I was driving down the Paseo a few days ago and noticed this abandoned castle-like structure a couple blocks away. Since Kansas City originated as a cow-town, not a European fiefdom, I was compelled to return with a few friends and my camera to explore the castle’s mysterious allure.
Still don’t know what this building used to be, but I’m working on it. This place is probably closer to 19th and Vine…and, I admit, is not actually downtown (too bad, eh). But like the Filling Station, you can get there from downtown in a couple minutes.
Sprint Center
Kevin Pritchard gets it. The Portland Trailblazers’ GM, who is bringing his squad to the Sprint Center tonight to scrimmage against the Atlanta Hawks, thinks the NBA has viability in Kansas City. KUSports.com:
As far as Friday’s game … the location is perhaps a bigger story than the meaningless exhibition contest. Kansas City hopes to attract an NBA or NHL team to the Sprint Center sooner rather than later.
“I look forward to seeing the Sprint Center. I heard it’s unbelievable,” said Pritchard, starting point guard on KU’s 1988 NCAA championship team. “It’s such a basketball-crazy area. I think it could (support an NBA team),” he added.
Pritchard led the Kansas City Knights to the ABA championship in 2001, joining the San Antonio Spurs scouting department the following season.
“Being with the Knights was an amazing experience,” Pritchard said. “It was the minor leagues and by definition there are challenges. I got to learn from the bottom up. I learned to do a lot of different things that have been valuable to me.
“It’s nice to be playing a game in Kansas City again. The challenge has been all the ticket requests — about 70. That’s a good problem to have,” he added with a laugh.
Like Kev says, and like I’ve been saying for a couple years, KC is “basketball crazy.” We need an NBA franchise in here to showcase all the NBA talent playing in Lawrence, Kansas (and the one or two NBA players who might come through Manhattan and Columbia in the next ten years. Ha ha ha… )
The latest issue of the KC Urban Times makes an argument, albeit a mostly emotional one, that KC citizens should vote for the latest Light Rail Proposal on November 4. I think you could build a more compelling argument by bringing in some environmental and economical statistics and $$ figures, rather than calling for KC to lose its “cowtown mindset” (haha)–nevertheless, I am on board with the new public transport deal, which is arguably the first one that’s actually been feasible. (The KC Star has a helpful article on the Light Rail issue.)
I think Light Rail, slated to run from Vivion Road (North) to 63rd Street (South) would help move Kansas City’s downtown renaissance forward. Call me an optimist.
And while I’m on the topic of things I’d like to see happen downtown, let me say that it’s high time I acquired one of these:
Perfect for getting around downtown, amazing fuel economy…and would probably bump my cool factor up a notch too. Clearly, I need to make some connections at Vespa of Kansas City.
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.
