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…
Hello Atelier | That Disney Life
Growing up, Kevin Kidney knew he was destined to live at Disneyland. Once he realized that people don’t actually get to live there, he did the next best thing. He got a job there. In the art department, Kevin had the opportunity to work on design projects large and small for the Disney company – everything…
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,…
Creating Change from Tragedy
Nicole Hockley’s son, Dylan, was one of 20 first graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. After the tragedy, she and other Sandy Hook parents founded Sandy Hook Promise to lobby for background checks. That was part of what she spoke about on Monday at the annual Heartland Coalition Against Gun Violence forum, which…
Fed Up Fest & Other Weekend Possibilities
Fed Up Fest, a benefit for Harvesters, returns from 2:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday at CrossroadsKC (417 E. 18th St.). There’s live music (The Strumbellas, Me Like Bees), booze (their Bar in a Box Truck with wine, cocktails and beer is charming) and pop-up tastings. Smitty’s Garage (8811 Ward Parkway) is open in the Ward…
Learning from Sandy Hook
Part of Nicole Hockley is frozen in a world before Dec. 14, 2012, when her 6-year-old son Dylan would pretend he was a butterfly. “He’s my beautiful baby boy with captivating eyes and infectious giggle and warm deep cuddles. He loved looking at the moon every night. He loved to eat garlic bread, and he…
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…
Recipe | Lasagna-Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Many of us find comfort in food, but finding comfort food without the guilt can be a bit more challenging. In Hungry Girl Clean & Hungry Obsessed!, Lisa Lillien believes she found a new way to enjoy comfort food, offering up her take on nachos, cheesesteaks, and brownies. “I live by the 80/20 rule, wherein…
Tap List | Chatting with Calibration, Plus A Reuben Beer Pairing
Calibration Brewing Company (119 Armour Road, North Kansas City, Missouri) celebrates its first anniversary with a beer festival from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21. The event features live music and regional vendors, such as Cinder Block Brewery, Colony KC, Fringe Beerworks, Restless Spirits, Lifted Spirits, Earthbound Brewing Company from St. Louis, Beer Paws, The Brewkery, and…
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…
Whatever Happened to Smaks?
The elephant on Johnson Drive stopped traffic. “My dad [Bill Fielder] had met a zookeeper and he asked him to bring over an elephant for the opening of Smaks,” Wes Fielder said. “You’d watch the cars out front and people would slam on their brakes to try to figure out what was going on.” The…
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…