Archives: August 2019

New rules for First Fridays

David Hudnall,

Following the shooting death of Erin Langhofer at First Fridays in August, the Crossroads Community Association has announced changes to September’s First Friday. From FB: “Crossroads Galleries, Studio Spaces, Restaurants, Retail and select Businesses will be OPEN on Friday, September 6th, 2019. However, Food Trucks, curated Art Vendors, and performers will NOT be permitted on streets and sidewalks within the…
News

Why is KCP&L and Westar—now Evergy—so committed to coal plants when wind could save ratepayers hundreds of millions a year?

Emily Park,

Alan Kiniry A report released earlier this month found that Evergy’s Kansas coal fleet lost $267 million in a four-year span relative to pricing for market energy, and predicted another $847 million loss over the next 20 years. Evergy—the new corporate name of KCP&L and Westar, which merged last year—provides power to eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Its coal fleets…
Music

Rapper Amira Wang is a walking, talking, one-woman party

Aaron Rhodes,

  “I just fuck with myself heavy,” Wang says, “and I think that’s what really shows on stage.” // Photo by Aaron Rhodes Amira Wang has always had a talent for starting parties.  “In high school, I swear to God, I would just walk around and yell, ‘Big booty hoes!’ in the hallways,” Wang says, laughing and recalling her days…

The KC Public Library is expanding operating hours at most of its branches

David Hudnall,

Many a time have I arrived at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library on a Sunday and sighed, having forgotten the narrow hours it keeps on the weekends. So I was very pleased yesterday to receive notification that the library is extending hours at most of its branches starting September 6. That includes the Plaza branch, which…
News

Open Spaces organizers face potential lawsuit from unpaid artists

Emily Park,

Photo by Zach Bauman Last month, Cheryl Kimmi—the executive director of KC Creates, the local nonprofit that organized last year’s citywide arts festival Open Spaces—was hauled before a city council committee in search of financial details in the aftermath of the fest. Revenues for Open Spaces—in particular “The Weekend” at Starlight, which featured performances from Janelle Monae and the Roots—had…

Gordon Ramsay Steak restaurant coming to KC

David Hudnall,

Earlier this year, the Michelin chef and TV personality filmed a KC-based episode of his show 24 Hours To Hell and Back at Bayou on the Vine. Now Ramsay has announced he will open a restaurant of his own in KC, at the Harrah’s North Kansas City Casino. “I’ve been wanting to expand to the Midwest for some time and…
News

Jackson County has paid John Q. Ebert $2 million over the last five years to fix its assessment problems. What exactly has he been doing?

Barbara Shelly,

A rare public appearance by Ebert, captured at a 2016 meeting of the county legislature. The Jackson County reassessment debacle of 2013—the one that sent more than 15,000 angry property owners scrambling to file appeals—was supposed to be the tax bill failure to end all failures. Turns out, it was just a tune up. This year’s reassessment notices have already…
Food & Drink

Irish Fest, SantaCaliGon Days, the Port Fonda Hatch Chile Festival, and more to do this week

KC's best food and drink events for August 26–September 1.
April Fleming,

The Razberry Beret, created by bartender Darrell Loo (Photo by April Fleming) Monday, August 26 Waldo Thai (8431 Wornall Road) is welcoming customers for a family-style, multi-course, northern Thai-inspired meal featuring rum cocktails designed by bartender Darrell Loo. Call the restaurant at 816-605-1188 for details and to make reservations. It is also National Dog Day, and there’s likely no better…

There have been five homicides in Kansas City in the last 24 hours

David Hudnall,

Two people were killed in a drive-by shooting near the Power & Light District early Sunday morning. Two more were killed just a few hours later, outside the Brush Creek Community Center, at Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard and Cleveland Avenue. And now reports of a double shooting near the 3100 block of Kensington Avenue early Monday morning, leaving one dead and…
News

Jay Ashcroft faces (another) lawsuit after running out the clock on Missouri abortion rights referendum

Emily Park,

Fibonacci Blue Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is being sued for the second time this month. The lawsuit comes after Ashcroft waited until last week to release the wording for a potential 2020 ballot referendum that would allow Missourians to vote on HB 126, the controversial abortion ban passed in the state legislature earlier this year. The ACLU and…

Two new shops coming to Brookside

David Hudnall,

Pamela Dicapo, owner of the Brookside baby and children’s clothing store Lauren Alexandra, is opening a lifestyle shop next store. Jorjy—which, according to a release, offers “a fresh take on wallpaper, fabric, art and accessories for the home as well as interior design”—is scheduled to open in late August at 320 W. 63rd Street. And a couple doors down, at…
Music

Catching up with the Urge, torchbearers of a bygone regional rock scene

Nick Spacek,

“We played a lot, so it wasn’t just that you heard the record — you saw us a lot,” Ewing (left) says of the band’s Nineties heyday. Not long after St. Louis funk-punk hard rockers the Urge formed more than 30 years ago — 1988! — the band started regularly making a trek west down Interstate 70. “As soon as we got…
Theater

At Spinning Tree Theatre, a show about suicide that plays like a comedy

Liz Cook,

J. Robert Schraeder, Spinning Tree Theatre Three years ago, my grandfather killed himself. There were no warning signs (though there are usually warning signs). There was no note or phone call or obvious explanation. He left his house one morning and left us in the dark. I spent the intervening days between his death and his funeral speculating—agonizing, I suppose—about…
Culture

Bedroom fails and ’90s rap: Bad in Bed Live is at RecordBar all weekend

Kelcie McKenney,

Courtesy of Bad in Bed Live In her book We’re All Bad in Bed, Shelby Simpson shares all kinds of sexual misadventures and TMI bedroom fails. Bad in Bed Live, a stage adaptation of the book, combines those cringeworthy mishaps with “nasty” 90’s rap and dance for three straight nights of naughty comedy. Simpson’s show comes to Kansas City this Thursday…
Beer & Spirits

Drink This Now: The Flower Bomb at Brick & Mortar

April Fleming,

By April Fleming Szechuan buttons, also known as buzz buttons or buzz blossoms, have been popping up in cocktail publications and trendy coastal bars over the past couple of years, though they’ve remained scarce around Kansas City. When you chew on these little yellow buds (the edible flower of a plant called acmella oleracea), your tongue tingles and a rush…
News

Valley Oaks Steak Company—controversial scourge of Powell Gardens—will close

Emily Park,

Zach Bauman Valley Oaks Steak Company off US-50 Highway in Johnson County, Missouri, announced today that it is closing, effective immediately. “It is with profound sadness that, due to economics, we are closing operations,” the steak company and cattle feedlot wrote in a statement on its Facebook page. Valley Oaks cited financial hardship from the expenses of legal battles and…