Maybe it was the fact the Kansas City Royals played host to the St. Louis Cards…
That likely brought 15,000 out of town folks in for the weekend and that’s a lot of bodies. Maybe it was the cooler weather Friday and Saturday and people were tired of not getting out on the town.
Whatever it was, man this town rocked these past two nights.
There was good news almost everywhere. Legends looked to have its best weekend of the summer. Even the fireworks drew thousands of smiling faces to the shopping area. I left Legends and headed to Westport to visit my pal Bill Nigro.
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And yes, I’ll admit it, I took Black Barbie with me. Maybe she helped light things up.
And people, Westport was just unreal.
It looked like 1979!
Packed, a good-looking crowd – no hip hoppers for the most part – and a boatload of hotties. By far it’s the best I’ve seen Westport look in years. I mean years. Around midnight there were lines to get into most of the clubs. Wall-to-wall everywhere, from Kellys to Guesto.
Impressive is an understatement.
You have to hand it to the leaders of Westport, from the Kellys to James Westphal. Damn.
What an amazing turn around in just one year. And sans the barricades, thank God. Well done.
It gets better.
Power and Light was packed as well. They did have a large number of urban youth around the outside of the entertainment district. And when Monique and I got inside there lines everywhere. Even in the courtyard there were thousands of people dancing.
It was a more mixed crowd than Westport.
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Can you believe Westport had the cleaner cut crowd?
Likely this is because of the dance clubs in the P & L being more hip hop and rap oriented. Westport is almost total Tech, a grunge atmosphere for 20 somethings.
Both areas boasted mostly 20-30 year olds – young, hip – and a ton of talent if you know what I mean.
It’s the new Facebook Generation. I was practically the lone Boomer.
Westport had strong security as did the P & L. I did witness one incident outside Power and Light. About 10 cop cars, and five officers on foot tackling a young black guy. He was running down the street doing who knows what but they seemed to have it under control.
It was that all too rare example of a happening Kansas City.
Bring in some out of towners that want to party, offer up some well run entertainment districts and boom! Totally busy. It was the perfect storm. I thought, why can’t it be this way more often? Too bad our city leaders don’t go out and LEARN what is right and wrong with this city, its economy, its lack of almost any tourism that matters.
A footnote: KCMO wants to give Cordish Company the money to turn a condo downtown into apartments. Aren’t these the same folks who built the P & L then told the city to fuck off when it came to payments, tax evaluations and concern about its failure?
Understand this though; Cordish is correct. This is the right move. The only way to get ANYONE to move downtown is apartments.
The condos concept has failed. Nobody bought them.
Today less than nobody is buying downtown. The apartment style is the way to go, maybe citywide. We need more people living here.
Kansas City is a truly nice town. I’ve always said we have so much to offer, but few people come here except to see grandma or for a ball game or two. It will take the kind of marketing and leadership KCMO does not have. They have almost none. Haven’t for 50 years.
Before that KC was on the map in a big way. Hey, maybe there’s hope after all.
updates/
Glaze…was out friday night with some friends from St. Louis. They are some of the top business people from that town.
Unfortunately there were fewer fans from st. louis this year than previous years so the influx of fans was strong
but not like it was in previous years. However…glaze what you are seeing is this…
1. the consumer is back. Spending money! More money in their pockets with the payroll tax cuts/more stability
in the economy and the job market is exploding. I don’t care what the reports say 8.2/8.1…if someone wants
to work …jobs are open. I mentioned this earlier that companies all over the nation are having trouble finding
worker. STEM jobs are not being filled because there’s just not enough qualified people to fill them. Manufacturing
is starting to take off and those companies will be hiring. Spoke with 3 former employees of mine in the
mortgage industry and their 6 MONTHS BEHIND…refinancing is hitting stride again because rates are the
lowest ever. Money is cheap. People are spending again. It’s not just that kc had 10,000 visitors…its the
consumer is coming back. if a business is positioned correctly to take advantage of the cycle…they
can enjoy huge profits. Corporations are making record breaking profits and now they are realizing
they have to hire to keep up with demand. Sales companies are dying for sales people…and right now
there are opeining for making 60-80K in the first year!!!!! We’re on an upward path. Watch florida/ohio and
other state hit hard during the recession…they’re on track for a huge comback with economic
growth and huge increases in job openings. (see gov. scott and kasich…both repubs who had hoped
the economy would die but are seeing huge increases in revenues in their states)
2. St Louis: we went to a party saturday night with someof the top business people from st. louis
and they said their town is feeling the surge too. some biz owners worried that they couldna’t get
qualified workers and that the flow of inventory to their companies was falling behind. One man who
is in the glass industry said he could expand his business by 50% in the next 2 years but couldn’t
get the product nor the labor. Unemployment payments have been cut so people have no choice but
to go to work….and the new immigration law obama did is a b riliant move..politically and economically!
3. Jobs bill: repubs lied. they said when they took office they would focus on jobs/job/jobs…but there’s
a bill on their desks waiting to be approved to put 1 million people to work…rebuilding infrastructure
roads…highways..brindges…schools…etc…that they won’t let thru…they want to kill the economy for
personal reasons…and they tried to do it betting against this country…and they’re going to lose.
4. Investment: am going to dallas. We are looking for investment capital. One of the top
equity lenders there said that regardless of who wins the election…taxes will go up…probably on
capital gains and upper income. There’s a flood of money now looking for investment opportunities.
If you need capital…nows the time to go get it…its cheap and its available…but you need a strong
track record.
5. Kc…the next few weeks leading up to all star game give this town some needed exc tment
and momentum. A shot in the arm to get this town rolling again is much needed…especially as
we come out of the recession…
6. obama increase electoral college lead…more on that later.
7. downtown….we all beat up the downtown area but theres a definite market for that area.
its been tthe victim of a down economy and hopefully it will grow and be ab le to
stand on it’s own legs. I suggested the city go to anshutz and tell them…get us an nba
team and do it quick…if okc can do it…so can we….and put the heat on them to get it
done. Saw mark cuban on tv and he said some cities need to let go of their teams so
they can get into profitable venue….can we say Sprint Center?
8. downtown living: not what it was cracked up to be. Inconveniences galore…
priced too high for the area and not enough buyers…
9. st. louis had a huge rennaissance (spelling?) and came back…so can kc…if
the innovative people get together and create a strong plan for the future…the
recession came at a tough time for this city….hopefully is full speed ahead.
really?
when did you start caing about spelling errors?
funny line iron sheik
you got me there. I’m usualy in a hurry and can’t get the spelling always right. the word rennaissance is one
word i know i misspelled (sp) ?
sorry….
so many hotties, Craig, because so many high schoolers
You saw so many “hotties” in Westport because the Skills USA competition is in town. Skills USA is like a science or invention fair for the technical school crowd. You were leering at teenagers, bro.
You Can Always Tell
When Cards fans are in town because they never go ANYWHERE without their Birds On The Bat gear. They’re baseball’s version of Nebraska fans, no other clothes in their wardrobes. We get it, you like your team, now can you at least rock a button-down and some nice slacks for a night on the town? Hopefully they at least spent more $ than our neighbors to the north used to on their trips down this way.
KU fans are the same way on the road
Funny…KU, NU, and STL Cardinals fans all sporting their teams colors while on the road. What do they all have in common? Huge team pride fostered by multiple championships and an extensive history of hall of fame players, coaches, etc. I think you’ll find Yankee fans, Celtic fans, & Laker fans do much the same thing.
One Thing To Show Your Colors
On the road, I’ve been known to sport a KU shirt while in other parts of the country, but do you have to be covered head to toe all weekend at every stop from the casino to the P&L? I’m sorry, that is totally unique to Husker/Card fan, they simply own no other piece of clothing. Rubes.
remember the 90’s with the chiefs
I remember being in new orleans airport seeing dozens of kc chiefs fans with montana/allen jerseys.
I rmember going to denver and seeing the kc fans wearing all red and those horrible balloon pants.
I remember being in l.a. and seeing hundred of chiefs fans at the game/airport.
And going to chiefs away games and seeing the red.
They are fans. they have winning histories…just won a world series….remember after
1985? we were once proud too. Why knock it….its what they love and what they
follow.
I just wish we’d have the chance to wear those champion shirts and jerseys.
May not happen. But why jump on people who have a passion for their
team and their city.
Maybe one day we’ll be able to boast about our teams again…I wish!!!!!!
No Class
It used to be “cute” to dress your kid up like one of the players when you went to the ball game.
Now we have grown men dressing this way.
Weird.