My German city was sent back to the stone age with the help of American bombs in WWII. Ironic how they did this to themselves without having had a war on their home soil.
Demolishing multi story buildings in the center of the city and replacing them with parking lots makes zero economic sense I still can't understand how it happened
Because companies built skyscrapers with no underground parking for employees, so they buy up cheap lots and demolish them. Other cases it was just the Robert Moses style of "always progress moving forward, ignore the consequences" to make highways.
No, it makes sense when you get the timeline right. Cars allowed people to live further away. So while people might still work downtown, they increasingly stopped doing their errands downtown. Consequently thriving offices had high demand for parking while failing businesses were trying to sell their land. Perfect recipe for parking lot conversions.
There are, thankfully, a few exceptions to that rule. But, yes, for the most part, that is true. You could say the same for some Canadian cities as well.
As a native Kansas Citian, I was really excited to see you made a video about my city. Although it deeply saddens me to see how beautiful of a city we used to have, but traded in exchange for a dysfunctional highway system, I am really excited to see all the new developments taking place. Hopefully 50 years from now I’ll be able to tell my grandkids how much better they have it compared to when I was growing up.
Those details at 2:18 are very beautiful, it also shows how ornament can be added to a simple cube and still be effective. Many modern cubes could still be improved by adding ornament on top.
Totally agree. Many modern architects won't put lintels along the top of their buildings, for stylistic or cost reasons. Turns out this ornamentation actually has a use: when you don't include it, rain drips down the exterior walls and creates ugly drip marks.
St Joseph is a small city to the north of KC with a similar trajectory to its larger neighbor, however with none of the growth and optimism. The city has done nothing but been stagnant for over 100 years, yet it has grown to double its land area. There is so much rich history of architecture and human-oriented development throughout the area; yet today it's a bunch of decaying brick buildings and empty fields.
Alexander, you have again prepared an excellent, informative video about an American city that once dazzled the senses. Kansas City teemed with exciting, mesmerising architecture. Its neighbourhoods exuded ambiance. As I watch from the Netherlands, I feel such sorrow for what has disappeared. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s, I loathed the car centric communities. I told my parents in 1971 that I would return to the homeland where I would live in a beautiful, historic town--without a car. I realised that dream, and I now live in glorious Middelburg.
Kansas City feels like the most confusing mix between an older city with a solid urban core and a more decentralized, sprawling metro like Columbus. The boundaries are so weird to look at on a map.
Awesome video! One of Americas most famous architects lived during the late 1800s in KC and built many masterpieces. A video dedicated to the raise of KC would be interesting/entertaining to watch as well. Thanks again for the video!
Again, so tremendously saddening. The character, the life force, the meaning for existence of this city has been torn away, actively subverted, or left to fade out of being by those who took for granted what they had or believed that someone else would maintain the city's soul.
The question does come up that can we ever get rid of our highway systems that destroyed the cities? It feels like they are so established to fully get rid of
@ in all fairness the only cities I’ve seen this happen are places like Boston, but I don’t think it can really work anymore since most of our cities are broke/bankrupt
Both Seattle and Boston, which @Andrew-iw9th and @OliveOilFan bring up as examples, didn't actually "get rid" of their highways. They spent billions of dollars putting overground segements of their downtown freeways into tunnels. The only American cities to truly get rid of their highways wihtout replacing them in an expensive manner is San Franscisco, with its Embarcadero Freeway, and Rochester, NY.
Answer: no, we will never get rid of urban freeways. We’ll get rid of some little-used loops and spurs here and there, but the mainline freeways will be sticking around until we’re too poor to rebuild them.
Hey man you make great videos. Something about the jazz scores with the old images followed by your commentary feels out of worldly. It’s sad to see great things like these beautiful cities you showcase fall but to somethings fall something anew rises. Good stuff 🤙
Never been to Kansas city but from what you showed pre and post urban renewal I want to cry 😢. It looked amazing before and looks terrible now! Also I just subscribed.
I don't understand why highway capping wasn't done so much sooner. So many of these downtown highways are below street level. If Kansas City simply capping their downtown highways on day 1, the urban decay that followed would've been far less severe.
Kansas city (with Omaha and Oklahoma city) should be built up to relieve pressure from the west and east coast. if we build amenities, services, housing, transit we can recreate metropolitan lifestyles in the downtown urban cores
It was nice to see the old Emery, Bird, Thayer building. I remember going to all the big stores with my mother and her friends: Rothschild's Harzfelds, Woolf Brothers, Palace clothiers, and of course Macy's and Jones Store. There was also Grant's that had THE best candy selection. :-) Alexander, thanks for the memories.
Strong Towns gives me hope for the future. Instead of framing things in ways that can easily be co-opted by culture war and political narratives. It speaks in a way that makes sense to most average Americans: money and economics
The suburbs of KC are great. Some of the best burbs to live in in the whole U.S. there is often one of them in the annual top 10 best places to live lists
Hi from Australia, love watching your videos. Its crazy how many US cities just basically bulldozed huge swathes of buildings and communities in the name of progress, and yet much of the land is empty or used for car parking after all these years. Australian cities did follow the car centric development model of the US but mostly our central business districts and inner city suburbs remained relatively intact in comparison to the US. Yes we lost many heritage buildings in the move to modernise, but anything that was bulldozed was replaced. There is little to no empty land within or close to our city centres just sitting idle. It boggles the mind that you guys just leave it empty... and in a housing crisis?!!?
Woah. This one does hurt, but it's at least good to see Kansas still has a tram (streetcar) network in use and some of its former past still there. Means there's possibilities to rebuild in the future if there's ever an ambition for it. Speaking of, now I'm curious to see what places in Texas look like... I heard not too great things about those cities. Very car centric and ugly... :(. Cheers from Europe, and congrats on surpassing the million views on the Atlantic City video!
The same thing happened to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its a shame, sometimes, remembering it, makes me wanna cry, what have they done to my beloved Rio... When i went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, i had a hard shock. Its impressive how they preserved the city spirit
Kansas Citian here 👋 While the physical boundaries of Kansas City, Missouri proper have expanded greatly over the last 50+ years, the graphic you provided at 4:10 is misleading - that is not the current city boundary. The graphic you showed is showing new growth / sprawl for the entire metro area, not just KCMO proper
I'll clarify since it probably wasn't clearly stated in the video. The graph is not of the city boundaries. Just the extent of the urban sprawl to show how the amount of urbanized land has greatly increased. I'm not concerned with political boundaries when it comes to this.
I really enjoyed watching your video. Total shame what has happened to Kansas City. So much architectural splendour swept away for depressing looking buildings, carparks and decades old gap sites. The out of town communities look soulless and void of any character. In many towns across Scotland, old Victorian town centres were largely destroyed to make way for obscure road infrastructure. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, saw its city centre sliced in 2 by the M8 motorway obliterating dozens of old buildings in the early 70s. Today the city centre is entirely surrounded by motorway and although public transport into the city centre is good, many communities feel cut off due to a complex and obscure motorway network. Post-war, Glasgow pulled down almost 30% of the old tenement buildings to make way for high rise housing developments which today are now being pulled down and redeveloped. Edinburgh at least kept her old buildings and invested in them. Glasgow suffered from the Bruce Report and it looks like the USA had many Bruce Reports.
At least the downtown is seeing a boom in historic investments. Expanding streetcar access, potentially a new Royals baseball stadium downtown, the Berkeley riverfront district, the south loop park, etc. still a damn shame tho…
I visited KC about 10 years ago and was impressed from what I was expecting but seeing this is absolutely shocking to know what it once was. As an architect and an urban aficionado I hope it continues to crawl back to its former architectural urban paradise. I live in a 100 y.o. house in a streetcar suburb with a compact but amazing terraced garden and three minute walk away from a vibrant urban village, transit and dt. We rarely get in cars and a live very social and active lifestyle as it should be.
You should make a video about Fall River, MA. In the late 19th/early 20th century, it was the most productive textile manufacturing center in North America (and second in the world behind Manchester), but competition from southern states created an economic downturn that led to a population decline of over 25%, going from the third most populous city in Massachusetts to currently tenth. The old urban core of the city is completely unrecognizable and there's a distinct lack of any form of community space for any of its residents. One of the few American cities outside the Rust Belt to have a population above 100,000 but fall below that from demographic decline.
Not the first time I see these comparisons of old/new Kansas City. A silly conspiracy theory - the city was actually nuked but the whole world was brainwashed into forgetting it
Here is an explanation of what caused this and most of our problems as a country: List of who decides the government in various countries: France: French Voters Canada: Canadian Voters Germany: German Voters Japan: Japanese Voters United States: Automotive industry, oil industry, healthcare industry, airline industry
These are great videos. But, the reality is that a lot of these buildings were very outdated and weren't built to last long. Meaning that 1930's version of Kansas City, was built on top of the 1870's Kansas City, that looked completely differently. That "beauty" of the 1930's picture would not have existed without that previous destruction. Not to mention the world was different. The electrical wires and telephone wires were everywhere on electrical poles. Neighborhoods were dirty. There's a lot more than what these pictures show. Not to mention, the people with cars in the 1950's were excited about superhighways. They saw it as an upgrade. They did not demonize cars or cities the way we do. They were looking forward to the new cities. Everyone moved to the suburbs. That means the entire way of life using the trolley cars, was gone. People wanted the security of the car over the New York City-lifestyle thst every city in America had prior. Fuel was cheap. Cars were cheap. Car repairs were simple. Cars were simple. Somehow we have become overengineered in our cars, which is ridiculous. We also are losing the fuel source, and cannot find an equivalent alternative. Electric Vehicles (EV's) are more expensive. It's making life more expensive for us. The entire world will lose wealth, which means it's more expensive to travel. We may have to move back into cities as fuel becomes too expensive. But that doesn't seem like the direction se're going in right now. Suburbs are still being built today. Either way, I think because our entire 1930's economy was built by the private sector to cater to a 1930's lifestyle, it makes perfect sense that that would all close once that lifestyle was gone. Nobody wanted to live in these tenement houses anymore. Yes the interstate highways crisscrossed the entire Kansas City downtown, but at the same time, people saw it as beautiful back in the 1950's. If anything people wanted more cities to be like that. People during the 1980's and 1990's also saw a futurism in cities and expected cities to evolve, but I think people didn't realize that our wealth would run out. Also, that there would be such an emphasis in nature and parks, which previous generations didn't value as much, at least not directly in city streets, like we do with trees and gardens everywhere. Basically, Kansas City is unfinished and should have continued to urbanism, but now people don't really want concrete jungles anymore, so we're regressing to what is fashionable today, pretending like it's a feature, but the reason why we can't continue the 1950's lifestyle, is because energy is too expensive and we don't feel the need to build that futuristic steel world of the Jetsons. Instead, we're just going to be simpler, and if anything our building will last even less than those of the 1930's. Houses and buildings are constantly built quickly and torn down quickly. They're not made and still are not made for longevity like European cities are.
True -- many urbanists tend to over-romanticize the past, even while making valid criticisms of the present. A lot of those beautiful older buildings probably would've been prohibitively expensive to update to modern standards of plumbing, HVAC, and electrical service.
What's your excuse for the way suburbs have been built? After W.W. II, suburban America was extremely prosperous, so why all the cheap, tacky, bland, architecture?
This a very long comment for a You Tube comment section. So few people will read the whole thing. But every word in it is well thought out and true. If viewers want to know what the rebuttal is to this rather negative video on Kanas City's "decline", this is that rebuttal. The bottom line is that Kanas City's decline is not a decline at all. Take the time to read @PromisingPod's comment, and you will see why.
@@Zalis116 "A lot of those beautiful older buildings probably would've been prohibitively expensive to update..." Okay, so why couldn't the buildings that replaced them also have been beautiful? Did they have to be so monstrously ugly? What's the excuse for buildings like 5:46?
Another video espousing the wonderful, lost cable car systems of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. No mention of Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail, Heat in Summer, and in Missouri, the every 20 year tornado that destroys the entire neighborhood, all while waiting for the trolley. Today, what little public transit exists in my city is short term living quarters for the homeless. Being unwilling to invite myself into someone else's home (even if illegally squatted on), I think I'll just stick with my air conditioned, always ready at my fingertips, automobile.
I’m moving to KC after I graduate and I’ll be working for the public works department, city hall cares about this stuff too. It’s not too late to turn it around
So I live in one of those KC suburbs. I think one thing you left out, red lining and white flight were invented here. For better or worse, Olathe, Overland Park, Shawnee, they all exist because of those policies. Compounding this problem is how much better the Bluey Valley school district is compared to the urban KCK or MO areas. People are flooding in to the KS side of the city for what these neighborhoods provide. I do think there will be urban renewal if 1. the city sticks to the plan of expanding light rail, especially into the KS suburbs 2. The Hunt family gets what it wants and we get new stadiums downtown as opposed to in the legends complex/ KS side where tons of development is happening.
Well that wasn’t depressing, was it?! But hopeful at the end. The point about unnecessary sprawl is very well made in this excellent video. I’m from UK, and we did much the same in the 1960s and 70s to several of our cities. Thankfully, nowadays it’s usual to get preservation orders slapped on older buildings of merit with change of use agreements but also remodelling and adaptation - in many cases we still lose the interiors but at least the facades survive. Historic buildings are a very important part of our culture, they give us a sense of place and security. Most people prefer the richer architectural style of them and like the history to live and breathe around them.
Kansas City is definitely a victim of its own geography. There’s so much easy to build on land for miles around the core, that suburban sprawl became a logical conclusion. There aren’t a whole lot of natural boundaries, especially to the south
All American cities should pedestrianize and redevelop any surface level parking lot in their downtowns. Dense walkability, mixed use. Make these places destinations, not something you drive through at 65mph
I hate these ubiquitous new apartment buildings going up. No matter what the city it's as if they all come from the same architect. They look exactly the same everywhere. They are SOOO ugly.
The cities in the United States are not like cities in the rest of the world, where they have decided that public transportation, fast rail and walkable areas are a priority.. In the U.S. the all mighty pick up truck is the priority, and maybe guns...
There’s a lot of irony/hypocrisy when you’re making a video about the tragic loss of old beauty in favor of modern convenience, and you use an AI slop photo for the “jazz scene” instead of an actual photo of 18th and Vine
![KSI - Dirty [Official Visualiser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoDh1h1dPUE/mqdefault.jpg)
Its almost criminal how we've ripped the heart and soul out of so many of our cities.
My German city was sent back to the stone age with the help of American bombs in WWII. Ironic how they did this to themselves without having had a war on their home soil.
@@jjandorliadul It was Germany itself that called it upon itself.
IT IS criminal
@@jjandorliadul bro you really can’t be complaining about that bro
@@harcoom
Why not? Everything he said is factual.
Kansas City is one of the biggest casualties of 1960s urban design, which is a shame.
Demolishing multi story buildings in the center of the city and replacing them with parking lots makes zero economic sense I still can't understand how it happened
Authoritarian delusions of modernist grandeur, combined with "lobbying" (bribery) by gas and automotive companies.
Because companies built skyscrapers with no underground parking for employees, so they buy up cheap lots and demolish them.
Other cases it was just the Robert Moses style of "always progress moving forward, ignore the consequences" to make highways.
Pushing the vehicular incentive ($)
No, it makes sense when you get the timeline right. Cars allowed people to live further away. So while people might still work downtown, they increasingly stopped doing their errands downtown. Consequently thriving offices had high demand for parking while failing businesses were trying to sell their land. Perfect recipe for parking lot conversions.
Most of the parking lots are owned by mark-one.
We're usually used to seeing this type of destruction only in war zones. But America, we did this to ourselves. What were people thinking?!
We made it more car dependent
American cities had so much style. Now they are empty and boring
There are, thankfully, a few exceptions to that rule. But, yes, for the most part, that is true. You could say the same for some Canadian cities as well.
As a native Kansas Citian, I was really excited to see you made a video about my city. Although it deeply saddens me to see how beautiful of a city we used to have, but traded in exchange for a dysfunctional highway system, I am really excited to see all the new developments taking place. Hopefully 50 years from now I’ll be able to tell my grandkids how much better they have it compared to when I was growing up.
Unfortunately the narrative is usually "how better it was decades ago" very few examples of improvement in time, sadly.
Those details at 2:18 are very beautiful, it also shows how ornament can be added to a simple cube and still be effective. Many modern cubes could still be improved by adding ornament on top.
Totally agree.
Many modern architects won't put lintels along the top of their buildings, for stylistic or cost reasons. Turns out this ornamentation actually has a use: when you don't include it, rain drips down the exterior walls and creates ugly drip marks.
Totally. Facades are nothing new and even they can add so much to the character of a city.
St Joseph is a small city to the north of KC with a similar trajectory to its larger neighbor, however with none of the growth and optimism. The city has done nothing but been stagnant for over 100 years, yet it has grown to double its land area. There is so much rich history of architecture and human-oriented development throughout the area; yet today it's a bunch of decaying brick buildings and empty fields.
ouch
7:21
That light rail stop is exemplary of much of the transit system in America. You get off and on in a sea of parking lots.
And the sad reality is, that buildings like these will never once more be built.
Most underrated channel on RUclips
Alexander, you have again prepared an excellent, informative video about an American city that once dazzled the senses. Kansas City teemed with exciting, mesmerising architecture. Its neighbourhoods exuded ambiance. As I watch from the Netherlands, I feel such sorrow for what has disappeared. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s, I loathed the car centric communities. I told my parents in 1971 that I would return to the homeland where I would live in a beautiful, historic town--without a car. I realised that dream, and I now live in glorious Middelburg.
Love to see the Dutch watching our American urban planing youtubers. You guys really do things right over there and are an inspiration!
Kansas City feels like the most confusing mix between an older city with a solid urban core and a more decentralized, sprawling metro like Columbus. The boundaries are so weird to look at on a map.
Intresting points honestly, I'll be left thinking about this for a good few days
Some of that before/after footage was absolutely shocking!
Im glad i found another channel with educational content thar isnt mass produced slop (bright side looper)
Awesome video! One of Americas most famous architects lived during the late 1800s in KC and built many masterpieces. A video dedicated to the raise of KC would be interesting/entertaining to watch as well. Thanks again for the video!
Again, so tremendously saddening.
The character, the life force, the meaning for existence of
this city has been torn away, actively subverted, or left
to fade out of being by those who took for granted what they
had or believed that someone else would maintain the city's soul.
The question does come up that can we ever get rid of our highway systems that destroyed the cities? It feels like they are so established to fully get rid of
Absolutely! It’s happened in many American cities like Seattle.
@ in all fairness the only cities I’ve seen this happen are places like Boston, but I don’t think it can really work anymore since most of our cities are broke/bankrupt
Both Seattle and Boston, which @Andrew-iw9th and @OliveOilFan bring up as examples, didn't actually "get rid" of their highways. They spent billions of dollars putting overground segements of their downtown freeways into tunnels.
The only American cities to truly get rid of their highways wihtout replacing them in an expensive manner is San Franscisco, with its Embarcadero Freeway, and Rochester, NY.
Answer: no, we will never get rid of urban freeways. We’ll get rid of some little-used loops and spurs here and there, but the mainline freeways will be sticking around until we’re too poor to rebuild them.
@@Andrew-iw9th Seattle didn't get rid of their freeway, just buried it underground
Hey man you make great videos. Something about the jazz scores with the old images followed by your commentary feels out of worldly. It’s sad to see great things like these beautiful cities you showcase fall but to somethings fall something anew rises. Good stuff 🤙
If you take just the pre-1950 KC boundaries, it is actually the 3rd most shrunken US city (post-suburbanization), after St.
Louis and Detroit.
Never been to Kansas city but from what you showed pre and post urban renewal I want to cry 😢. It looked amazing before and looks terrible now! Also I just subscribed.
Kansas City is a Missouri city
As a Kansas Citian, seeing the before and afters just hurts.
I don't understand why highway capping wasn't done so much sooner. So many of these downtown highways are below street level. If Kansas City simply capping their downtown highways on day 1, the urban decay that followed would've been far less severe.
Kansas city (with Omaha and Oklahoma city) should be built up to relieve pressure from the west and east coast. if we build amenities, services, housing, transit we can recreate metropolitan lifestyles in the downtown urban cores
It was nice to see the old Emery, Bird, Thayer building. I remember going to all the big stores with my mother and her friends: Rothschild's Harzfelds, Woolf Brothers, Palace clothiers, and of course Macy's and Jones Store. There was also Grant's that had THE best candy selection. :-) Alexander, thanks for the memories.
Great video, just an important cause. Keep fighting
Strong Towns gives me hope for the future. Instead of framing things in ways that can easily be co-opted by culture war and political narratives. It speaks in a way that makes sense to most average Americans: money and economics
As a person from KC, I can confirm that it's gotten so much worse than it was a decade ago.
The highway killed our city
It’s a city, city needs highways or they don’t grow or even function
@The_zenithgod definitely not true
The suburbs of KC are great. Some of the best burbs to live in in the whole U.S. there is often one of them in the annual top 10 best places to live lists
You should check out Jacksonville, Florida. I'm a native. Our modern downtown is awful. We had a terrible fall-off.
Hi from Australia, love watching your videos. Its crazy how many US cities just basically bulldozed huge swathes of buildings and communities in the name of progress, and yet much of the land is empty or used for car parking after all these years.
Australian cities did follow the car centric development model of the US but mostly our central business districts and inner city suburbs remained relatively intact in comparison to the US. Yes we lost many heritage buildings in the move to modernise, but anything that was bulldozed was replaced. There is little to no empty land within or close to our city centres just sitting idle. It boggles the mind that you guys just leave it empty... and in a housing crisis?!!?
Woah. This one does hurt, but it's at least good to see Kansas still has a tram (streetcar) network in use and some of its former past still there. Means there's possibilities to rebuild in the future if there's ever an ambition for it.
Speaking of, now I'm curious to see what places in Texas look like... I heard not too great things about those cities. Very car centric and ugly... :(.
Cheers from Europe, and congrats on surpassing the million views on the Atlantic City video!
The same thing happened to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its a shame, sometimes, remembering it, makes me wanna cry, what have they done to my beloved Rio...
When i went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, i had a hard shock. Its impressive how they preserved the city spirit
Kansas Citian here 👋
While the physical boundaries of Kansas City, Missouri proper have expanded greatly over the last 50+ years, the graphic you provided at 4:10 is misleading - that is not the current city boundary. The graphic you showed is showing new growth / sprawl for the entire metro area, not just KCMO proper
I'll clarify since it probably wasn't clearly stated in the video. The graph is not of the city boundaries. Just the extent of the urban sprawl to show how the amount of urbanized land has greatly increased. I'm not concerned with political boundaries when it comes to this.
I really enjoyed watching your video. Total shame what has happened to Kansas City. So much architectural splendour swept away for depressing looking buildings, carparks and decades old gap sites. The out of town communities look soulless and void of any character. In many towns across Scotland, old Victorian town centres were largely destroyed to make way for obscure road infrastructure. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, saw its city centre sliced in 2 by the M8 motorway obliterating dozens of old buildings in the early 70s. Today the city centre is entirely surrounded by motorway and although public transport into the city centre is good, many communities feel cut off due to a complex and obscure motorway network. Post-war, Glasgow pulled down almost 30% of the old tenement buildings to make way for high rise housing developments which today are now being pulled down and redeveloped. Edinburgh at least kept her old buildings and invested in them. Glasgow suffered from the Bruce Report and it looks like the USA had many Bruce Reports.
I'm sure some people will see traffic you showed and say: "yeah, its cause we need more lanes, bro! duh!"
At least the downtown is seeing a boom in historic investments. Expanding streetcar access, potentially a new Royals baseball stadium downtown, the Berkeley riverfront district, the south loop park, etc. still a damn shame tho…
I was raised in Kansas City, the title made me mad at first but the video is very valid.
DFW and greater Houston are the 4th and 5th largest population centers in USA do one of those next?
I visited KC about 10 years ago and was impressed from what I was expecting but seeing this is absolutely shocking to know what it once was. As an architect and an urban aficionado I hope it continues to crawl back to its former architectural urban paradise. I live in a 100 y.o. house in a streetcar suburb with a compact but amazing terraced garden and three minute walk away from a vibrant urban village, transit and dt. We rarely get in cars and a live very social and active lifestyle as it should be.
You should make a video about Fall River, MA. In the late 19th/early 20th century, it was the most productive textile manufacturing center in North America (and second in the world behind Manchester), but competition from southern states created an economic downturn that led to a population decline of over 25%, going from the third most populous city in Massachusetts to currently tenth. The old urban core of the city is completely unrecognizable and there's a distinct lack of any form of community space for any of its residents. One of the few American cities outside the Rust Belt to have a population above 100,000 but fall below that from demographic decline.
Wow, what a tragedy. This city could have been such a cool place 🙁
Not the first time I see these comparisons of old/new Kansas City.
A silly conspiracy theory - the city was actually nuked but the whole world was brainwashed into forgetting it
Here is an explanation of what caused this and most of our problems as a country:
List of who decides the government in various countries:
France: French Voters
Canada: Canadian Voters
Germany: German Voters
Japan: Japanese Voters
United States: Automotive industry, oil industry, healthcare industry, airline industry
Us Statespeople never even voted for government since Lewis Powell became a judge of the SCOTUS system.
These are great videos. But, the reality is that a lot of these buildings were very outdated and weren't built to last long. Meaning that 1930's version of Kansas City, was built on top of the 1870's Kansas City, that looked completely differently. That "beauty" of the 1930's picture would not have existed without that previous destruction. Not to mention the world was different. The electrical wires and telephone wires were everywhere on electrical poles. Neighborhoods were dirty. There's a lot more than what these pictures show.
Not to mention, the people with cars in the 1950's were excited about superhighways. They saw it as an upgrade. They did not demonize cars or cities the way we do. They were looking forward to the new cities. Everyone moved to the suburbs. That means the entire way of life using the trolley cars, was gone. People wanted the security of the car over the New York City-lifestyle thst every city in America had prior. Fuel was cheap. Cars were cheap. Car repairs were simple. Cars were simple. Somehow we have become overengineered in our cars, which is ridiculous. We also are losing the fuel source, and cannot find an equivalent alternative. Electric Vehicles (EV's) are more expensive. It's making life more expensive for us. The entire world will lose wealth, which means it's more expensive to travel. We may have to move back into cities as fuel becomes too expensive. But that doesn't seem like the direction se're going in right now. Suburbs are still being built today.
Either way, I think because our entire 1930's economy was built by the private sector to cater to a 1930's lifestyle, it makes perfect sense that that would all close once that lifestyle was gone. Nobody wanted to live in these tenement houses anymore. Yes the interstate highways crisscrossed the entire Kansas City downtown, but at the same time, people saw it as beautiful back in the 1950's. If anything people wanted more cities to be like that.
People during the 1980's and 1990's also saw a futurism in cities and expected cities to evolve, but I think people didn't realize that our wealth would run out. Also, that there would be such an emphasis in nature and parks, which previous generations didn't value as much, at least not directly in city streets, like we do with trees and gardens everywhere. Basically, Kansas City is unfinished and should have continued to urbanism, but now people don't really want concrete jungles anymore, so we're regressing to what is fashionable today, pretending like it's a feature, but the reason why we can't continue the 1950's lifestyle, is because energy is too expensive and we don't feel the need to build that futuristic steel world of the Jetsons. Instead, we're just going to be simpler, and if anything our building will last even less than those of the 1930's. Houses and buildings are constantly built quickly and torn down quickly. They're not made and still are not made for longevity like European cities are.
True -- many urbanists tend to over-romanticize the past, even while making valid criticisms of the present. A lot of those beautiful older buildings probably would've been prohibitively expensive to update to modern standards of plumbing, HVAC, and electrical service.
What's your excuse for the way suburbs have been built? After W.W. II, suburban America was extremely prosperous, so why all the cheap, tacky, bland, architecture?
This a very long comment for a You Tube comment section. So few people will read the whole thing. But every word in it is well thought out and true. If viewers want to know what the rebuttal is to this rather negative video on Kanas City's "decline", this is that rebuttal. The bottom line is that Kanas City's decline is not a decline at all. Take the time to read @PromisingPod's comment, and you will see why.
@@Zalis116 "A lot of those beautiful older buildings probably would've been prohibitively expensive to update..."
Okay, so why couldn't the buildings that replaced them also have been beautiful? Did they have to be so monstrously ugly? What's the excuse for buildings like 5:46?
2:37 No, when you when you have to interrupt this video with an interaction reminder!
Another video espousing the wonderful, lost cable car systems of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. No mention of Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail, Heat in Summer, and in Missouri, the every 20 year tornado that destroys the entire neighborhood, all while waiting for the trolley.
Today, what little public transit exists in my city is short term living quarters for the homeless. Being unwilling to invite myself into someone else's home (even if illegally squatted on), I think I'll just stick with my air conditioned, always ready at my fingertips, automobile.
Say what you want about San Francisco, but it never tore up its urban core like this. I'll always appreciate that
This was really good!
LETS GO MY CITY AS SOMEONE ABSOLUTELY LOVES KANSAS CITY IM PROUD TO HEAR IT BE TALKED ABOUT CUZ SOME OF OUR OLD ARCHITECTURE WAS AMAZING
I felt the exact same way when the Hartford video.
OK. But why all caps? All caps means you are screaming at us. No one likes to be screamed at. The result is that your message will be ignored.
@@roberthenry9319 chill dawg dont mean any harm to you just excited to hear my city being talked about by a good content creator
wanna see the future of kansas city? check your neighbor city to the east, st. louis.
what happened to st. louis is the future and it's not pretty.
Was in KC this summer and the way the freeway system is designed is criminal.
Hard to imagine what life was like in the hay day of these cities.
I’m moving to KC after I graduate and I’ll be working for the public works department, city hall cares about this stuff too. It’s not too late to turn it around
until you learn what tokenism means
So I live in one of those KC suburbs. I think one thing you left out, red lining and white flight were invented here. For better or worse, Olathe, Overland Park, Shawnee, they all exist because of those policies. Compounding this problem is how much better the Bluey Valley school district is compared to the urban KCK or MO areas. People are flooding in to the KS side of the city for what these neighborhoods provide. I do think there will be urban renewal if 1. the city sticks to the plan of expanding light rail, especially into the KS suburbs 2. The Hunt family gets what it wants and we get new stadiums downtown as opposed to in the legends complex/ KS side where tons of development is happening.
Are you gonna do a video on Baltimore, Maryland?
Well that wasn’t depressing, was it?! But hopeful at the end. The point about unnecessary sprawl is very well made in this excellent video. I’m from UK, and we did much the same in the 1960s and 70s to several of our cities. Thankfully, nowadays it’s usual to get preservation orders slapped on older buildings of merit with change of use agreements but also remodelling and adaptation - in many cases we still lose the interiors but at least the facades survive. Historic buildings are a very important part of our culture, they give us a sense of place and security. Most people prefer the richer architectural style of them and like the history to live and breathe around them.
WE ARE NOT FALLEN! WE ARE NOT FALLEN!
Kansas City is definitely a victim of its own geography. There’s so much easy to build on land for miles around the core, that suburban sprawl became a logical conclusion. There aren’t a whole lot of natural boundaries, especially to the south
All American cities should pedestrianize and redevelop any surface level parking lot in their downtowns. Dense walkability, mixed use. Make these places destinations, not something you drive through at 65mph
Wow, Kansas City use to be a proper city. It looked like a city I would have love to live in.
Please do Baltimore
Why?
@ I want a video on how it went from americas 3rd biggest city to the city with the most slums
I hate these ubiquitous new apartment buildings going up. No matter what the city it's as if they all come from the same architect. They look exactly the same everywhere. They are SOOO ugly.
But.... But.... The Chiefs!!!
The cities in the United States are not like cities in the rest of the world, where they have decided that public transportation, fast rail and walkable areas are a priority.. In the U.S. the all mighty pick up truck is the priority, and maybe guns...
Inner cities are too often appreciared too late.
There's nothing wrong with the freeways that a couple extra lanes wouldn't cure.
Can you show this in schools and such. Like for real show this to everyone!!!!
"Paved over paradise and put up a parking lot"
5:10 I literally am so close to this area it’s not even funny
Hello Darkness, my old friend....😢....
I think Cleveland Ohio would be good for this series
(5:46) WOW, isn't that just...just...BRILLIANT! No wonder that they are known as the.....GREATEST GENERATION! 🙄🙄
Lincoln Nebraska downtown is still nice
I guess we are not in Kansas anymore
I'm hesitant to share this because of the use of AI images near the beginning. It's unnecessary and seriously undermines your credibility.
wtf they lobotomized my boy kc 😭
There’s a lot of irony/hypocrisy when you’re making a video about the tragic loss of old beauty in favor of modern convenience, and you use an AI slop photo for the “jazz scene” instead of an actual photo of 18th and Vine
*if this video get millions views: that would be helpful... i wish.*
No it's called CORPORATE DEMOCRACY 😂😂😂😂
if we gonna have back our city's, that would start with right wing policy
Always the dam highways
Now we have big gross communist apartment buildings devouring the rest of what was left of our beautiful cities.
Comment for algorithm
This happens when you vote Democrat
Great city, nicely cleaned up these days. Fallen? More like restored.
You'll see
Kansas City has some of the worst crime rates in the US today.
@ Less than half of what St Louis has…. or Baltimore…. but yeah it does look like it made the top ten, damn.
Ethnic breakdown of Kansas city?
@@tann_man Pretty easy to find that info on Wikipedia
EVIL! WE ARE NOT FALLEN!!!!
Give me a house and some seclusion. Suburbia yes ty. Just make it prettier.
LIES!
THIS IS PROPAGANDA!