Main Street & Linwood Analysis

Brian Ortiz

With the ongoing reconstruction of Main Street and Linwood Boulevard, we have been able to evaluate and dissect the ongoing components that make up these busy and critical connecting roads to Downtown Kansas City. Main Street and Linwood could be considered a “gem” in their location and its influence on the city and it bringing many moving components that are vital to the development of communities around it. Over the years we can see how these spaces are being hollowed out and have become detrimental to the health of everything within it. Without the construction of the Streetcar, Main Street and Linwood on their own stand out as very auto-centric dominant and with fast-moving traffic. This intersection and the ecosystem within these main roads bring congestion that is a hassle when driving down through. Much of the construction and poor layout can be the cause of such negative effects. It was very difficult to drive and maneuver around the roads and entrance points. And with the placement of this intersection, it remains highly busy and it makes it even more difficult to walk around considering it is commercial heavy with walkways but little to no pedestrian activity. There is an inconsistent separation of traffic and pedestrian sidewalks, considering Main Street contains much of the commercial face fronts. Trees, offset curbs, etc. can be a few of the separating factors between automobiles and pedestrians.

Most of Main Street can be considered a quad of commercial pads that extend more promptly south of 31^st street and some West and East of Linwood. The concentration of commercial pads has a major influence on the traffic and everything around Main Street and Linwood which can be considered one of the negative contributing factors. Construction of commercial lots and fronts can be found all along Main. Poor maintenance of sidewalks, roads, commercial buildings was major. The lack of vegetation and its ratio to the impervious surface was notable. The outdated and lack of maintenance of commercial zones can be seen through the number of vacant lots and buildings that contribute to the detrimental health of this busy intersection. Many mix-used buildings and lots can be seen that just need more redevelopment and reconstruction. With it being very commercial dependent, Main Street and Linwood still have a rich history that brings with a lot of historic building face-fronts that can be seen throughout all of the nearby neighborhoods.

Space is very inconsistent with different forms of it based on different development. Much of Mainstreet is hovered by commercial buildings and face fronts while much of Linwood’s space is open and spread out with buildings extruding up and the rest of the space is filled with surface parking and pavement. This causes a bit of distortion and chaos when traveling within the two different spaces. These spaces don’t conjunct together and rather work independently than working with each other, this results in chaotic planning and negative impacts later in the future. Open street parking Is minimal with the ongoing construction. Most of the parking is hidden behind the commercial building and lots to create a sense of “backyard” for the commercial buildings. This causes traffic to move fast and dangerous. Multiple advantage points can be seen such as the VFW and ABC building just down the strip of Mainstreet. The light tower can be seen from both strips down, joining together at the intersection where the advantage point is located. Going north of Mainstreet, the One Kansas City Tower can be seen as an advantage point leading you to the south entrance of Downtown Kansas City.

With all these negative underlying factors, few to a small number of pedestrians can be seen walking the sidewalks to Main Street and Linwood. Having walked a couple of blocks, it is not the most appealing or user-friendly community to walk around making it non-intuitive to maneuver around. There were multiple bus stops but very few sheltered with benches. Few to none bike racks were found and few independent strip malls were located around. Main Street and Linwood have so much potential to be greater and along with the communities around. I believe there is a lot of work to do around this main area that can be redirected and redesigned with more factors to take into consideration to have all these busy moving components work together as a whole to create an attractive urban planning masterpiece influence.

I believe the hidden neighborhood behind the commercial lots have so much impact with its rich history of Kansas City that I believe could be an opportunity to bleed that part onto Main Street and Linwood including more living spaces such as Triple Decker’s that offer affordable multifamily residences, property value increase, and increasing pedestrian activity. Also working with small narrow spaces that these vacant lots offer are characteristics that Triple Decker’s have and follows the aesthetic historic face fronts of these commercial buildings. Having more living spaces that introduce more pedestrian activity could be a starting point in changing the chaotic mess that can be seen and slowing down traffic. The addition of the streetcar and Triple Decker’s could change transportation and its availability to community residents allowing for an increase in public transit.

Sources: 5 Architectural Elements to Know When Remodeling a Boston Triple Decker – NEBS (nebldgsupply.com), KC Parcel Viewer GIS Layers