The Old Neighborhood, Pt. 1

Saturday, I watched Gran Torino for the first time. I know; I’m a bit behind on my flicks.

If you haven’t seen it, Clint Eastwood plays a growling, bitter, bigoted, recently widowed veteran of the Korean War. He lives defiantly in his longtime home as the neighborhood around him falls into blight and becomes an incubator for gangs of all ethnicities.

Sunday, I went to my parents’ house to celebrate my brother’s birthday. While the old neighborhood has not declined to a Gran Torino*-esque level, the movie made me a bit more aware of the signs of decay than usual. It has certainly seen better days.

*Incidentally, my parents' first car that I can actually remember was a 1975 Gran Torino. It was white, with leg-burning dark blue vinyl seats. It was also adorned with a "George Brett for President" bumper sticker, distributed during his MVP-winning 1980 season when he hit .390.

Most neighborhoods, when transitioning from "working class/blue collar" to "poor", display common visual attributes. The old guard--generally long-term resident, empty nest couples in their 50s or older--still keep up their properties:


The old guard knows, deep down, that the neighborhood is going to shit. But just as people can ignore--or really, rationalize--the two nuisance pounds they gain every year, they do the same with the slow, gradual decay happening around them:


It's easy for the old guard to ignore a house like this (the rotting siding and unkempt yard look worse in person than in this picture). It keeps them sane, keeps them rooted in place, keeps them from ruminating on the herculean task of relocating all the possessions and memories accumulated over a lifetime.

Then you see this, which shockingly was occupied (as of last month, at least):


Each of these houses is less than 1/2 block from one another.

For me, distance equals perspective. I hadn't driven down most of these side streets in well over a decade, and it really opened my eyes. The places where I used to happily ride my bike were now...seedy. A little creepy. And more than a little sad.

The baseball fields where I spent countless summer nights as a player and spectator have been abandoned for years, victims of hard times and a general decline in baseball interest among urban kids:


This photo is a bit of a non sequitur; I just found it funny and appropriate to see a "watch for pedestrians" sign on a narrow street that, like nearly all KCK streets, has no sidewalk.


Just down the street is a strip mall that has been dying since I was 10. Among other things, it housed a TG&Y when I was young, where I'd buy cheap blank cassette tapes and baseball cards. Now the only activity is at Family Dollar and the tiny liquor store. There's also a health food store that appears occupied, but mostly it's just empty, vandalized space:


Demographics in the area dictate that when there is new construction, instead of a half-decent grocery store, it's a Dollar General (sorry for the blur). For the 7 things you can't get at the aforementioned Family Dollar, naturally:


I'll post a few more later...

Property Taxes: KCK v Merriam

Last week I got my property tax statements.

Yes, that’s “statements”, plural.

Before my wife and I purchased our little slice of heaven in Merriam, I bought a vacant, mostly wooded lot on the WyCo side of the county line. We thought we wanted to build, but we came to some realizations.

First, it would cost a lot more than an existing house. Second, every single person we know who has gone through building a house said it bordered on nightmarish. And HOLY CRAP were there a lot of existing houses for sale.

We ended up with a house we really like, and in retrospect there are even more reasons that building a contemporary home on that lot was better left to our imaginations.

Practically speaking, the lot wasn’t all that great. In the full foliage of summer, the highway noise emanating from the junction of interstates 35 and 635 was a bit muted and the bright lights of the public storage facility behind the lot were shaded from view. In the winter, not so much.

We would have had way too nice a house for the area. This is a commentary on the area, not a commentary on our lavish lifestyle and tastes.

And then…there are those property tax statements I mentioned.

The mill levy in Merriam – that’s the sum of all the taxing jurisdictions, including city, county, schools, JuCo, etc. – is 118.2210.

In the Turner School District (where the vacant lot is located), it’s 177.8620.

Bottom line? The tax rate is 50% higher there than in Merriam. (It trumps northern Overland Park by more than 70%).

To put it another way: a $150,000 house in KCK has roughly the same monthly payment as a $170,000 house in Merriam once you factor in the property taxes.

KCK is still fighting an uphill battle. The tax base has continued to erode in two ways, as people continue to move away (albeit more slowly than before), and their property values took much more severe hit than most areas during this downturn.

I feel for my hometown, but not as much as I did when I lived there.

I don't feel so great when "it's not my problem anymore" runs through my mind. It doesn't stop me from thinking it, though.

The Kansas City Kansan Has a New Owner

Growing up, my parents always got two newspapers: the Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Kansan. The Kansan was the "local" local paper, covering all things KCK: business, sports, government; you name it.

When I made the honor roll, the Kansan printed it.

When our legion baseball team won a doubleheader, the Kansan printed it.

It was a daily newspaper for almost 87 years. Think about that.

In 2008, the Kansan was cut to a twice-weekly circulation.

By January 2009, its only presence was online.

Now, a KCK native is going to try to inject new life into the publication all by himself.

Twenty-four-year-old Nick Sloan is a one-man publisher, handling copy AND sales. He just purchased the rights to the Kansan's website, which I have added to the blogroll.

I wish him the best of luck in his attempts to report on his hometown, and I encourage you to support him as well.

For more, here is a link courtesy of Plog.

Interview with Nick Sloan

The Relocation Project

We are officially looking for a new house.

The place where we currently reside technically meets our needs, as demonstrated by the 2-1/2 years we’ve shared the place. However, this “starter home”* is missing something.

*And it is truly a starter home—2 bed, 1 bath, 1 car garage. I bought it 9 years ago just after I got out of college. I will backhand anyone who refers to their 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath, 2100 square foot house as a starter home. For real.

So from a space standpoint, we could use a little more. But that’s not what’s missing, at least for me.

We have done some really nice things to the house, both inside and out, and “made it ours”. So that’s not it either.

It’s the location.

From a physical standpoint, our lot backs up to I-70. As you may guess, that makes it LOUD. Inside the house isn’t bad, but outside it’s nearly impossible to enjoy a peaceful meal or conversation.

Also, the hill between our driveway and the street is a magnet for litterbugs. For whatever reason, assholes throw their trash out the windows of their cars for us to pick up on a near-daily basis. It’s a beautiful sight to wake up to every morning.

Geographically, we’re not really far from anything…but we’re not close to anything either. There are very few non-fast-food dining options near us. We’re almost 15 minutes from a nice grocery store. We have to drive further than that to get to any of the bars we like (which is a distinct disadvantage when visiting a bar). Our friends don’t visit us often because by their perception we may as well live in Lawrence.

But more than anything, KCK is just…depressing.

The wanna-be thug who starts yelling at my fiancée (in broad daylight, no less) because she dared to chuckle at his advances while she’s pumping gas. He: probably 20, in plain white T with pube-like mustache. She: very attractive 30-something in business suit. I mean, why wouldn’t he think he had a chance?

The adults—ADULTS—who are having a conversation a good sixty feet apart in the grocery store. This is painful when you’re only 3 feet from one of them.

The carhop at Sonic who came out and told me, after waiting 28 minutes for my order, that next time I needed to hit the button again and ask “where the f—k my food at”.

I won't get started on the murder last week a block from my parents' house or the one two months ago that was 1/4 mile from mine.

This is where I live. This is my hometown. No one knows how to act. And these are NOT isolated incidents. Shit like this happens more often than not when we try to patronize local businesses.

It’s worn me down. I always wanted to be the guy who stayed around even when everyone left, who would be an example of someone who achieved some modicum of career success but stayed put by choice. I always wanted to be the guy who gave back, who had thoughts of even running for office some day.

Screw that.

I’m no martyr.

I have given back.

But what the hell has KCK given ME?

What Are The Odds?

What are the odds of two random people crossing paths at Love's Truck Stop on the south end of Cheyenne, WY (I-25 exit 7)?

(If they are two people who live down the street, one would argue that the odds are pretty good. But that doesn't make them random; that makes them neighbors.)

Let's say one person was traveling from South Dakota to Loveland, CO. Like this:

Let's say the other person was traveling from Denver, CO to Torrington, WY. Like this:

Now what are the odds that any two people on those routes would be in the same place, at the same time, in the most sparsely populated state in America, many hundreds of miles from where either of them had ever lived?

Now, what are the odds that these two people were both originally from the same town of about 150,000?

What are the odds that these two people actually knew each other?

What are the odds that they were in the same graduating class of 151 students?

What are the odds...

...that you would run into your first girlfriend as she was buying snacks in the process of moving from South Dakota to Loveland, CO and you had flown into Denver, driven north into Wyoming, and stopped to use the restroom?

Keepin' it Local

Cosentino's downtown isn't the only new grocery store in the urban core.

Not long before that jewel opened, we in the 'Dotte got a gift of our own--Ball's Sun Fresh, which opened at I-70 and 18th Street. I read that this was KCK's first new grocery store east of I-635 in over THIRTY years. Talk about overdue!

There is something invigorating about walking into a grocery store where some thought has been given to lighting and merchandising. Those who live in outlying areas (or, really, anywhere but KCK) are accustomed to nice stores. We have had to make do with the crappy, ubiquitous vinyl tile and yellow fluorescent lights (the ones that make people look ill) for a long time.

The produce selection is fabulous, as is the meat counter. In a nod to area demographics, there is an emphasis on Mexican meats/condiments/vegetables. All in all, we are thrilled.

Now if we could just talk them into carrying Roasterie coffee and Belfonte yogurt...