The Rise and Fall of an Overland Park Icon

quentin brewer

Metcalf Avenue is certainly not the Champs-Élysées, but at one time, a French-themed market loomed large — like a medieval castle — above Overland Park’s main drag. This superstore, in fact, was named the French Market, and curiousKC delved into the history of the place at the behest of Quentin Brewer, a Mission, Kansas, resident…

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How Are Stadiums Cleaned After Games?

worker changing trash bag at children's mercy park in Kansas City, Kansas

When baseball season ends this month, Kauffman Stadium will have hosted 83 Royals home games. That’s 83 days of hot dogs, popcorn and beer. And each night, someone has to clean it all up. A reader asked curiousKC about that process: How do Kansas City’s professional sports venues get cleaned after games? We couldn’t connect…

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Is Kansas City’s Population Growing?

Ben Evans, his fiancee and their dog

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…

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How Should Police Officers Combat Stress?

KCPD Officer Michael Bowen responds to a disturbance call.

Clinical psychotherapist Pat Hinkle was a police officer for 30 years before starting his counseling practice to help other officers work through stress and trauma. During his time as an officer, Hinkle recognized that there was a disconnect between police departments’ understanding of mental health and counselors’ understanding of officers’ experience of stress. “I had…

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Turn O’ the Century Kansas City Amusement

The Hocker Grove Baseball team

Nowadays, if you want entertainment, you don’t even have to leave your couch — seasons of “Friends” are just a Netflix log-in away. The more adventurous types can head to First Fridays or take a ride on the Mamba roller coaster at Worlds of Fun. But what about a hundred years ago? What the shuttlecock…

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