22 minute read
Editor’s Letter
Looking back, it took a surprising amount of convincing to get me to my first beer festival.
Back in February 2008, my buddy Chris wanted me to spend the incomprehensible sum of fifty American dollars for a ticket to the Arizona Strong Beer Festival in Mesa. Fifty bucks! Do you know how much Blue Moon we could buy for that to drink while playing Wii Tennis?
He eventually prevailed, and somewhere between sampling the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and waiting in line for a little pour of Deschutes Abyss, both whales of their day, I conceded that he was right about beer fests. Now, I’m still a big cheapskate—at the Parkville Microbrew Festival in April, I actually hung a hammock between two trees to sleep off my buzz in the afternoon sun rather than pay fifty bucks to Uber home where I’d just sleep it off on my couch—but I sure love beer festivals. It’s not just the chance to sample hundreds of wildly different beers, though there is that. (I’ve been to the Great American Beer Festival five times now—there are about 4,000 different beers being poured, and you have four precious hours to drink them.) No, I love beer festivals because of the community. It’s not just the friends you bring but the friends you make. There’s a special energy that comes from people circulating around little white tents, consuming a social lubricant that someone’s very proud of making while listening to a ska band. If you’ve never experienced this, go to the Parkville Microbrew Fest—no question, it’s one of the best days of the year in KC. Bring a hammock. That’s the spirit I brought to this month’s cover feature about the best new breweries in the KC area. I spent six weeks getting around to all the spots that have opened since our last survey of the scene, sampling the wares and talking to the people behind them. What impressed me most wasn’t just the beer, though I had some great beers from the folks listed and some who aren’t. My big takeaway was how this generation of brewers specifically wants to use beer to bring people together and build community. Nobody said it better than Nate Schotanus, who opened a little brewery called Range 23 at a horse ranch near his home in Piper, a tiny town in Wyandotte County even people there have never heard of. I’ll let him explain it on page 54. If you’re a beer person, hopefully, this list will point you to some great new spots. If you’re not, hopefully, it’s an interesting look at a handful of passionate small business people. And if you’re someone who will drink a beer but tends to prefer wine or cocktails, you need to get yourself down to our top pick, Pathlight in Shawnee, to sample some of their wild ales. These beers are made from non-commercial yeast strains and are on another echelon of complexity, offering a Martin Cizmar wide range of flavors. Here’s hoping you have EDITOR IN CHIEF the same kind of eye-opening experience I MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM did at my first fest all those blue moons ago.
Cydney Cherepak
ILLUSTRATOR This month’s issue features a decision tree illustrated by Cydney Cherepak, an illustrator and comic artist from Kansas City, currently living in St. Louis. She recently graduated with an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis.
Liz Cook
WRITER This month’s cover package includes two contributions by Liz Cook, a freelance writer with recent work in The Pitch, Eater, Midwesterner, and Defector. She is also the creator of the experimental food newsletter Haterade.
Olivia Augustine
EDITORIAL INTERN This month’s issue has two notable contributions from Olivia Augustine, a summer intern who is a rising senior at the University of Iowa. Olivia tackled the nation’s first police academy at a historically Black college and a profile of KCK muralist Vania Soto.
NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE
“1.0” 2 90
How Callsign Brewing in North KC refers to their tiny old location. It was just an eighth of their new spot, which lands on our list of the city’s best new breweries.
PAGE 51
Number of Black students attending the police academy where Gary Hill graduated in 1997. It inspired him to start the first police academy at a historically Black college or university.
PAGE 22
Percentage of KC drinking water pulled from the Missouri River, making the condition of the river very important.
PAGE 17
YA HERD?
Our most talked about story from the June issue was a feature about hiking the Elk River trail, which has a reputation as the best and most rugged hiking trail in Kansas. Members of The Kansas City hiking group on Facebook weighed in on the trail, with most agreeing it was the Sunflower State’s most impressive trail and cautioning on the need for ample water and tick repellent.
I hiked it alone in April going seven and a half miles in and then back for fifteen miles in a day. Nothing else close that would compare without going to Arkansas or Southeast Missouri. Beautiful and rugged hike, bring ample water and a filter if possible. —Jay Mathiesen My all-time favorite trail in Kansas, but the ticks are INSANE when the weather is warm! If you go now be sure to take precautions. Permethrin on clothing, packs & shoes and picaridin or deet on skin. —Renée Andriani I did it on an overnight backpacking trip. It was a very nice trail! Just no water when I went. But I knew it and was prepared. —Heather Jones We did a small bit! We only had a couple hours and my boys loved climbing all the rocks so much we didn’t make it very far, but we plan to go back! It was so fun. —Christina Joy We hiked the entire 15 miles! It was tough at times but by far my favorite trail in Kansas. —Alison Griffin
It’s doable in one day if you hike quickly, but it’s more ideal to divide it up. I am local and never get tired of repeatedly hiking sections because there are so many different features. —Kristen Jackson
I grew up near here and can attest to the quality of this trail! It’s usually fairly empty, as well. —Erin Ann Wesselowski
I took my boys on an overnight backpacking trip down there. We had a lot of fun. Definitely more like the Ozark area. —Dustin Arnold
We hiked it as part of a Boy Scout campout a few years ago. It does look more like the Ozarks than Kansas. It was a bit of a drive though. —Tony Meyers
SHOUT OUT
Special thanks to Shauna Ward of Shauna Ward Interiors for sharing her gorgeous home with us this month on very short notice.
BEHIND THE SCENES
While reporting the seltzer sidebar in this month’s feature package, Associate Editor Mary Henn and Art Director Katie Henrichs encountered Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce on the streets of the Crossroads.
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Missouri • Section 235 • HUD • rehabilitate • predatory inclusion • foreclosure • Urban Crisis • triage • planned shrinkage • empty lots • subprime mortgages • loan denial • Gentri cation • a ordability • public transportation • commutes • not welcome • racialization • isolation • War on Drugs • inequity • tree cover • temperatures • green spaces • pollution • food deserts • social vulnerability • life expectancy • lending institutions • generational wealth • Investment Zone • citizen-led • reparations • Community Involvement • resilience • complex • previously redlined communities • Civil War • Jim Crow • Reconstruction • threats • violence • sharecroppers • segregation • Plessy v. Ferguson • separate but equal • Great Migration • cityscape • racial boundaries • lynched • racial violence • bombings • The Progressives • stereotypes • Streetcar Suburbs • National Association of Real Estate Boards • The New Suburbs • Jesse Clyde “J.C.” Nichols • community builders • deed restrictions • racially restrictive covenants • homes association • renewing restrictions • improvement associations • federal intervention • The Great Depression • Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) • the New Deal • amortized loans • Open through January 7, 2023 equity • social welfare • scienti c appraisal • Residential Security Maps • redlining • Federal Housing Administration (FHA) • homeownership • investment risk • government drive • Better Housing Campaign • Underwriting Manual • special hazard • adverse JCPRD.com/Redlined in uence • White Flight • racial turnover • invisible lines • blockbusting • Urban Land Institute • decentralization • expandable income • American Dream • suburbanites • postwar • large-scale • G. 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LEADING THE CONVERSATION IN KANSAS CITY
RIVER OF TROUBLE
Drought conditions along the upper Missouri River and heavy rain along the lower part of the river make for a situation where ‘anything could happen.’
BY LIZ SCHROEDER
Kansas City depends on the Missouri River for drinking water, but changing conditions upstream make it so ‘everything feels unpredictable.’
BACK IN 2019, the Missouri River experienced disastrous flooding. According to a report by the Nature Conservancy, Atchison and Holt counties endured over two hundred days of flooding. More than a hundred miles of road were destroyed, and more than a hundred homes were flooded there. Twenty-five million dollars were lost in agricultural revenue in Atchison County alone. Downriver, Missouri residents affected by the floods received more than $93 million for their losses, most from federal emergency funds.
This summer, Kansas City could face the opposite problem. The Missouri river starts in Montana, and much of the water that flows from the upper section comes from snowfall in the high west. There, the winter was dry. “Less snowpack equals less melt that will ultimately make its way into the river,” says Cody Gazaway, who works for KC Water.
For the last two years, drought has plagued the upper Missouri, an area including Montana, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Currently, seventy-nine percent of the entire Missouri River Basin is in drought, including areas of Missouri and Kansas. Eighteen percent is in extreme drought. Kansas City itself is classified as “abnormally dry.”
“Last summer, we didn’t have a lot of rain and we relied on the flow from further north to keep our water at a good level,” says Rachel Bartels, the Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper. If we don’t have the flow coming in but are still getting rain consistently, then [the drought] shouldn’t have too much of an impact. But there are always other issues. Boat ramps may be getting washed out in the meantime. Everything feels unpredictable. Given the changing climate, it seems like anything could happen.”
Low water levels could also affect the Kansas City drinking water supply. Bartels estimates that about ninety percent of the drinking water in the KC area comes from the Missouri River. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has also issued a report warning that certain water demands could not be met long term, especially in drought conditions.
KC Water has installed auxiliary pumps, called mud puppies, in the river in the event of extremely low water levels. “Fortunately,” Gazaway says, “we have never quite reached the low level where we had to rely on them, but they have been tested and are there as a precaution.” While the water levels are lower than usual, Gazaway doesn’t see any cause for alarm, saying “we have a plan in place.”
The quality of the water is another concern for Bartels, whose role as Waterkeeper is to lead a citizen organization focused on conservation and clean water. When companies have a permit to dump waste into the river, the permits require them to report how many pounds they dump but do not adjust those numbers based on flow.
“If we have high flows, there’s more dilution of those chemicals,” Bartels says. “But if we have a very low water year, there’s less water flowing through, and that could potentially be a problem.”
Spring is typically the wettest time of year for the Missouri River basin, but in the coming years, Missouri is expected to see even hotter, drier summers and wetter springs and winters. The combination landed the lower Missouri River, which flows through KC, number two on American Rivers’s list of America’s most endangered rivers in both 2020 and 2021 based on the river’s poor flood management and the potential impact of climate change.
As far as recreation, low water levels provide a great opportunity for kayakers and paddleboarders to take to the river. “A lower water level actually means the sandbars will be out,” Bartels says. “It’s more pleasant for recreation because you have great beaches. So there is a small silver lining to lower river levels.”
BULB CHANGE
Certain parts of the world could become uninhabitable because of high wet-bulb temperatures. KC is uncomfortably close to the line.
BY MOLLY HIGGINS
IN EARLY MAY, a deadly wave of heat and humidity struck Pakistan and India. Dozens of people died because their bodies simply could not cool themselves fast enough given the region’s high humidity. This was true even for young, healthy people who are used to high heat.
“The human body has two primary mechanisms by which heat is dissipated: sweating and increased blood flow to the skin,” says Tony Wolf, a researcher at Penn State. “When we have hot temperatures combined with high humidity, these mechanisms of body temperature regulation start to break down.”
This is known as the wet-bulb phenomenon, and with temperatures increasing globally, it’s becoming a threat. The human body can withstand very high temperatures, but not when high humidity prevents sweat from dissipating in the heat. “This is what is happening when you notice sweat pooling or dripping from your skin—the air is not dry enough to evaporate all of the sweat you are producing,” Wolf says. As the Earth gets warmer, there is concern that some places may become unsurvivable without help from climate control. If this sounds like a far-fetched threat when it comes to Kansas City, it might not be. Temperatures as low as eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit can be unsurvivable when paired with high humidity. Temperatures of ninety-five degrees with ninety-five percent humidity can kill. Kansas City is getting hotter and wetter. Jessica Hafner, a meteorologist who has worked for stations across Missouri and is now at KMIZ in Columbia, says that this region was more than a degree warmer than normal in May and just over an inch above average on precipitation. “The Kansas City area could increase five-and-a-half degrees by 2100 with our continued emissions, which could bring major impacts to agriculture and human behavior,” she says. Then you factor in the corn sweat—in high heat, water evaporates from soil and plants, including corn. The technical term is “evapotranspiration,” and it impacts humidity in a big way, Hafner says. Hafner’s station is doing its part by warning viewers about dangerous temperatures using a set of criteria that trigger Weather Alert Days. That then becomes the station’s main focus of news coverage.
Weather teams aren’t the only folks keeping Kansas Citians safe from extreme temperatures. Jaynell Assmann, founder of Care Beyond the Boulevard, which provides health care directly to those experiencing poverty and homelessness in the Kansas City area, explains how extreme temperature affects those with unstable living conditions. “The extreme weather is very difficult for people who are experiencing homelessness, whether it’s cold, whether it’s extreme heat. But what we notice with the extreme heat is that people really are more fatigued,” Assmann says.
In past summers, there have been designated cooling centers during specific times to help people experiencing extreme heat around Kansas City, ranging from YMCAs to public libraries. Assmann posits that more needs to be done. “Even though we live in the Midwest and this happens every single year, we need to start making a proactive plan,” she says. She’d like to see the city open an “extreme weather center” to provide safety during dangerous temperatures.
Heat takes both a physical and mental toll on folks who cannot get a reprieve from the stifling heat and humidity, Assmann says, which leads to other social problems too.
“There are a lot of short fuses, understandably, when you don’t have a place to cool off and no way to just give yourself a break from the heat,” she says. “It’s very frustrating, and the people that we take care of really struggle during these times.”
THE BLUE PRINT
Why a historically Black university started Missouri’s newest police academy
BY OLIVIA AUGUSTINE
IN A CLASS OF TWENTY-SIX students, Gary Hill was one of only two Black students when he attended the police academy in 1997. That’s why he founded the Lincoln University Law Enforcement Training Academy, the first of its kind at any of America’s historically Black colleges or universities.
Now the chief of police at Lincoln University in Jefferson City and an alumnus of the school himself, Hill is the head instructor of the new program.
After working for the Missouri Sheriff’s Training Academy for ten years, which is where Hill noticed a lack of minority presence in the police force, he came up with the idea to place a police academy on campus.
“I just want to increase the minority footprint in law enforcement,” Hill says. “To be able to come back here and be their chief and then be able to start the program is like a dream come true.”
In January of 2021, the police academy welcomed its first class to the six-month evening program, which ultimately produced nine graduates.
With the academy taking flight shortly after the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder
of George Floyd, Hill wasn’t sure that a new police academy of this kind would be attractive to aspiring police at an HBCU. He quickly learned just how wrong he was.
“Just being able to have a space where minorities can go to the academy and see other people who look like them—I think that really, truly helps,” Hill says. “I think that’s the secret sauce and has been with HBCUs for a long time.”
Maxx Walker, who grew up in Platte County, was in the academy’s second graduating class. Walker says that a sense of community and a desire to help people has always come naturally to him. He just wanted to make the voices that are usually ignored heard. Last January, he started as an officer for the Missouri Capitol Police in Jeff City.
“This department allows me to do the job that I want to do every day,” Walker says. “You know, it’s different experiences in other places, but I made the right choice in the department that I chose.”
Hill has had many graduates, including Walker, go on to successfully start law enforcement careers. But even with a placement rate of ninety-eight percent, Hill is already working on expansion plans for the future.
Currently, the night program requires thirty-two hours a week, which allows flexibility for those balancing their studies with a full-time career. While this has made it an option for people looking to make a career change to law enforcement, Hill is ambitious when it comes to the development of the academy. In addition to the current nighttime program, he says he would like to see the program add a full-time daytime option.
Hill has also been in contact with Councilmember Curtis Jones of Philadelphia to discuss putting together an exploratory group as the first step toward starting similar police academies at two HBCUs in Pennsylvania. He’d like to see more academies across the country.
“It’s good to see the conversations that they have with each other to try to get each other to see life through their color lenses,” Hill says. “It’s good to be able to be in that space to where they feel safe enough to be able to have those uncomfortable conversations.”
