City Art Institute have a satellite campus downtown.

Devry used to have classes in the Lightwell Building.

Park University has space in the former Commerce Tower.

viewtopic.php?t=17550&hilit=UMKC+Downtown

viewtopic.php?p=483267#p483267

viewtopic.php?p=530545&hilit=KCAI#p530545
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Cratedigger
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Cratedigger »

The conservancy was such a missed opportunity…

I don’t understand why Jeff City veto’ed it
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FangKC
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by FangKC »

Blame Eric Greitens.
TheUrbanRoo
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by TheUrbanRoo »

It wasn't even Jeff City. It was literally just Greitens. I think the legislature passed and had it all ready to go and he just blew it up for basically no reason.
WoodDraw
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by WoodDraw »

There was a local match as well. It easily passed the Missouri Congress and I think the local match was like $50 million, mostly from the Kauffmans.

He vetoed it saying he didn’t want Missouri money going to dancers and art students.
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Cratedigger
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Cratedigger »

Actually a pretty good article from the Star on the street racing/shows downtown

https://archive.ph/8juyE

Some highlights:
Since June 2020, KCPD has issued almost 70 citations for sideshows and more than 120 to spectators. Last weekend alone, they issued another 31 to participants and two to spectators.
Lucas said KCPD is again stepping up enforcement efforts in areas where sideshows are common, including downtown. This will mean more officers in the area, along with more barricades placed on the streets ahead of anticipated sideshow gatherings.
On Sunday night alone, [Maj. Stacey] Graves said, an estimated 90 vehicles blocked roads around KC for a sideshow.
The group started in an area of East 59th Street and Lister Avenue, she told the KC Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday. Police dispersed the crowd, but about an hour later they reformed at Berkley Park, near downtown.
At the same time, she said, crowds were starting to let out of a concert at the T-Mobile center. KCPD worried about the racers moving downtown with so many pedestrians out and about. Police intervened and used stop sticks to deflate the tires of fleeing vehicles, Graves said. They also towed a number of disabled cars. A hit and run crash was observed. And after the crowd departed, police found a gun and more than 100 spent shell casings.
“We didn’t do nearly enough, I mean, we weren’t doing all the enforcement we needed to,” Lucas said. “I think it’s fair for people to say, ‘What are we getting out of our money?’”
[Capt. Leslie] Foreman said when KCPD knows about a sideshow, they typically monitor it from a distance “so as not to escalate the danger from vehicles fleeing.”
Under department policy, officers aren’t allowed to pursue a vehicle for a traffic violation alone, often leaving their hands tied during street racing events. Chasing a fleeing vehicle often creates an even greater public danger.
KCPD patrol commanders are scheduled to meet Thursday to review current city ordinances related to street racing and sideshows. Graves, the KCPD major, said they will consider making recommendations for ordinance changes to the city.
For example, she said, current ordinance requires a search warrant to seize a vehicle. This prevents KCPD from seizing street racers’ vehicles, as some other law enforcement agencies around the country are doing.

There's also a quote in there about how Q has even been invited to these events, which made me laugh
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DaveKCMO
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by DaveKCMO »

It is RIDICULOUS that they can't seem to crack down on this. Such a quality of life issue, on top of everything else we're dealing with in the city.
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Anthony_Hugo98
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Anthony_Hugo98 »

DaveKCMO wrote: Wed Nov 16, 2022 2:30 pm It is RIDICULOUS that they can't seem to crack down on this. Such a quality of life issue, on top of everything else we're dealing with in the city.
Seems easiest method is cordon an event and ticket anyone leaving on foot and possible impounding of any vehicles involved in blocking traffic or that are directly participating in the show. It Would take a hell of a lot of coordination, but I’d imagine it would only take one time for an operation of that magnitude to have significant lasting effect on that community, and prevent those events in the future.
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chrizow
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by chrizow »

sounds like circling the sideshow with stop-sticks, then arresting the participants when they flee, is a winning solution. i also find it hard to believe a sideshow or drag race is a mere "traffic violation" -- seems like maybe it should be categorized as a more serious or violent (or attempted violent) crime which would give police more tools to address it.
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by TheLastGentleman »

I’m not sure why the solution everyone jumps to is arresting people after these things happen, and not, say, redesigning the roads to discourage these things. It’s not just street races and donuts, people take dangerous U turns in the middle of broadway or grand all the time, because these streets are wide sprawling physically featureless surfaces
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FlippantCitizen
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by FlippantCitizen »

^ I want to see these too TLG. I’m not a big law and order type in general but these people are endangering life and property in a callous and egregious way. There need to be some examples made here. I don’t give a shit if these people want to go do burnouts and run each other over in the back lot of some industrial area. But when this comes to city streets we need to shut it down and shut it down hard.
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DaveKCMO
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by DaveKCMO »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:29 am I’m not sure why the solution everyone jumps to is arresting people after these things happen, and not, say, redesigning the roads to discourage these things. It’s not just street races and donuts, people take dangerous U turns in the middle of broadway or grand all the time, because these streets are wide sprawling physically featureless surfaces
I don't want arrests, I want sideshows broken up and cars impounded (no car, no sideshow). I know that's hard, but PD sat on their hands and let it become widespread.

The city has attempted design changes to a very light degree, but this simply does not happen in most our region's cities (and certainly not to this lawless degree). Why is that? It's not like OP's streets are narrower or designed to prevent a sideshow.

The risks of a sideshow are much higher than an illegal U-turn.
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Anthony_Hugo98
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Anthony_Hugo98 »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:29 am I’m not sure why the solution everyone jumps to is arresting people after these things happen, and not, say, redesigning the roads to discourage these things. It’s not just street races and donuts, people take dangerous U turns in the middle of broadway or grand all the time, because these streets are wide sprawling physically featureless surfaces
It’s 100% a mix of issues. I’m not saying harsh police enforcement should be a prolonged solution, but do this to one or two sideshows and it would definitely help to reduce this issue SUBSTANTIALLY. Long term the solution should definitely be to change the street designs for sure, but in the short term, this problem needs some type of solution to prevent further issues and possible injury or loss of life of a bystanders, participants, or completely uninvolved individuals.
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Anthony_Hugo98
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Anthony_Hugo98 »

Stumbled upon this video from Atlanta about what they’ve done to try and solve the problem, maybe some of these ideas can be brought here? State line might get in the way, but I’m sure there’s other venues that could possibly be used?
https://youtu.be/kRbXt-LVg50
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by shinatoo »

Anthony_Hugo98 wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 12:18 am Stumbled upon this video from Atlanta about what they’ve done to try and solve the problem, maybe some of these ideas can be brought here? State line might get in the way, but I’m sure there’s other venues that could possibly be used?
https://youtu.be/kRbXt-LVg50
We had KCIR until people built houses next to a drag strip and then complained so much about the drag strip that they closed it down. Seams like the rise of sideshows correlated directly with the closing in 2011. Stupid since the whole reason they opened KCIR back in the 60's was to get kids to stop racing on the street.
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Cratedigger »

Fountains wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 9:36 pm
shinatoo wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 10:23 am
Anthony_Hugo98 wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 12:18 am Stumbled upon this video from Atlanta about what they’ve done to try and solve the problem, maybe some of these ideas can be brought here? State line might get in the way, but I’m sure there’s other venues that could possibly be used?
https://youtu.be/kRbXt-LVg50
We had KCIR until people built houses next to a drag strip and then complained so much about the drag strip that they closed it down. Seams like the rise of sideshows correlated directly with the closing in 2011. Stupid since the whole reason they opened KCIR back in the 60's was to get kids to stop racing on the street.
Wasn't McCaskill one of the Karen's who complained about it?
Wasn’t Sandy Kemper involved as well?
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by WoodDraw »

How do you guys deal with homeless?

I live at 1989 main, at the cgx right there, and I don't want to call any police or shit on them. There is a massive homeless camp.

But it's becoming an issue. They vomit and urinate in the sidewalk, and the trash is gross because crossroads has no trash cans. They throw it onto our property or into the street. Everyone smokes there, and more.

I know cgx has a massive loss from people just taking shit but it doesn't seem like they want to hire a guard.

Any suggestions that are not mean?
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Anthony_Hugo98
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Re: Urban Living Pet Peeves

Post by Anthony_Hugo98 »

Article on the new street pick devices meant to help stop sideshows and street racing. Not quite sure how much they will help, but at least something is trying to be done. Y’all may notice one of the residents interviewed as well :lol:

https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-11-22/ka ... eet-racers
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