KCRag Forum

Bunch introducing legislation "directing the City Manager to develop a comprehensive plan to resurface deteriorating alleyways."
https://clerk.kcmo.gov/LegislationDetai ... F8EC459544

I can't think of a single alleyway in KCMO in a residential area, i know there are alleys downtown, i have seen a residential ones in KCK by Strawberry Hill but they were in such rough shape. I really miss the Alley's of Milwaukee, i think Chicago and Milwaukee are the only 2 major cities that had almost its entire city built with Alleys

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 10:53 am I can't think of a single alleyway in KCMO in a residential area, i know there are alleys downtown, i have seen a residential ones in KCK by Strawberry Hill but they were in such rough shape. I really miss the Alley's of Milwaukee, i think Chicago and Milwaukee are the only 2 major cities that had almost its entire city built with Alleys

There are alleys in parts of northeast KC, Westside and Longfellow. But typically KC neighborhoods don't feature them, which I've never fully understood as they many of them were developed contemporaneously with alley neighborhoods in other midwestern cities.

Aside from Chicago and Milwaukee, St. Louis City is made up largely of alley-based hoods, and I recall a few of the innermost Denver hoods also featuring alleys.

There are tons of blocks, midtown, east side, west plaza, volker, etc that have alleyways. I have an alley behind me now, and it was hell just getting the city to trim brushy, tree growth that made going driving down the alley into a jungle cruise.

There are lots of residential neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Phoenix that have alleys.

J.C. Nichols banned alleyways from his developments. He thought they were old fashioned relics of horse stables and wanted to design for the affluent new automobile owning class.

My suburban style, JC Nicols neighborhood south of the plaza doesn't have alleyways, and it didn't have driveways until the late 1930's. I have always assumed the plan was to walk up from the Trolly Trail, but no one driving or riding seems unlikely. I'd love to see some pics from the 1910s/20s to see what the streets looked like.

Developers should have stuck with the alleys for car garages. Nothing shows a neighborhood is declining more than crooked garage doors hanging off their tracks facing the streets, inoperable vehicles with flat tires or up on blocks rotting in the driveway, and homeowners who have enclosed the garages for extra space and it doesn't look good.

Many cities also do trash collection in the alleys instead of everyone putting it on the front curb. It's much better for neighborhood aesthetics doing it that way.

Could alleys be retrofitted into some blocks?

TheLastGentleman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:29 am Could alleys be retrofitted into some blocks?

Probably not without taking away people's property. And you know that would not go well...

Midtownkid wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 2:06 pm

TheLastGentleman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:29 am Could alleys be retrofitted into some blocks?

Probably not without taking away people's property. And you know that would not go well...

Goes pretty "well" when modot wants to smash a highway through the city. This city is willing to roll over if it involves roads and cars

I would just add that some, although a definite minority, neighborhoods of the "new urbanism" design incorporate alleyways. Beacon Hill, New Town at Harmony Independence, and Shoal Creek - Village come to mind.

alejandro46 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 4:09 pm I would just add that some, although a definite minority, neighborhoods of the "new urbanism" design incorporate alleyways. Beacon Hill, New Town at Harmony Independence, and Shoal Creek - Village come to mind.

Also Northgate Village in NKC. Alley garage access as well as small parklets interspersed between the homes. Wish more new subdivisions were built along these lines.

There are some parts of older KC where few (if any) houses are left on the blocks. If they ever get redeveloped, they should add alleys for the new houses when terrain allows. Apartments over alley garages would be ideal too.

I wish the city would require them in new developments on raw land within city limits where possible.

rxlexi wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 6:54 pm

alejandro46 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 4:09 pm I would just add that some, although a definite minority, neighborhoods of the "new urbanism" design incorporate alleyways. Beacon Hill, New Town at Harmony Independence, and Shoal Creek - Village come to mind.

Also Northgate Village in NKC. Alley garage access as well as small parklets interspersed between the homes. Wish more new subdivisions were built along these lines.

Good call. That is a nice neighborhood, houses rarely come up for sale there. They have nice townhomes we evaluated before purchasing our current house but they were expensive even back 5 years ago when I was looking. My current neighborhood doesn't have alleyways, just typical garages in front but we have smaller lots. I think some of the issues with homes built in the alley setup in KC are they are just on the smaller size than we wanted - more akin to villas.

Kansas City coming up with alleyway maintenance plan

https://fox4kc.com/news/kansas-city-com ... ance-plan/

FangKC wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 10:06 pm Kansas City coming up with alleyway maintenance plan

https://fox4kc.com/news/kansas-city-com ... ance-plan/

This is a great idea. I guess I kind of assumed these were already taken care of but glad to be proven wrong with a real plan set forward.

Going to take a lot of money. Most alleys are over a century old and no one knows how many miles of alleys there are. City at present is even unable to replace curbs and sidewalks at an acceptable rate

Is there a need? Is this good for the children?

DC maintains alleyways (and all ROWs) extremely well, believe it's a massive factor in the urban QOL personally – beyond functional uses, alleys are great to get away from car traffic (noise).

Walked past a group of 20 kids galavanting down an alley to the neighborhood park entrance for soccer practice minutes ago.