Nick’s Picks | Thanksgiving, Plaza, Betting

Kansas City shifts into festive high gear this week with the granddaddy of all local holiday traditions, the Plaza Lighting Ceremony.

Members of the Kansas City Current, including Laurel Ivory and Kayla Sharples, will flip the switch on the Country Club Plaza’s more than 250,000 bulbs on Thanksgiving night.

While the music and speeches start earlier, the actual flipping of the switch won’t take place until 7:55 p.m. on Thursday.

There’s a fireworks display immediately afterwards.

Kansas City PBS Explores Another Kansas City Holiday Tradition

Big High Rises & Big Ask

This year’s Plaza Lighting Ceremony takes place amid a tense debate over the shopping center’s future.

If you missed the news … there’s a wave of outrage over plans to build a string of new high rises on the Country Club Plaza, including more than 700 apartments.

Critics, including the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, say the tall buildings will ruin the storybook look and charm of the 102-year-old, Spanish-styled shopping district.

But there are just as many concerns about how it will all be paid for.

The Plaza’s new owners are asking for a 30-year property tax break to fund the development. They’re also asking City Hall for more than $200 million in incentive help.

Mayor Quinton Lucas is hosting a closed-door summit meeting on Tuesday to try and broker an agreement that “balances change with preserving the historic character of the district.”  

Kansas City PBS Covers the History of the Country Club Plaza on its 100th Anniversary

Big Dates to Circle

The U.S. House and Senate are currently in recess for the Thanksgiving holiday. And many of our local governments have cancelled their council sessions this week.

But there are several big news stories looming on the calendar:

December 1: Missouri is now just days away from rolling out online and retail sports betting.

More than a year after voters approved sports wagering at the ballot box, the state’s first “legal” bets can be placed on Dec 1.

December 5: In just over a week, we’ll finally find out which teams are going to play in Kansas City during the World Cup. Next Friday is the official World Cup draw from the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Kansas City’s World Cup Committee is hosting a watch party at KC Live in the Power & Light District starting at 10 a.m.

December 11: Missourians wanting to block the state’s newly drawn congressional map now have just 16 days to collect 106,000 valid signatures to put the issue up for a public vote. December 11 is the deadline for submitting signatures. Many of the names already collected by petition gatherers have been challenged as illegally obtained. A judge will soon decide whether they can be counted.

Decision Makers | Week in Review

Rare ‘Turkey Day’ Chiefs Game

Fresh from an overtime win against the Colts on Sunday, the Chiefs are back in action Thursday in a rare Thanksgiving Day game.

The Chiefs take on the Cowboys in Dallas at 3:30 p.m.

The Chiefs’ last Thanksgiving game was in 2006, when they defeated the Denver Broncos.

In Other Holiday Happenings …

• Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting: Lucas will flip the switch on the Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center on Friday. He’ll be joined by some of the stars from Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown” movie. The event starts at 6 p.m.
• You could also show up in a holiday movie, if you stick around Crown Center on Friday.  The Hallmark Channel is filming “A Hometown Holiday Christmas Special” during the opening day of Crown Center’s outdoor Hallmark Christmas Experience.
• And The Nutcracker makes its holiday return to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. It’s the Kansas City Ballet’s biggest show of the year.

Nick Haines  tracks Kansas City’s most impactful, confusing, and downright head-scratching local news stories on Week in Review, Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on Kansas City PBS.