Looking At Kansas City
Image by PieOMike on Flickr
The Kansas City Star recently ran a series on downtown development in that Missouri city.
The series, located at kansascity.com/downtown, is today’s recommended reading.
Downtown KC showing great improvement — but how great?
More area people living in, visiting downtown
Downtown’s quality of life has ‘changed dramatically, 180 degrees’
Grading downtown | The report card
As much as downtown KC has done, similar cities have done more
How downtown KC measures to its peers
Critical work ahead for KC
The buzz around downtown
Be sure to visit the series page to see more content. A video about whether or not to use taxpayer incentives for downtown development would likely be a draw for Fort Wayne readers.
Also be sure to check out a map of Kansas City’s recent downtown development.
The K stadium is no where close to downtown - its on the outskirts near the interstate highways. It is being remodeled - to be reopening for the 2009 Royal’s season. And this is the hometown of the “premier” baseball complex design firm (HOK)- the same one who is designing our unnecessary new stadium in Fort Wayne! What’s up - why aren’t they building a brand new one downtown? Maybe because it just doesn’t make sense ?
Also, listen to the KC mayor say,”If my choice is between fixing the streets of our town and offering tax incentives to developers on marginal 1000 room hotels - I go with the roads”
I don’t see why we should be looking at a city who’s size is more like Indianapolis to compare with Fort Wayne anyhow - but then, if you are an “Indianapolis- envying” person- I guess it’s understandable.
It’s not about comparing, it’s about being informed on what others are doing and what we can learn and apply towards our own situation.
No need to reinvent the wheel if we can learn from others.
John,
You are a loathsome human being. For many many months the Spauldings have dedicated countless hours of their time to present a public forum presenting information on the HS project specifically as well as other cities to bring some perspective on the project. We have all benefited from their efforts, and they have sought nothing in return. Feel free to insult me, but I find it despicable that you would insult them. I guess the alternative to posting info about KC would be to post nothing at all.
-mab
Barrister Barranda: In what way was I insulting Scott and Brian? I guess I assumed that their posts were to elicit comments, not to be accepted as absolute truth. Apparantly, you see it differently- so does that mean you are loathsome to me? I sure don’t see it that way and don’t understand why you do toward me. I am happy that at least you leave me in the human race!
As to posting about what other cities are doing to return their uptown areas into 24 hour a day living spaces, I know that looking at cities much closer to the size of Fort Wayne has been of more interest to me since I can see how we can parallel them much easier.
It’s good to see and take inspiration from what larger cities are doing. That’s how Fort Wayne will stand out among cities its size, because aggressive, forward-thinking redevelopment isn’t a common theme among similar-sized cities. Only a few of Fort Wayne’s peers are dynamic.
I’ve seen Kansas City photo sets and commentary on the three urban forums that I frequent, and they make me want to put that city on my summer road trip agenda for this year. There’s an interesting mix of architecture from its heyday and some striking new work, and the CBD appears to have a decent amount of street-level vitality.
There will be setbacks, stumbles and misstarts in the development of Harrison Square; significant constructive change almost never is simple and straightforward, and new development typically evolves even as it takes shape. Some of the decisions that have been made may not have been the best possible ones; less-than-optimal choices and their alternatives sometimes aren’t evident except in retrospect.
The alternative would have been to have done nothing and to have allowed a blighted area to continue to detract from the effectiveness of new investment in the Grand Wayne Center and related enterprises.
Thanks for the info on Kansas City. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the city. It is important and interesting to note, why KC’s downtown has succeeded while other cities have struggled.
FW’s downtown is slowly returning to the grandeur it once had. It is extremely important to not loose the momentum gained over that last several years and keep it moving forward. There is no standing still or treading water. It will continue to take a variety of input, ideas, and investment to make our downtown a place which FW will be proud to call our own.
Scott - do you know - did KC have its own type of “role model” that they look towards when they moved towards this model? And also - because I’m kind of new to what is going on with Fort Wayne (cause I’ve been out of the loop) - does Fort Wayne have a “peer” type of city that it will measure its downtown successes against?
Having a “peer” type city is a great idea. I know Greenville, SC (http://www.greatergreenville.com/), has been brought up in the past on various blogs and the local newspapers. It is a mid-size city, and shares similar demographics to that of FW.
I have a friend who moved there from NE IN a few years back. She has nothing but positive things to say about the city. Greenville’s once struggling downtown has been reinvigorated with public and private investment over the last two decades. The downtown area now has a number of great restaurants, shops and art galleries. Greenville’s downtown serves as a destination point for the entire metro area. The city has managed to successfully reinvent itself in an image which appeals to all different walks of people.
The same thing can happen here in the Fort. Obviously we will not try to be Greenville, or Kansas City or Indianapolis. Every city has its own unique amenities, character and personality. But we would be fools to not research, observe and take note of what other cities do and have done to keep their downtowns thriving, to attract and retain new people, and to maintain and create new jobs.
Is FW reaching its full potential that maybe Kansas City and Greenville have reached ? I think not. But I believe the potential is there. A few years back, I wrote a letter to Councilman Don Schmidt and other council members, persuading FW to adopt the Riverfront Development Proposal which gave new restaurants an incentive to locate in close proximity to the river in downtown FW. More than a dozen IN cities had already passed and adopted similar proposals. Unfortunately, the proposal never passed in FW.
What Andy said.
Andy,
Thanks for the info. I will look at Greenville - particularly I’m interested in how another city has brought together development, education, government, and small businesses. It has long been my belief that you need all four working together in order to make anything successful.
Too many times, I see cities putting their eggs all in one basket around large corporations and while large corporations have a tremendous plus side to them, anyone can look at Fort Wayne and know exactly what happened to us when the large corporations took their toys and either scaled down or left altogether. One would think that we would not want to repeat the sins of our past.
One of the best things that Fort Wayne used to have - was MANY locally owned eateries - and those seemed to outpace the national chains in a big way. Some of the ones that I patronized while growing up - no longer exist (which is sad). I would hate to see an entire generation of Fort Wayne kids (and adults), miss out on that type of opportunity. And I know, some of the best food-related folks and entreprenurial minds still exist in the Fort. It’s sad that your letter didn’t get the council members moving in the right direction.
Any chance something like this will be brought up again?