Three Downtown Sites Pitched for UMKC Conservatory, Westport H.S. Also Candidate
By Kevin Collison At least three downtown locations are being pitched for the proposed UMKC Conservatory, including Barney Allis Plaza, according to Downtown Council officials, and the former Westport High School also has emerged as a potential midtown site. “It’s a beautiful facility,” said David Brain, a partner in KC Sustainable Development Partners, the owner…
Work in Progress | Preview Our New Arts Series
Get inside the minds of four diverse Kansas City-based artists as we explore the inner-workings of their creative souls. Work in Progress celebrates the process of art — its creation and its creator — rather than the finished project. There are those who are driven by purpose and those who are driven by chaos, and…
Dive-In Movie & Other Weekend Possibilities
A new food truck season kicks off at Farm to Market Bread Co. (100 E. 20th St.) from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. Flatland contributor Jill Silva hosts a gathering of trucks with Food Truck Friday in the bakery’s Crossroads parking lot. Magnolia’s on the Move, Cirque du Sucre, Beauty of the Bistro, Crave, and El Tenedor…
Chef Lidia Bastianich’s New Autobiography Recalls Life as a Refugee
As migrant children were recently being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, Lidia Bastianich’s own refugee story has an eerily familiar ring. The accomplished Italian chef and restaurateur takes a break from award-winning cookbooks to unpack her own immigrant story in the just-released “My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food.”…
Union Station Evolves with Imaginative Dinosaur Exhibit
By Kevin Collison It’s a matchup display any dinosaur-crazy kid would enjoy and 125 million years later, part of a major, new exhibition that heralds an imaginative programming approach by Union Station. In this corner, weighing in at 4,000 pounds and stretching 15 feet long, Kosmoceratops, a fancy- shielded omnivore. And the challenger, at 2,200…
Tap List | Welcome To The Neighborhood Brewery
Kansas City is in the midst of a neighborhood brewery boom — where brewers aren’t looking to make it just a few blocks off Broadway, but are instead opting to build a space that reflects the place they live or the drinkers they think could use a beer a little closer to home. Back in…
Former Mayor Kay Barnes, Downtown Champion, Honored for Legacy
By Kevin Collison Former Mayor Kay Barnes now has the Convention Center Grand Ballroom named after her, but her lasting legacy was on display beyond the windows of the ballroom lobby where the event was held last week. From its vantage point above the South Loop freeway, the Sprint Center, H&R Block office tower and…
Emerging From Abuse With Hopes of Working for a Better Foster System
Jordan Webster was born with some abdominal organs on the outside of her body, and at age 3 had a liver and small-bowel transplant. Problems in her home led to several hospitalizations during a childhood that also included severe abuse at the hands of family members. The state took her out of her home, and…
From the Frying Pan of Foster Care to the Fire of Adulthood
Finally becoming old enough to drink legally is often accompanied by a night out on the town, but the experience can be quite different for foster kids in Missouri. “We’ve heard stories of kids who were dropped off at City Union Mission by their social worker because it’s the kid’s 21st birthday,” said Nathan Ross,…
The Art of (Street Art)
Get lost* in our new photography series, “The Art of (KC)”, where we bring you beautiful, thought-provoking and compelling images of our city and surrounding areas every other week. Swipe through the slideshow for some creative street art. Then, get out your phone, your camera, your sketchbook — whatever — and let us see your…
Sequence Climb Bringing ‘Bouldering’ to Crossroads
By Kevin Collison Graham Hess has seen how light rail galvanized Salt Lake City’s downtown, and when Kansas City started its streetcar, he knew downtown was the place to pursue his business dream. He and his wife, Dara, are planning to open Sequence Climb, a “bouldering gym” and cutting-edge fitness center in a West Crossroads…
Recipe | America’s Test Kitchen’s Flag Cake
A big flag sheet cake is the perfect Fourth of July dessert; and at a time when patriotic-colored berries are at their best, vibrant blueberries and red raspberries are a fitting topping. [FLEX-CONTENT] We knew that our workhorse Yellow Sheet Cake was the ideal base for the cake, so our challenge when developing this recipe…
Hello Atelier | Hunter, Gatherer, Storyteller
I discovered this week’s guest Jillian Youngbird and her work on Instagram. I was fascinated by the many different forms her art took – one day she would post a stunning piece of embroidery, another day it would be an image of a 7-foot bear sculpture. I like how her artistic style manifests itself across…
CID Renewed, ‘Bumble Bees’ Remain Downtown’s Ambassadors Through 2034
By Kevin Collison Those downtown “bumble bees” you see daily cleaning, tending landscaping and helping you feel safe will be buzzing for another 15 years thanks to the recent renewal of the Downtown Council Community Improvement District. The 60 men and women wearing the distinctive black and yellow CID uniforms, referred to as Ambassadors, may…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Counterpoint: Who Wants Boring Kids?
A week ago Ed Fugit, the best man at my wedding and my brother-from-another-mother, emailed me a link to an article chastising hipster parents who insist on bringing their kids to concerts. “Would read your take on this in Flatland…,” Fugit said of the story, written by Steven Hyden. OK, I’ll bite. We’ve all seen…