News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Pending Sale of Crossroads Building Housing YJ’s Stirs ‘Hate Mail’
By Kevin Collison The pending sale of the building housing longtime Crossroads favorite YJ’s Snack Bar has stirred up strong passions, prompting the expected buyer and current owner of the property to speak out. “There’s so much misinformation out there,” said Spencer Sight, whose father Dan Sight has a contract to buy the building on…
Big Apartment Plan for Armour and Troost Wins City Plan Commission Endorsement
By Kevin Collison A “transformational” plan that would add hundreds of apartments and new businesses to the rundown intersection of Troost and Armour has been unanimously endorsed by the City Plan Commission. Chicago-based MAC Properties, which has developed more than 1,500 apartments along Armour Boulevard over the last decade, wants to invest $78 million in…
Roasterie Opening Cafe in H&R Block Headquarters
The Roasterie is heralding the arrival later this summer of its new cafe inside the H&R Block headquarters Wednesday with a “Block Party” offering free food and coffee. The event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the H&R Block lobby, will give people a taste of what to expect when The Roasterie…
Monster and Music Greets Streetcar Riders Thanks to Art in the Loop
By Kim Mueller Streetcar riders are discovering an extra surprise this summer: a Stranger on a Train riding a Party Car. The soft sculpture monster created by local artist Megan Karson is one of seven art installations, two art performances and eight musical presentations on the streetcar line that started last week as part of…
Treatment, Grief — and Insurance
Lizzy Huffman was 5 years old when she first began to consider herself overweight. It would take nearly a decade before practitioners officially diagnosed her with a multifaceted eating disorder that combines elements of bulimia and anorexia. That was two years ago, and the Lenexa woman is now 18 years old. But for Lizzy and…
Resurrection Opens First New Downtown Church Built in Over a Century
By Kevin Collison If you’re looking for a symbol of how downtown Kansas City has revived in recent years, search no further than the new Church of the Resurrection which opens this weekend at 1601 Grand. “When I moved here from Detroit in 2009, the Downtown Council’s slogan was ‘live, work and play,’” observed the…
To Preserve the Species, Eat It
A decade ago, Leawood native Amy Dunn was living in Kansas City, Missouri, and selling books at Barnes & Noble. And even though she was apprenticing as a horse trainer, she was no more country than a suburban horse. Her boyfriend, Michael Billings, wasn’t much different. He was a city-dwelling software engineer who also boarded…
Two Light Art Evokes Kansas City Cool
By Kim Mueller One hundred years after leaving Kansas City, Ernest Hemingway’s spirit returned when Two Light apartments opened its doors earlier this month. Images of the famous author as well as other celebrated Kansas City residents are immortalized in the tower’s artwork decorating its floors, walls and ceilings. Upon entering the recently-opened luxury apartments‘…
Downtown Stanford Comedy Club Struggles to Recover from ‘Incident’
By Kevin Collison General Manager Richard Montano is upfront about how a shooting incident Feb. 25 has hurt business at the Stanford 813 comedy club, which had been open just a couple months. “We were doing better before the incident,” he said. “We stopped the dance club and we’re now strictly a comedy club and…
Proposed Office Project Would ‘Fill Out’ Block Facing Barney Allis Plaza
By Kevin Collison A development agency got an early look last week at a proposed $114 million project that includes renovating two historic buildings and building a combination garage and office building in the heart of downtown. Platform Ventures plans to seek tax incentives for a redevelopment plan that includes renovating the former Kansas City…