In The Loop: May 8, 2022
When I was the communications coordinator for the national headquarters of Camp Fire USA, I had a friend who liked to joke that my salary was dependent on how many boxes of candy I could sell.
Ha. Ha. 🙄
But it occurred to me yesterday that his wisecracks had become somewhat true, because my income as editor and publisher of The Loop will depend on how many paid subscriptions I can sell.
Gulp.
Yes, beginning June 1, The Loop will begin offering three tiers of subscription choices: Free, Paid, and Founders. Here is a little more info about each level:
FREE TIER
When I started the KC Downtown Loop last fall, I knew I wanted to maintain a free element if and when I added a paid subscription level. And it turns out that the free level is pretty cool: If you choose free (which means you need to do nothing if you’re already signed up to receive The Loop email), you’ll continue to receive the Sunday “In The Loop” newsletter just as you always have. You’ll see the Almanac, Links, Archive, Visuals, and Welcome sections, just as before.
However, if you’d like to support The Loop even further, we’re adding more Downtown content and rewards associated with a paid level….
PAID TIER ($6 month or $60 annually)
Drop $6 a month to support me and The Loop, and you’ll continue to receive the weekly “In The Loop” newsletter.
But you want more for your hard-earned $6, so The Loop shall provide.
You’ll get access to all content at The Loop (and we’re about to introduce a whole lot more content). We’ll be publishing the “Downtown Diggs” home/office/studio features more frequently (and they’ll be available only with this paid subscription). Same for original articles about Kansas City history, interviews with Downtown people, “how-to” articles for Downtown residents and visitors, investigative and advocative articles, Downtown community resource posts, online photo albums, and more.
Plus, you’ll get invitations to paid-tier-level events—and I’ll send you a KC Downtown Loop sticker for your laptop, vehicle, or forehead.
FOUNDERS TIER (beginning at $200 annually)
The Founders Tier is for those among you who want to be a part of building and maintaining The Loop as a real asset for readers—and for Downtown. Beginning with a $200 annual subscription (you’re welcome to contribute more; you also can increase or decrease your subscription level at the website after one year), you receive everything associated with the Paid Tier, but you’ll also receive a KC Downtown Loop T-shirt, we’ll add your name (or company’s name) to the permanent Founders page on the website, and you’ll receive invitations to Founders-only events.
I’ve been hard at work with my partner Joe, and we’re excited to soon be bringing you more stories, more history, more discussion, more imagery—more connection to Downtown—in the coming weeks and months. Thanks for your support!
It was on this date in 1974 that Harold Roe Bennett Sturdevant Bartle—better known as H. Roe Bartle, or “Chief,” passed away at an age that will likely never be known. He was probably somewhere between 72 and 77 years old. Many records—including his gravestone—list the former Kansas City mayor’s year of birth as 1901. Other government and military records, however, list him being born in 1896. In fact, there are a whoooole lot of mysteries and discrepancies about Bartle’s life before he became a bit of a public figure as a Boy Scouts exec in KC in the mid-1920s—but those stories will have to wait for another time.
Don’t be led down a dark path by those contradictory stories from Bartle’s early life, though. He was a great orator who made hundreds of speeches each year, and ultimately earned enough to make a good living on that alone. So, during World War II, he served as executive director of American War Dads—and declined the yearly salary that would be today’s equivalent of approximately $150,000. He did likewise as president of Missouri Valley College, plus he volunteered on a crazy number of boards of directors.
As mayor from 1955 to 1963, among other things he welcomed the arrival of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City A’s. It is from Bartle’s nickname, “Chief,” that the football team was renamed by owner Lamar Hunt when he moved the team from Dallas.
On the same day that Bartle died in 1974, the Black Archives of Mid-America was founded by Horace M. Peterson III in the old Paseo YMCA building (also the birthplace of the Negro Leagues). Two years later, the Archives moved to a fire station once occupied by the first black fire company in Kansas City. Today, the organization whose mission is “to collect, preserve and make available to the public materials documenting the social, economic, political and cultural histories of persons of African American descent in the central United States…” is located in the Horace M. Peterson III Building at 1722 E. 17th Terrace in the heart of the 18th and Vine Historic District.
A New York developer, SomeraRoad, has been assembling property in the West Bottoms in order to propose a 26-acre project that would demolish the Weld Wheel building (that’s a good thing) and rehab several others in the historic district (also good). The first link below is Kevin Collison’s CityScene KC story about the project:
LINK: SomeraRoad Finds Path to West Bottoms, Proposes 1,200-Unit Redevelopment (City Scene KC)
This second link shows the work of S9 Architecture, the New York architecture firm working with developer SomeraRoad on the West Bottoms proposal:
LINK: Ponce City Market Atlanta (a SomeraRoad project)
Following news that initial funds were in place to jump-start building a park over the South Loop, the Kansas City Star’s editorial board published the opinion that it would actually help more people and neighborhoods to cap or remove the East Loop and North Loop first.
And I agree. Here’s the Star’s editorial:
Spring is here, and Downtown residents are invited to emerge from the cold and rain to participate in a toasty warm (95 degrees predicted) Spring Resident Social at Harry’s Country Club this Tuesday, May 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. Presented by the River Market and Downtown Community Improvement Districts.
The Hotel Frederic opened at 312 E. Ninth Street in 1917. It would later become a boarding house-style facility (offering weekly and long-term rentals), and one can find several stories in newspaper archives about unsavory characters and events connected to this building in the latter half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, it seems buildings often get blamed for the things that their inhabitants do, and the Frederic became known as yet another “run-down old building with all the riff-raff.” The building was torn down some time after 1991, and is now … an asphalt parking lot.
Artful City: One weekly selection with a Downtown connection
In memory of Wilbur Niewald….
Quick Clip: The city in motion—just a few seconds at a time
This week’s Quick Clip is a little longer (and not in GIF form) so that I could include audio along with all the clips from yesterday’s March of the Monarchs celebration. The Marching Cobras kicked things off, and fans walked from Monarch Plaza at 22nd and Brooklyn to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the 18th and Vine District.
Downtown Lens: A single image depicting the urban aesthetic
Answering the question “Who are all these people and where are they going?”, The Loop brings you a list of some of the biggest events happening Downtown each week. Please give a friendly Downtown-Kansas City welcome to audiences and attendees of….
TODAY
Car Seat Headrest at GrindersKC
Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents Tosca at Kauffman Center
“Fiddler on the Roof,” The Broadway Musical at the Music Hall
MONDAY the 9th
Studio 320 Dance Recital (private event), today and tomorrow at The Music Hall
THURSDAY the 12th
Alyssa Edwards at the Folly
Diane’s School of Dance 2022 Recital (private event), today through Saturday at The Music Hall (including my niece Shea!)
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song & Dance”, now through May 29 at Music Theater Heritage
FRIDAY the 13th
Kansas City Ballet presents The Wizard of Oz, May 13-22, at Kauffman Center
Storling Dance Theater premiers the Book of Kells 2022, tonight and tomorrow at the Folly
The Accidental Moguls at KC Live! in the Power & Light District
SATURDAY the 14th
Caifanes at the Midland
The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra presents Roaring KC at Kauffman Center
Perpetual Change at KC Live! in the Power & Light District
For a more exhaustive list of everything happening Downtown, go to the VisitKC events page and use the “regions” function to search for Downtown, Westside/Southwest Blvd, West Bottoms, River Market, Power & Light, Crown Center, Crossroads, 18th & Vine—or anywhere you want to go in the KC Metro
Got a tip about Downtown KC?
Write to: tips@kcdowntownloop.com or contact me via social media
Until next week—enjoy the city!
