Understanding the impending failure of Electric Avenue: Upper class fare can't be sustained by Blue Collar Kansas City
There's one more reason that the Power & Light District will soon be one of the biggest potential money losers this town has ever seen: The place overlooks the character of Kansas City.
The P&L District is filled with pricey restaurants and luxury stores that probably won't appeal to the average Kansas City resident who believes that getting takeout and doing it twice represent the highest level of romance and sophistication. Good times!!!
Never mind the fact that there's still no anchor tenant at The Sprint Center across the street, forget about the global economic recession underway and let's not think about Cordish dragging their feet to open the place.
The impending failure of Electric Avenue also has a lot to do with competing venues around Kansas City. There's Zona Rosa, The Legends, Town Center Plaza and now the new Bass Pro place in Independence. The absence of nearly any locally owned businesses doesn't help the situation either.
Meanwhile, Downtown Kansas City wants to cash in on a tiny, nearly insignificant cluster of upper class condo dwellers who primarily got rich by cheating everyone else and leaving horrible tips.
The vibe that seems to dominate Electric Avenue so far seems to be stuffy and upscale.
Yet a place like the Bass Pro shops and The Legends not only provide better parking and security . . . They also seem to more accurately cater to the all of the d-bags named Billy Bob and mullet heads in and around Kansas City who rarely go out for a night on the town sporting anything but jeans and baseball caps.
Of course these same folks might venture downtown for something amazing (Is Garth Brooks playing again any time soon?) but for the most part, statistically, anecdotally and just looking at the situation with some common sense: The Bass Pro, NASCAR set don't like hanging around minorities, they want a lot of convenient parking for their pickups and they rarely spend more than 50 bucks for dinner unless their cousins/siblings come along as well.
And while Kansas City is naively catering to elitism as Cordish drags it feet, the KC suburbs are fighting for their existence successfully by identifying what drove people out that way to begin with: White culture, bland entertainment options and the almost complete absence of people of color. Kansas City is certainly trying to offer those "amenities" but demographics and an overall lack of planning have already set this town down the road to failure as far Electric Avenue is concerned.
Theoretically, Electric Avenue shouldn't have to draw many KC residents to remain viable. Convention business accounts for approximately 500,000 room night stays in the city. Electric Avenue's proximity to the Convention Center/Municiple/Convention Hotels will be the key driver that keeps the P&L afloat. Nothing like several hundred thousand people in your neighborhood each year on expense accounts.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, the P&L will be fine.
Well written Brent.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about Bannister Mall.
ReplyDeleteI never had a white man threaten to shoot me.
A black kid did.
And the second time it happened I swore never to go back.
And I never did.
The more the P&L Developer acts like a bad neighbor (ex. fighting the Festival District legislation)and isn't suuportive of the other parts of our City, the less likely local small business folks are going to want to support the P&L District.
ReplyDeleteEvery city in the country wants to be NY or SF. Places where the rich artsy kids move to spend Daddy's money and live in overpriced downtowns. Places where the hicks come to soak in culture. Trouble is KC will never be that city nor do most who live here want it to be. The only ones who want that type city are those who hope to cash in on overpriced real estate.
ReplyDeleteThat's horseshit Tony!
ReplyDeleteThey got that piano bar down there now. Two of 'em dueling it out while the crowd sings along!
If that aint class, well I don't know what you peckerwoods want.
Parking at legends is a myth. It sucks.
ReplyDeleteI like how that Bill White comedian comes on stage with his drink in his hand. I seen that and I was like "woooohooo, helll yeahh!! This guy's sweet, he knows how to par-tay!!!"
ReplyDeleteJust like I have been telling the people over at KC Rag forum which they don't want to hear:
ReplyDeleteSprint arena will be mostly used as a monster truck shows and soon to be dirt bike racing.
I never thought of concerts but hey what ever floats their boats.
Will it ever be use as an anchor for any team play? NO.
THE CAPACITY IS NOT THERE
I never thought I'd say this, but Paintman speaks the truth. Pro teams are avoiding the KC market like the plague.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Anon 5:40; where's the hockey team. NBA gives us back the Kansas City/Sacramento Kings. The roof won't fall in at the Sprint Center?
ReplyDeleteI can open up a restaurant in the Sprint arena.
ReplyDeleteI'm anxious to see what happens when the P&L District quits sitting on the high crime rate down there. A bunch of young drunks is a target rich environment for muggings.
ReplyDeleteI would have security to protect my customers like I use to when I owned the Madrid Theatre way back then.
ReplyDeleteI'm never going back to the sprint center again after standing in line outside in the freezing cold for a friggin hour ... and after walking icy sidewalks to get there.
ReplyDeleteThe P&L district will fail because the middle class in this country is getting another kick in the nuts.
ReplyDeleteI am betting that the convention business might just drop off a bit too.
6:19 - High crime rate? Can you elaborate as to what the last crime was that was committed there? Or are you just reciting from the JoCo Guide to Suburban Brainwashing?
ReplyDeleteA tough cop like John Bullard will clear all this up.
ReplyDeleteBrent, a huge chunk of the 500,000 room nights of cenvention business comes from citywide conventions like WalMart and Skills. There are just over 2400 hotel rooms in downtown and their occupancy is just above 50%.
ReplyDeleteP&L will do ok when Sprint has events and there are convetnions in town but stuggle bigtime in between these.
There is a lot of property crime downtown that comes from homeless people doing damage to cars and each other. I hope that as soon as some of the shelters are relocated outside of the downtown loop this will change.
ReplyDelete"6:19 - High crime rate? Can you elaborate as to what the last crime was that was committed there? Or are you just reciting from the JoCo Guide to Suburban Brainwashing?"
ReplyDeleteIt ain't folks from JoCo playing up the crime in KC. You need look no further than the author of this blog to promote such short-sighted and low-brow assumptions.
I think I've read your post somewhere before Tony. I think someone is cutting and pasting your shit.
ReplyDeleteNever mind. Just looked in the archives. This post looked so familar to me because IT'S THE SAME REGURTARD SHIT YOU'VE BEEN SPEWING FOR MONTHS.
ReplyDeleteHere's a summary:
bad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white people. bad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white peoplebad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white peoplebad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white peoplebad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white peoplebad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white peoplebad bad bad, hate white people and sprint center, no anchor tenant, white collar, hate joco white people
So you've established the cut and paste work on your computer. Nicely done. Are you capable of thinking of a new idea there, junior?
Ha anon. Yeah you have to take into account that this is the same guy that said there was no parking downtown at the Sprint Center and kept saying what a disaster parking would be, when there is free street parking within 4 blocks of the arena even on sold out event nights.
ReplyDeleteits brent's secret.
ReplyDelete