News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Jumping on e-scooters on the fly? Think twice
Exiting her daughter’s apartment building on a recent Sunday, Janet Korte spotted something that looked just like the motorless Razor scooters her children loved to ride. “So I thought, ‘This’ll be a piece of cake,’” said Korte, 52, who was visiting Kansas City from Wichita. She pressed her thumb on the throttle, and the scooter…
The Grand Adds Sixties Modern Cool to Downtown Living
By Kevin Collison The Grand, one of downtown’s biggest historic preservation projects ever, opens this week following a $65 million renovation that’s transformed a 1962 office tower into a stylish “Sixties Modern” living environment. The 201 apartments in the former Traders National Bank Building at 1125 Grand are 20 percent pre-leased and interest has been…
Folk Alliance Welcomed to New Crossroads Digs
By Kevin Collison The Folk Alliance dedicated its new home in the Crossroads Arts District Thursday and the international music organization was welcomed by Mayor Sly James for its contribution to Kansas City’s cultural scene. “We appreciate the rich artistic and cultural history of this city,” the mayor said. “One of the great things to…
Mulberry Lofts Opens in Historic Garment District Building
By Kevin Collison Mulberry Lofts, the latest downtown historic renovation project at 905 Broadway, has come to fruition with half of its 25 apartments already leased two weeks after the first residents began moving in. Developer Andrew Bolton, a New Yorker who relocated to Kansas City while pursuing the $8 million project, has blended the…
Poor Report Card
Educators from around Missouri were brutally honest when they met as a panel at Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s Conference on Economic Development. Many of the state’s schools, including the ones they lead, are not doing enough to prepare students to succeed beyond graduation. When he came to Kansas City two years ago to lead the…
Dinosaurs a Huge Hit at Union Station, Attendance Breaks 100,000
(Editor’s note: Union Station announced Wednesday (Jan. 2) that “Dinosaurs Revealed: Journey Across America” will extend through the 2019 Spring Break season. It was originally scheduled to close Sunday and will now remain open until March 24.) By Kevin Collison Dinosaurs Revealed!, Union Station’s first foray into creating its own major exhibition, has torn through…
Historic Board of Education Building Listed as ‘Place in Peril’ by State Preservation Group
By Kevin Collison The former Board of Education building at 1211 McGee, slated for demolition under a now-withdrawn Drury Hotel proposal, has been listed as one of 15 “Places in Peril” in Missouri by a prominent state historic preservation group. The Board of Ed building, completed in 1960, is the only Kansas City building included…
Election Watch Parties Across KC Metro
Whether you voted for Yoder, McCaskill or medical cannabis, here’s a list of places you can go on both sides of the state line to watch the count with neighbors. If you prefer to watch from the comfort of your couch, tune in at 7 p.m. to KCPT for NewHour’s coverage all evening. Sam Graves Election Night Watch Party…
Hospital Hill Construction Boom Continues with $70M University Health 2 Project
By Kevin Collison The building boom at what’s now being branded the “UMKC Health Sciences District” aka Hospital Hill is continuing with the kickoff of the $70 million University Health 2 project. The 80,000 square-foot facility will accommodate women’s care and primary care services currently in Truman Medical Center, freeing hospital space to expand its…
Are School Buildings Obsolete?
A “school without walls” is typically a euphuism for a building that substitutes collaborative learning for the standard approach of stationing teachers in front of a classroom full of students. But the internet age has brought us to a point where walls literally are superfluous — where students do their work online as part of…