" We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered" Tom Stoppard said that, not me, but I couldn't have said it better. Kansas City's West Bottoms is that "memory of smoke". When you drive over the 12th street viaduct, with downtown in your rear view mirror, the West Bottoms spreads out to either side of you. It's a grimy, decaying, redheaded stepchild left behind when it had outlived it's usefulness. If you just give the area a quick glance, and were asked to describe it in one word, the word would most likely be, Ugly. Kemper Arena sits mostly idle, nothing more than a once a year barn for FFA kids from Wichita or Tulsa, and a sometime giant parking lot so people can shuttle to events at the new Sprint Arena, the usurper and centerpiece of what passes for progress in this city.
(click pics to enlarge)Kemper Arena could implode tomorrow for all I care, it never had any character or real history. The countless other buildings are a different matter. Mostly brick, some with elaborate entrances, every one with character and history, even the ones that are falling in on themselves.
The signs painted long ago, fading in the brick, are the DNA markers of this city. We helped feed the nation out of the West Bottoms, from the stockyards to the dozens of farm machinery and implement distributors. The city up the hill reaped the rewards and spent the proceeds in the name of progress. Nothing wrong with that, this city thrived, but somewhere along the line someone lost the true definition of progress. They gutted 6 or 8 blocks of history Downtown and replaced it with chain bars and restaurants that sat all but empty on the long holiday Saturday afternoon when I passed through. If you want to eat an elk steak, or ride a mechanical bull then this is nirvana, you have found your home. If it sounds like I'm saying I preferred looking at run down buildings rather than overpriced fad bars, you would be correct. But the P&L district didn't cause the deterioration of the West Bottoms, it just helped nail down the last few nails.
A commenter suggested I take my camera to the west bottoms while it was still there. He also called me a dirt bag, he arguably made a good point on both counts. He also wished me luck, so I'm taking the dirt bag reference as a term of endearment, and will fore go offering up the obligatory "Blow Me" response. But he is right, it wont be long before the majority of the old buildings are torn down, or fall down, another bit of evidence of what this city once was, erased.
There are still some businesses in the bottoms. The haunted houses that operate for a couple of months a year, a couple of Lumber Wholesale yards, and others. Ill conceived night clubs come and go, a few buildings converted to artists loft space. A Cricket cellular store, a couple of restaurants and gas stations. By and large the area doesn't produce enough revenue for the city to bother with, so it crumbles, while the wheels of progress churn up the hill. I know as sure as I write this, someone is going to tell me the West Bottoms are thriving, going through a renaissance. That's got a nice ring to it, but it ain't true. It's just a matter of time, progress.
As I was leaving after taking these shots I noticed two steel plates halfway up the 12th street bridge were sitting crooked, out of position in the middle of the bridge. I stopped rather than drive over it. There was a foot wide gap spanning the width of the bridge, you could see to the road below. Further evidence of the lack of concern from city hall. So from the Ghost of progress past, we travel to the facade of progress present...................................... to be continued
