News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Historic 909 Walnut Building in New Hands, Second Spokes Rolling In
By Kevin Collison The historic 909 Walnut apartment building has a new owner, and one of the first changes will be the opening of a second downtown outlet for Spokes in the former Scooters coffee shop space. The 35-story tower at Ninth and Walnut, the tallest residential building in the Midwest outside Chicago, has been…
Fueling the Body and Mind in the School of the Future
A healthy diet. Regular exercise. Unplugging from technology. Sound familiar? Those are all things that adults know they should do. The same goes for kids, but just like grownups, they can fall short — sometimes through no fault of their own. But schools are helping pick up the slack — providing nutritious meals, getting kids…
City Barrel to Washington: Free Beer
Kevin Collison When life hands you 500 gallons of IPA you can’t sell thanks to the sour mashup in Washington, what’s an aspiring Crossroads brewmeister to do? You tap that time-tested crowd pleaser, free beer. And while you’re at it, you offer a special invite to the party to all those furloughed federal employees sidelined…
Holiday Inn Express Opens in Historic Interstate Building
By Kevin Collison The historic Interstate Building at 417 E. 13th St. has reopened as a 73-room Holiday Inn Express, a $9.5 million project that took four years to complete. The seven-story building was built in 1915 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It opened for business last month, according to General…
Downtown Chefs Savor the Rush of KC Restaurant Week
By Jill Wendholt Silva Michael Werner’s staff at The Jacobson in the Crossroads is preparing to get slammed during “the busiest 10 days of the year,” aka KC Restaurant Week. Located at 2050 Central St., the hip eatery known for mingle plates and flask service can bring in “$100,000 easy.” In exchange, 10 percent of…
City Manager Praises Downtown Development Ripple Effect, Says Potential Ballpark Cost Now $800M
By Kevin Collison City Manager Troy Schulte was unapologetic about reinvestment along Troost and the city’s support for luxury downtown residential projects during a wide-ranging talk Wednesday that also included the latest on a potential new ballpark. In a luncheon speech to the Downtowners group, Schulte said the city’s investment in revitalizing downtown over the…
Scientologists Proclaim Downtown Arrival, Welcome ‘Xenu Light?’
By Kevin Collison For more than a year, the Church of Scientology has been quietly renovating the historic City Bank Building at 1801 Grand into its new regional headquarters. Few people noticed. There was nothing posted on the building identifying the new tenant and the project looked pretty much like any other historic rehab job…
Regional Effort Aims to Improve Health and Education of Native Americans
If you want to know how many American Indians live in the United States, the Census Bureau will tell you — sort of. That’s because its count of approximately 2.6 million Native Americans, or about 0.8 percent of the population, mostly groups them together with indigenous Alaskans. The same goes for federal health and education…
City Survey Reveals Rising Worries About Affordable Housing
By Kevin Collison The number of Kansas City residents concerned about the availability of affordable housing rose slightly last year, according to new city data, with the greater downtown area reporting the greatest increase. The analysis prepared by KCStat revealed that citywide, 55 percent of the respondents to the latest Resident Survey conducted last spring…
Streetcar Ridership Up 2.6 Percent Last Year, Fed Shutdown May Delay Word on Expansion
By Kevin Collison The Kansas City streetcar rolled out of 2018 with ridership up 2.6 percent over the previous year and looking for signals early in the new year about its planned expansions to the riverfront and UMKC. The downtown streetcar attracted 2,114,886 rides last year compared to 2,060,327 in 2017. Overall, more than 5.5…