KC MO (Travel Tales)

New to me and notable: Did you know Hallmark the purveyor of greeting cards is based in Kansas City MO (KC MO)? Complete with its Museum housing all the TV commercials hawking its products, a city’s tourist destination. Coming into Downtown, the trains lined up pointing in the direction of the central business district (perhaps to off load/on load the State’s agricultural products including cattle) with the train tracks running parallel to a major traffic artery, an interstate along the Missouri River is distinct. Then one passes the Folgers Coffee roasting facility, and Garmin’s headquarters are footnotes. A newly opened Opera building, contemporary in design, looks like a giant electric turbine (harnessing the water’s energy, akin to WPA projects of past) is striking across the horizon. Such is the cityscape.

Looking at a US map, it appears KC MO is the center or “middle” of the country. The metropolitan area is populated with 2 million people. This place is noted for Kansas style BBQ (wrongly attributed to other side of the river) and jazz as its major contribution to American life. Though after a few days visit one still does not feel there is a there “there.”

Locals with whom I’ve struck conversations say life is easy, affordable, and KC suffers from an inferiority complex. Locals speak of the giant cow, the city’s mascot, signaling it still is a cow town. On exit, one cannot fail to notice the Hereford Association building, trumpeting cattle is raised here.

The newest proposed urban redevelopment project will be the conversion of the one-time Hyatt Regency into a Sheraton, and another of its property the Westin at the end of the “Link” will be rehabbed and upgraded. Both are showing their age and wear. 70’s architecture of concrete, glass and steel made to look like Eastern European proletarian structures. Why not tear it down and start over again?

The Hyatt Regency is noted for the internal collapse of its walk way/passage spanning the residential tower and its meeting/convention space. The fourth floor “gang plank” dropped onto the 2nd and down onto the ground floor. It is said this was the most tragic incident in KC MO history. http://ethics.tamu.edu/ethics/hyatt/hyatt1.htm

The reader might ask, what were you doing in KC MO? I was a speaker at a conference in mid July on Gambling Addiction and Substance Abuse, allowing me to stop in on this American city.