My contribution to the analysis was transportation mostly focusing on the Hospital Hill Campus and the area directly south that connects to the Volker Campus.

The transportation team was responsible for representing traffic counts, directional turning traffic, pedestrian traffic, speed limits, and bus routes.

This map indicates the values of vehicles that are turning north, south, east, and west at major intersections from 19th St to Linwood Blvd. We found the majority of traffic is circling around the hospital hill campus because 31st St and Linwood Ave are carrying traffic from highway 71, and Main St is a connecting through Kansas City from Downtown to the Volker Campus. The main point of entries into Hospital Hill are south of 22nd St at Gillham Rd and Troost Ave.

This maps represents the average daily traffic, and the total number of vehicles that entered the intersection throughout a 12 hour period. The roads that mold hospital Hill, Troost Ave and Gillham Rd, show lower than predicted stressed streets. As shown above in the directional traffic map, 31st and Linwood are the most traffic traveled streets with a stress level of 10,000 to 19,999 cars per day.

Below is the map of connecting roads between Hospital Hill and Volker Campus. The level of stress on major roads such as Troost Ave and Main St changes as you pass Emanuel Cleaver Blvd. Another east and west street, MLK Blvd, is a high stress street that connects to highway 71 located east of campus. The stress level of these streets indicates that many students commute to campus via the highway system instead of intercity roads.

We also gathered the various speed limits around both campuses. I found that within Hospital Hill, the speed limit stays at 25 mph on Holmes St, Charlotte St, and Campbell St. The highest street that cuts through campus is 25th St where it rises to 30 mph. In addition, Grand Blvd is 25 mph because of Crown Center and it changes to 30 mph as you exit that area. All other roads in the surrounding area are 35 mph.

I produced sections and plan view of two different intersections of Troost Ave. The first intersection is at 27th and Troost which is directly in front of the Hospital Hill dorms, and the second is located at 51st and Troost on the bottom right corner of campus. We wanted to highlight the differences in infrastructure for pedestrians and cars. The first intersection has a median, a well defined painted area for pedestrians to cross, and on street parking to slow traffic down. The second intersection is a five lane street including a turn lane, and has a crosswalk indicated by only two white lines.

The studied area is from 51st to the North to 55th in the South. And from Holmes on the Eastside to Forest on the West. The area was mostly made up of residential living space, and that continues to this day. Although the two universities have made growth, they have also experienced set backs. The universities acquired some of the residential homes, and the community responded by feeling threatened of change in their neighborhoods. There might be something to the student ‘lifestyle’ that most neighborhood communities don’t want to put up with, as well.

We see a lot of residential growth in between 1925 and 1970. And it seems built-up fairly equally with the universities growth. We also see the commercial area on Troost gain is size. And the Church at 52nd and Troost is finally built. What stood before that, was a parish school. From 1970 to 2020, we see that some of the single-family housing is bought and razed by the school to create, a parking garage at 53rd and Rockhill. For the most part the housing is still in tact from its original placement prior to the 1925 Sanborn Maps. The biggest loss in housing seems to be the homes on the west end of Troost between 53rd and 54th. There is plans for that area to become student housing in the new Master Plan.

I think that this area was late to develop and by the time it did develop, cars had already become a popular mode of transportation. And it is worth noting that Troost used to be a streetcar road. But that could not withstand the transfer to the automobile. This transformation is furthered by the construction of not one, but multiple parking garages being built between the 1970’s and the 2020’s; there is the one mentioned at Rockhill and 53rd, but also the Rockhurst garage at Troost and 51st, and the Stowers Research Institute garage at Troost and 50th. This confederation of parking is unorganized and is exclusive to each group. It seems that the universities did not help make the area more walkable either. Even though when we think of universities there is a walkability/connectivity to the image of a campus. The progression of UMKC becoming a commuter school seems only natural. As the area was developed mostly in the context of the car, none of the single family residential has been up-zoned and roads and parking have been updated for more use. While walkways and bike paths seem out of character for this area now. And little has been done between the universities or its neighbors, even in between the city and the universities, to create walkways that work for the area.

In 1925, the neighborhood clearly used to be single family homes with some buildings that occupied roughly two to three units. There were two separate hospitals which were labeled as “General Hospital” and “Colored Hospital” which is located just north of the large complex. These hospitals that were not nearly as large as the one seen in 2020, and the city blocks were uniform to each other. During the last century, we can see some development starting to take shape for the hospital and school that occupies the space in the present day. The southwest edge of the map used to be occupied by single-family homes, small businesses, a small variety of multifamily homes. While there are some homes that are still standing today, most of them have been replaced for the University of Missouri-Kansas City to build an additional campus that houses the school of dentistry, the school of nursing, and the school of pharmacy. In addition to the campus, Children’s Mercy Hospital is located adjacently with plenty of parking structures scattered through Holmes Street and Charlotte Street.

From 1925-2023, the land has changed from a sparse to very dense. The roads have been realigned from standard blocks along 23rd to accommodate the growth of the general hospital that is now the University of Missouri-Kansas City Hospital Hill Campus. The growth of this learning hospital brings along a large parking structure located at the southern border. Directly below 22nd Street, their are several other facilities including the Truman Medical Center and University Health.

The Troost Park area has seen a trend over the past several decades of a drastic decrease in population. Our detailed study area is home to fewer than 1000 people. Kansas City, MO is experience the complete opposite trend. It has only increased in population since 1990. However, there has been a very recent sign of reinvestment for the Troost Park area. From 2010 to 2018, there has been a small increase in population by about 200 people.

Housing in the area follows the same pattern. Many units have been demolished since 1950, but there has been a small resurgence in recent years. This is a sign of reinvestment, which almost always bring gentrification. There is no doubt that the Troost Park area requires reinvestment in housing in order to create a vibrant community. We do need to be cautious moving forward, though, to prevent displacement of the existing residents. It is imperative that the existing neighborhood remains in-tact in order for reinvestment to be successful.

Works Cited
US Census 1950, US Census Bureau
US Census 1960 , US Census Bureau
US Census 1970 , US Census Bureau
US Census 1980 , US Census Bureau
US Census 1990 , US Census Bureau
US Census 2000 , US Census Bureau
US Census 2010 , US Census Bureau
ACS 2018, US Census Bureau

When looking at the census tracts within our study area – 80-83, 86, and 87 – the vacancy of eastern tracts versus western tracts was astonishing. After looking at the housing units in structure over the years and the vacancy, I pulled up ownership in the area to see who was actually living in the houses they owned. This was done through www.kcparcelviewer.com and it was a good way to see who all owns properties in the area. For a refresher, the vacancy has been shown below. The western tracts are 82, 83, and 86, and the eastern tracts are 80, 81, and 87.

In order to gather the data for ownership in the area, I downloaded excel files and then highlighted all the out of state owners. This means there could be in state owners who still do not live in the area. Therefore, the percentage is a rough percentage but it gets the point across. So, for the eastern tracts, about 18.9% of the parcels are owned by people, companies, or trusts, that are not located in the state of Missouri. For the western tracts, only about 5.8% of the parcels are owned by people, companies, or trusts, outside the state of Missouri.

To me, the correlation between the two makes perfect sense because out of state owners are not necessarily concerned with filling property – especially if the parcel is owned by a company or a trust. This means the neighborhood needs to take back their parcels or make the owners of those parcels fill them or at least take care of them. All in all, I think the contrast between east and west is sad and it should not be because the housing stock is very similar and the vacancy and ownership rates should not be that different.