The American Royal & Other Weekend Possibilities
Find your inner fire with Port Fonda’s (4141 Pennsylvania Ave.) second annual Hatch Chile Festival from 9 a.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday. The block party features an outdoor bar with Hatch chile margaritas and micheladas, as well as fire-roasted hatch chiles. They’ll also have live music starting at noon with The Grisly Hand. Colony (312 Armour…
Irish Fest Brings Lots of Gaelic Fun and Dollars to Downtown Kansas City This Labor Day Weekend
Kansas City Irish Fest 2017 kicks off its traditional Labor Day weekend Friday, and its growing success mirrors the rebound of downtown since the event relocated to Crown Center in 2004 after a soaking debut on the riverfront. “In 2002, downtown was a bit of a ghost town during the week, and a virtual one…
Huge Global Audience Views Dramatic Time-Lapse Video of Downtown Kansas City During Eclipse
By Kevin Collison What started as a brainstorming session at the World War I National Museum and Memorial has been seen by almost 1.3 million people on Facebook, a 48-second time-lapse video of downtown Kansas City during last week’s total eclipse. The dramatic video taken from the top of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas…
Unimagined and Reimagined Lives
During nearly two decades as a refugee in Nepal, Laxmi Ghimire could only dream of the life she now lives in Kansas City, Kansas. She was among the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who sought refuge in eastern Nepal in 1990, after they were exiled for advocating for social and political rights. One of their major demands was…
Quality Hill Residents Tired of Being in the Dark
By Kevin Collison When the Quality Hill neighborhood first opened in the mid-1980s on the west side of downtown, among its charms were the old-fashioned black street lamps that complemented its quiet, leafy streets and brick residences. These days however, many of the original 120 street lamps have gone dark, leaving residents upset and confused…
Tap List | Colony Handcrafted Ales Set to Open
Stockyards Brewing and Kelly’s Westport Inn Collaborate on Irish Ale Last April, Kelly’s Westport Inn general manager Nick VanSant approached Stockyards Brewing owner Greg Bland and head brewer Micah Weichert about brewing a one-time release beer. County Clare Irish Red Ale, brewed in honor of Kelly’s 70th anniversary, will be released from 7 to 9…
New Development Site in River Market Considered Potential Location for Mid-Rise Apartment Project
By Kevin Collison A massive industrial plant at First and Grand that opened in 1904 to supply electricity to the old Kansas City streetcar system may wind up capitalizing on the popularity of its revival. Veolia energy, the French firm that began operating the five-story behemoth in 2008, has begun marketing a nearby four-acre site…
Into the Clock Tower
You know those doors that say “Authorized Personnel Only”? Well, we’re opening them. Join Flatland as we peel back the curtain, lift the manhole cover, go in the back door, and get unfiltered access to what’s behind the scenes in Kansas City. This month, we head to Parkville, Missouri, for a behind-the-scenes look inside the iconic central…
Clergy Group Looking To Improve Education In Kansas City
After decades of frustration over education in Kansas City, area clergy are joining together to try to fix it. “We need the community to help us,” Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell told me, “because the failure of this school district is a community failure. We understand that we can’t do it alone, and…
Whole Foods Will Drop Prices On Monday, Amazon Says In Detailing New Grocery Strategy
Amazon sets new prices on bananas, butter, organic eggs, and other best-selling staples. The online giant also says its Amazon Prime members will get special prices and perks at Whole Foods.
Jazz History Tour & Other Weekend Possibilities
The Jazz History Tour ($25) begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Chuck Haddix leads the walking tour in two parts that revolve around spots that were instrumental in jazz icon Charlie Parker’s life. There’s also a 2 p.m. chicken feed featuring fried chicken, Parker’s favorite food, at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center. The Lawrence Beer Co. (826 Pennsylvania…
Beyond the Loop Offers Alternatives for O’Neil Bridge and North Loop Freeway
By Kevin Collison The public got their first look at a menu of ideas for reimagining the North Loop freeway in downtown Kansas City and the aging Buck O’Neil Bridge at an open house Tuesday. The Mid-America Regional Council hosted a study process that’s being being called “Beyond the Loop.” It’s considered an opportunity to…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Direction Through Flux
Inertia, solitude and change are consistent themes throughout “Summer.Snow,” the new album by local indie rock band, The Slowdown. And that’s fitting. Those words accurately describe the band itself and the unusual path its members have strode on the way to self-releasing their third album. In many ways, The Slowdown is the tale of two…
Historic Kansas City Club Expected to Reopen in December as ‘Urban Resort’
By Kevin Collison The historic Kansas City Club at 918 Baltimore Ave. is being renovated to become an “urban resort” by the Denver investor who bought the property at a bankruptcy auction two years ago. Craig Slawson is spending about $500,000 to restore many of the interior spaces of the four-story building, which opened in…
The Fatigue of Discomfort
Unless you often enter a space where you need to do an instinctive assessment of your environment based on race, you may not get why I’m so tired. This past weekend, between errands in another part of town, I spent a couple of hours knitting in a coffee shop. It was a hopping place. But…