Kansas City hates being looked down upon…
We don’t like playing second fiddle to St. Louis and don’t like getting lumped in with third rate “flyover” cities like Wichita, Omaha and Des Moines.
We hate it.
That’s why for the better part of more than 15 years, the thing that pissed off Kansas City Star readers of my column most were my tongue-in-cheek references to KC as “the cowtown.”
Hey, Kansas City is World Class with attractions like Major League Baseball, the NFL, Nelson-Atkins Museum and Country Club Plaza. We’ve got two – count ’em – Apple Stores and two – count ’em again – Trader Joe’s. We’ve got the Sprint Center, Sporting Kansas City and one of the finest stadiums in all Major League Soccer. We’ve got some killer local barbecue joints and most of the important fast food chains, with the exception of In–N–Out Burger.
Nothing third rate about us.
So while lowly Wichita goes ga-ga over the grand opening later this week of its first Whole Foods, that’s old hat to us.
Tom Becka, Omaha radio personality, tweeted a picture of McCartney eating a sweet treat from eCreamery.
On the other hand, as Cornhusker-turned–Star business writer Kevin Collison used to enjoy pimping us, towns like his beloved Omaha are catching up. And if we’re not careful they could end up with more nice stuff than us besides Warren Buffett and a nicer zoo. Hey, they’ve already repatriated former KMBZ talk show host Tom Becka for crying out loud.
Which brings us to Des Moines.
If you’re a more-or-less lifelong KC dude like me, chances are you haven’t given Des Moines a second thought. Even after Star Magazine pronounced it as hip a year or so ago.
Seriously, Des Moines, who even cares?
I was intrigued though. Despite that the byline on the story describing Des Moines as “happening” belonged to Ed Eveld, one of the nicest but least hip people I ever came across in my 16 years at the 18th and Grand.
Then I learned through my high end audiophile connections that while KC barely even had an audio store worthy of the power to blow it to hell, Des Moines had two. Two well established, still thriving high end audio boutiques that carried prestigious names like Bowers & Wilkins, Audio Research, McIntosh, Krell, Rega, Magnepan, Paradigm, Anthem and Monitor Audio.
Shoot, one of them – the 40-plus year-old Audio Labs – even has an in house service department. Go figure, that’s all but unheard of in this day and age.
Try finding a service center in Best Buy before that chain goes out of biz in however many years.
So I’d been looking for an excuse to make a road trip to Des Moines and this past Friday I finally got one. A concert with the band Future Islands at a club called Wooly’s (it used to be a Woolworth’s) in the seven year old part of Des Moines they call East Village.
Original, huh?
But never-mind, because after spending two days in Des Moines, I have to say Easy Ed was right. It actually is a fairly hip burg. Especially for a town that ranges in population from about 200,000 and change for its “urban core” to just under 600,000 for whatever passes for the “metro.”
So while I’m going to stop short of sending you all there for your next vacation, let’s just say if you’re looking for a fun, four-hour drive getaway, Des Moines blows Wichita, Omaha and Springfield away. It’s actually worth a visit.
IMHO.
I’ll explain why shortly, so stay tuned…
I’m guessing your last half dozen or so trips to Iowa before this had something to do with the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Good guess…
Like when a high school chum and I ventured to Newton, Iowa to what was then the Wrestling Hall of Fame to watch Handsome Harley Race of Kansas city be inducted.
Des Moines was just a “flyover” to us though, never even occurred to us to stop and check it out.
But times have changed.
Stomper, you know all the good wrastlin’ stops, don’t you?
Just went by the old South Broadway Athletic Club down in Soulard this weekend when the family went by City Museum.
Ah, the wrasslin’ matches we watched there…
Thanks, Dude. Always like to highjack KCC columns when they even make a slight turn towards any mention of professional “wrasslin” . Can’t say I ever saw any matches in SBAC in St. Louis but many of the same faces that graced us here in KC were also regulars in the St. Louis area. Admin and I saw many a match, not only in Memorial Hall, but also Municipal Auditorium and even Saturday’s at WDAF. Can’t forget the Saturday night matches put together by Gust Karras in St. Joe either. Guessing there are enough old guys here that saw some of the “athletes” in the 1960’s with fond memories.
Admin, throw us a bone !!
Thanks again Dude, for the shout out.
Being employed is pretty hip, which Mr. Eveld still is.
I don’t know how hip it is – in fact the two have virtually nothing in common where the Kansas City Star is concerned.
However he is quite fortunate to have dodged the bullet this long, especially when you think about some of the heavy hitters there like brian McTavish who didn’t. Who was actually a very hip guy.
And hipsters like Bob Trussell and Alice Thorson who who were demoted to part time status.
The Lord works in mysterious ways
You had me at TWO HIGH END AUDIO STORES.
Really high end stores…
More on that later.
But with Kief’s at Death’s Door in Lawrence and The A/V Design Studio in OP hanging by a thread, Kansas City is in the very odd position of facing the prospect of have a used record store as its only high end audio outlet.
Very strange.
Say no more, SAY NO MORE!
You know, I think you would enjoy living in Brooklyn.
You think Hearny could tough it in Bed Stuy or Bushwick?
Or is he more of a Park Slope type?
I could totally live in Brooklyn.
Hey, I lied in Mayfield, Kentucky.
But if my flying saucer crash landed in Des Moines, I wouldn’t have to don the black armband that I wore those three months in Topeka summer before last!