For all
appearances Kansas City has been busy trying to compete for visibility with
other major metropolitan areas around the US. The area has a lot to offer; very
low consumer pricing, lack of overcrowding and availability/affordability of
homes and land to build them on. Home to my family for over 20 years, we’ve
seen a lot of proposed infrastructure projects come and go on the evening news;
solid hits, near misses and abysmal failures. I tip my hat to those behind
these plans, even if they failed. At least they had a vision and they pursued
it.
The part of
Kansas City South living that most appeals to us is the lack of crowding, room
to stretch your legs and quick access to all cool things that the city offers.
These factors are why we chose city dwelling rather than living in the 'burbs
in the first place and all are key to the Kansas City feel. But that feel
developed over decades and has come with its own problems. Because of sprawl, this city wrestles with
tepid economic growth and anything resembling silver-bullet traffic solutions.
Like so
many other metropolitan areas before us, residents here had come to view urban
dwelling as taboo. Fueled by financial upward mobility and racial tensions (yes
Martha, the “R” word), post WWII Kansas City had chosen to switch rather than
fight, and started stretching city boundaries far and wide. Modern starter
families periodically make a stab at urban dwelling, but due to a troubled
public school system once those starter families have kids of school age they
sound the dive alarm and run deep/run silent. When they surface again it is
often in the calmer waters of Johnson County Kansas or Cass, Platte or Clay
counties in Missouri.
As a result
the Kansas City of today is a staunch commuter community. The community's
workforce and employer base are so geographically spread that there really
hasn't been a practical way to displace personal transportation with mass
transit systems. In fact Kansas City, once the proud owner of a well-developed
electric streetcar system, abandoned them in the 1950's. Ridership was down, so
they went to buses to facilitate adaptive routing.
Modern
light rail had been knocked around here for about the last 15 years, off and
on. But most commuter families are 2-income households, and by definition this
limits their available free time. Shopping and other errands have to be fit
into their schedule when they can, and often the only time people have
available is during the commute home at night. Try negotiating a light-rail system
with 6 bags of groceries, your prescriptions from CVS and a stop at the post
office to send Aunty May her birthday present. Simply put, it ain't happenin'.
But the
latest light rail proposal did gain support at the voting booths and
construction is happening as I type. The local politicians are considering this
a "starter line", running from our lower midtown area thru downtown
and into the riverfront City Market. Not incidental to the continuing saga is
the ongoing refurbishment of the downtown loop. Everywhere you look old
warehouses are growing 700 sq/ft living spaces, apartment buildings are being
built, entertainment venues are springing up and even grocery stores are being
put in.
Following
national trend most downtown dwellers are younger, single and as a result don't
have many household logistical issues. In this environment light rail makes
wonderful sense. If you only had 2-3 minutes of walking to a rail stop and need
to go out for simple sundries, to get to the gym or have an occasional meal
out, why would you break out the car? In effect we have pulled 1910 out of the archives, blown the dust off
of it and put it back into the playbook.
While current
future plans are to stretch the lines further towards the 'burbs, just maybe
this limited deployment was best for this time... it serves a need. Having
driven through the construction area a few times though, it occurs to me that
the rail vs automobile concept may well be a preamble to some of the
interesting collisions we are apt to read about in days to come.
©
2015 D.W. Williams
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