JCPhoenix

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Four months after Jackson County voters rejected a Royals stadium proposal in Kansas City’s Crossroads District, and two months after Kansas legislation paved the potential for an alternative path, the vision of downtown baseball endures.

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Those conversations have more recently concentrated on studying the viability of a site not prominent in their last exploration: Washington Square Park, which sits just north of Crown Center and east of Union Station. More on that in a bit.

Posting the whole article, since it's so short.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - It’s not quite pumpkin spice season, but it sure felt like it on Friday. On Friday morning, the National Weather Service reported that the temperature in Kansas City, Missouri, dropped to 54 degrees. That broke the record low of 55 degrees for an Aug. 9, set in set in 1927. As of Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., Kansas City had reached a high of just 71 degrees. The record coldest high temperature for Aug. 9. is 73 degrees. That was accomplished in 1991, the NWS reported. “We may wind up setting a record low and record low high temperature for the date,” the National Weather Service stated. First Warn 5 chief meteorologist Luke Dorris said Friday’s weather is typical for Oct. 7!

Loving False Fall!

Non-paywalled archive.is link.

Some Kansas lawmakers want to use STAR bonds to finance new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. After Jackson County voters rejected a county sales tax for the teams in April, a Kansas proposal would authorize STAR bonds with 30-year terms to pay up to 100% of the cost of building a new stadium across the state line.

Fully financing a Chiefs stadium could mean issuing $2-3 billion in STAR bonds, and potentially $1.5 billion to $2 billion for the Royals. Never before have STAR bonds of that size been issued. As of 2020, $1.1 billion total in STAR bonds had been issued in total, according to a state audit. The Chiefs-Royals proposal could triple that.

It is far from certain whether such a massive project could pay for itself solely with sales tax revenue.

Non-payalled link here.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed the results of a 2022 vote in which Missourians overwhelmingly approved a measure forcing Kansas City to pay more for its police. The extraordinary decision found that Missouri voters were misled by statewide officials when they approved the measure, called Amendment 4. It calls for a new election to be held in November. Judge Paul C. Wilson wrote in the opinion that the financial estimates on the ballot question that voters saw in 2022 failed to “concisely and accurately advise voters” of its impact on Kansas City.

Archive.ph link if paywalled.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is threatening legal action against Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas after the mayor made comments suggesting the city would benefit from immigrants seeking asylum in cities such as New York coming to work in Kansas City.

Missouri House Republicans passed a resolution Wednesday that seeks to make it harder to amend the state constitution.

Lawmakers voted 106-49 to pass the resolution, almost strictly on party lines, with Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, being the only Republican to vote no.

The resolution now goes to the Senate, which has already approved its version.

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The resolution, if passed by both chambers, would ask voters whether it should be harder to amend Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process.

Even though this will likely pass both chambers, it still has to go to a plebiscite.

Hopefully Missourians are smart enough to vote down this attack on our rights. Luckily, voters have been pretty good about things like this (except for the rollback of the lobbying reform "Clean Missouri" act). Still, people need to be aware of this.

Jackson County voters handed the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs a major setback on Tuesday, rejecting a stadium sales tax extension that would fund a new downtown baseball stadium and renovations at Arrowhead Stadium.

Question 1 would have repealed Jackson County’s existing 3/8th-cent sales tax and replaced it with a tax at the same level that extends until 2064. The results mean that sales tax will end in 2031, when the Royals and Chiefs’ leases expire, and can only be used on the existing Truman Sports Complex properties.

“No” prevailed with 58% of the vote, compared to 42% “yes” votes.

Should be noted that the split was the same in both Kansas City (within Jackson County) and Jackson County (outside of Kansas City). KCEB administers elections in Kansas City (within Jackson Co), while the Jackson County Election Board handles the rest of the county. Turnout was exceptionally high in both jurisdictions; 24% by KCEB [PDF], and 34% for JCEB.

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — Neighbors of a proposed Blue Springs upscale apartment/mixed use retail complex turned out in droves at a Blue Springs City Council meeting Monday to successfully defeat the project.

Homeowners said the high density apartments would have dramatically changed their neighborhood and was consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan for the area north of I-70 at Adams Dairy Parkway and Duncan Road.

Thanks, NIMBYs 🙄

Hours after former Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere was transferred from the Platte County Jail to the Missouri Department of Corrections in St. Joseph, a court denied his motion to reinstate an appeal bond, which means he’ll remain behind bars pending action from Jefferson City.

He's got some nerve to think that he deserves to be out on bail, after being convicted in a court of law, just because he's attempting to appeal the conviction. Who's ever heard of such a thing?

Annual Kansas City Marathon is tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 21. The course stretches from 6th Street in Downtown all the way to 75th Street in Waldo. Hard to describe all the eastern and western boundary roads, so just take a look at the map!

Pay attention to the times, as that determines when a road will be closed/reopened.

I've lived within the circuit area before and it can be a little annoying having plans to do errands, only to realize you're "trapped" for a few hours. But hey, at least it only happens once a year.

If you're running it, you're crazy, but good luck and stay hydrated!

The sun peeked out over the Kansas City skyline Monday morning just as Steve Keuny set off at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers inside a 1,293-pound pumpkin.

"Our plan is to float this pumpkin down the Missouri River," Keuny said. "We're trying to break the Guinness World Record for longest distance float in a pumpkin."

Wearing a wet suit to protect him from the chilly water and morning air, Keuny launched from Lewis and Clark Park at Kaw Point bound for Napoleon, Missouri. He estimated the journey would take around eight hours, putting him 38 miles downstream before sundown.

The Midwest's version of "James and the Giant Peach."

Archive.today link

The Country Club Plaza, long considered Kansas City’s jewel, is under contract to be sold to a Dallas-based retail company with family ties to H.L. Hunt, the father of Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, those close to the deal confirmed to The Star on Wednesday.

The new owners, who are looking to to close on the deal by year’s end, are Ray Washburne and HP Village Partners, owners of Dallas luxury shopping district Highland Park Village, which opened in 1931 and whose Spanish-style architecture is similar to the Plaza’s.

Hopefully they'll be able to turn around the Plaza's seeming decline. It's not bad by any means, but it could definitely use some help.