From one extreme the other…
It’s no secret that for years Ward Parkway Shopping Center has had an on-again, off again problem with urban teens hanging around its movie theaters. Much like Cinemark’s Palace on the Plaza today and Crown Center and Cinemark in Merriam in the not too distant past.
For now however, the coast is clear at Ward Parkway
That according to nearby neighbor Jeff Glazer.
“The movie theater’s been improved – they cleaned it up – and you just don’t see any of that anymore,” Glazer says. “Not at all – zero – they completely got rid of the entire issue. I would say the last two years it’s just completely disappeared.”
That’s a lot bit for a dude who four years ago felt like he was in a race war.
“My home was vandalized a little over a year ago,” Glazer told me at the time. “The black kids congregate there at Ward Parkway after the movies – about 500 to 600 deep – and our neighborhood association complained and they put in a police officer there afterwards.”
Unlike Cinemark on the Plaza, that seemed to do the trick, Glazer says.
Because before the post movie action at night had been intense.
“The catch is there’s a bus stop for the kids to get back to the inner city on the corner of like Wornall and 85th Street,” Glazer told me. “So my block is a shortcut to there.
“It’s scary, around 11:30 p.m. or midnight there were groups of kids walking by. One time my fiancé came out to see why the dog was barking and five or six kids were swinging on our basketball goal. And she said, ‘Hey guys, don’t do that’ and one kid pulled his shirt up over his face and came up to the door and started mimicking her and mocking her with threatening gestures.’
“I came home one night from work and they just pelted my house with rocks. They busted out five, maybe six of my windows – and knocked over my basketball goal.”
Obviously Glazer is relieved, but who really knows what truly turned the trick allowing Ward Parkway to solve its “kiddie” problems while the Plaza continues to struggle with its.
Two possibilities:
— For one thing, movie ticket prices for age 13 and up are substantially less – more than 70 percent less and nearly $5 cheaper per ticket – at Cinemark on the Plaza than AMC at Ward Parkway.
— And when Ward Parkway locks it’s doors at night there’s pretty much nowhere to run and nothing to see or do, unlike the Plaza.
The latest: Earlier this month Ward Parkway dropped the hammer on mall walkers.
They’re no longer allowed to galavant about the promenade before 8 a.m.
The new rules seem to suggest as well that the largely seniors crowd park their cars way over in the Leawood lot west of State Line. The idea being that prime parking by the mall on the Missouri side should be reserved for paying customers rather than tenants and over-the-hill gym rats.
Sneaky seniors who slip into the common area before 8 a.m. – say by cutting though Starbucks which opens at 5:30 a.m. – will be ordered outside to wait in their cars until after 8 a.m.
“I don’t get it,” says Ward Parkway habitué Jeff Magaliff.
Perhaps I can help.
Google mall walkers and you’ll find all sorts of stories about how businesses love them because they turn into shoppers after their workouts. However on more careful examination, it turns out they can be major pain in the butt as well.
A gent who goes by sickler labeled them just that on a sports betting website:
“You know the ones, non-shoppers in there for the exercise, too cheap to spring for a gym membership. Their numbers increase tenfold during the winter and unbearably humid summer days. Good way for the cheapos to stay/get fit without battling the elements.
“I was clipped on the arm by one today. Exited a store and was greeted by the forceful hand of not just an ordinary walker but a POWER walker! She apologized for the body contact then continued on her merry way, moving almost as fast as your typical jogger, arms swinging to and fro like a marching soldier.”
And a New York Times story noted that store owners don’t like early bird mall walkers because they wrap up their routines before most of the stores are even open.
Believe it or not, a Chicago Tribune story about a mall that told its walkers to take a hike, resulted in, “a fury that traveled all the way to Kansas, where the mall’s corporate office phones rang constantly with what the manager called ‘senior citizen threats.’ ”
Got that, senior citizen threats?
“The walkers say mall owners are using liability as an excuse to close the mall to before-business-hours walkers, some of whom have exercised there for 20 years,” the story reads. “Mall owners said rising insurance premiums were one factor but acknowledged that liability isn’t the whole story.
“The seniors track in snow and dirt, take up the best parking places and routinely ask mall management for coupons, T-shirts and gifts…and they don’t spend enough.”
I dunno, but if Ward Parkway’s worried about seniors tracking in snow and dirt now, wait till they hoof it all the way in from that parking lot in Leawood where the boy band Hanson held a concert several years back.
And say what you will about tight-fisted blue hairs, if you’re gonna have attendance problems at a mall, seniors are undoubtedly the way to go. Because if nothing else, the chances of them tearing down Glazer’s basketball goal or stoning his home-sweet-home have got to be pretty darn slim.
No matter how testy they may get…
So that’s it.
Mall walkers.
Wow.
Yep. Mallwalkers.
Hide yo kids, hide yo husband, hide yo wife.
They climbin’ in yo windows, tryin’ to find a free workout.
Ha I was just thinking about that this morning, channeling Antoine Dodson while trying to reply to Harley: you are so dumb.
Nice comment, No News
Clever
They arrested a highway sniper suspect today. Waited until Holders plane was wheels up as not to make him look foolish. Forte wont give a description but fox4 gives a picture of the suspect, a black male in his 30s.
You said he was black. What a racist.
I always thought these people to be a bit rude as I will often try to shop on a weekday to avoid the crowds. I guess in the end you treat them like loitering teens- they have to buy something if they want to hang around and they can’t disrupt the other patrons.
Interesting concept…a little harsh, but interesting
At least they aren’t illegally parking motorcycles in front of the mall.
Wow.
Just a straight up unabashed racist article.
Someone please show Glazer’s black comic guests, and his black customers, what he thinks of black kids. Something tells me this article will find its way around.
While most racists morons haven’t the balls to put their distaste for black people out in the open like this, but not Hearne and your Klan friend Glazer. You guys are willing to let it all hang out!
Good luck living in a city surrounded by 100’s of thousands of people you hate.
Curtis is dead on the money, but he lets Jeff Glazer off of the hook in my opinion. We should all be ashamed and filled with white guilt after reading that Jeff Glazer happened to notice that 500 black kids were ripping up the flora and fauna in his front yard, tresspassing and violently threatening his wife late at night, and tossing rocks through his window.
By now, we should all know the rules (Not me, I KNOW THE RULES!) and when large gatherings of black folks in their teens and twenties wreak havoc (These kids actually get credit for home work in history class when this happens under the new Common Core guidelines in Civil War Era Battles, specifically Sherman’s March Too The Sea– if only Mr. Glazer, racist that he is would have taken the time to check.), we are NOT to notice!
This is excellent training for we journalists (snicker) in the making too. The appropriate response, when the police stepped over all the broken glass and lifted their voices to be heard over Mrs. Glazer’s sobs and asked for a description of the skolars, would have gone like this.
POLICE OFFICER: “What hapened?”
GLAZER: “My wife was terrified by youths who broke out our windows and came up on the porch.”
POLICE OFFICER: “About how many were there?”
GLAZER: “500 to 600.”
POLICE OFFICER: “That sounds about right, average for a weekend then?”
GLAZER: “Yes sir.”
POLICE OFFICER: “Do you have a description of any of them?”
GLAZER: “Well…, you know…, I think they were in their teens and early twenties.”
POLICE OFFICER: “Good job, that will do it, we will get right on it.”
GLAZER: “Will the media show up?”
POLICE OFFICER: *slaps his knee and laughs* “Hey guys! Glazer wants to know if the media will show up!” *hilarity ensues with the crunching of glass under boots and the police move out*
GLAZER: *under his breath* “Yeah, that was stupid.”
—————————————————————————————–
See you guys on the Communist News Network!!
You lost me after “Curtis” but I’m sure this is a fun story that simply furthers the obvious point that Hearne and Glazer are unabashed racists. Thanks for sharing!
Easy Curtis,
Just reporting what happened to Glazer. I was at Ward Parkway, FYI, several times when they had these issues. I remember the daughter, I believe, of a prominent black official being arrested one night when they still had that video arcade just outside the entrance to the theaters.
Not passing judgement, just passing along some facts
The place you are referring to is Aladdin’s Castle. Saw someone get stabbed there at a Street Fighter 2 machine back in the day for talking smack on some hoodrat who was all thumbs. Ahh memories. I also snuck into Species there when they still had theaters downstairs and saw all of Natasha Hentsridge’s talents on display too.
And I can confirm that Ward Parkway used to be a crapshow of Youth In Revolt but they did make a conscious effort to rebrand the mall by putting in more upscale stores like Trader Joe’s to bring in the yuppies who spend too much on groceries. Closing Alladin’s Castle was probably the first step. Too many lil’ hoppers with no quarters and a bad attitude to those whose parents gave them an extra fiver to feed the machines.
For the record, I have no such distaste, Curtis Blow
But thanks for thinking of me
AMC Ward Parkway doesn’t allow parentless kids under 18, good thing no bus line goes to Town Center Plaza or Independence Center
That’s a pretty strict policy and one that Cinemark is highly unlikely to enact, Frank…
But combined with everything else, it’s working and AMC is raking it in.
Cinemark on the Plaza – on the other hand – doesn’t have the cache and luxury amenities Ward Parkway does. And they’re unlikely to get them anytime soon.
They just choked out probably 10s of thousands a year or so ago to delouse the place of bedbugs and put in all new seating. Unfortunately the theater still looks a bit long in the tooth and they don’t have those bedroom, suburban communities to draw upon.
So they’ve gotta cut deals and try and sell as much food and drink as possible.
And who knows what they’ll do when their lease comes up or the Plaza offers them an out. Which is maybe unlikely as well.
Outside of office tenants it’s hard to imagine how they would repurpose that space. Offices, maybe?
There has been good success in recent years repurposing movie theaters into Gyms/Health Clubs. The SouthGlen in Overland Park became the super-big 24 hour fitness ‘superclub’.
I simply don’t believe this source. I live in Brookside and frequently shop at this mall; my wife and I like the theater, too. They don’t even allow kids without a parent at this theater, and I’ve been at that mall on weekends and evenings many times, and I’ve never seen unattended teens of any race hanging out or making trouble. Maybe it was like that four or more years ago, but we’ve been in this area for three years, and we shop at that mall about twice per week, at various times of the day and evening (usually weekends), and I’ve certainly never seen anything like what is described here. There are—gasp!—-black people shopping there, but mostly families, and not teens or gang types at all. There are lots of security guards around, too. Now, this source might be telling the truth about the vandalism: south of 75th, neighborhoods and houses aren’t so nice. But I seriously doubt that gangs of teens, any color, were at that mall or that theater. I mean, what, were they terrorizing the folks at Starbucks while drinking their lattes and then heading to Trader Joe’s? Maybe a little stop at Pier 1 to check out some throw pillows? Um, no.
nice info anddrew…I haven’t been to ward parkway in years…
except to see my friend who owned the tuxedo store.
are these people screwing up the story…I went to a movie there
like 5 years ago and had no problems. My lake buddy who
owned mr. bulkies had no problem.
is it the media ?
so hearne….have you been to the mall lately.
maybe wiward and hearnstein can hide in the trash receptacles
and go “undercover” for this late breaking b ig timem story!!!!!!
can’t wait!!!!!
Time to put on your thinking cap, Harley.
Of course you didn’t have any problem watching a movie at Ward Parkway. I’ve been there several times lately for movies and otherwise.
The problem was the late night weekend movies where the kids would congregate and hang afterwards. Duh.
Did you hang out after your movie was over late at night when you went there five years ago? Five years? Good to hear an expert opinion from Mr. Man About Town!
Told status:
TOLD X
not told
When I left the area in 1998 there were large crowds of black teens wandering around Ward Parkway at night. Not saying it was good or bad – I never had any problems – but they were there. Three years in Brookside is hardly a deep pool of experience. I was living between Wornall and Holmes south of 75th and visiting the mall on a regular basis.
Oh, I don’t doubt that it happened in the past. But in the past few years? No. I’ve been there, my wife is there a lot, too, and that’s just not happening. The theater completed that remodel about two years ago now, for one, and those rules about no unattended kids have been in place and enforced for at least that long. We frequently go to movies there in the evenings and shop at the mall beforehand. Glazer claims that a little over a year ago, there were gangs of 500+ teens hanging around in his neighborhood and at that mall, and I’m saying that’s not true. Well, maybe a few were in his neighborhood, fine. Also, they pelted his home with rocks? Okay, well, vandalism happens….but was there a big pile of rocks just sitting in his front lawn, or did the teens fill their pockets beforehand? Did his “fiancé” scream racial slurs at the kids on his property? Did they really do anything more than maybe step a foot or two off the sidewalk before she went outside and threatened them? It’s interesting that he and his “fiancé” are the innocent victims here, just trying to protect their property and being all respectful to the teenagers, and then next thing they know, 500 teens come and attack their home with rocks and suddenly it’s gang territory. I’m saying he’s full of shit, and based on this crap he’s selling here, I’d be tempted to toss a rock his direction, too (but I wouldn’t; perhaps he’s had a few to the head already). Maybe some of this is based on a tiny sliver of truth from years ago, and that’s it.
Also, that sign is hardly evidence that mall walkers aren’t allowed anymore. It just says that no one was allowed inside prior to 8 a.m. on April 7th. I saw the sign, too, and figured they were doing maintenance that day. It doesn’t say “as of April 7th” or “after April 7th, no one will be allowed inside before 8 am.”
The interesting thing is that Ward Parkway – after battling the kids for years and years – finally got it right.
The $64 million question being, can the Plaza go to school on the mall and do the same?
With half as many movie seats, tons of leg room and plush recliners AMC almost has to tow the line with the nearly $12 tickets. They don’t need to be ordered to charge higher prices by Mary Sanchez of the Star. Secondly, they can clear, close and lock the mall at any time; not so the Plaza. And finally, there’s nothing else around of any interest, so why even go there?
The Plaza can’t – and shouldn’t tell Cinemark how to run its business. If the company thought it could get away with $11.75 movie tickets it probably would. However the name of the game is to put butts in seats and then stick it to them on the popcorn and sodas.
Cinemark can clear out the mall, but the kids just go outside and hook up with their friends for a hang and maybe a romp across the safe, cheerful and inviting Country Club Plaza where there’s almost always plenty to see and do – even if you’re broke.
The one wild card might be the unattended kids clause. The mall would have to enact it because it doesn’t look like Cinemark would be down with it, but I don’t see that really working either. They already have the curfew and I doubt they could stop unattended kids from entering the mall to buy movie tickets.
I think the main reason Ward Parkway was successful are the high prices, clearing and locking the mall after the last movies and the fact that there’s nothing else to do anywhere around there. In other words, the Plaza is basically stuck.
whyis it that the glazers always have problems?? seriously…they are
good people but bad sh*t follows them everywhere.
is it karma or just freak of nature.
As far as ward parkway clearing out the seniors…if it was my mall I would
want them there 24/7.
they would keep away the bad elements and they do spend money.
Ward parkway outside of the few stores tht are destination has lots of
problems. once a great place to hang (before Metcalf south) its now
a mish mash of nothing.
poor planning…poor management and had they done it right they could
have had the seniors in an out by 8:30.
but business is business…and these guys are probably right…
by the way ….are there no movie theatres in the urban core….someone could
make a mint putting one in there!!!!! these kids just wanna see a movie…
I know magic Johnson invests in these….maybe someone should approach him…
they ‘re big money makers…stan made billions on them….
HERES THE DEAL….THESE PROBLEMS HAVE PRETTY SIMPLE ANSWERS..
BUT NOONE HAS THE SENSE TO DO THEM.
LG (little glaze) ….move!!!!! if its not safe move!!!!!!
move out to our area…we’d love to have you and your fiancé….then we’d
get free tickets to tucker!!!!!! We’d love to have you but our subdivision
doesn’t allow temporary basketball goals…and besides you glazes are
football guys…
good luck this weekend…sell out the joint and make the haters fume while
they hunt for easter eggs……
How do you know there is a racial problem with this article?
The group of kids who are portrayed as a bad element, their race is mentioned immediately. Even the phrase “race war” makes an appearance.
Whereas the “mall walkers”, who are overwhelmingly white, their race isn’t mentioned at all.
Large gatherings of minors, regardless of race, can and does result in bad things happening. Kids will be kids. But, for example, when you look at the very white college campus riots that took place last month after tornament ball games, the race of those folks wasn’t made the focal point of the reporting. But had those kids been mostly black, there is no doubt that the Fox News’s of the world (and the Hearne Christophers and the Glazers of the world) would have made it an issue.
The Mall Walker’s demo was portrayed as mostly seniors.
Seniors are people, too and are often discriminated against, Good Luck. That’s why they were labeled so…because that’s who they are. If it had been farmers or Neo Nazis, they would have been labeled thusly.
What? You got a problem with identifying who that it is that’s involved if they happen to be black? How about gay? KKK?
Geez, grow up!
Which is why you only noted the demo of the kids as “kids” instead of noting that they were “black”? Oh wait, you didn’t stop at “kids”. Their race was explicitly noted via your good ol’ boy Glazer. The race of the old people wasn’t.
You not being able to see the diffenence in this is fun.
And of course you completely overlooked your “race war” note. Yeah, nice try. And when you edit the article to remove that “race war” reference, Google won’t forget it.
Your attempt here to deflect valid criticism is pretty laughable.
Perhaps you can use this as a learning experience. Of course we all know that you won’t. And the blantanlty racists commenters of your site know they have a home here. Congrats!
The local and national self deception continues.
Glazer tells Hearne that he has had problems with hundreds of Blacks in his neighborhood, gives details, times and is immediately called a liar. His wife, if we are to beleive our commenting cognescenti, is howling racial epithets out the front door in a paroxysm of racial antipathy. All this conjucture, is of course, taken as truth from those who are so emotionally married to a narrative, they become willfully impercipient (That is different than Harley/JoJo, he is psychologically and narcissistically damaged.) .
This story is metaphysically consistant with the thousands and thousands of black mob attacks that occur every year, all over the US. Read Colin Flaherty’s “White Girl Bleed A Lot”. Look at the thosuands of YouTube Videos of black mob violence. One commentor, mentions the only known riot of white kids as if that would justifiy, the dramatically dissproportionate amount of violence that is categorical and real, that takes place in, again, the thousands of black mob attacks every year in this county. On a per capita basis, the violence from only 13% of the population, is astonishing.
If you notice this violence, or comment on it, or write about it, as Hearne has done, you are called a racist. The reason you are called a racist, is because the attacks, the videos, the stats can’t be hidden any more.
Here is KC, jsut two years ago, the Mayor had to dive into the bushes while shots rang out from, you guessed it, a black mob, terrorizin the Plaza.
Last year, at the Iowa State Fair and the Wisconsin State Fair, thosuands of blacks screamed “Its BEAT WHITEY NIGHT!!”. But sure, Glazer must be a liar and we are all racists.
This summer, you will see the exact same violence all over the US and the exact same apologists will pretend it is not real.
Two groups have been axed from the mall in this article. The group that is predominately black has their race noted and those who have a problem with black folks lap it up (I can see the drool from here, you should wipe your chin). The group that is predominately white doesn’t have their race noted.
Certainly you are incapable of processing the disconnect in the above 3 sentences, just as Hearne is incapable of doing; birds of a feather and all that.
The only thing you have on your chin, is my balls.
Hey “Good Luck Chuck”, we were not breaking out any windows, tearing up property or scaring some lady in her house.
Maybe THAT should count for something.
Only because you don’t want to break your hip.
And again–
Hey “Good Luck Chuck”, we were not breaking out any windows, tearing up property or scaring some lady in her house.
You have no answer, because you have no defense.
Well, I suppose Hell has frozen over. Hearne was called a racist. The same guy who has actually defended the young scholars and yutes who turned the Plaza into Indian Springs. That’s rich. Hearne a racist. Welcome to the club Hearne, call Chuck to get fitted for a sheet and hood. FYI ….all cross burnings are BYOM….Bring your own matches.
I knew he was a big, fat racist just because intarweb trolls said so.
Trolls never lie.
FYI Hearne — That Hanson concert at Ward Parkway wasn’t “several years back”. It was 16 1/2 years ago —Nov. 18, 1997.
http://thd.danitza.org/events/1997events.html
Dude is getting old, oldtimer’s disease, racism and all.
Lay off him.