News & Issues
UMKC Rejects Downtown Options for Conservatory
(Editor’s note: Updated with reaction from the Downtown Council and City Manager Troy Schulte) By Kevin Collison The seven-year quest by civic leaders to bring the UMKC Conservatory to downtown Kansas City ended abruptly Tuesday when university officials issued a statement that rejects any downtown location. Instead, Chancellor C. Mauli Agrawal said that UMKC will only…
New 520 Penn Office Project Attracts Younger Workers to Crossroads
By Kevin Collison The Crossroads latest office project, 520 Penn, is attracting employers who believe their workers value the kind of diverse, vibrant environment offered by being downtown. The $15 million renovation of the historic McQueeny-Lock building was completed in July and is now home to 150 employees working at three firms: Centric Projects, Superior…
Ride the Wave: Preparation for the Real World Should Include a Sense of Uncertainty
In some respects, life is like an ocean — vast, unpredictable, and a little scary. That imagery came courtesy of Katie Kimbrell, director of education at the Kansas City Startup Foundation, which works to foster entrepreneurism throughout the city. She actually boiled the idea of the real world down to one word: ambiguity. And as…
Is Kansas City’s Population Growing?
Ben Evans is a Kansas City transplant, and after he recently bought a house in Waldo, he started wondering: Are other people moving to Kansas City? And how do experts and forecasters expect the population to change in the coming years? He posed those questions to curiousKC, and we fired up our spreadsheets to find…
This Year’s Irish Fest Says Farewell to Old Friends, The Elders
By Kevin Collison This weekend’s Kansas City Irish Fest, which kicks off tonight at Crown Center when The Maguire Brothers take the stage at 5 p.m., marks the end of an era in local music history. For the last time, one of the region’s most popular musical groups of any genre, The Elders, will take…