Gigabit Challenge Is a Gigabust for KC

Posted on Jan 21, 2012 by BlogKC

The Gigabit Challenge was an interesting contest for business plans that take advantage Google’s upcoming 1 gigabit fiber optic network in Kansas City. Unfortunately no local companies won, and the most of the prize money is flowing of town and out of the country.

The challenge was hyped as a way to generate new ideas for the super fast network and jump start local tech business in anticipation of Google Fiber going live later this year. Top prizes went to companies from Chicago and New York, one of which plans to use the prize money to open an office in Berlin.  The only “local” winner is a Grandview company, located outside the initial Google Fiber service area.

The winning companies will ultimately have to setup at least some local presence in order to connect the network. But putting a server in a local data center is a far cry from creating new jobs or having any real impact on the technology or business community.

KC Business Journal: Gigabit Challenge shows demand for network, short supply of local winners.

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Streetcar advances with approval of special taxing district

Posted on Jan 19, 2012 by BlogKC

Today the City Council approved a plan to pay for the Downtown Streetcar with a mix of taxes on sales, property, and parking lots adjacent to its route along Main Street. Downtown residents will likely vote in April to approve the plan and form a Transportation Development District. $75 million in local money is expected to be matched with $25 million in federal funds. If all goes well the streetcar could be running between the River Market and Crown Center in 2015.

Downtown Streetcar study

Business Journal: KC Council proposes special district to help pay for streetcar

Posted in Downtown, Transportation | Leave a comment

NY Times pisses off KC vegans and vegetarians with lame BBQ stereotypes

Posted on Jan 14, 2012 by BlogKC

A. G. Sulzberger, son of New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, is doing some time in the provinces, working at the Times’ Midwest bureau here in Kansas City.  Since before moving here he’s been freaked out about being vegetarian in the world capital of barbecue. His most recent dispatch from the hinterlands is a terribly under-researched and un-informed piece that makes it sound as if we eat lard in our cereal and the streets run with cow blood.

The city’s vibrant growing vegetarian and vegan community is outraged, virtually pelting Sulzberger with tofu and seeds. Amber Shea’s Almost Vegan blog sums the vege-rage.

Apparently Sulzberger was too caught up in a bizarre obsession with ordering vegan food at Arthur Bryant’s to notice the many real options around the city. And he definitely seems to have missed KC’s recent star turn as the city to watch for culinary innovation in 2012.

Posted in Arts/Entertainment, Media | Leave a comment

McDonalds getting discharged from Truman Medical Center?

Posted on Dec 28, 2011 by BlogKC

It looks like Truman Medical Center CEO and respected community leader John Bluford might finally be rectifying the incredibly embarrassing situation with a McDonald’s in the hospital lobby. In special piece in the KC Star, Bluford finally acknowledges the irony and says the hospital is looking for a healthier alternative.

The diseases of bad eating – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension,  etc. – are skyrocketing and taking up an ever greater share of our limited health care resources. The presence of a McDonalds in the Truman lobby is an especially bad symbol because Missouri ranks very high for these diseases, and they hit Truman’s poor and underserved population disproportionately.

For a hospital serving the poor and located in the middle of food desert, it’s especially important for them to set a good example and use their food service operation to provide healthier options.

Sadly, the Truman McDonalds is an all too common eyesore in the US.  In a climate of shrinking government resources, many hospitals and schools are turning to fast food as more affordable alternatives to traditional food service operations. KC taxpayers approved a property tax increase for our public health care provides in 2005, but health care costs continue to outpace tax revenues.  Ironically, a lot of rising health care costs come from people without access to healthy food options. Hopefully Truman can begin to break this downward spiral by replacing its McDonalds withe a healthier option.

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Midtown Christmas Luminaries

Posted on Dec 24, 2011 by BlogKC

Ready for a break from shopping, cooking, or family? Skip the congestion on the Plaza and check out the luminaries in Midtown.  This evening the residents of the Coleman Highlands and Roanoke neighborhoods are lighting their annual luminarie display.

Head over the area along the west side of Southwest Trafficway, between 31st and 39th Streets, to see the lights and some of the city’s most beautiful and historic houses.

Posted in Midtown/Plaza | Comments Off

Midtown bucks the real estate bust with 600-plus new apartments on the way

Posted on Dec 23, 2011 by BlogKC

39th and Rainbow

While single family home values continue to plummet and Downtown residential development has completely stopped, Midtown and the Country Club Plaza area are going strong.  More than 600 new units in the pipeline, largely due to suburban developers turning their attention to urban infill and redevelopment projects. Much of the new development is happening without the tax breaks so common in recent years, and it is happening organically without grand city-sponsored redevelopment plans.

West 39th Street – Soon after the new year, suburban apartment developers Price Brothers will break ground a mixed-use development at 39th and State Line Road. The former Hanna Bistro and Pizza Hut will be replaced with four stories of 70 apartments over street level retail and restaurant space. ”District 39” is a $9.7 million project that received property tax abatement and is expected to open in spring of 2013.

39th and State Line Road

39th and Rainbow - Just around the corner on the KCK side, Lane4 is currently building 39Rainbow, a large mixed-use complex across from the KU Medical Center featuring apartments, a hotel, offices, shops, and restaurants. Correction: Lane4 has scrapped the residential component in favor of more office space.

Westport – A new proposal to redevelop the northeast corner of 40th and Broadway would replace the old XO nightclub with 188 apartments.  The old Midwest Cyclery building and the adjacent payday loan shop would be renovated for restaurant and office space, joining new restaurants that have opened recently on that block of Broadway.

North Plaza – The small neighborhood between Westport and the Plaza continues to attract significant infill and residential density. Price Brothers recently received City Council approval for 46 Penn, a $30 million project with 188 apartments in four stories.  The project is being built without tax breaks.  The City Council recently approved the plan over the objections of the Plaza-Westport Neighborhood Association, which opposed the building’s height being slightly taller than current zoning allowed. Business Journal story.

South Plaza – Price Brothers is proposing a $39 million project at 51st and Main with 204 high end apartments over street level retail. The four story development would sit on the site of the former Cabaret nightclub and join recent new development housing Accurso’s, Glace, Spin Pizza, etc. The project is expected to open in 2014 without tax breaks, adding more than $400,000 a year to local government coffers. via KC Star.

Posted in Architecture, Business, Midtown/Plaza, Real Estate, Tax Breaks | 2 Comments

First KC Food Truck Festival in Westport this weekend

Posted on Jul 8, 2011 by BlogKC

The food truck trend has hit the heartland with full effect.  This weekend more than 15 trucks will setup shop together in Westport so you can sample them all in one stop. There is a $5 admission price that includes free parking and DJs both evenings.

It all goes down at The Backyard behind the Beaumont Club. Get the details at www.westportfoodtruckfest.com and be sure to follow our Twitter food truck list to find trucks around town during the week.

The fest also the debut of the Westport Marketplace, a new regular market for local artists, artisans, and such.

Posted in Arts/Entertainment, Midtown/Plaza | Comments Off