Plant your tu-lips on Troost

If you're tired of the irrational exuberance of downtown redevelopment that's akin to tulip mania then here is your chance to help out a less hyped part of KC.

Southtown Foundation's Troost Avenue beautification project "Tulips on Troost" might need your help. Here is an e-mail I recently intercepted because these people probably don't appreciate my all of my Eastside murder jokes:

Recently we received a $3,000.00 CommUnity Impact grant from The Home Depot and we are beginning to utilize these funds for flower beds on the 55th block of Troost this coming Sunday, August 20th. On Sunday with the help of 40 volunteers from Rockhurst's Financial Service Project, we will be cleaning that block and also installing 4 x 6 timber flower bed retainers around all the tree wells on the west side of this block. Additionally, we will be planting red mums in the newly created flower beds (approximately 12 2-gallon mums per each tree well). Anyone wanting to help is welcomed to join this group.

Anyway, I think they're marketing the event all wrong, they should have come up with something like "A great opportunity to role play as a Mexican gardner, only without the smell, 12 children and the Feds chasing you around."

It sounds like a good project as long as your sure to avoid all of the discarded heroin needles. Anyway, thanks to Dan for the tip and if community involvement is your thing - where you get your hands dirty and not just make speeches - you might wanna take a moment or two to smell the flowers.