15 minute read
Editor’s Letter
Ispent most of the last month on the road.
Not for our September cover feature on great small towns around Kansas City, but because I love traveling—especially during the height of summer humidity—the remote work routine has opened that possibility in a way I’d never dared hope before the pandemic. My parents were both teachers, so I grew up doing epic summer road trips that left me a little disoriented when returning to my regular routine. It turns out I’d missed that. I’ll spare you the details of my trip, but I started writing this note while seated at the Starbucks at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, which had wifi as fast as my house and an amazing view of lower Manhattan. Manhattan is, of course, as far as it gets from small-town Kansas or Missouri. Except it’s really not. Everywhere, I’m increasingly convinced, is a small town. I was walking around the West Village when I was struck by the busy patio at a very cool bar called the White Horse Tavern. I’d never heard of the place, but it claims to be NYC’s second-oldest bar and is best known as the favorite haunt of the poet Dylan Thomas. I started reading up on the White Horse and discovered that it had been the flashpoint in a bitter neighborhood battle over gentrification that culminated with neighbors staging an Irish wake on the streets in protest of the bar’s sale. Like I said: Everywhere is a small town. What makes smaller small towns—some of the dozen featured in this issue have only a few hundred residents—so fun to visit, for me, isn’t just that the pace of life feels a little slower. It’s that you can spend a couple of days there and leave feeling like you have a real sense of the people and place. I had that experience when spending some time in Hermann last fall. After a few days of wandering around in the rain drinking, looking and talking, I hopped on the train back to KC feeling like I’d made new friends and come to understand the unique culture of a corner of the world I’d never been to. Our frequent contributor Kim Horgan wrote about Hermann for this issue, but I took from her piece that she’d had a similar experience on a more recent visit. A dozen spots in this month’s feature all offer an opportunity to breathe some clean air and get a new perspective for a few days. Especially now, as the busyness of autumn schedules starts to hit, I hope you’re able Martin Cizmar to sneak away for a few days of renewal in EDITOR IN CHIEF one of these towns or somewhere else that MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM freshens your spirit. Mary Henn
ASSOCIATE EDITOR This month’s news feature on the Kansas opioid epidemic was written by Associate Editor Mary Henn, who was recently featured on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace for her essay on Angela Green, which appeared in Kansas City earlier this year.
Kim Horgan
WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER Our cover package features heavy contribution from longtime contributor Kim Horgan, an adventurous traveler based in Prairie Village who always comes back with great recommendations from her journeys.
Liz Schroeder
EDITORIAL INTERN This month’s issue also includes a story about how small-time investors should look at inflation. It’s written by Liz Schroeder, our summer intern who is an MFA candidate at UMKC.
NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE
13 107K+ 40
Percent of traffic deaths that are pedestrians, although the group only makes up six percent of travelers.
PAGE 21
The record-breaking number of drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2021.
PAGE 62
The number of pints of Border Brewing’s weekly releases that will be available every Thursday.
PAGE 98
ANCHORS UP!
The strongest reactions to any story in our August issue came in response to a news story about the probable departure of the Arabia Steamboat Museum, which has signed a letter of intent to move across the state. The museum is a popular attraction, but because of lawsuits settled with the city many years ago, its presence means there can’t be restaurants, bars or concerts at the River Market as long as the museum remains. Readers had mixed responses.
Losing this will be terrible for Kansas City. This museum and the Nelson are the two best places for visitors and locals. Everyone we take to this museum is as amazed as we are. It is a treasure. —Rita Blanchon Maurer
City Market doesn’t want to renew their lease… too many restrictions that impact the rest of the market, no concerts as the sound waves damage precious artifacts— no other tenants in the building can have water, so a leak doesn’t damage artifacts, hence no bars/restaurants. —Alan Johnson
I hate that they are probably moving out of KC. This museum is so unique, and is always a huge hit with out-of-town visitors. It may not be the right fit for City Market anymore, but I wish they could stay in KC. — Scott Lessman
I’m not only disappointed in the City, I’m disgusted. The Steamboat Arabia museum is one of the most unique IN THE WORLD! Why isn’t the city offering tax incentives to the family like they so freely give to out-of-state developers? As the daughter of a prominent museum curator, I can say that if my father was still alive, he would explain to the city that what these families have accomplished is just short of miraculous, as they are not trained archeologists or restoration specialists. The museum is amazing. How can we work together to keep them here? —Julie Perry Sherriff Kansas City does not need more restaurants and bars. It is the only thing we already have too much of. The Arabia is one of the most unique and interesting attractions in the city. —Dan Renzi Concerts! I saw some great shows at City Market before the music was “too loud” for them. —Santiago Escobar
BEHIND THE SCENES
Contributing photographer Caleb Condit flies a drone over Weston for the opening spread of this month’s feature on great small towns around KC.
CORRECTIONS
Our Best of KC Readers Choice results mistakenly omitted Camp Bow Wow, which tied for first place in Best Doggie Daycare.
Our August issue misstated the name of Cannon Small, son of the owner of EaRationale (instagram. com/earationale131).
Our August issue also misstated the name of the Tiny Pantry Times (tinypantrytimes.org), the site associated with an Overland Park family’s DIY food pantry.
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
BEYOND DRIVEN
9 surprising numbers about the safety of KC’s streets for cyclists and walkers
BY MOLLY HIGGINS AND LIZ SCHROEDER
Kansas City has signed onto the ambitious Vision Zero movement to eliminate traffic deaths. These numbers show how far the city has to go.
2030 That’s the target date for having no traffic fatalities inside KCMO. In May 2020, the city council signed onto the Vision Zero movement and committed to adopting traffic calming programs like adding speed humps and curb extensions, upgrading traffic signals and expanding thirty more miles of protected bike lanes. Vision Zero is a decadesold international movement that started in Sweden—it’s basically the Kyoto Protocol of traffic safety. “They’re currently working on an action plan that’s basically the road map, no pun intended, to how we get to eliminating traffic injuries and fatalities,” says active transportation advocate Michael Kelley of BikeWalkKC.
44 Pedestrian deaths in Kansas City so far in 2022, outpacing a total of thirty-three deaths at the same time last year. “There are bad sidewalks in all areas of the city,” KCMO councilman Kevin O’Neill says. “In many lower-income areas of our cities, where citizens use alternative modes of transportation, we need to make sure that they have access to bus stops and connectivity to jobs, medical and retail areas.”
The amount that the GO KC Sidewalk program will receive each year until 2037 to evaluate, inspect, repair and replace sidewalks around Kansas City. This includes initiatives to make sidewalks more accessible with corners and ramps. 13% Of the 1,485 crash fatalities in the Kansas City metro since 2017, pedestrians made up thirteen percent—more than a hundred and ninety deaths—although they make up only six percent of travelers. “Deaths are increasing, and they’re happening on roads that communities know are unsafe,” Kelley says. “The inequities in walkability and who’s impacted by those inequities are disproportionately Black Americans, Native Americans, older Americans and Americans walking in lower-income communities.”
3x In pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people nationwide, Black people are three times more likely to die from walking. The only other group more likely to have pedestrian fatalities were American Indians or Alaska Natives, who were nearly five times as likely. In KC, although Black residents make up twenty-eight percent of the population, they make up thirty-five percent of traffic fatalities. 157 Kansas City reported one hundred and fifty-seven pedestrian deaths between 2016 and 2020, according to the Dangerous By Design 2022 Report. Councilwoman Ryana ParksShaw’s fifth district holds three of the intersections for the highest pedestrian fatalities in KC. She is a supporter of Vision Zero and has advocated for traffic calming, protected bike lanes and upgraded traffic signals. “Those are some things that we actually pledged to do in year one, and I think they are still working on that,” she says.
43 Kansas City is currently ranked forty-third for pedestrian safety and thirty-fourth for bike safety out of the fifty-one most populous cities in America, according to data from the Alliance for Biking and Walking. The big issue, Parks-Shaw says, is that there’s a big backlog of infrastructure improvements that are planned but not funded. “Unfortunately, in years past, this had not been a priority,” Parks-Shaw says. “But I’m excited that this council has made this a priority, and so we are starting to see more of the budget being allocated.”
47% Reconfiguring roads into so-called “road diets” have been shown to decrease crashes by almost half, according to the Federal Highway Administration, which found that the threat of fatal crashes “increases exponentially” over twenty miles per hour.
The city’s backlog of sidewalk repairs isn’t just time-consuming—it’s costly. There’s currently $150 million allocated for a $1 billion backlog. “If we want to be able to fully fund the repairs that need to happen, we need to figure out how to increase that funding,” Kelley says. “We have to have a serious conversation about what we want to fund.”
$7.5 $1 BILLION
TROUBLE FOR TEACHERS
Kansas and Missouri are both facing extreme teacher shortages, but Missouri seems to think it has the perfect fix.
BY OLIVIA AUGUSTINE
SMALL SALARIES, STUDENT LOAN DEBT, political agendas, angry parents—and an important job to do on top of it all. Teachers have been struggling with these things for years, and it’s starting to show through staffing shortages in both Kansas and Missouri. Missouri now has a solution, but is it really fixing the problem or is it just another way to devalue teachers?
Earlier this summer, Missouri loosened its teacher licensure requirements, making it much easier for aspiring teachers to enter the classroom. Teachers no longer need to pass their exams to receive a license. Now they can score just below a passing grade if they have maintained a 3.0 GPA in their college coursework and student teaching.
The policy for substitutes has been relaxed as well. As opposed to having to complete a set number of semester hours, Missouri’s
Department of Education has made it so anyone completing their twenty-hour online certification program can sub.
While steps to fill open teacher positions are appreciated, many are left wondering if all it does is lower the bar for the profession.
Dr. Paul Katnik, an assistant commissioner in the Missouri education department, says that teaching quality is not at risk with the new licensure requirements and that the changes show support for Missouri school districts. The state’s leaders are “doing all they can to support schools during this challenging time of greater staffing issues,” he wrote in an email to Kansas City magazine.
Jason Roberts, president of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers, disagrees, believing that loosening the requirements is essentially devaluing education. However, Roberts also said that removing a standardized test from the mix isn’t the worst idea.
This is one of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced... to remove barriers while retaining quality.”
“We should not be doing things to lighten up the expectations of who can teach our children,” he says. “We have to hold ourselves to high standards. That being said, I was not opposed to the removal of the requirement to pass a standardized test in order to be a teacher. The reason for that is because historically, teachers have said you cannot judge a student’s growth or knowledge based on a standardized test.”
Though torn on the topic of licensure, Roberts believes there are other things Missouri could do to better support teachers, starting with raising their pay. According to the National Education Association, Missouri ranks third from the bottom nationally in average teacher salary. Roberts says that teachers also need better benefits and trust from their districts to do their jobs. A major factor in teachers moving from the profession, he says, is political accusations coming from politicians and angry parents.
On the Kansas side, educators have been less impressed with Missouri’s way of handling their teacher shortage.
Jill Johnson, the NEA president for the Shawnee Mission school district, says Missouri’s tactics are not something she would like to see replicated in Kansas. She believes it would bring people into the profession who are not passionate about it. A better solution would be to decrease the cost of college education.
“I understand that the issue is dire and we need teachers in classrooms, but to lower the standard like that could just be very risky,” Johnson says. “I think that it’s making it so our profession is not seen as professional.”
Janet Waugh of the Kansas State Board of Education says that Kansas is in crisis with the current teacher shortage in the state but doesn’t want to see the quality of instruction suffer.
“This is one of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced,” she says. “We are trying to find ways to get people licensed to be teachers, to remove barriers while retaining quality. To me, that’s the important thing. I want to remove the barriers to teaching, but there’s a quality piece there that I want.”
GROWING PAIN
Inflation makes for a topsy-turvy economy. We asked local experts what regular folks and small-time investors should know.
BY LIZ SCHROEDER
AFTER A TOPSY-TURVY two years, gas prices are finally falling and unemployment is down. But a cloud still hangs over the American economy as inflation hits historic highs in the United States, leaving consumers and businesses to navigate uncharted financial waters.
“The U.S. economy hasn’t dealt with sustained inflation since the early 1980s,” says Erik Olsen, chair of the UMKC Department of Economics. “When I was an undergrad, it was in our memory. It’s become less important because we’ve had thirty-five years of sustained price growth and low rates of inflation.”
While some point to the 2021 American Rescue Act as a significant cause of inflation, it’s a global issue driven by supply chain disruptions and changing consumer habits. Inflation is now at a record high in the U.S., though the country still ranks somewhere in the middle among global economies, according to
Forbes, which found that the U.S. inflation rate placed twentieth out of forty-four advanced economies.
“Panic buying has become a normal part of our experience,” Olsen says, and it can contribute to price hikes. But Kansas City residents’ dollars go further than others. CNBC’s Top States for Business Study ranked Missouri and Kansas among the cheapest states to live, scoring Kansas second and Missouri sixth.
For people without inflation-adjusted income, including retirees, investing isn’t easy. “Employees expect regular pay raises to combat inflation,” says Jon McGraw, the president of the Buttonwood Financial Group. Austin Kuehl, a financial advisor with BMG Advisors, has seen a “fifty-fifty” split between clients investing less and more: “Some people see this as an opportunity to buy investments at a lower price and want to put cash to work rather than watch inflation eat away at it.”
Decades of low interest rates have been a boon for borrowers, notably fueling an exploding housing market during the pandemic. They also led investors to “flock toward stocks to get a better rate of return,” Kuehl says. Though as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, bonds could potentially “provide better income to retirees than they have in some time.”
Rising rates also mean new opportunities to earn “legitimate, non-negligible amounts of money on savings,” Olsen says. While it’s unclear how long higher interest rates will stay in place, saving can be simple and low-risk.
Feeling panicked? “There’s an old saying in finance that I like,” Kuehl says. “It’s sometimes attributed to Warren Buffet: ‘Don’t do something, just stand there.’ It’s meant as advice during a time of market volatility.” It can be difficult advice to follow, though, Kuehl says, because it’s now how most people are wired.
“If you bought a stock at $30 and thought it was a good investment, and the price declines to $15, the rational response is to buy more of it, assuming your initial estimate of the growth potential was valid,” Kuehl says. “But most people have an urge to buy high and sell low.”
Often, the easiest way to make money is, of course, to have money. Funding inflation-linked investments like I-Bonds are a good option, Kuehl says. But consistent, good habits are key. One advantage younger people have is time, McGraw says, “and thus the amazing power of compound interest.”
Will inflation lead to a recession? A “blowout jobs report” released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in early August suggests it won’t. CNN Business reported unemployment is at three and a half percent—matching the same “half-century low” from February 2020. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Democrats, also hopes to curb inflation by reducing the deficit, but recession rumors could change consumer habits in the coming months anyway.
“There’s no difference between economic conditions whether it’s labeled [a recession] or not,” Olsen says. “It’s really just psychological.”
