Downtown Kansas City Convention Hotel Project Gets New Investor and Operator; Groundbreaking Expected Oct. 1
By Kevin Collison The long-planned Kansas City downtown convention hotel has a new flag and welcome infusion of cash from Loews Hotels, a New York-based luxury hotel operator. Attorney Mike Burke, principal at KC Hotel Developers LLC, says Loews has agreed to invest a “substantial” amount of equity in the 800-room project and operate the…
Sloshies Wants to Help You Adult Your Way into Summer
There’s a new way to get your brain freeze. “Sloshies: 102 Boozy Cocktails Straight From The Freezer” was published last week. Author Jerry Nevins, one of the co-founders of Snow & Company, wrote the cookbook designed to bring the frozen cocktail experience to your kitchen with recipes that instruct you to either use a freezer-safe…
New Spokes Peddles Beers, Bikes and Bites in Downtown Kansas City
By Kevin Collison Downtown Kansas City is on a roll, and one of its latest new businesses is spinning a blend of bicycles, beers and good food, a combination that’s proved popular in other cities including Denver and Minneapolis. The new Spokes opened five weeks ago at 1200 Washington St., one of the first retailers…
Five Things to Do This Weekend
Get Crafty Generally, it’s a good idea to be suspicious of anything that adds an extra “e” to the word “fair.” That pseudo-Olde Englishness just reeks of pretension. Make an exception, however, for the Kansas City Maker Faire at Union Station. In an age when most of us are surrounded by technology we don’t understand,…
Building From Within
It took three years and two superintendents, but in 2013, a band of Kansas City Public Schools parents achieved the unthinkable: the reopening of an elementary school in a rapidly contracting district. The school was Hale Cook, which began with kindergarten and first grade in borrowed space at Hartman Elementary, at 81st and Oak streets….
Could Drones Help Save People In Cardiac Arrest?
AED-carrying drones beat ambulance times to the sites of previous cardiac arrest cases in a rural area of Sweden, a study finds. But this has yet to be tried in real emergencies.
Tap List | Tom’s Town Collaborates With Torn Label
In the true spirit of craft, Tom’s Town Distilling Company head distiller Rob Vossmeyer has created a Belgian quadrupel-based whiskey with the help of Torn Label Brewing Company. Available in limited quantity, the unique whiskey is part of The Pendergast Machine series. Vossmeyer envisioned The Pendergast Machine series, named after “Boss” Tom Pendergast’s political organization,…
Urban Core Group Offers Inside Look at New Pickwick Plaza Apartment Project in Downtown KC
The Urban Core Group is holding its monthly get together June 28 at East9, aka the historic Pickwick Plaza apartment project. The new development transformed what was once a hotel, bus station and office complex into apartments geared toward millennials. Maybe you can take a spin on the huge turntable that once spunned buses around?
Indianapolis Postcard
Commentary by Kevin Collison Indianapolis is considered one of the smarter cities in America when it comes to revitalizing its downtown so a recent Father’s Day weekend visit provided an opportunity to check out at least some of the goods and compare it with what’s been happening in Kansas City. We visited White River State…
Downtown Kansas City Apartment Boom Fueled by Return to Walkable Living
By Kevin Collison Apartment construction in metropolitan Kansas City is hitting levels not seen since before the Great Recession with more than 5,000 units expected to be completed by the end of this year. Many of those projects are going up in downtown Kansas City and similar places such as old Overland Park where developers…
‘Supersizing Urban America’: How U.S. Policies Encouraged Fast Food To Spread
A new book examines how federal government policies made it easier for minorities to open fast-food franchises than grocery stores. Today the landscape of urban America reflects this history.
As High-Tech Farms Take Hold, Can Farm Towns Hold On?
Brandon Biesemeier climbs up a small ladder into a John Deere sprayer, takes a seat in the enclosed cab, closes the door, and blocks out most of the machine’s loud engine hum. It is a familiar perch to the fourth-generation farmer on Colorado’s eastern plains. He turns onto a country road, heading south to spray…
Boulevardia & Other Weekend Possibilities
The Blip Summer Open House (1101 Mulberry St.) is a little bit coffee and a little bit craft show. Pick up a cup of joe or some jewelry, and watch the pretty motorcycles — part of Blip’s culture — roll into the West Bottoms tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. While you’re there, you can pop…
Working Toward a Solution
Summer internships and jobs might be a rite of passage. But often inner-city kids lose out to well-connected families that cash in favors to land their child a primo position at the bank headquarters. Hire KC Youth — an employment-training program that Mayor Sly James started to place urban teenagers in City Hall jobs —…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Picture Him Rolling
This Friday, June 16, would have been the 46th birthday for one of hip-hop’s biggest and brightest stars, Tupac Shakur. The emcee – best known for his infectious smile, his towering bravado, and his thought-provoking lyrics – died in 1996 during a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Shakur’s death at the young age of 25 was…