News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
The Box Office | What is an ‘Art Economy’?
In Kansas City, we’re told the economic impact of the arts totals a quarter of a billion dollars. This four-part video series, Artconomy, evaluates what that number means: Where does that figure come from, and what’s counted in it? Episode 1, “The Box Office” digs in to the source of that number, the fifth published edition…
Kansas City Star Owner Scraps Deal to Sell Massive Press Pavilion Overlooking Downtown—for Now
By Kevin Collison The owner of The Kansas City Star has decided not to sell the newspaper’s massive green-glass production plant overlooking downtown after all. McClatchy announced in its third quarter earnings report that it had “terminated” a sale-leaseback agreement for the 434,000 square-foot Press Pavilion with an entity called R2 Capital LLC. The distinctive…
Cities Dream Of Landing Amazon’s New HQ And They’re Going To Great Lengths To Show It
Officials in Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot-tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Birmingham constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the Alabama city. In Missouri, Kansas City’s mayor bought a thousand items online from Amazon and posted reviews of each one. All of these cities are clearly…
Sprint Center Celebrates 10 Years as Downtown Anchor, Result of Bold Mayoral Push with Lessons for KCI Campaign
By Kevin Collison It was a huge gamble when it was first proposed, but 10 years later, the Sprint Center has yielded an equally huge payoff for downtown, drawing 11 million visitors and generating an estimated half-billion dollars in economic benefits to the city. Last week, Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group, the operator of the…
Tenth and Main Transit Center Closing, Opening Opportunities in Heart of Downtown
By Kevin Collison The congested bus transit center at Tenth and Main is scheduled to be closed within two years, opening up space for a potential pocket park in the heart of downtown. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority plans to relocate the 1/2-acre transit center, currently a hub for 15 bus routes, to a…
City Picks Renowned Chicago-based Artists to Redevelop Historic School Building in 18th & Vine Jazz District
By Kevin Collison The historic Attucks School building in the 18th & Vine Jazz District won’t be reused as a school afterall. Instead, the city has chosen a proposal by two internationally-renowned artists based in Chicago to convert the old building at 1815 Woodland Ave. into a hub for arts and culture. The Zhou Brothers,…
Construction Underway on $39 Million Mosaic Arena Redevelopment, Grand Opening Expected Next August
By Kevin Collison It takes some deep digging to get through the ancient livestock manure, river silt and other poor soil where the former Kemper Arena was located to build the foundation for its new future. Ninety feet to be exact. That’s how far down the four massive columns required to support the new second…
Roaster’s Block Grand Opening Brews Fond Memories for Former Folger’s Workers
By Kevin Collison Shirley Rinard worked at the former Folger’s plant at Seventh and Broadway for 45 years, from 1952 to 1997, but never had the perks she saw last week touring its new incarnation as the Roaster’s Block apartments. “It’s remarkable,” she said. “They didn’t have a swimming pool when I was here.” Rinard…
How Messing With Our Body Clocks Can Raise Alarms With Health
Research that helped discover the clocks running in every cell in our bodies earned three scientists a Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday. “With exquisite precision, our inner clock adapts our physiology to the dramatically different phases of the day,” the Nobel Prize committee wrote of the work of Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and…
City Takes Another Swing at Eventually Wooing Royals Downtown
By Kevin Collison Downtown baseball is back in the game with the city joining the Downtown Council and developer Jon Copaken in funding a $120,000 study intended to lay the groundwork for a full pitch to the Royals down the road. The Kansas City Star reported this week the ongoing study has identified four sites…