Long regarded as the ‘Paris of the Plains’, Kansas City, Missouri’s storied fountains and ornamented boulevards capture some of the elegance made famous by our European counterpart. Despite the acclaim our city receives for the beloved parks and boulevards system, such ambiance hasn’t always been the benchmark in Kansas City. Riddled with the grime and lewd behavior associated with the stockyard industry, one who found themselves in Kansas City before the turn of the century would see a much more savage environment than that of which our parks evoke today.

Kansas City, Missouri Livestock Auction: Although amassing great wealth for the region, the industry was unsightly and riddled the city with transients and crime at the turn of the century.
Source: Missouri Valley Special Collections

The reincarnation of our city can be attributed not from the wealth or power of the stockyards but is the work of one man: George Kessler. Kansas City’s first landscape architect, Kessler was a jack of many trades and titles. Architect, planner, civic leader, and even lobbyist, Kessler’s early triumphs include petitioning Missouri state law to establish a city parks board and begin the issuance of municipal park bonds. Armed with the bureaucratic power and funding necessary to carry out his aesthetic desires, Kessler designed a parks and boulevards system for the city that came to consist of 2,668 acres of parks, 90 miles of landscaped city boulevards, and 38 miles of manicured park boulevards. The planning and construction of the park’s system faced an uphill battle at the time of conception, but eventually came to be beloved by citizens and envied by the rest of the nation. Today, however, Kansas City’s parks system face an entirely new set of challenges. Problems aided by decades of population decline and further fueled by the urban issues of the 21st century American city.

 

West facing view at 12th and Paseo Blvd. Many of the neighborhoods surrounding Kessler’s boulevards are tormented by issues of crime and depopulation. Source: Photo by Brady Brewster

Almost 120 years after completion of Kessler’s plan, the dynamics of our city has changed. Although the parks are still beloved,  many citizens today choose to enjoy the parks system through the lens of their automobile rather than from personal experiences within the spaces. As population and housing demographics have changed, the effect on Kansas City’s parks and boulevards has been devastating. Many of the historic parks are now found in areas perceived as crime-ridden and impoverished. Combined with population loss of the central city of Kansas City, Missouri, the vibrancy of the urban core is much different from when Kessler set his jewels of parks in the boulevard-laced necklace of the city. Despite issues of increased automobile usage and poor utilization by residents of the city proper, Kansas Citians still champion the legacy of Kessler’s parks and call for the creation of more. Through straightforward observation, the lack of users in our parks is clear. Even in an automobile-entranced city such as Kansas City, is it really the case that users don’t want to leave their car to enjoy a system so greatly praised and useable?

Budd Park in Northeast Kansas City: Devoid of users despite it’s setting in a dense neighborhood near multiple schools.
Source: Photo by Brady Brewster

Paradoxically, two parks from Kessler’s original plan have seen a degree of developmental resurgence in the areas surrounding the parks rather than decline. Washington Square Park and Hospital Hill Park lie separated by the large scale master planned development of the Crown Center District. Union Station restricts the western boundary at Washington Square Park and the eastern boundary by Hospital Hill Park has developed into the sprawling complex of the Hospital and Academic institutions on the hill. In the changed dynamic of neighborhoods and park users in 2015 Kansas City, one wonders why even these parks lie empty at peak times of the day. With thousands of white collar and healthcare workers surrounding both parks which capture pristine views of the Kansas City skyline within just steps of their workplaces, such behavior speaks to utilization issue of Kansas City’s parks. Perhaps less people use the parks today not because they are bound to their auto or because they view the parks as dangerous but for other reasons. Looking more closely at Washington Square and Hospital Hill Parks, the issue is not with the density of residents or workers within walking distance to the parks but rather a problem of isolation and connections. A lack of accessibility via parking is especially evident at Hospital Hill Park. Combined with increased vehicular traffic in the area and lack of pedestrian connections, portions of the park that were once lively green space are now destined to mere median space dissecting two directions of traffic on Gillham Ave. Washington Square Park has the opportunity to be a showcase park for the Crossroads neighborhood, but poor connections to the street and office skyscrapers of Crown Center render the park isolated from the surrounding fabric of the area. The Link, a man made skywalk system meant for the sole purpose of connecting the Crown Center Complex to the surrounding areas, actually functions in a reverse role, creating a barrier between the park and Main St. Once served by historic streetcar lines, the reintroduction of rail to Main St. parallel to Washington Square Park will be an interesting study as to how model rail transit influences the park.  In further study of Kessler’s parks and boulevards systems, I would like to examine how connections: transit, vehicular, and pedestrian influence utilization at the parks and what type of intervention needs to take place to restore these park’s to former glory. In greater focus, I would like to further explore how large scale development such as the Crown Center and Children’s Mercy Hospital developments have negatively impacted the park by neglecting such connections…..

Washington Square Park lies at the heart of a highly dense and developed mix of office, retail, and residential yet lies empty for most of the day. Connections such as The Link (pictured), lack of vehicular parking and pedestrian connections that are oddly placed relating to the surrounding fabric of the area may play a role…

Source: Google Earth Viewer

 

 

As you’ll read in other posts here, several of us in this studio are natives or long-time residents of the Kansas City area.  So, like for them, these aren’t exactly my first impressions of the Parks and Boulevards. Instead, they’re impressions based on two decades of living here and experiencing – or, as you’ll read below not experiencing, in a sense – the system.

Several things are important to point out about the Parks and Boulevards system, especially from the perspective of native: first, there’s a myth and a separate reality about the system; second, besides this cognitive disconnect, Kansas Citians seem physically disconnected with much of the system — a lot, if not most, of it doesn’t get used, as you’ll read below. The system exists as a type urban legend to many Kansas City — we’re largely unaware of all it has to offer.

We get to take on that challenge this semester and work to reconnect the city to one of its best features.

 

The Myth

The Parks and Boulevards system is part of the shared experience of Kansas Citians. It’s an urban legend, in the sense that it’s passed on through the common spoken narrative, like creation stories and myths are shared across thousands of years among members of cultures around the world. We understand as young Kansas Citians that our Parks and Boulevards are something special – or at least are supposed to be. New York has its Central Park, St. Louis, Forest Park; but Kansas City is special because we have gems like Loose Park, Swope Park, and so on, which by themselves don’t quite offer the experience of Central Park, but when connected mentally as part of a system, a city-encompassing unit… well, that’s special.

Kansas Citians are also impressed by old things. (To be clear, we are not good at preserving them – and maybe it’s the resulting relative lack of historic structures that causes us to be taken when we do discover that some structure dates back to the early 1900’s.) The Parks and Boulevards System is an old thing. This plays into the allure of the legend.

But do Kansas Citians really understand the system? Myths, after all, are used to explain the poorly understood – do we know the facts?
If you were to ask residents, “What is the Parks and Boulevards System?” most would probably answer with the better-used parts of the system: Ward Parkway, Gillham Park, Paseo, Swope Park. There will be confusion: “Hold on, is Mill Creek Park a part of it? What about Broadway – it’s a boulevard, technically? And are there parks or boulevards north of the river…?” (The answers, by the way, are yes to all.)

They might just list off all the parks and boulevards they can think of – which would almost, but not quite, be correct.
Some people – long-time residents, more likely – might be able to add a bit of historical context, having possible read the small collection of written work on our fabled system. (Remember, we like old things. And we have a good public library system.)
Others, meanwhile, would describe the Parks and Boulevards as a historical artifact – as dead, archaeological, in the past. Which is too bad.

The point is, Kansas Citians, myself included, really don’t understand one of the most distinctive features of the city’s physical environment. Which is too bad.

Reality
So what are the facts, and what’s just myth?

A lot of it’s true, actually.

First of all, the Parks and Boulevards System is indeed old. It dates back to the 1890’s, when KC was about 40 years old and its city limits extended to just 47th Street.

And Kansas City’s Parks and Boulevards System is, in fact, pretty special – there’s some truth to this part of the legend. It was designed by a German-American landscape architect/planner, George Kessler, who would go on to become a leading name in planning and would significantly shape at least a dozen other cities with similar plans. His designs for Kansas City, though, were maybe most significant and most distinctive of all his work.

The Parks and Boulevards system, meanwhile, isn’t just a historical relic. In fact, the system is probably at its most extensive ever, especially with new parts of the system being added to the growing Northland. In the map below, the green is elements of the today’s system – which today include parks and boulevards, as well as parkways and roads, such as Ward Parkway and Rockhill Rd, that have been weaved into the system despite not being designated on maps as “boulevards.”

The extensiveness apparent in the map below shows that Kansas Citians are pretty much guaranteed, as long as they leave the house, to experience some part of the system on a daily basis. In fact, I can’t image a commute through the city (excluding those on highways) that involve at least crossing some boulevard or passing a park.
So in addition to still being in existence, Kansas City’s Parks and Boulevards System is also very much a part of our lives.

But are we aware of that, as we take a drive through town? And that leads to a bigger question: I’ve said that the P&B system is at its greatest physical extent – but can we really say unequivocally that it’s at its height in a cultural sense? Do Kansas Citians embrace and (consciously) engage with their mythical Parks and Boulevards?

Alive and Well?
So, the system is alive – at least in the sense it continues to be maintained and expanded, and ostensibly, used. Whether it’s “alive and well,” is debatable, though.

By saying locals use the Parks and Boulevards, what we’re really saying is that people use the Boulevards, and not so much the parks. Sure during certain times of day, Loose and Mill Creek Parks get traffic. (Both are avoided after dark, despite being very centrally located, due to almost zero lighting.) People go to Swope for the zoo and Starlight Theatre. Maybe some disc golf.

The city’s parks are by no means unused; but at the same time, for the thousands of acres of parks that exist and that are maintained (which implies that somebody expects them to be used), KC’s parks seem to receive a smattering of traffic. (And remember, these aren’t exactly my first impressions – I’ve noticed this for about two decades living here.)

Brush Creek and Parks

Take Brush Creek Park – or as the city’s local Parks and Rec department calls it, “Brush Creek Greenway Park”. Anyway, it follows the flow of Brush Creek from Brookside Boulevard in the west to almost where the creek meets the Blue River (the “Big” one).
For non-natives of KC, let me just say this park is an incredible improvement over what used to be there. Transcendental. Since the days of boss Pendergast in the 1930’s, Brush Creek had been covered in concrete — with only a tiny rivulet of water in the middle visible — in an effort to control flooding.

The whole length of it.

This is what that looked like going through the Plaza in the 1970’s, when the so-called flood-control solution failed, actually exacerbating floods that killed a few people nearby:

And to underscore how much creek the concrete covered, here’s a photo of the covered creek, looking east from 47th and Paseo, about a mile east of the above photo:

It’s thought that those deaths got the gears of government grinding, and a revamp of the creek, directed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, was soon drawn up, and it began to be implemented in the ‘80s. Concrete was employed again, but this time it was used to build cascades, paths, and new bridges along the now “daylighted” creek (that’s the urban planning term for uncovering a body of water).

The Brush Creek Greenway Park encompasses, maybe, 9/10 of the improved creek. (Almost mile of the creek, between State Line Rd and the Plaza, is still covered in ‘30s concrete. It’s in red on the map. There’s another part of the creek through the Plaza that is not a part of the park.) Considering that, it’s a big park – about 3 miles long. And within those 3 miles is about 250 acres of open space – “park.” That’s a little misleading, too, because the Greenway Park runs through several other substantial parks – such as Theis Park – that aren’t counted towards that total.

Judged as a park – separate from its context – Brush Creek Greenway Park is a great park. You get basically three miles of uninterrupted trail along a decently scenic (ignoring the odd swirl of garbage) creek. There’s a lot of open space, some nice landscaping, waterfalls, fountains, and benches. Some decent views, too.

B- Plenty of visiting geese enjoy the park and views of the scenic, much-improved Brush Creek.

D – See? Very picturesque. This is the Benton Blvd. bridge.

 

E – And there are plenty of benches, lighting. Any people, though?

 

 

But what else is the park?

It’s empty.

The other day I took a bike ride from Katz Hall (the blue dot on the map) to the end of the park, where the trail also ends. It was a 2.86-mile ride on which I basically saw all 250 acres of the park.

That afternoon, I saw five people in the park – and one was a city worker picking up trash, while another was a homeless man who appeared to be living under the Cleveland Ave bridge. So, really, there were two people using the park for recreational purposes. I rode basically the whole length of the park – out and back – and saw three park users. It was a very nice day – about 60 degrees in late January – and it was rush hour, when parks often start to get filled with people exercising/relaxing after work and kids playing after school.

Two hundred fifty acres and the recent target of, surely, tens of millions of dollars of improvements was being used by three people.
Is this representative of all Kansas City parks? No. But a lot of them, yes. Based on what we’ve recently observed, touring parks on the east and northeast sides of Kansas City, yes. Based on what I’ve observed of various parts of the Parks and Boulevards system over 20 years – even on nice days – definitely, yes.

Paseo and Boulevards

What about boulevards, though? I’ve already admitted these are well used, right? Sure. But does just driving through count as fully, consciously partaking in them? What if saying you’ve used the Paseo by driving down it was similar to saying you’ve been to the Grand Canyon because you’ve flown over it?

On one hand that seems extreme, because by driving down any boulevard, you’re obviously using it. And you’re probably enjoying the scenic view its trees and plantings offer. On the other hand, there’ s a lot more to a lot of these boulevards than most of realize — experiences most of us never have because we tend to fly through the Parks and Boulevards. Example? Paseo, near downtown.

Paseo, for a good deal of of length, is more than just a tree-lined street. For several miles it has a substantial median, which works as park. On a stretch of the Paseo between 9th and 12th streets are some of the most attractive elements of the Parks and Boulevards system.

 

Exhibit A: The Paseo Pergola, located between 10th and 11th street.

 

Exhibit B: The Black Veterans’ Memorial

Exhibit C: August Meyer (co-designer of the Parks and Boulevards system) Monument

 

In all, this three-block segment of the eight-mile Paseo is one of the most attractive, pedestrian-friendly, even “urban” spaces in the city.

And yet, no users were present — and I’ve rarely seen anyone there on sunny, warmer days either. There were plenty of people driving down the Paseo, but no one stopped to enter this park-like space.

Look around, though, and you might have the answer as to why no one was there: the urban fabric is in tatters.  Some of photos above show apartment buildings — these once lined the entire street for about a mile. Now, they have mostly been demolished, replaced occasionally by industrial lots, incongrous and gated public housing, or just left vacant. There are no activity centers nearby, so hardly anyone’s walking along the street to begin with — those driving by are not stopping. (It’s really no different on Ward Parkway, which runs through a much “nicer” neighborhood — even there, there are no centers nearby, and people just drive by, not enjoying the amenities in the median.)

The same is the case around the Brush Creek Greenway Park. Here, though, there are mostly intact neighborhoods on both sides of the park, and attractive parkways/boulevards on either side. And yet, still no centers/destinations, other than the park itself. Plenty of people are driving by; no one’s stopping.

Going Forward

And that might point to the problem. We build new parks and beautify our old ones without giving thought to what really made them so great, what made them “work.”

The Parks and Boulevards were designed for a time when people took scenic leisure drives en masse. We don’t do that anymore. We drive to commute.

The Parks and Boulevards were designed for a time and when Kansas City had much stronger neighborhoods with well defined activity centers. We don’t quite have that anymore.

To the extent the Parks and Boulevards system was designed as an ornamental variation of an otherwise strictly functional road, it works. As a place where people relax, play, or gather, it mostly fails.

The system used to work — as you’ll see if you follow this blog throughout the semester.

But today, to say the Parks and Boulevards system works might be like saying a tree with half its limbs dead or dying is alive.

That’s the depressing part — taking stock of the the faded glory of one our city’s most distinctive, fabulous features

The exciting part is bringing back the glory, putting the epic back into the “myth.”

Stay tuned.

I did not grow up in cities. Until recently I have always lived in or near wilderness areas- areas that have few major roads and where nature and man meet in very different ways than they do in Kansas City. The Parks and Boulevards system is a very intriguing idea to me. To have to actually make an effort to bring nature to a city is still a strange concept. Nature and beauty has always just “been there” no one had to add it back in but it is something that has become more and more necessary as our cities grow and our access to nature becomes less obvious.

Access to green space on a daily basis has proven to be beneficial and vital to the mental, physical and emotional well-being of humans as was discussed at length in an article titled Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’. For example, there are strong links between child behavioral problems and access to green space activities or lack thereof and that interaction with nature and animals is important to child development (Wolch, 2014).  The ways in which these concepts are surfacing vary from green building designs to improving connections between the city and parks.  Kessler’s vision for Parks and Boulevards system may have been conceived of nearly a century ago but it has very relevant and applicable components today.

While driving the Parks & Boulevards system in Kansas City, with a little bit of background information in tow, I can imagine what it was like in the 1940’s to go for a leisurely family drive on a Sunday afternoon and perhaps stopping along the way at Troost Lake for a picnic (Yes, I said Troost Lake). The slowly curving, wide lanes winding through beautiful homes, parks and memorials along the way. With as few cars on the road as there was then I can imagine this to have been a pleasant and enchanting excursion. Today, though there are strong remnants of past intentions evident, we are not living in the same century and many things have changed since the P&B (Parks & Boulevards) system was envisioned in the early part of the 1900’s.

Many of the neighborhoods and destinations that this system runs through and to are now run down and not as well maintained as they could be and are for the most part underutilized, with a few exceptions. The whole system feels disjointed and confusing and while driving through it there doesn’t seem to be a natural flow of the connecting boulevards. I don’t live near the system and when I owned a car I avoided it because it was inefficient, so prior to being given the background on parks and boulevards system I really didn’t understand what was happening with Kansas City streets at all. I found it unclear, fragmented and seemingly random. For instance, the pavilion structure on Paseo between 11th & 12th,  it has always seemed arbitrary and out of place to me. I didn’t understand the purpose of such a structure in that particular location, and the people that first introduced me to Kansas City couldn’t give me any information on it either.

 “Do people go there? What do you do there? Why is it there? Why would someone spend a bunch of money building something like that that no one ever uses and can’t use?” None of my tour guides could answer those questions- they only laughed and took me to Loose Park. Clearly the idea of the parks and boulevards has been lost on this city and its new residents.

I do not own a personal vehicle and I rely largely on public transportation, walking or cycling to destinations so the appeal of such a car-centric system is largely lost on me in the first place and it also causes me to be much more sensitive to issues with alternative transportation. There are bike lanes and sidewalks that randomly start and stop, as if someone started a project and midway through and got distracted by something shinny somewhere else and moved on. There is a serious lack of parking at the many stops along the P&B system so if you are driving it seems as though no one wants you to actually stop. I can’t tell if these memorials and parks were designed to have people visit or not. Many of them have benches which would make them seem as if they were welcoming to the public, or at least were once, but the access to them now is hazardous at best especially by bike or foot and lack parking otherwise. (at least this is my experience with the few that I visited) Though there are clearly attempts being made to improve and maintain this system in Kansas City, the overall feeling is one of confusing unimportance.

 An example of this is at the Kennedy Memorial at St. John’s avenue and Bellefontain Ave. It is an absolutely amazing structure that I would love to go spend my lunch break at. It seems to be well maintained and it appears that there is work being done to repair and reinvigorate the site,  but getting to it would be an absolute nightmare if you weren’t in a car.

There are no sidewalks or bike lanes and a confusing parking situation. Are you supposed to stop here? Am I parked in the street? There is a tennis court and another green space next to it as well as residential area and a very busy street separating all of these things with no way to cross it safely. There are many missed connection opportunities that could bring this space to life in a different way. I would go there if I could get there alive.

Another, just odd personal realization I had while wandering around these parks was that I I have an aversion to walking on lawns, and I’m thinking I’m probably not the only one that does. I feel like I’m walking on someone’s nice white carpet with muddy boots- any minute I’m going to get in trouble! Some of the stops along the way have this don’t tread on me feel to them. Like Bud park. It is a beautiful and huge space with lots of paths and grass… should I walk on it? What does one do with all that lawn? It’s like a painting. It serves no purpose other than to be seen, but it is sure missed when it isn’t there.  If these are really supposed to be actively used how do we promote their use?

Though the idea of introducing and maintaining nature in an urban context is a different concept for me it is perhaps more valuable and necessary in an an area like Kansas City than the places I grew up. Overall, once I understood the big idea behind the P&B system,  I found it to be beautiful and loaded with potential.  We are fortunate in Kansas City to have so many parks available to us and it is sad to see so few of them actually being used for their intended purposes any longer. The system as a whole is not necessarily valued as the amazing resources for activity, community engagement and overall health and well-being of the residents of Kansas City and it should be.  It is time to refocus its value, involve the communities in positive ways and update the system so that it can be move into this century and beyond.  And though it is highly unlikely that any of us in Kansas City will have the experience of crossing paths with a black bear on our walk through Budd Park the experience of the walk itself is no less valuable and vital.

Wolch, J. R. (2014). Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’. Landscape and Urban Planning (125), 234-244.