It’s finally happened; Westport has joined all the other entertainment districts in KC that matter…
Read my lips: No more hip-hop clubs, no more rap music, no more young, urban crowds.
With America’s Pub closing after New Year’s, the question was, how long it might take for the crowds to increase.
NOT LONG.
Kelly’s staffers say business has almost doubled on weekends since the area has completely dumped urban dance. Wow.
In fact, I’ve driven through Westport and the P&L District and Martini Corner the past few weekend nights and Westport is moving quickly towards having the biggest crowds. They’re 90% young and white with some older people mixed in at places like Harry’s and McCoy’s.
And Westport has added three new restaurants in just this past eight weeks; Green Room Burgers, The Boot (Italian) and Sama Zama (Japanese). Meanwhile nightclubs like Gusto and the Union are wall-to-wall weekend nights playing Techno for mostly white crowds. They’re packed – it’s hard to move – man, it reminds me of the 80’s and 90s..
Westport is following a national trend by eliminating the large young urban crowds.
Crowds that have demonstrated time and again the desire to act poorly and create violence. My trips to LA and Vegas echo what Westport has done. The P&L District got a bad rap being called Power & White. They’re just trying to survive.
In time Westport will again become KC’s No. 1 entertainment district – it already has on weeknights.
They have the only decent nighttime crowds during the week. During which time, barring a special event, the P&L is dead.
Here’s something you may not have noticed.
To demonstrate how strong the trend against hip hop and rap is, almost no young, urban films are being made today because movie theaters also don’t want those crowds either.
Even though the movie THE HELP – which was a well done Academy Award quality picture – took the blame hit for the Plaza mini riot last summer because of the kids outside the theatre there to see that movie that night!
Hollywood has all but dumped the "black gimmick" films.
No more glorified gang pics. In fact television has quietly dumped shows that even hint at anything close. Why? Advertisers are thin for those shows.
Radio has followed, with even KPRS having slipped badly in the last few years. The Rock 98,9, 101 The Fox, Q104 and Mix 93.3 now battle for the top slot KPRS used to hold but no longer does.
Westport is on the way back to the top. The Kellys and Bill Nigro, James Westfall, Aaron Confessori and the rest of its owners have decided to eliminate all violence and crime. And they’re close now – very close.
In fact, this summer the extra cops and barracades may be toast.
Thats right, BACK TO THE FUTURE.
Freeing up as many as 30 KCMO cops to work the streets on the weekends can only help the city. Meanwhile the mayor and new police chief remain silent over the clear movement of young urban crowds out of the entertainment zones.
"We are so sick of the violence and trouble it has caused, enough already," one KCMO cop told me. "It’s time to move on."
And as Westport adds new restaurants, bars and festivals, its numbers will continue to grow.
Way to go Westport.
WOW!! Thats a GREAT STORY!!
And I agree totally!! Hang that genre on your sign out front, gun fire is soon follow. Its not racist, its not discrimination, its simple fact!
I stopped going to Westport when young thugs would stand in the street and dare you to hit them as you drove through. May be a good time to come back!
Fantastic News. Love it.
Good call. I am all for Westport coming back. I used to party there every weekend. I’m getting too old for the dance clubs, but Harry’s and McCoy’s sound pretty good now. I will return.
You Are Way Unfair
Glazer, first off, all Westport problems are not because of black people. It’s the economy stupid. You are wrong about LA, plenty of nice clubs for blacks exist today. We own the music business. So this just sounds like a pissed off white boy blaming others for his own failures, thats all. White people cause crime and problems just as much as blacks.
Irv I would suggest the reason black people “own the music business” is because the morons who buy that crap are too stupid to learn how to pirate it.
another point
I don’t think not wanting hip hop clubs is necessarily about race. Jazz, blues, and soul are all “black” music and I doubt anyboby would doubt anybody in there right mind would be too worried about a club featuring any of those music genres.
@ IRV
Statements like this, “White people cause crime and problems just as much as blacks.” is categorically, metaphysically, galactically unture.
It is astonishing how violent and criminal African Americans are vis a vis whites.
Department of Justice statistics for 2005 show that Blacks, who made up 12.1% of the population, accounted for 52.2% of murders. Whites, including Latinos, represented 74.7% of the population and committed 45.8% of murders.
This translates to 24.7 murders committed per 100,000 blacks. There were 3.38 murders per 100,000 whites, including Latinos.
When Anglo whites are separated from Latino Whites, the figures show 7.73 murders per 100,000 Latino-whites and 2.63 murders per 100,000 Anglo-Whites.
Per capita that rate is 5 times as bad.
This article will not only refute your fallacious and ridiculous claim.
http://www.amren.com/ar/1999/07/index.html
The figures are all over from the FBI site, the US Dept of Justice and articles relatitng to those stats are avaialbe everywhere.
NO. The answer is a resounding NO! White people in NO WAY cause as much crime and violence as African Americans.
IRV, lets not leave out rape.
The contrasts are even more stark in the case of interracial rape. Studies from the late 1950s showed that the vast majority of rapes were same-race offenses. Research in Philadelphia carried out in 1958 and 1960 indicated that of all rapes, only 3.2 percent were black-on-white assaults and 3.6 percent were white-on-black. Since that time, the proportion of black-on-white rapes has soared. In a 1974 study in Denver, 40 percent of all rapes were of whites by blacks, and not one case of white-on-black rape was found. In general, through the 1970s, black-on-white rape was at least ten times more common that white-on-black rape. [319]
Because interracial rape is now overwhelmingly black on white, it has become difficult to do research on it or to find relevant statistics. The FBI keeps very detailed national records on crime, but the way it presents rape data obscures the racial element rather than clarifies it. Dr. William Wilbanks, a criminologist at Florida International University, had to sift carefully through the data to find that in 1988 there were 9,406 cases of black-on-white rape and fewer than ten cases of white-on-black rape. [320] Another researcher concludes that in 1989, blacks were three or four times more likely to commit rape than whites, and that black men raped white women thirty times as often as white men raped black women. [321]
Interracial crime figures are even worse than they sound. Since there are more than six times as many whites as blacks in America, it means that any given black person is vastly more likely to commit a crime against a white than vice versa.
Notes
317. “What Should Be Done,” US News & World Report (August 22, 1989), p. 54. See also Department of Justice, Criminal Victimization in the United States, 1987 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989), p.7.
318. Department of Justice, Criminal Victimization in the United States, 1987.
319. Gary D. LaFree, “Male Power and Female Victimization: Toward a Theory of Interracial Rape,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 88, No. 2 (September 1982).
320. William Wilbanks, “Frequency and Nature of Interracial Crimes,” submitted for publication to the Justice Professional (November 7, 1990). Data derived from Department of Justice, Criminal Victimization in the United States, 1987, p. 53.
It is terrible.
“Interracial crime figures are even worse than they sound. Since there are more than six times as many whites as blacks in America, it means that any given black person is vastly more likely to commit a crime against a white than vice versa. ”
After sifting through this stuff, it looks like you are 565 times more likely to get raped by a black person, than a white person.
That is NOT per capita.
Really nice.
Mike Nailed It
This has nothing to do with race,,, it’s that the “urban” music seems to attract those who are enamored with a “gangsta” way of life. ( By the way, there are rural country bars, nearly all white, that can also be nearly as bad, with “redneck trailer trash” who think that picking fights is a good way to prove their manhood.) Blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, native African music (like Fela Kuti from Nigeria),and even old doo-wop are great !!!! It’s just that music which sends violent messages tend to attract violent people. Music that is fun and enjoyable, or moving emotionally, or makes you think about something in a new way… those are what make music such an uplifting, inspiring thing. Unfortunately, much of the “rap” and “hip-hop” today tend to send messages promoting violence, drug use, and promiscuity, leading impressionable young people into believing that this is the normal way to live. Hence, when they go out, instead of being peaceful and having a good time, they think they need to “act out” and prove how “bad” they can be in order to be accepted by their peers. Nobody out to just have a few drinks and enjoy hanging out with their friends want to be around that kind of atmosphere, always looking over their shoulder, or afraid to walk down the street. Westport did the right thing. This is not about being black or white.. it’s about avoiding violence and promoting safety.
nICE WORK gLAZE
See what happens when you write about what you know? Nice comments all.
We don’t hate you (well maybe some people do), but when you write about stuff you don’t know…you suck.
This was a nice piece.
Really.
response to Mary
You are absolutely right. Well said.
What if Wesport…
Does a first of the month night? Capitalizing on the fact that the welfare checks just got cashed!!! Keep the right drinks (henessy) flowing. They could even serve cheap fried chicken and hot sauce! They should have a pharmacy open late, with a back door open (easy access to some promethazine). Bars could have free Jolly Ranchers!!! (sippin on some sizzurp) Then there should be a cheap daycare close by, so that hefty white girl skanks could board their three babies from a possible 4 or 5 homies (Jai’quan…YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER!!!)…(oh yeah, and if the kids are mixed, they will have way more apostrophes than the previous generation. ive done some scientific research, and it seems that fat white girls are carriers of a recessive “apostrophe gene” that can only be dislodged by large black “thermometer”, studies also show that the normally traditional smaller white “thermometers” hardly work at all. In my PhD thesis (no it hasn’t been published yet..goddamn graduate school) i have also noticed a trend of difference in the scientists that use each “thermometer”. The ones who use the smaller white ones use a latex probe cover, and the large black ones almost never do (ok the black ones never do) The gene seems to only be carried by the fat white girls matched with the black thermometer. This research has been frustrating, it is really incomplete, i have absolutely no information on any type of black girl using a white thermometer latex probe cover or not. But it does steadily show that a white girl and a white thermometer never produce an apostrophe. ANYWAY, the welfare night would be a KILLER success. We could warn all scared white people to stay away from westport for like three days. Then the welfare money will be gone for another month!!! White people get to have safe fun until then.
This is de’vils adv’ocate signing off…………………………
response to devils advocate
You should just find you a skinhead club out in the backwoods somewhere. You and your sister/wife could go there when you get tired of hanging out in the trailer.
Thanks for the invitation Mike…
hi mike… when i first read what you wrote i thought “oh no i have offended some yuppie and i should start apologizing.” but then i looked a little closer and noticed your post started with the line…”you should just find you”… so i noticed you weren’t offended at all. And (yes i am flattered but i must decline) i saw that it was just an invitation from a humble little hayseed with half a brain (congrats! thats got to be a family record) to do your customary ritual of banging your sister at a skinhead club. I guess you just thought “hey a guy like me! hes buligernt too, shucky darn, i arta invite him to thu rebel racist skinhed klub” (i tried hard to spell that in your language, sorry if i didn’t get the dialogue right) (p.s. sorry for using a big word like “if”) But no mike, i must let you know a little secret………..sarcasm!!! no no no thats not a magical root that will help you attain (again sorry) the true treasure of every rednecks life…(season tickets to NASCAR, and a leather jacket with TIDE or LOWES printed on it) But it really is…well lets set up a scenar…never mind, lets set up a fishin’ show that has you and your 400 pound sister in a boat, and she says to you “hey mikey, does this make me look fat?” and you respond with “shoot daisy, dupens on whut yer talkin bout, that bathin suit or thu pontoon boat yer layin in?” thats kind of an example of sarcasm. So now do you understand? Oh and by the way. In the last sentence of your post mike, you mentioned my siter wife, no no no i am not a female mormon either. I have no idea where you got that idea but, just enjoy your inbred sister wives and riding around on bicycles bothering people…..
response to d.a.
Golly gee, youuns dun figurred me owt. u wa two smahrt fur me. You should take your sidesplittingly hilarious material on stage. Glaze should beg you to perform at Stanford’s. With your comic genius, you could make him millions of dollars. If he had welfare night there, you could get up and perform. I would pay to see that!
Mike…now you are just making fun
Play nice mike…Glaze could never make millions at Stanford’s
thats just mean
Spot on
Great piece Craig.
Good column
Nice column, Craig. Irv, you’re an idiot. DA, you’re hysterical! Mike, you’re a bigger idiot.
Resonse to patti
If you think DA is hysterical, calling you an idiot would be a compliment.
Plenty of Room
There’s plenty of room for hip-hop in the ethnically correct Jazz District. I hope Westport never, ever, lets ’em back in there.