Today I grabbed my camera on the way out the door, having resolved to start shooting some of my favorite places around downtown. When I look for good photos of Kansas City online, I don’t find a ton–and I’ve wanted to take some of my own for awhile anyway.
So I head to one of my regular coffee shops, and get permission from the owner to take some photos. A little later, I pull out my Nikon D40 (see, I’m not made of money) and take a shot. Then I turn around and raise it to take another shot, but I can’t. Because the battery is dead.
See, I’m not a spectacular advance planner either. Photograph #2 in the Downtown Kansas City Photo Shoot will have to wait until tomorrow.
Image belongs to Neal1960 (flickr).
In the Crossroads District downtown, “First Fridays” is the night each month where you can walk the streets and find most of the area’s dozens of galleries open, not to mention some great hole-in-the-wall restaurants and musicians jamming on the blacktop.
When we went a few weeks ago, we ran into the NerdBots studio in the Arts Incubator building and chatted a little with the artists–a husband-wife team who make these remarkable, humorous robot sculptures out of discarded scrap metal. (They do a great job branding their stuff, too. See their site.)
They asked us to vote for them on the Art in the District site, and I said we would. I just did. And this site is pretty nice. If you want to get a feel for some of the artists and galleries you can find in Kansas City’s Crossroads district, check it out. Most of the sites I’ve found about the Crossroads are cursory at best.
Last night Lindsay and I had the privilege of hosting Scott and Sharlain Donahue for dinner at our place, and talking ad nauseum about church planting. Scott and Charlane are currently living in Oklahoma, and are seriously thinking about moving back to KC, MO to plant a church somewhere in the metro area. Their journey toward church planting has some similarities to our own, and it was great to hear the story.
Aside: I’m realizing this is one reason people involved in church planting like to hang out together—it’s kind of like listening to yourself talk and then saying, “Yeah, that’s exactly right, dude.”
With 5.2 billion invested in development, over 500,000 people in the metro area and 2 million in greater KC, this area needs dozens of new churches. The cool thing is, I’m aware of at least a half dozen working to get off the ground right now. Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 Southern Baptist plants, a couple non-denominational, one Lutheran, and one Acts 29.
One thing that gets me pumped is the prospect of cooperating with like-minded people who get the gospel, love Jesus, love the city, to help KC get a renewed vision for who Christ is. There’s every reason that should be a group effort.
A few brave souls have already sold their cars and live inside the metro loop using only local stores and the public buses, the Kansas City Urban Times reports. I can see this if you’re resourceful, don’t have small kids, and don’t mind spending $5 for a gallon of milk.
Downtown KC still doesn’t have a “real” grocery store, and I can’t imagine towing Aidan and Asher around in buses at this point in their rambunctious development, but downtown is getting more strollable.
Realistically, we’re probably a grocery store and some affordable family housing away from the Vanderhorst family realizing the urban walkabout dream.
I am loving this book despite the fact that Andy Crouch needs to get out in the Midwest more!
Following Barack Obama’s lead, Andy Crouch has egregiously insulted “the SoHo of the Midwest” in a way that will increasingly get one punched in the schnoz as Kansas City’s downtown continues to take off. Check it and try to restrain your wrath:
Here’s a quick quiz: where on a map is the Missouri River? If you know the answer, you probably either live in St. Louis or have a lifelong obsession with geography. - Culture Making, 27
Woah, slow down there Andy. I can see the Muddy Mo’ from the windows of our 9-story loft building. I cross the Missouri roughly 4-6 times a day on 2-3 different bridges. And I live in a rapidly growing urban center that’s home to a half million in the metro area, 2 million in greater Kansas City.
Dude, recall that book and fix page 27!
In case you’re wondering, one a chapter in, Culture Making is a fantastic read.
