13 minute read
Editor’s Letter
About six months ago, I did something a little bit eccentric: I removed my oven.
I live in Brookside, and I have a small kitchen with limited counter space. I didn’t remove the oven because I don’t cook but because I cook enough to be annoyed by the space it occupied.
I use a big Breville toaster oven for most things other people use their regular oven to cook, and if I am cooking a giant hunk of meat, I’m far more likely to cook it sous vide, smoke it on my Big Green Egg or pressure cook it in the Instant Pot. So I rented a dolly and wheeled my oven out to the garage, then replaced it with a cart that has an induction cooktop and shelves for my toaster oven and microwave. Finally, all seven feet of my countertop were free. And it has worked out really well (if you have a toaster oven, how often do you use your real oven?), even if it does make me feel a little bit like a kook. I’ve talked to so many people who have made big and unexpected lifestyle changes since the pandemic. I haven’t talked to anyone else who’s gone No Oven—if you have, please contact me so we can start some sort of support group—but my change is obviously a lot less extreme than many of those that others have made. I’ve been thinking a lot about that over the last month as we compiled this issue’s cover story, a feature on booming neighborhoods. We worked with Redfin to crunch data, including increased sales price, time on the market and sales price over the listing price. We removed everything below the median to settle on eleven zip codes where things have blown up the biggest. After we got the zips, we talked to more than a dozen real estate agents about each area to get a feel for who’s moving there and why. One thing that came up repeatedly in those conversations is that many people who moved to neighborhoods like West Shawnee or Martin City weren’t necessarily expecting to buy in those areas this time two years ago. But with prices everywhere in the metro exploding and inventory at historic lows, many families started broadening their searches. I strongly suspect that such demographic shifts are going to have all sorts of large and unanticipated consequences in the decades to come. In a way, this feature may come closer than most we publish to being the proverbial “first draft of history.” If you’ve been thinking it’s time for a little more space or a different lifestyle, Martin Cizmar hopefully this package will be helpful to EDITOR IN CHIEF you. If your kitchen is the main problem, MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM though, I do have another idea…
Hanna Luetchfield
ILLUSTRATOR The illustration on our news story about the “dark store” theory was drawn by Hanna Luechtefeld, a local graphic designer and illustrator. They graduated from the University of Central Missouri in 2019 with degrees in graphic design and illustration and have a passion for zines and DIY comics.
James Harris
WRITER Our profile of the people behind Panic Fest was written by James Harris, a Black, Mexican, and white writer who writes speculative fiction with a literary twist. He currently resides in Kansas City, where he contemplates the dreadful, the macabre and the end of all things sacred.
Chase Castor
PHOTOGRAPHER This month’s news story about the likely demise of the city’s signature DIY skate park was both written and photographed by Chase Castor, a local photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vice, the Washington Post and many others. Castor has previously covered the skate park for Kansas City magazine.
NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE
2Inexplicably, the number of stories in this issue that mention Santorini. PAGE 25 & 40 15
Hours in a workday for some UPS managers— before the pandemic. PAGE 94 25
The height in feet of a banana tree growing inside a Johnson County home’s dome.
PAGE 96
HI, PIES
Last month, we tasted every slice, pan and pie we could get our greasy hands on—and we determined KC is indeed undergoing a pizza renaissance.
We shared forty-three of our favorite pizza joints around the city in our Slice of Life feature, from New York-y to St. Louis-style pies and even a local frozen pizza. We also included a special section on KC slices, with spots like d’Bronx, Leone’s Original, Grinders and others among the ranking. People were quick to respond via email and on social media. Many showed excitement at wanting to try new pizzas, several showed support of our list, and some mentioned spots they thought should have made the lineup.
Not an expert but I agree that D’Bronx should qualify and be on here. My favorite locally! Also, didn’t really enjoy Haha’s or Fat Sully’s on my visits. —Aaron Rhodes I would add Italian Delight of Kansas City, Kansas to your list—a long time Italian restaurant with a huge following in Wyandotte County. Great NY slices as well as strombolis and calzone. —Stephen Byrd Good to see Buffalo State on there. Being a NY transplant the pizza in Kansas and Missouri has been underwhelming. Buffalo state is a go to and their chocolate chip cookies are awesome. —Christian Mollon Those commenting Mamma Leone’s and Leone’s Original Pizza & Pasta thank you so much for the support. My father brought the New York style pizza in 1980’s to KC! Thanks for the shout outs. —Isabella Wiegers The fact that Rudy’s Pizza In Lawrence is not on this list is ludacris! Joe Jacelone yes! Papa Kenos is up there as well! —Nate Wall Not surprising to see Pizza Tascio KC on there! Best pizza, period. —Anthony Burgos Pizza is my desert island food. The only thing I can imagine eating and loving seven days a week. However, with no true Chicago style deep dish—recognizing there are a few wanna-be’s—KC is not ready for pizza prime time. We need a true deep dish pizza like Pequod’s, Lou Manate’s, Pizzeria Due, Giordano’s, etc. Any hope of this? —Steve Silverstein
This month’s issue includes a feature on innovations being made by local medical marijuana companies. We could not have done it without the help of Patrick Moore, our trusty podcast producer who is also a very knowledgeable cannabis consumer.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Art Director Katie Henrichs assists photographer Samantha Levi at Duet in the Crossroads to capture images of trendy glassware.
CORRECTION
An article in our March issue misstated the timeline of jazz saxophonist Stephen Martin’s career. Martin came to KC eight years ago and released his debut album in July 2018.
CONTACT US Kansas City
P.O. Box 26823 Overland Park, KS 66225-6823 (913) 469-6700 EMAIL: editor@kansascitymag.com
LEADING THE CONVERSATION IN KANSAS CITY
PARK AND RIDE
A landmark local DIY skate park faces the wrecking ball in fast-gentrifying Columbus Park.
BY CHASE CASTOR
The Columbus Park neighborhood association is looking to displace a signature DIY skatepark.
PAUL FISH KNEW it wouldn’t last forever. Still, he had a reaction when a giant “For Sale” sign popped up overlooking the lot that’s home to the Harrison Street DIY.
“My stomach sank a bit,” he says. “But
I also knew from the get-go that it might not last forever.”
Fish, age 29, is one of many Kansas City skaters who have put time and money into building one of the city’s signature skateparks by hand, using $70,000 in material—concrete, rebar, lumber, tiling and paint to cover up graffiti.
The DIY park was built on a vacant city-owned lot, and now the Housing
Authority is preparing to put out a request for proposals to would-be developers of the land.
This Harrison Street DIY is a skatepark in Columbus Park built and funded by Kansas City’s skate community starting in 2014.
Ben Hlavacek, a founder of the park and a professional skate park builder, says that to have a park like Harrison
Street built professionally would cost at least a half-million dollars. Skaters know it as one of only a few transition-style parks in the area that provide a flowy skate experience as you create a fun line or sequence of obstacles to skate. It’s not strictly skateboarding at the DIY; you’ll see folks on roller skates, scooters and in-line skates as well. The typical crowd covers a wide range in age and experience. The organizers at the park want it to be a welcoming space for all.
But the skatepark sits on six acres that the Columbus Park Neighborhood Association has waited twenty years to have developed. The neighborhood has big hopes for this land. They want affordable single-family homes built on it and are working with the housing authority to court the right development plan.
Kate Barsotti, president of the Columbus Park Neighborhood Association, says “emotions are all over the place” on the park and future development. “Some people are very attached and will be sad to see it gone, especially if they are skaters themselves,” she says. “Some of the little kids from Guinotte come frequently, and that’s going to be a big loss.”
But, she says, others feel the skaters have outgrown the park and it’s time to move on because “that land should have been developed years ago.”
“Most neighbors,” Barsotti says, believe the park “was supposed to be temporary, and they are ready for the next phase.”
But what happens to the DIY when the land is sold and development starts? Several scenarios could play out. Many in the skate community want the park to stay and development to build around the park, incorporating it into the neighborhood more seamlessly.
The most dire scenario for the Harrison Street DIY is the destruction of the park with no promise for a replacement, leaving the skate community empty-handed with nothing to show for their years of hard work.
Some advocates for the park, including Wes Minder, Councilman Eric Bunch, and Burns & McDonnell, have thought up a way to set aside land under the incoming Buck O’Neil bridge for the skate community to start another DIY. They would even provide the materials to build the park but leave construction to the skate community. There are also talks of putting in a professionally built skate park in addition to setting aside space for a DIY skatepark. Nothing is set in stone, though, as the request for proposal hasn’t even been published yet.
“They will have a better location with amenities we cannot provide,” Barsotti says. “The location under the highway is also good for the city because that area could get sketchy without people using it. It will be a more prominent project and hopefully they will take what they have learned from here and make it even better.”
Things are still in the very early stages—the land hasn’t been sold, the RFP hasn’t even been sent out for developers—so all the ideas about what will happen with the DIY are speculation and hopes. The Harrison Street skate community (follow them at harrisonstreetdiy.com) is organizing and meeting with the city and housing authority to raise awareness of the park’s importance to the community in hopes that all parties involved can find space for the park in their plans.
BREAKING BIG
A novel legal theory could drain the coffers of Johnson County government by greatly reducing the taxes big box retailers pay.
BY SUSIE WHITFIELD
EMPTY COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE PROPERTIES mean blighted neighborhoods and the loss of tax revenue. But “hypothetically empty” buildings may also mean huge tax advantages for bigbox businesses.
In Kansas and several other states, major corporations are using a legal tactic known as “hypothetical lease value” or “dark store” theory to possibly reduce their tax burden. The argument contends that bustling business properties should be taxed as if they were empty. Retailers claim that appraisers place too much emphasis on the income generated by businesses and not on how much the building and its land would sell for on the open market.
Thriving businesses with large retail properties generally pay taxes that are a major source of revenue for cities. In 2021, however, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that Johnson County had overvalued a group of Walmarts and Sam’s Clubs by nearly $123 million.
Ed Eilert, chairman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, says that in a two-to-one decision, judges ruled that Johnson County was not able to show that the Board of Tax Appeals erroneously interpreted or applied state law in the case. However, the minority opinion harshly criticized the ruling, stating that the appeals court exceeded its authority granted by statute. The case is currently being appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals also sided with Arciterra, a Phoenix commercial real estate company that had argued that its Olathe property had been overvalued by about $5 million.
Nebraska Furniture Mart won a similar appeal to the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals against Wyandotte County by alleging that its million-plus-square-foot space should have been evaluated as if the store were closed. NFM could potentially garner a nearly $1.5 million refund from Wyandotte County’s Board of Tax Appeals.
Linda Terrill, a Johnson County lawyer and president of the American Property Tax Counsel, represented NFM in its appeal, stating that commercial property should be valued the way homes are valued, based on the assumption that the current owner-occupant will eventually leave.
In a 2017 NPR interview, Terrill said that “dark store” theory is a misnomer based on a misunderstanding of how property tax is assessed. Although Terrill would not comment on the NFM case for this article, she has said that property tax should only assess the building, not its contents.
Kansas law currently uses “fair market value” to determine property taxes. Andrea Boyack, chair of Business and Transactional Law at Washburn University School of Law, says that three methods are used to determine the value of real estate: similar nearby properties with adjustments for any unique factors; a “cost to replace” analysis; and a property’s stream of income.
“Unfortunately,” Boyack says, “the law has not been able to determine one perfect benchmark for real estate value.”
Evaluation is a seemingly gray area, and big box stores argue that local tax authorities should not make these decisions.
Beau Boisvert, a Johnson County appraiser, says, “Our evaluation date is January 1 of every year. The goal is to create a fair and equitable balance in tax evaluation, which we substantiate with relevant facts on that date.”
If Kansas were to use “dark store” theory for every evaluation, Boisvert estimates that draining local budgets of millions of dollars in commercial property tax revenue and having profoundly negative effects on libraries, school districts and city governments. The tax burden would then shift to property owners and smaller retail businesses. Services would likely be cut.
Eilert says the courts should not decide how to interpret statutes adopted by the Kansas Legislature. However, unless the Legislature can agree on a unified approach to property evaluation, expensive and protracted courtroom battles could continue indefinitely.
