Toellner Tells it

Squier Park Homes Tour set for October 20

A couple of weeks ago I noted that fall is the time of year when many of Kansas City's historic neighborhoods open up their homes and do homes tours. Hyde Park hosted theirs a couple of weeks ago (and had more than 1400 people attend), and on Saturday, October 20, it is Squier Park's turn.

Squier Park is a lesser known neighborhood than many of the others, in part, because it's relatively small -- encompassing only 16 blocks. However, the neighborhood was developed between 1887 and 1915 has has a lot of historic charm. The neighborhood is rests between Troost and Paseo, between Armour and 39th streets.

The neighborhood has a lot historical character and charm, and the neighborhood leaders are also working very hard to elevate the neighborhood among the high-profile neighborhoods in the city. Just this year, the neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic places -- only the second neighborhood east of Troost to get the designation.

This is also a great neighborhood for a homes tour -- because of its relatively small size, the tour tends to be very walkable for just about everyone.

Cost is $10 per person -- free for children 12 and under. Check in is at 36th and Forest Ave. The tour runs from 1pm to 5pm.

The homes featured on this blog post are just three of the 5 homes that will be involved in the tour. KC is lucky to still have so many great neighborhoods and great historic homes, so head on out on Saturday and check out one of them.

Hyde Park Homes Tour, October 6

One of the first things I really fell in love with 17 years ago when I moved to Kansas City was the city's historic neighborhoods and buildings. While many cities, particularly out west, were largely populated during the 50s and 60s, Kansas City had one of it's largest growth spurts between the 1880s and 1930s (largely because of easy transit access via rail and the Missouri River). The result is that Kansas City has a LOT of great old homes -- many of them clustered in old neighborhoods.

Another great thing, is that while neighborhoods continue to try to attract people back to the older population centers, they compete by having homes tours to allow people to tour these historic homes. And Fall is one of the key times for these homes tours.

One of the first ones of the season is in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is one of many great historic neighborhoods in Kansas City -- and rose up mostly between the 1900s and 1920. The neighborhood also has a lot of diversity in its homes -- including Jansen Place mansions, Kansas City Shirtwaist style homes, Arts and Crafts style homes, smaller bungalows and large apartment buildings.

The homes on this year's tour mirror that diverstiy and time frame with homes dating from 1900 to 1921 on the tour.

The tour is on Saturday, October 6 -- from 10 am to 6 pm.  Cost is $13 for the tour ($11 for students/seniors) -- or you get a $2 discount if your purchase tickets in advance.

Parking is throughout the neighborhood -- or, you can stop at the Stine and McClure (3325 Gillham Plaza) and take advantage of shuttle buses that will run continuously throughout the day taking you to the homes on the tour. There will also be a couple of the newly renovated apartments along Armour available for showing, a classic car show (3400 block of Kenwood), and Kansas City Pet Project, a new organization that is now operating the Kansas City, MO Animal Shelter will also have some pets available for adoptions at the home on the 3300 block of Harrison.

All of the homes pictured on this blog posting will be part of the 2012 Hyde Park Homes Tour. You can find out more about the tour, and the specific homes, here.

This is always a great event --and a great time to enjoy and learn about a little bit of Kansas City's rich history.

 

HGTV's Househunters comes to Kansas City

On June 27, at 8:30 pm CST, HGTV's House Hunters will be showing an episode in Kansas City. The episode will center around a 24 year old nurse who is seeking to move out of her parents' 7000 square foot historical home (um, wow) and is seeking to buy a traditional-style condo in the trendy parts of Kansas City.

It should be an interesting show -- as it shows a young professional (the type that is very interested in out downtown renaissance) looking for condos -- which fits right into the advertising campaign living in downtown KC has been doing.

It will be interesting to see what neighborhoods pop up (River Market, Downtown, Plaza), and what issues end up being problems (crime, public transit, parking?) and what good things are mentioned (entertainment?). 

Thanks to the Hyde Park neighborhood email list for the tip.

Opening Night at Livestrong Sporting Park

Last night was opening night at Livestrong Sporting Park.  And I have to say, the new stadium is absolutely amazing (and was designed by local sports architect firm Populous).

The stadium is fairly small (holds about 18,500 for soccer) and the seats are right up on the sidelines on all sides -- making the stadium feel loud and vibrant. Honestly, last night was the best sporting atmosphere I've been in in this town in a long time.

Livestrong Park is yet another notch in the belt for the Kansas City area -- which now boasts an array of best-in-class sports stadiums.  Arrowhead and the K have both undergone major renovations that make them among the leading venues in their respective sports. Sprint Center is a great arena for hockey, basketball and concerts -- and even without an anchor tenent is a very busy venue. The Kansas Speedway continues to get rave reviews from NASCAR fans and drivers alike. But Livestrong is undeniably the best venue of all of them (and I am, admittedly, only a casual soccer fan).

These sporting venues -- along with a world class performing arts center that will open later this year, the Nelson Atkins (which rivals the art galleries in almost any North American city) we have some pretty amazing showcases in this town -- which we should all be pretty proud of.

One thing that could really benefit all of these venues is better public transit that would allow easier, traffic-free access to these venues so people can enjoy the games and then get back to the central part of the city.

I was one that was skeptical that a major soccer league would succeed in this country 15 years ago when MLS started....but with the creation of significant, soccer-only stadiums like Livestrong it sure seems like it is over the hump and here to stay.  And I think the atmosphere in the stadium will only continue to create more soccer fans (I was at the game with one person who had never watched a soccer match before and is now a huge fan of the sport after just one night). 

The match ended with a 0-0 tie -- which pretty much sums up why I think soccer has struggled to catch on in this country -- but regardless, Kansas City should be really proud of the new place. 

Central Standard

Earlier today, I got the opportunity to be on KCUR's Central Standard with Jabulani Leffall on the topic of Bloggers with Local Impact.

Featured on the show was Tony Botello of Tony's Kansas City, Jeff Haught (Bull E Vard) of KC Beer Blog, Celeste Lindell of Average Jane and May Evans of May's Machette - and me, representing this blog (if you're here, and confused by Central Standard's Twitter feeds, I also write another blog, KC Dog Blog, which is my handle for my Twitter account).

Anyway, it was fun to be a part of the program and talking about blogging, why we all got into blogging, and the niche that blogging fills in the local media environment where old-school media is falling short due to continued cuts. Check out the podcast of the show here.

Historic Hyde Park Homes Tour is Oct 2

 On October 2, Hyde Park is hosting its biennial Homes Tour.  The Homes Tour, along with similar tours in Scarritt, and Squire Park, are rare opportunities to tour some of Kansas City's more historic neighborhoods - -and Hyde Park particularly gives people a chance to tour one of the city's more diverse, mixed-use neighborhoods.

The tour is running from 10am to 6 pm on October 2, and includes tours of 6 homes (including a variety of sytes including Victorian, ShirtWaist and Arts and Crafts), a neighborhood business, a church and two of the recently remodeled historic apartment buildings along Armour Blvd.

Tickets are for sale online for $11 for advance tickets -- they'll be $13 the day of.

For artist renderings of most of the homes on the tour you can check them out here.

Art Gallery Showing -- No Crossroads required

One of the nice things about the growing popularity of the Crossroads district, and First Fridays, is that it is it has caused the arts scene to branch into other parts of the city.  One of the areas that has benefitted has been the Midtown/Troost area -- with several artists and galleries springing up in the area.

One such gallery is the Faso Gallery at 3120 Troost. They have taken a beautiful building, along one of the best blocks of Troost, and turned it into a great space for viewing art. This Friday night, April 17, starting at 7:00, the Gallery is going to be open for an art showing for two local artists.  One of the artists is Clifford Doyle -- who has a great style of oils for both landscapes and architecture. Unlike a lot of the art that you see on First Fridays, Doyle's work is something that I could see actually hanging in my home. 

So come on out on Friday night -- see some great art.  Support a couple of local artists and a local art gallery. Enjoy an emerging stretch of Troost. Check out our new powerlines. And maybe have a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants either at Martini Corner or down at the 18th & Vine District. It'll be a great art showing with a great artists (and a heck of a nice guy).  It's great local art -- no Crossroads required.

Fareed Zakaria at the Folly Theater

Tonight we got the opportunity to listen to Fareed Zakaria present at the Folly Theater.

Zakaria is a writer for Newsweek, author, and talkshow host on CNN.

Zakaria was there on a sorta-book tour for his book the Post-American World. The book, and the presentation, were a nice historical rundown of how -- starting with several events in 1979 -- the entire world started to globalize. And that, the United States, has had an interesting roll in helping many other countries develop -- but as a country, has to learn how to live in a world where we are just one of many economic superpowers.

His opinion was that the best way to solve our current economic situation is to look at how we got here in the first place.

Zakaria took an educated (and surprisingly humorous) look at globalization, our struggling economy, US over-consumption, immigration, health care, investing, and even the current war on the drug cartel in Mexico and how it affects us.

It was a great presentation -- and Kansas City was really lucky to have him come to town. The presentation was brought in by Park University (and XEROX!). Kudos to Park University for bringing such a great, nationally recognized speaker. The event was sold out (even though I don't feel like it was terribly well promoted).  Sadly, I don't think that any of the local media outlets covered his speech - we're not very good at covering the good events in this city.

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Footnote: If you are a corporate executive, that pays to be the sponsor of a speaking event, do the guest the common courtesy and be sure to learn how to pronouce the speaker's name. That was bad. Not to mention the guy's title was the Sr. VP of Commincations and Business Process Outsourcing.  Ouch.

First Friday Art -- no Crossroads Required

Over the weekend, I got the opportunity to view a lot of great art by local artists.  After I left my office, I never once set foot inside the Crossroads to do so.

As rates have gone up in the Crossroads, many artists have begun to migrate South and East...and it also appears as if more artists are coming to KC as we're becoming noted for our local art scene.  Bravo for us.

Our first stop was at the Barbershop Gallery -- off of Gillham and 33rd.  The Barbershop has had a ton of great artists' work shown over th past few months, and Marcia Streepy's work was no exception. We then wandered over to the Hyde Park Gallery (Just across the street kind of to vew the work of Richard Osborn -- who hails from St. Louis.  Richard's work was highly technical, and not really my taste, but I certainly appreciate the time and effort that goes into his medium.   However, on Sunday we did go back to the Hyde Park Gallery where owner Fumio Sawa had his own work on display in addition to Osborn's...and let's just say that Sawa is not just a gallery owner, but he is quite the artist as well.

We also visited a couple of other showings at Galleries that yet to have names (one more across from the Barbershop on 33rd Street, an open house at 3808 Troost and an open house on the North Side of 31st at about Cherry Street that had the work of Dick Hodgman and Lynne Hodgman -- among others - -on display.  (Of note, the photo on Dick's home page was purchased to go into the Nelson while it was on display yesterday which is pretty cool).

We also stopped in at the Dream Gallery owned by Shane Evans along 31st Street.  Shane's work was fascinating and he's a very talented guy...with excellent work in a variety of media. 

All in all it was a great weekend of art all not in the Crossroads.  So when you get a moment, venture out and take in the works of some of these people who are doing great things outside of the core art district. 

2nd Chance Fireworks Display

The Friends of Gillham Park are having the reschedule of their fireworks display on Saturday night, August 25.   The show will start around 8:30.  There will also be a lot of fun stuff for the kids too (moonwalk, new playground equipment, music, etc) starting aroudn 6:00.

This is a reschedule from the Independence Day Fireworks show that was cancelled after afternoon rain caused them to pack everything up.

The show tomorrow night also marks the "official" opening of the new playground equipment that has been installed in the park.  The city has planned a lot of great improvements to this heavily used park, and the playground equipment is just the first step.  Future improvements include a younger kids play area, upgrading the small swimming pool into a splash park and improving walking trails and stairs in the southern part of the park.

So come on out and catch the show...

Now if only they would remove that scary bear-looking thing...