News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Downtown’s Revival Fueled by Youthful Energy
GUEST COMMENTARY By Kevin Klinkenberg About nine years ago, I made a decision to leave Kansas City and move to Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t an easy decision. With so many personal and professional connections here, I knew I’d be giving up a lot. But, I felt I needed a change of scenery in the depths…
Blue Valley Looks To Forge New Path
In the United States of the late 19th century, iron works personified the strength and grit of an emerging industrial power. Pittsburgh became the Steel City, but far to the west, another corner of the industry was growing along the banks of the Blue River — on the eastern outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. From…
“Estelle’s Diner” Opens in Former Cascone’s in River Market
By Kevin Collison If there’s such a thing as a healthy diner, that’s Anton Kotar’s plan to reinvent the soon-to-close Cascone’s Grill in the River Market. Kotar intends to serve plenty of his trademark grass-fed beef at what he’s calling “Estelle’s Diner,” named after his six-year-old daughter. He raises the cattle on a spread near…
Church Is Ray Of Light In Urban KC Neighborhood
The Sheffield Family Life Center, a 6,000-member Assembly of God church, is a sparkling diamond in an urban coal mine. It’s big, diverse and a key center of life in Kansas City’s distressed Blue Valley area. “We are in a location where we kind of get left out,” says Sheffield’s pastor George Westlake III. “We’re…
Mayoral Candidates Talk Downtown at Neighborhood Forum
By Kevin Collison If there’s one thing voters learned this week at a mayoral candidate forum sponsored by the Downtown Neighborhood Association, Councilman Quinton Lucas is one hard-riding scooter jockey. “I ride the scooters from downtown to Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman, I’ve done it a number of times so I’m a scooter fan,” Lucas told…
Convivial Promises Namesake Vibe at New Shop in Former YJ’s Space
By Kevin Collison Chentell Shannon wants to keep the friendly, lively, enjoyable–in a word–“convivial” vibe of the former YJ’s Crossroads space when she opens her shop there May 1. After all, Convivial is the name and spirit of the ceramics design and manufacturing firm she started in 2014. Right now, it’s producing handmade products from…
Plans Underway to Reconnect Walnut Street Through City Market
By Kevin Collison The city is planning to reopen Walnut Street to traffic through the City Market on weekdays, reconnecting the original street grid with the goal of bringing more activity to businesses along its east side. Walnut had been a two-way traffic route through the Market up until about 30 years ago. It then…
How One Kansas City Hospital Treated Segregation in the ‘50s
Queen of the World Hospital was a beacon of unity at a time when black and white citizens were segregated. “Non-white” Kansas Citians – categorized as black and Mexican at the time – had limited options for health services.
Visit KC Reports Big Uptick in Bookings at Bartle Hall
By Kevin Collison Bookings at Bartle Hall are up 56 percent from the previous year, an encouraging trend as downtown prepares to check in more than 2,400 new hotel rooms over the next couple years. At its annual Tourism Outlook 2019 meeting last week, Visit KC’s new president and CEO Jason Fulvi estimated the 295…
STRETCH Expands Into Former Thou Mayest Space
By Kevin Collison The space formerly occupied by Thou Mayest is about to be reincarnated by the pioneering prince of East Crossroads entrepreneurs, STRETCH. STRETCH, the sculptor who launched the revival of the area when he opened Grinders in 2000, has taken over the space at 419 E. 18th St. and plans to open what…