KC Magazine‘s ones to watch in ’84

This week’s column involves a shopping center in Lee’s Summit that’s getting taxpayer assistance. Nowadays, big retail centers receive incentives as a matter of course. Curious to know what cities did (if anything) for the malls of yesterday, I went to the Missouri Valley Room at the Central Library to look at old newspaper and magazine articles.

One source turned up in a 1984 edition of Kansas City Magazine. The article described the effects of Bannister Mall on Truman Corners in Grandview. The piece mentioned that Bannister Mall’s developers negotiated with government authorities to improve nearby roads and highways — a process that tax-increment financing would standardize in years to come.

I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the story about the malls, however, because a 25-year-old edition of a city magazine is mesmerizing. The first article to grab me featured 84 Kansas City faces worth watching.