The sharks are finally here.

The zoo opening its $77 million aquarium.

What's Kansas City's next big attraction?

It's going up right now next to Union Station, the 150 foot tall Kansas City Wheel.

Would you may 17 bucks to see a different view of the downtown skyline.

A slew of new laws go into effect this week, including a new distracted driving law in Missouri.

It's going to be okay if you don't look at your phone for a little while, things will be okay.

Plus, the first public hearing this week on a plan to pedestrianize the country club closet.

Is removing cars.

The answer to what ails our city's premier shopping district?

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, R.S.M and Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlese Gourley the Courteney S Turner Charitable Trust.

John H Mize and Bank of America.

co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and thank you for joining us on our trip through the most compelling news of our week, poring through the headlines.

This is big 41 news anchor and reporter Dia Wall and wait, there's more.

She is 50% of Dana and Parks on KMBC Radio.

Dana Wright, thank you for being with us.

Also around the cozy confines of our weekend review table, tracking the week's top political stories from KCUR Brian Allison?

And if you want to know about the latest Kansas City development trends, particularly downtown, look no further than Kevin Collison from City Scene.

KC, you've now got somewhere new to take the family this Labor Day weekend.

After more than a decade of planning, the $77 million aquarium at the Kansas City Zoo is now open.

Visitors will get an up close look at 34 exhibits featuring everything from sharks and moray eels to giant Pacific octopus and sea turtles.

The project is the largest capital undertaking in the zoo's history.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is a yawn day, number ten is I can't get there fast enough.

How excited are you about this latest attraction in our city?

I am of a ten and I don't even have small children to take anymore.

I am a Jaws super fan.

I just got back from Florida and I would prefer to see our sharks rescued behind glass than up close and personal.

I think it's great.

I think it's going to be a huge hit.

I think we should have reasonable expectations.

If you've been to shed Aquarium, we were just talking about that, which.

Is we're just.

Probably not going to be shed.

But I am super excited and I think it's one more crown in our cap here.

But one big difference from the Shedd Aquarium data is that that costs quite a bit of money to go to.

This is the you don't pay any extra on your show ticket.

It's completely free.

But it's going to be a challenge because they are so worried about crowds.

You have to have a reserve free ticket in advance and it might be weeks before you can get in there.

You know, I think people with small children can hold out, wait a little bit to get inside the aquarium.

I mean, you do still have to pay to go to the zoo, right?

So there is going to be a cost associated in terms of it taking a little bit of time.

I actually do appreciate that they're having phased in entry.

No secret.

We're about to enter the fall season.

We're talking about RSV, we're talking about COVID, we're talking about the flu.

I think it's great for families if you want to go out.

I got small kids, man.

I can wait a little bit.

And it's interesting, you know, in the last decade or so, polar bears have come to the zoo.

We've got the penguins now, we've got sharks and all of this top aquatic life coming.

What is left for the zoo at this point is tigers.

Bears.

Oh, my.

Yes, it's I actually I think the zoo has come a long way.

Nick, I was talking with the director, Shawn Putney, on on KCR a couple of weeks ago.

He's actually got a marine biology background, so he's particularly excited about this development.

I think that's important that Kansas City, a great city, has to have great community institutions and a zoo and aquarium that are that people actually want to come to actually is a big part of that.

You know, how about a panda bear, though?

Is this not what the only thing they haven't got at this point?

There's probably a long list of things they haven't got.

But I think the things that they have got are attracting big crowds, which which I think is a good thing for the city.

Now, while the new aquarium is named for the grandchildren of one of its benefactors, Shirley and Barnett, he'll spend most of the new exhibit is being paid for by tax dollars.

$45 million of the $77 million price tag is being paid by a zoo tax approved by voters in 2012.

That means anything you pay for in Jackson or Clay counties, whether it's a T-shirt or a meal, a portion of that money goes into the zoo.

Why does this not upset people as much as when our sports teams, Kevin, say they want a little bit of extra money for better facilities like a new stadium?

Well, everybody likes an aquarium.

Okay?

Everybody likes to.

Fly in a penguin.

Penguins, particularly.

They just don't like multimillion dollar owners of sports teams.

Yeah, big time sports owners having asking them for help.

But, you know, I just agree with Brian.

I mean, you know what they've done there over the past ten years.

It's just been wonderful.

They brought in this Shaun from the Omaha Zoo, which has just been a huge hit up there for 50 years, it seems.

And he really, really created something that is first class and a great attraction.

It's twofold, though, I think when you talk about an aquarium that's 77 million, you got 30, which is a nice head start from the Helzberg family.

45 million looks a heck of a lot different than asking for a billion.

And we didn't have an existing aquarium that we're now replacing.

And I think our listeners anyway, have said, why are we giving all this money to billionaires when what we have over here is just fine?

We didn't already have an aquarium and people hate change.

Nick, you know that in this.

I know that it's also super nonprofit.

It's a civic institution and I love baseball.

I consider that a community good, but there's no denying it's a business.

It's a for profit enterprise with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line for into people's pockets.

That's very different than a zoo and aquarium.

So what's the next big new attraction opening in Kansas City?

Get ready for the 150 foot tall Ferris wheel now officially under construction next to Union Station.

It's part of the Penn Waypoint Entertainment District going in between the IRS building and the Highway 36 climate controlled gondolas, operating rain or shine, 365 days a year and lit up at night, giving Kansas City fans a new perspective on the downtown skyline.

The same company working on the Kansas City Observation Wheel built similar attractions like this one in Saint Louis and at the National Harbor near Washington.

Saint Louis, by the way, charges $17 a pop to ride That would you be paying for that in Kansas City.

Not pay me $1,000,000,000 to get on that thing.

You know, maybe a billion with a B I would chip in for the sport since are the people constructing this actually engineers?

That's what I want to know.

Why they've got it in Saint Louis.

They've got it at National, which.

As long as Saint Louis.

First.

I'm good.

I don't tend to trust stuff like that, like the roadside carnival attractions.

I'm out.

My kids are excited.

The only thing that makes me nervous, we just talked about it this week on KSAT B and they said it's going to be open by the fall.

Yeah, I can't believe that.

I can't believe.

That.

I'm just like, you know, maybe we need a little testing period, a little cooling period.

It just seems very fast.

I think it would be beautiful.

It's tall.

I mean, it's huge.

I think it'll be beautiful.

I think we'll.

Have to go camping.

We were on this program and we talked a little bit about this development that was happening right next to you and station.

It was a pie in the sky idea.

I am shocked also that the construction is now under way in such a short period of time.

Oh, well, they definitely have this company out of Maryland that's going to build it.

You know, as far as tall, I did a little homework before I came in.

This is about twice as tall as your typical county fair Ferris wheel.

This is no London.

I you know, I think people will enjoy it.

Again, getting back to the bigger question, how much entertainment can we afford in downtown?

Because this is, as you've pointed out in the past, we've got a power and light district.

We might have an entertainment district with the royals.

We got a project down in the West Bottoms where they're trying to take the Rock Island Bridge and create an entertainment district there.

You know, I will see.

This is kind of an out of the way location.

You know, the nearest attraction for me is the boulevard beer hall, which is only a couple of blocks away.

There's Union Station walking distance away, sure enough.

And I mean, what exactly do you get a view of from the top of this Ferris wheel, the freeway?

Some some some warehouses?

If you really want that same view, you don't have to walk very far over to the Liberty Memorial, which is actually 217 feet tall, only $6 admission available right now.

But it'll look great on TV during Chiefs games, during cutaways, during nighttime events.

When the World Cup gets here, it's oh, look, they have a Ferris wheel.

People love visual stuff.

This is definitely that already.

Well, now one retail and dining district in Kansas City is already suffering.

The Country Club Plaza is the solution to its revival.

Removing old cars from the shopping area.

This week, Matt Lucas joined with architects and design planners in a public forum to gauge public input on the plan.

I'm not sure I understand what this meant to achieve, but how would removing cars from the plaza bring more businesses to the stores and restaurants?

That one?

I don't know that it does too.

I'm not even positive anyone from the Country Club Plaza was at this thing.

So again, it's a private shopping area.

The plaza has always, since I've been in town for the last eight years, dealt with some turnover.

It's some of the highest rent in the area.

Right.

I think that's significant.

Another thing that I think people watching need to consider you want to do something fun on your weekend.

Look at the tax rate on the Country Club Plaza.

Look at the sales tax.

It's through the roof.

And so I think that there are some other things that need to be considered in addition to if they feel like it works to remove cars.

I say hat's off to Urban Lab.

Casey.

They did this rendering.

They called into our program.

They are super excited.

I want this done.

And here's why.

Every single city that has pedestrianized a certain entertainment type district like the plaza, this is very odd.

Revenue goes up, crime goes down.

Really studied this in city after city, revenue goes up, crime goes down.

Build those trees, build the trees, block the arteries.

We're also we're also a community that loves our vehicles and we get parking anxiety.

And if we're removing parking spaces on the plaza, won't it make places like Oak Park more far more attractive because it'll be easier to get to?

Well, I don't know if the old Park mall is all that attractive anymore either, because I think I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian here, to be honest with you.

I'm old enough to remember when pedestrian malls were a big deal and they didn't do a lot.

In fact, a lot of them got ripped out and replaced with streets.

Is it a red flag that there was no one from the plaza as part of this presentation?

And it is a supposedly a privatized shopping district.

Don't they need the buying of them?

The city can't just do this by themselves.

Right.

Right now.

It certainly is simply a proposal, an idea by interested parties.

I think what this all gets to, and this is to Kevin's point, too, is what is the plaza supposed to be?

Is it a place where.

We're just able to go to a store and pick something up or and go grab a meal?

And if so, taking away parking spaces from in front of those businesses maybe doesn't make sense.

If the plaza is supposed to be an experience, a place to bring the family and spend an afternoon, well then this actually does feel like a substantive change.

I think we do have to ask, though, at what cost?

Just this week, Port Casey authorized about $29 million in tax abatements for a 13 story apartment building on the west edge of the plaza.

We have to continue to wonder who's paying for this experience.

Speaking of the plaza, it's been 16 months now since Nordstrom decided, No, we're not going to come to the plaza, we're going to stay at Oak Park Mall and but we still have that ditch that hole on the West End of the plaza.

Any thoughts at this point as to what's going to fill that space?

What happened to Dylan's what happened to Target, who were chomping at the bit to get there?

We were told at the time, I'm.

Still hearing that Dillard's was the most likely candidate and they are still interested in it.

But, you know, there's just so much going on in the retail world and anybody trying to do retail is really having a problem because businesses are cutting back.

And then throw in and I hate to say it, but this this rash of a new hyped up shoplifting that's going on these days, Nordstrom just closed their store in downtown San Francisco because they've just been getting hammered by these organized groups coming in there and ripping stuff off.

I am hearing that a lot of these big retailers are very concerned about this new trend.

I don't think it's happened here.

You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's certainly we had an issue just the other day where a guy at a shoe store in the plaza tried to stop a shoplifter, got shot in the leg.

There's a scary new element involved with shoplifting these days.

And I just think all these factors are making retailers, particularly looking at urban areas, a little nervous.

This week marks six months since the opening of Kansas City's biggest construction project.

The new terminal at KCI was not quick.

Every TV station, it seems, has been taking their news crews out to the airport to gauge the public's reaction, including delivering report cards.

I saw one there on Channel 41, giving the terminal an A in every category with the exception of parking, which going to be.

But what about all those complaints that came up at the time from poor signage and long confused lines to pick up passengers?

Does that get resolved?

Anybody who's ever moved into a house or an apartment, you get a low punch list, right?

You go in and you say this as well.

Those are small tweaks.

Just cut the panic.

The airport has been a phenomenal success.

The terminal is seeing more traffic the last three months than we had even before the pandemic.

I have been fighting the mantle of New Orleans, new on Kansas City weekend review for you.

I know.

Dana, you've been on this program talking about problems at the airport.

Are we just came back?

You sound from out of town, from Florida.

Okay.

Tell me.

So are there still problems?

It took 8 minutes.

No, I got off the plane, grabbed my bag, walks straight out.

It almost feels like when you come into the new airport, by the way, when you land, you're in some wrong city.

And then you look around, you go, Oh, no, there's look at this photo up there.

And there's meet Mitch.

I'm in KC, baby.

That's what I like.

Kevin, you and I had a little dispute off camera last week because I had a different experience than you.

And I felt I did feel it required a lot more signage than it did.

And I thought the security lines were incredibly long and not organized incredibly well.

I did have those complaints about it, but I always you know, they also had an issue.

It seems constantly they're looking for people.

They're struggling with staff at the restaurants and the stores there.

Is that an ongoing concern that we need to be paying attention to?

Well, you know, everybody all these smaller businesses are looking for help these days.

I mean, if you want to work at a place, you know, it's tough to get people up there.

The one point, you know, if Dana thinks everything's been straightened out, she was the queen of social media and dog dogging those guys.

Talk about having a problem.

If she's efficient.

But I you know, and again, this is not to your point.

I know it's a longer walk, especially if you're at B 76 or whatever it is, the very end of B terminal on your Southwest flight.

But still, you come into Kansas City now and you feel like you're in a actually dynamic city to see people there.

I've, you know, had great experience.

It's all I can say.

Okay, it's up to you now to give us a contrary point of view.

Brian.

I'm not going to do it next week when I talk to you, who flies into the city, who used to fly here into the old airport from out of town?

They say it's like a whole different place.

It's the kind of city, the kind of reporter it's going to be left.

Then to my I had an email this week, actually, from a CIA airport police officer who told me all the new amenities of the airport are actually attracting the homeless now that city busses are totally free.

He says they're becoming rolling homeless shelters and where they take the bus for free to see the told by drivers they have to get off us.

That's where they take their breaks.

And according to this case, high cop, many of the homeless individuals have some sort of mental illness which makes these situations more dangerous to police officers and the passengers at the airport.

Now, I know, Kevin, you've expressed concern about what's happened with busses and the rolling homeless shelters.

This cop saying it's effecting the airport.

Do I doubt that people occasionally have gotten dropped off out there that are homeless because of many of them are taking advantage of the comfort, especially when it's 100 degrees to be on a bus.

Is it a big issue?

I am highly skeptical of that.

All I will say is this Anita Wall has made many a trip, many a trip to Kansas City.

I saw a glistening a tear in her eye when she saw that new terminal travels up.

Flights are coming back.

There are direct destinations and stops that we haven't seen in ages.

Enjoy the ride.

And by the way, the only I ask this only 7% of the traffic that the 1.3 million this last month was layover traffic.

The overwhelming majority are just people like you and me.

And you fly in, fly.

Now, I love all of these development stories.

This has been a lot of fun.

We have some serious things going on.

Let's go through these very quickly here.

Four months after he was shot in the head for ringing the wrong doorbell, North line teenager Rafael finally faced the man who shot him this week.

84 year old Andrew Lester has pleaded not guilty to first degree assault and armed criminal action.

In the April shooting.

He appeared at a preliminary hearing at the Clay County courthouse on Thursday.

There have been reports that claim this case has reignited the national conversation about race and racial bias.

But four months on, have most Americans forgotten about it?

Yeah, I don't know that they've forgotten, but we get so much information right on so many stories from across the country.

This has happened in multiple locations now, and I think both can be true.

So let me do this as quickly as I can for you.

In occasions.

One, I do believe that you cannot look at a young black boy in America and say his race is not viewed as a threat to a lot of people.

And that's something that we all should own and take responsibility for At the same time, there is a proliferation of getting rid of gun laws, right.

Even requiring you to take basic safety training ahead of time.

And the number of guns that Americans are buying continues to go up and up and up.

So what do you do in a society where people are panicked and highly armed?

This will continue to happen unless we come to the table and try to find a responsible solution.

But we've got headline fatigue, though, about these kinds of.

Stories a little bit.

But I mean, I've said this a million times If more guns made us safer, we would be the safest country in the history of the world.

And clearly that is not what we are now.

After months of debate and legal challenges, Missouri's new transgender restriction laws finally took effect this week.

Medical providers are now banned from performing gender altering surgeries or treatments on Missourians under the age of 18.

Also taking effect this week, a new law limiting transgender athletes from competing in girls sports.

Kansas enacted similar legislation last month.

So far, there have been no reports of athletes or schools testing the new law.

And what what are we to make of the fact that the head of the Kansas High School Sports Association says Dana, He has received not one single call from a parent, student or coach.

If you honestly think a teenager wants to wake up one morning and just change genders willy nilly so that they can be bullied, look at the suicide rates of those kids.

You have lost your mind.

And why is it Republicans always want the government out of your life unless it has something to do with my uterus or a transgender child or who's having sex with you, It drives me crazy.

And it's so.

But not one person has tested the law at this point in time.

Well, there weren't that many in the first place in the last year we heard that there were three Kansas, Kansas high school students who had taken advantage of the opportunity to play sports.

There were nine, I think, in Missouri.

Some of those kids have graduated.

The only thing I would add is that it is now in vogue to talk about our children in a political fashion.

Right.

Whether that's critical race theory, which is not being taught in any elementary K-through-12 school in Kansas and Missouri in the country.

Right.

But these are wild talking points that get people inflamed.

And somehow politicians have now decided that this is their rallying cry.

The truth is we're talking about a very small number of people.

And so I think where I get a little bit frustrated is can we talk about the things that affect most people in our community in Missouri?

Can we talk about Jackson County property assessments?

What are we doing about that at the state level?

I just feel like there are so many other issues.

Well, there is There is violence.

Well, there is one other issue because it actually became law also this week.

You may not have focused on it, but Missouri has a new distracted driving law that took effect this week.

It's going to be okay if you don't look at your phone for a little while, things will be okay.

Now, while most states have some form of restrictions on texting while driving, Missouri has only restricted drivers 21 and under from using their cell phones while operating a vehicle.

It is now illegal for everyone.

And you may be surprised to know that starting this week you could be ticketed for even holding your phone while driving.

But could there be a weaker law ever devised?

When you read the fine print, you'll find out that the police can't pull you over for just using your cell phone.

It's a secondary offense, which means you have to be doing something else to be ticketed, like speeding or going through a red light.

And there's no fines, at least not until 2025.

So is this a case of at least, you know, something modest like this is still worthwhile?

At least it's better than nothing.

Oh, well, it's an extremely modest point, you know, and again, it's in a context where police are not really pulling over people for some very egregious issues.

I think of street stunt driving here in town and all the rest of the stuff that's going on as a maybe a nice first step.

Again, you know, I remember traveling in Europe a few years back and the driver got a phone call on his cell phone and said, I can't take that call.

If anybody sees me with a headset in my ear and I'm driving, it's a big, big fine and penalty.

It's a modest, extremely modest first step to trying to get some.

Sanity, political talking point.

We are against texting and driving deaths.

That's all this is.

Now, instead of holding your phone, you're juggling with it and you're putting it.

Teenagers will put it in their lap now to.

Try to look.

Down and text to evade the law and cause more wrecks in some of the cities that did this.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story we missed?

Some local employers telling their staff members to mask up again.

As COVID cases and hospitalizations rise, the virus beginning to disrupt life again.

Some events have been canceled and the Jackson trial has been postponed after the judge tests positive for COVID.

The Missouri governor telling Matt Lucas to stay in his lane.

Mike Parson pushing back against two new gun restriction laws passed by the Kansas City Council.

So you can't just go out there and do what they.

Want to do.

And anxiety filled Labor Day weekend for the more than 5000 T-Mobile workers in Kansas City as the cell phone company announces it's laying off 7% of its entire workforce.

College football finally returns in what is expected to be the last of its kind season realignment, bringing huge changes to college sports next year.

The NFL draft numbers are in, but are you buying the figures Visit.

Casey claims the football showcase in Kansas City far surpassed expectations, netting $164 million in economic impact.

It's not as big as a new aquarium, but a $22 million expansion of the Overland Park Arboretum opens this weekend.

And with no triple digit temperatures in sight, get ready for a festival filled Labor Day weekend.

It's a song from the Renaissance Festival past the Cotton candy and Santa Calico days.

And fancy a drink or a pint of Guinness Irish Fest takes over Crown Center.

Plenty going on this week.

What did you pick, Dana?

Biggest story for us this week.

Bar none was coming out of the temperatures that we have had the temperature on the school busses.

Did you know the school busses aren't air conditioned?

Most of them are not like 98% of them are not the temperature on those busses, 130, 128 drivers were getting sick, pulling over with children on board, having to go to the E.R.

for heat exhaustion and heat illness in every single town in our metropolitan area.

It is time to move school back to after Labor Day, the way we did it when we were kids.

No one can figure out when it started moving back.

Atlanta started it, and then a bunch of other districts went, okay, we can do that too, in August.

They've got to move it back.

Brian, I think abortion rights in Missouri continue to be in the news.

This week.

A group filed petitions indicating that they hope to add some exceptions to Missouri's essentially a ban on essentially all forms of abortion, rape, incest, life of the mother.

Those are modest exceptions that a lot of Republicans support.

And they believe that that's a way to take some some modest steps.

It may run into conflict or confusion with the.

Broader.

Effort to enshrine abortion rights more generally in the Missouri Constitution when this is all on the ballot next year.

And I think we're getting a little taste of what the next election cycle is going to be about, dear.

Well.

You know, I would say the biggest one has to be the NFL draft.

I'm big into development, right.

Moving Kansas City forward.

And I think similar to the terminal project and now the NFL draft, there was so much consternation about what would happen, who would benefit and when it all came out, it was positive for this.

Do you believe the numbers?

I do believe the numbers.

Here's the deal.

When you're looking at more than 200 million for Nashville and more than 200 million for Vegas, which no offense to Vegas, Kansas City, put them to shame.

I definitely feel like this is positive for the city and they've already received calls for big, big conferences beyond even World Cup matches.

I got to tell you, I was not aware of this latest dustup between the mayor and Governor Parson.

And, you know, I'm just a bit concerned.

We really need to start building some bridges between Kansas City and Jefferson City, because right now we're just totally speaking against the at each other.

And we really, whether we like the politics or not, constructive things have to start happening because the mayor really ticked off Jeff City on the whole police issue a year ago.

And and it just seems to not be getting any better when.

Okay.

And that is our week in review.

Thanks to our great panelists this week courtesy of 41 news anchor Dia Wall and 2 to 6 weekdays on KMBC radio Dana Wright from City Scene KC Kevin Collison and from KCUR News Brian Ellison I know you're looking forward to an extended Labor Day weekend, but we've got a special event you may be interested in next Tuesday night at the Plaza Library.

It's considered one of life's toughest decisions.

Is it better for an elderly loved one to age in place or be cared for in a nursing home?

We would have no idea what went on with Dad had we not had the cameras in there.

What residents often tell us, I wish I would have died than to live like.

This for the better part of a year.

We've been tracking the business of aging in Kansas City.

Now we're ready to reveal our findings.

Join us at the Person Library for the State of Aging, Tuesday, September 5th at 5:30 p.m.. And I hope to see you there.

I'm Nick Haynes from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.