After Seven Years, CityScene KC Bids Adieu

Dear Readers,

CityScene KC is shutting down at the end of this week after serving you since November 2016.

It’s been a labor of love reporting and writing about the revitalization of greater downtown Kansas City and its urban core, first as a development reporter at The Kansas City Star beginning in 2001, and then as publisher of CityScene.

But after more than 40 years working as a journalist in Fremont (NE), Omaha, Buffalo and finally Kansas City, I’m ready to retire from full-time work.

I’d like to thank all of you who paid to read CityScene the past few years and kept it going. The plan calls for those subscriptions to be canceled by the end of this week and refunds issued if yours runs into January.

As for the more than 1,500 articles published since its start, CityScene anticipates donating its archives to Flatland KC, the online news platform for Kansas City PBS.  I also intend to continue reporting for Flatland on occasion as a freelancer.

A view of the South Loop area of downtown 20 years ago before the revitalization effort led by former Mayor Kay Barnes began. The chair sets in the middle of where the T-Mobile Center is now located. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Bruning)

I want to deeply thank the men and women who believed in me and invested in CityScene to help launch it, and for the continued financial support over the years of Crown Center, the Kauffman Foundation and the Downtown Council.

Finally, I want to thank all of you readers who shared my enthusiasm reporting about the ongoing revitalization of our downtown and urban core, the “River Crown Plaza” as coined by our visionary former mayor, Kay Barnes.

Downtown has come a long way since the start of the 21st Century when you could still find haunted houses there, a fitting metaphor for its decline. It has now regained its relevancy to the metro, but the work needs to continue without complacency.

Here’s a New Year’s toast to successfully negotiating a downtown ballpark deal, funding the South Loop park, adding thousands of residents, improving public safety and landing a lot of new private jobs to make downtown a more dynamic place for future generations.

As for me, I look forward to hopping on the streetcar and enjoying some Royals and KC Current games in retirement.

All the best in 2024,

Kevin Collison