For years it’s been called the Wild, Wild Westport...
Truth is, it’s only wild after about 3 am on the rare, odd weekend nights.
The inner city bad guys are out late at night looking for trouble and they often cruise the area in and around Westport.
Why? Its near where they live.
It’s been a popular entertainment district for decades and the hood people think it’s cool to do their dirty work where they’ll get attention.
Sad thing is, Westport, our most popular entertainment district over the past 50 years, gets blamed for not doing enough to prevent crime.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I was there for over 30 years with Stanford’s,
All we did then – and they still do – – is work on security day and night.
Westport has one of the best private security forces in the city and the Midwest. They have the Kansas City Police down there nightly and in force on weekend nights in the summer.
Almost all the problems go down after 3 a.m. weekend nights.
And yet anything that happens nearby is blamed on Westport. Why?
It’s a name part of town that everybody knows and media like the Kansas City Star loves to crucify them..
Now there’s talk of forcing Westport to close earlier than 3 a.m. and its streets being privatized .
However, the bars make a huge amount of money between midnight and 3 a.m. on weekends.
And the late night action is also a reason to go to Westport in the first place because. Kansas bars close at 2 a.m. or earlier.
Westport wants the streets privatized so police can control them on busy weekend nights.
The restaurant and bar owners hate to close the streets at 10pm on weekends but it’s for public safety. Parking is tough down there as it is as we all know.
Westport’s owners meet weekly and monthly to work on public safety.
Almost all the night spots there have doormen and their own security staff as well. Over the past 50 years there has been maybe one shooting incident in a bar there. That’s a pretty damn good record with millions of guests over that time frame.
Face it, thugs are a nationwide problem.
It’s the reason most people don’t go out late at night anywhere much anymore.
That and D.U.I. checks.
However, to blame the folks n Westport who work their butts off and spend a fortune to make sure violence doesn’t take place is nuts.
They’re the good guys.
Westport has survived all the bad press and these issues for decades, other areas have not. For example the Plaza.
The Plaza is a much nicer area but it has no night life anymore – none.
No nightclubs or busy bars and that’s kinda sad.
The Plaza’s dead at 10 pm even on weekends.
Why?
Bad press about the Plaza’s young people problems the past handful of years.
Westport though has survived it’s bad press and done a great job of stopping crime for the most part. Leadership from longtime Westport community leaders like Bill Nigro, the Kelly’s, the Blochs and many more have made Westport overall as safe as any entertainment area that busy in the midwest.
The solution to Westport’s recent spate of problems:
Focus on the thugs who shouldn’t be around there in the first place. Go after the bad guys not the good guys. Give the police more options to just keep the cars from roaming the streets after 2 a.m, in that area. If you aren’t in a bar or shopping in Westport late at night you need not be there, right? For what?
Nightlife in KC isn’t near what it used to be – not half what it was just 10 or 15 years ago.
Don’t let the thugs make it worse.
Put pressure on them not the hard working Kansas City families that run Westport and other entertainment areas.
Back them, not the jerks who don’t care about anyone. The ones who commit the violence need to go, not the entertainment areas. If you close earlier the thugs will still be out doing the same thing in the same areas.
Westport is long since dead. Killed 20 years ago by black youths and the hip hop culture.The people of Kansas City saw this twenty years ago as well. The issue is city officials either don’t care or just won’t do anything to fix the problem.
So the people of Kansas City realizing that things will never go back to what they used to be, just stopped going. I know people who are in their 50’s, have a lot of disposable income haven’t been to either Westport or the Plaza in ten years or more.
Hell, I’m in my 30’s and I haven’t gone to Westport in nine years. Six for the Plaza.
I still like my Ball park idea. As I said in HC’s column, the only time this city cares about the safety of the people is during sporting events. Chiefs, Royals Sprint Center. Build a new ball park on the grave of the Plaza and Westport.
Word you are dead wrong Westport is doing great, Kelleys having record numbers as is James Westfalls four places and his new one does 4million a year, restaurant, nice…tons of new spots and no area is that busy on weeknights…I don’t know what you are looking at? Yes the Plaza is toast for entertainment they have none…but Westport is on fire especially weekends and special events like St. Pats or Royals big wins…very busy…the hip hoppers are late night, summer 3 am…..they leave when it cools off in October.
Good article, Mr. Glazer. Your perspectives really challenged some deep held beliefs about Westport. I nearly feel compelled to frequent Westport at 2:30 a.m. on a weekend as some civic duty. However mid-day rounds of golf, afternoon happy hours (this is the Westport I see), and dinners are much more enticing.
You will be fine if you stay near the bars and uber out of there. The trouble comes when idiots park a few blocks away and make a treacherous walk back to their cars.
I’ts time to start doing stop and frisk. Say what you will but IT STOPS CRIME!!!!
Harry it’s unconstitutional!
Glaze…who cares about westport. Look at that pic. the Black guy is getting
hounded for i.d. Maybe 100 people on the street in the summer.
Noone wants to be there.
For what?
To get robbed…mugged….turn it into a historical landmark charging 10 bucks a head and then pooof…all the trash is gone.
I know many of the owners of those businesses. Great people. But nothing’s changed.
Except that when you have so many other options all the wayto 151st in joco you don’t need to go to the westport hood.
You failed at 119th and now it gonna be a southern indian restaurant (whatever that
is)…..and they’ll probably succeed where you failed.
No needfor people with money to go there….if you want adrink theres hundreds of
great places with no problems….waldo/plaza (just sold for 660 million so someone
must know something you’re ignorant of)/ but I’m not into 25 year old women and
aren’t creepy enough to park outside a crowded bar for 20 year olds in an expensive
car to hustle up some strange young
stuff like the creepy old guys that do that who are in their middle 60’s!
Westport had it’s time…just like you did….but it’s time is kind of fading…..just like
you did.
Stop the wetport stories….they’re just old and worn out…
good luck…..tick tock …tick tock….
Where would the world be without the wisdom of boom boom?
Sheesh!
they can blame you. Didn’t you have a crime filled dance place that feature hip hop
music and lots of thugs (as you call them)?
Violence is the ONLY answer. But the right kind of violence. If it’s true that certain hood folks want to come there after 3:00am, then attack the problem where and when it’s at. Have your ‘own people’ covertly in place. When the perps try to act inappropriately, kill and or maime them severly, dispose of them, go about your business of taking care of your business effevtively-Covertly, violently, and effectively!!! A no brainer!
Also take into account how the suburbs of KC have made huge strides in creating entertainment districts of their own, so they keep the local folks spending their entertainment dollars locally. Northlanders have no reason to make the schlep down to Wesport or the Plaza and deal with all the b.s. that comes with it. Going to Zona Rosa will suffice for them, and cuts down on DUI checkpoint risks. JoCo folks have a plethora of entertainment options and likewise have no reason to go to Westport. Blue Springs, Lees Summit? Forget about it. Too far to drive. Plus Millennials just don’t drink and party to the extent that Generation X did/does. They’d rather stay home, browse social media, and watch Netflix while taking selfies.
take the bars in joco (119/135/145/151/shawnee/downtown op/sports bars like tanners/nick and jakes and there’s 3 times the crowd you’d find in westport.
Westport is a nice place but it’s still got a bad reputation. and the classy
people in joco wouldn’t drive into that crime ridden/filthy streets/cheap ass
food trucks/late night crime spree (and it starts before 3am boys)/those crime filled garages/. The class of joco won’t come down there. We only associate with classy educated people who come from good families and good solid backgrounds. I talked with owners from 119 (including the people high up)
and they were glad that glazers moved. Westport was once great place to meet classy people. Now you get a bunch of 25 year olds living in moms basement.
I loved westport…knew most of the owners from kellys to mcquitys…you couldn’t catch me down there anytime. I value my life too much!!!!!!!!!!!
boom boom, you wouldn’t be allowed down in Westport…how many times did they bust you for smuggling in Geritol?
Westport used to have a classy crowd? huh, I never saw one. It’s always been a bit too rough-hewn for my taste.
Which may explain why you hung there and thought it was so classy.
Guys the old ones are YOU like Harley….yes I still get younger gals, don’t need a hot car, I’m hot and look damn good for any age…makes no difference…
Westport is packed on weekends well before the late hours…there is no area that busy…not JOCO or Waldo or anywhere in KC…just a fact…Westport is a great place for the 25-50 year olds…and out of towners…nobody has that many hot spots…nobody in KC…so enjoy it.
When did this become an age thing. I know lots of high income 40, 50, 60 and 70 somethings that like the Plaza and Wport scenes. If you are ridiculung mid age and older that are getting out there.. it is called envy.
keep telling yourself and the girls at woodside who call you creepy.
The strippers just want what money you have. Take
away the phony car…..stop the roids…You are not some stud.
guy is right…..westport has a huge population density to draw from but
glaze at 65 you are too old for the plaza crowd. and you know nothing about
what the numbers are from the plaza. so stfu and worry about your place
in the legends….
haven’t heard a single big name coming in to there….who’s next mr. dynomite!!!!!!!!
Again troll Harley/Boom Boom, more hate and envy on your part. Westport is just fine, its busy, has tons of new places some doing over 4 million a year in volume and are very nice…James Westfalls places all attract the ‘up scale crowds’ and all do very well. He closes the streets down for wine tasting parties that sell out with thousands guess what from even Johnson County…you don’t know what you are talking about. Yes late at night on weekends it goes younger and a bit more urban and wild….but they control it very well. A fact. Any area that busy with all ages and young folks late at night will have an issue here and there…it happens…there are no ‘areas’ in Johnson County that have that large of traffic at night NONE…as for my age or Hearnes or any of us…such is life you get older. I have nothing to prove troll, my record of being in the public eye, women and the like have not only been news here but nationally, again what have you done? Who are you?