Apr

30

New York Bakery closes for good

April 30, 2009 | 3 Comments

New York Bakery, the landmark Jewish bakery at Gregory and Troost in south Kansas City has closed for good.  After a long and painful deterioration, the owner has finally decided to give up and lock the doors.  The place had been an anomaly for years, since most of the region’s Jewish community long ago migrated [...]

Apr

30

Swine flu arrives in KC

April 30, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last night Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced that Platte County has a probably case of swine flu, the first in the KC metro area and the state of Missouri. Northlanders, brace for an invasion of TV news crews!

Video of Governor Nixon’s press conference: Part 1 and Part 2.
KC Star report.
KMBC-TV 9 report, with video.

And Tony’s [...]

Apr

28

Social policitians

April 28, 2009 | 4 Comments

Local politicians have lately started embracing social networks. Senator Claire McCaskill is definitely most famous for her use of Twitter, but others have also started using Twitter, Facebook, and blogs to communicate with the public.  These networks also provide citizens with a new and often more direct conduit to their elected representatives – bypassing assistants, [...]

Apr

27

Consulting is a sweet gig, especially for TIF projects

April 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

Much hay has been made over the financial failure of the Power & Light District.  It was projected to net the City $14 million in sales tax last year, but only brought in $2 million.  Taxpayers were on the hook for the difference, which made the city’s budget deficit even worse than it needed to [...]

Apr

22

New FilmFest debuts in new Downtown theater

April 22, 2009 | Comments Off

Today the new Kansas City Film Festival gets underway.  It’s a new combination of two long-standing festivals that had focused on feature length and short films separately.  Now both will be presented together. The festival has booked a great program from around the world yet including some key works from KC natives and/or filmed locally.
The [...]

Apr

21

Good news for recycling, both curb-side and apartment/condo buildings

April 21, 2009 | 2 Comments

Two pieces of good news just in time for Earth Day…
First, last week the city announced that weekly curb-side recycling will continue. Recycling was due to be cut back to bi-weekly as part of the massive city budget cuts, but city was able to switch to a cheaper contractor and keep the weekly schedule.
Second, recycling [...]

Apr

20

Kansas loosens booze restrictions

April 20, 2009 | Comments Off

The State of Kansas just loosened up their nortiously tight alcohol laws just a bit.  The biggest change is the legalization of mail-order wine, which means JoCos will no longer have to ask Missouri friends to receive shipments of their wine from the Internets.  Also, wineries will now be able to sell at farmers markets [...]

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