Letter from the Editor: And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Welcome, dearest readers, to the annual BEST OF issue of The Pitch. We are so thrilled to have you joining us again this year—our 44th!—celebrating the highlights and heroes that define who we are as a city.

This special mega-issue is a huge undertaking, starting with groundwork for the process which we begin formulating in February. For an entire vertical of our publication, this represents its own separate endeavor from what we do in our day-to-day, making the moment you touch these pages a culmination of nearly a year of constant structuring, investigating, and systematically processing.

Over the last few months, a number of rounds of voting have washed through the city. We have 488 categories this year, representing a huge cross-section of facets of life in the metro area (and Lawrence) with everything from the best places to work, down to the best divorce attorney to hire for undoing your nuptials—conveniently located on our wedding biz winners page.

Starting back in July we opened up nominations for those 488 categories, and for a month, the entire city was invited to nominate people, places, things, podcasts, parks, and pets whose presence, products, and personality stood supreme. From there, a frantic, high-turnout three-week voting round kicked off in September, where the top candidates from the nomination rounds were placed in direct, head-to-head competition. The end results were tabulated and are presented here today.

These are YOUR PICKS. This is who you, the people, chose, and those winners are conveniently labeled in the YOUR PICKS section. As per every year, I’ll just remind y’all here that if you have an issue with who won, do not yell at me. I don’t even vote in this. Yell at any random person on the street and you’ll find a person with more power over this process than the team here.

The team at The Pitch has dropped our selections into the clearly labeled OUR PICKS section of the magazine, where we opine on some of our favorite moments of 2024, the people who we loved covering, and the movements that made this sprawling city feel like a home. Obviously, this section could have run thousands of pages in length, as you can find the great reporting and important features we dive into each and every day of the year over at thepitchkc.com.

If you aren’t starting your day with us, I really think you should. This is the one issue each year where we get to go “full cheerleader” on the city at large, but loving Kansas City takes on many forms. One of the ways we love this place is by pointing out all the places where it could be doing better—not just by our personal standards or opinions, but on behalf of all of us. This has been a heavy year on so many fronts, and there are concrete ways we can push for change—change that lifts us all, spreads freedom, and reduces harm. Please come join us on the difficult, confounding, and rewarding journey to answer the difficult questions—because for all there is to celebrate here today, there is even more work that needs to get done.

Big shout-out to the sheer number of folks whose nominations for best local politician were some variation on “NOPE.” We’ve checked your math and we see how you got there. I’d be remiss to not also shout-out “Caleb” who nominated himself in every single category. I yearn to have your level of self-confidence—and free time—so please know you’re #1 in our heart for the category of “Best Dedication to the Bit.”

With that, let’s let the high fashion evening begin, and may the winners proudly strut the catwalk. You’ve earned it. For everyone who was in the running, we hope to see you take your little spin in the spotlight next year.

So with 517,861 votes across 488 categories and 2,900 nominees, a very extra huge “thank you” to everyone who took part in this year’s competition.

Pitch in and we’ll make it through,