History being made in Kansas City this week.

Plus, a new clash over the proposed royals ballpark.

This is likely going to put us out of business for the fact that we are even here discussing this is disgusting.

The Johnson County Republican Party making national news.

Those stories and the rest of the week's most impactful local news stories.

Straight ahead.

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Okay.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

Thrilled to be back with you after being away for our spring membership drive.

But we've got so much to catch up on, on what is being called a historic or history making week here in Kansas City.

Whenever important news is happening around the metro, you will you should see KCTV Five's Betsy Webster on the scene, fresh from writing a big news story about the stadium debate, is the founder of City scene KC Kevin Collison now writing for our digital newsroom, Flatland tracking the region's top political stories For KC one, he was Brian Ellison and at the helm of our metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC.

Glad to have Eric Wesson back with us.

I think we're running out of adjectives this week to describe Kansas City's biggest opening since the nuclear airport terminal.

The word historic is being thrown a wild round and not just by our local media, but national publications, too.

As the KC Current finally opens its new riverfront soccer stadium this weekend.

The home of the Current, the first stadium purpose built for a professional women's team in the world.

The nicest sports facility in Missouri or Kansas or America is right here for the Kansas City Current Gold Derby now.

Well, nothing doesn't say the Art Brian groundbreaking according to the mayor the nicest stadium in America at least I'm assuming until the mayor is doing a speech for the opening of a possible new royals ballpark downtown.

We'll get to that.

Yes, we will.

Yes.

No, I mean, I think it is it is a really big event.

I think we should not undersell this.

The fact that it is the first, as they said, purpose built for women's sports, professional sports arena is really significant.

I have to say also, Nick, it it is it is beautiful.

It is prominent from the from the major freeway at the bridge in the background, over the over the edge of the stadium.

It's really a significant day, not without its problems.

And I think we'll be talking about some of those.

But I really do think we should not lose the fact that that that professional women's sports have have reached a new level here in Kansas City.

And this was one of the reasons, Betsy, why New York Times just about a month ago said that Kansas City was one of the 54 places to visit in the entire world in 2024, and they listed the opening of this new stadium.

Well, they did.

And I talked to some folks with Visit KC and the Sports Commission, and they said that FIFA, for example, was really impressed by seeing the stadium.

But we can't forget the PR machine at visit KC and the Sports Commission.

I mean, those stories don't just appear in those publications, you know, visit KC is selling Kansas City.

And when it comes to the World Cup, I mean, Kathy Nelson is a powerhouse.

Am I wrong?

You know, she is a powerhouse and she now heads both the sports commission and visit KC and she knows how to parlay a development into a selling point because what we have matters, but how we present it matters too now.

Absolutely it does.

And also in this story, which I think is sort of being put aside slightly, but we do remember the history.

This was a site not so long ago that was sort of Kansas City's dumping ground, a wasteland.

We always said, you know, we go to these other cities, they have all this amazing stuff on the river.

We can't get it done.

Is this the first big sign that finally we're understanding the importance of our river?

I wouldn't say it's the first big site, but it's certainly the coming out party for the riverfront.

Because you're right, ten years ago it was a pretty desolate area.

Yeah, 20, 30 years ago, they dumped the rubble from Camperdown there.

It was just a backwater.

But over the past ten years there's been a lot of investment.

There's at least now a thousand apartments down there.

There is a really fun place called Bark, where people can drink beer and watch their dogs run around.

Port KC is also building a beer garden, so there's been a lot of investment, including in 2025, the opening of a streetcar extension.

So having that stadium really is a arrival moment for our riverfront and it's also supposed to be part of even more development down there.

In addition to women's soccer.

This stadium, by the way, will also double as a venue for concerts.

There's going to be festivals, graduations.

For all the hype, though, the new stadium hasn't been without its controversy, most recently over parking with some season ticket holders saying they would never have subscribed if they knew parking with taxes and fees would cost them $68 a game, with the exception of gold parking at a cheap stream that will be the most expensive place in the entire city to park any day of the week.

A lot of people are freaking out.

Quite honestly, I've already seen people put their tickets up for sale online already.

Eric $68 a parking space.

That's if you can find one because this is an 11,500 seat stadium, about 2000 parking spaces have been provided as part of this stadium complex.

Where do all the rest of the folks park get an Uber or Lyft?

You know, it's going to be interesting how they navigate through that.

Maybe in the future, build another parking garage over the parking lot that they have.

But it's going to be interesting on how they navigate that, because as a parking is always a selling point or a ditch that you dig.

You got to have parking for everyone.

Betsy What is the solution for all those people who who can't get one of those parking spaces at $68 a pop?

Well, right.

One of the things about Uber and Lyft is I've taken them before for big events, and you're going to get surge prices.

You're going to be waiting in line for your Uber or Lyft.

But, you know, it may not be ideal in a very car centric place like Kansas City, but, you know, you've got other fans, right?

A lot of people have friend groups who are fans.

Why not load four into a car and then you get four people per parking space and less money per person?

In theory, though, we've been hearing that that there are all of these parking spaces in the downtown area.

We've been hearing about it in the context of the Royals conversation about a downtown stadium.

In theory, people should be able to park throughout the downtown, take the streetcar up to river market where there will be a shuttle being offered right now over to the new stadium.

We'll see.

We'll see how it works.

In fact, it might be a good test for some of the promises that are being made in relationship to the royal stadium.

And that's exactly what happens.

I saw even one of the proponents this week at a hearing said there's 40,000 parking spaces within a 15 minute walk of where the new royals ballpark could be, and that's 14,000 more than there are at the Truman Sports complex.

Is that really correct, Kevin?

Well, you know, what they've done is do these surveys that take a look at all the garages, all the parking lots downtown, the accuracy, I'm not quite sure.

I know one person said their place was listed as being publicly available and it's not We've got a big challenge not only for our new soccer stadium, but also just parking in general for whatever sports facility may get developed in our downtown and that people just don't know where it is.

And we have to do a far better job of providing clear guidance to where this public parking is available.

It's one thing for people in the know who say, Oh yeah, there's this garage over at ninth and Baltimore that I always get a spot in.

Well, if you're coming in from Johnson County and you haven't been downtown for ten years, you don't know where that cool little parking garages, you really have to help people find it.

And I think that's going to be a real burden because we have a city that really has kind of a laissez faire attitude about a lot of stuff and doesn't embrace some of the activity we see in other major cities around the country, including clearly identifying garages and also having traffic cops directing traffic when times are busy.

So we got to step up our game not just with physical investments, but with just personal and intellectual investments and doing a better job of making downtown more user friendly.

And, you know, and some of the areas in downtown, you have bike lanes.

Now they took parking spots.

There's an area on Grand that some people have called me about.

They took their parking space away from their business.

So maybe they might want to reconfigure those bike lanes to create more parking spaces.

We also heard this week that the Bonnie Ellis Plaza garage will be closed in just a few weeks time.

That's a thousand spaces that will not be available in Kansas City's downtown in the near future either.

Well, true.

And and and then we have the fact that the comparison 14,000 more spaces than they have at Kaufman or the Truman sports complex.

It's not really apples to apples, right?

I mean, the Truman sports complex doesn't have hotels and apartments and they may have their own parking, but what about visitors coming to see them?

They don't have other entertainment venues competing for those parking spaces.

I looked it up.

The T-Mobile Center seats 18,000 people for a sold out show.

That's 4000 more than that extra 14,000.

And the T-Mobile Center has no parking of its own, which people have found ways to make that work.

One of the things that I think is really interesting about the difference in that comparison to the Truman sports complex, though, is that the Truman Sports Complex parking is a huge moneymaker for the county and by extension, I guess for the teams who park, the people there, all of the parking downtown, that money is not going to the teams.

So whatever economic forecasts are being made, that's not to the royals or so they're going to take a hit on that.

They will.

It has been that that was one of the reasons that David Glass 20 years ago did not want to bring the team downtown, is they had so much revenue off of parking.

One suggestion I got that actually makes a lot of sense.

If the royals end up getting this thing over the finish line and that's a big if, that East Village site that had been reserved, it's almost eight blocks of pretty much cleared parking lots and empty lots could be available for the time being as a satellite parking area.

And it's only four blocks from where the royals want to go.

So until another alternative comes along, that might be a nice option.

Now, downtown business leaders have long dreamt of seeing Major League Baseball being played in the heart of the city.

But is some of that enthusiasm now waning?

Local elected officials are being inundated with complaints from residents and business owners in the crossroads who say they'll be displaced to make room for that proposed 34,000 seat royal Stadium.

Now, Jackson County officials are scrambling to respond.

They scheduled a public hearing this week at the county courthouse to listen to the concerns of those living and working in that crossroads neighborhood.

This is likely going to put us out of business.

So the fact that we are even here discussing this is disgusting.

It is like on the East Village where there is only one building that would need to be.

This place is a comer.

It's a Commerce bank.

We would like to continue to exist.

And the ballot measure literally places our existence on the line.

Okay, Betsy, you were at that hearing and we're hearing much of your report there.

One of those business owners saying, hey, it was in the East Village.

There's only one business they'd have to tear down.

And that's a commerce Bank.

Is that correct?

Well, after she said that, before I used her comment, I did drive down there.

Oh, good for you.

Take a look around.

Right.

You got to try to.

Folks took a look around.

And certainly the Commerce Bank is the only building that stands out sort of on the outskirts.

There were some sort of warehouse type businesses with like a pest control business.

Then I took a look on Google at an aerial view, and there is an apartment building with 50 units that within the footprint.

But by and large, I mean especially if we're talking about consumer facing storefronts.

Yeah, I think that's the only place.

And the rest of it is, like I said, parking lots as a result of that hearing.

Is there any evidence that the royals are willing to make any changes at all to that?

Their plans for a downtown ballpark as a result of all of their opposition?

There is certainly no evidence of that at this point.

In fact, just on on case you are this week, Jon Sherman was sort of reiterating their commitment to the plan, the benefits of it, because of its connection to the Power and Light district.

John Sherman does not appear ready to back away from any part of the proposal.

The biggest common denominator of complaints is that they just it's been poorly communicated.

A lot of people were thinking this was going to be the East Village.

Then the royals at the 11th hour shifted to the east Crossroads and the royals also have not done a good job of actually communicating with a lot of these businesses and tenants, people I've talked to, veteran developers down there, people who own a lot of these buildings that would go say that they are very confident that the royals will make these folks whole, that if you've got a business there, they will help get an adequate amount of money for it and help with the relocation.

And so they just need to be more proactive.

And also, you know, the folks in the crossroads area historically have been resistant to change.

And and this is yet another example of that.

Is it any different than when we built T-Mobile Center, which started as Sprint Center?

Of course.

I mean, they had they would displace businesses as a result of that.

We had displaced businesses, people with a streetcar with the Kansas Speedway on the Kansas side.

I mean, isn't that just the nature of any big project?

There are going to be winners and losers.

The first thing I thought about was the people that lived in the area 27th in Prospect, when they put the Leon Jordan police station there, they displaced families for a five block radius.

And when I thought about was they took away generational wealth, they took away I remember doing an interview with a people that their all their kids had grown up and learned how to walk in that house and they relocated them.

Bruce Watkins Drive.

Look at all the families that were weren't they?

Weren't they compensated, though?

They were compensated to a degree.

But how do you put a price tag on?

This is where my son took his first step.

How do you compensate from that?

Right now that we're getting a lot of people in my email box, and I'm sure for all of you, you know, you'll be hearing a lot from opponents about this stadium tax.

But if a community benefit agreement comes out there, the royals and the Chiefs talk about giving benefits to the average members of the public for businesses being displaced, won't a lot of that opposition evaporate overnight, Brian?

Well, I don't know if it will evaporate and there will clearly still be some opposition, but I do think that, as you said, there are winners and losers and you're going to hear more and more.

You're going to hear the business owners who say, actually the dollar signs look pretty good for us.

We support this development just as there are going to be some business owners who say they don't feel that way.

An important distinction between the Bruce our walk and drive development which which did devastate neighborhoods and and dislocate families is that this doesn't do that the affected parties are are primarily businesses and often businesses that are renting their space.

But but you're not you're not moving generational wealth or generational identity, which I think is a very significant difference.

Well, the other you know, you mentioned the T-Mobile Center.

And what's interesting, it's kind of ironic because the T mobile site or the Sprint Center at the time was pretty much developed on pretty underutilized land.

In fact, there was just a bank branch that was in the end, you and B, got a nice price for that.

So that is too.

Yeah.

So fast forward 15 years as part of the investments in the Sprint Center in the Power Light District.

That area of the crossroads really started to get new investment.

There's a whole microbrewery scene and distillery scene on 18th Street that didn't exist when that Sprint Center first opened up.

So ironically, these investments from that earlier period have triggered a lot of private investment.

And now some of those folks are going to be relocated because of the next step of major private public investment.

Next week, by the way, we're hosting a debate on the stadium tax at the Kansas City Plaza Library.

Join me Tuesday night at six as we bring you the proponents and opponents of the tax.

It will in this slot next Friday night.

What do you make this week of that Johnson County Republican Party fundraiser that saw donors kicking and beating an effigy of President Joe Biden?

It's making national news and there are calls for the head of the Kansas GOP and the Johnson County GOP to resign over it.

Brian, any evidence anyone is saying, my bad, I am going to step down?

There is no evidence of that.

I think what you've seen mostly is an explanation in that the leadership of the state party and the county party didn't know this was going to happen.

It was a little exhibit in a booth from one of the vendors and was doing a karate self-defense business.

Right.

So that they have downplayed the significance of what happened.

I think when you run an event, you have to accept some responsibility for the things that happened at that event.

But but but I guess the question that I would ask Nick and what I think this might might tell us more about is not about the party leadership, but about the individual.

So you saw in the video kicking and hitting a mannequin of Joe Biden.

What does that say about the state of our public discourse?

What does that say about whatever is happening in the political arena that is making people feel empowered or or challenged to do something like that?

I think that's the bigger tell than than any squabbling among party leaders.

But on the other side, people will say, wow, you know, we want to maximize and make a big deal of stories like this one.

When people like Kathy Griffin, who held up the bloodied decapitate hand of Donald Trump in a photograph that was sort of laughed off and sort of minimized, are we only caring about this when it hits our guy, when it comes down our street?

Of course, we're more sensitive about it, but I think the overall concept and picture are what what we as an adults are saying to young people.

I think it turns a lot of people out now, sensing there could be lingering political damage here.

The leading Republican candidate running against Sharice Davids for Congress in Kansas Presents already was quick to condemn the display, calling it a ridiculous, thoughtless action that only distracts from Republicans trying to deliver solutions.

A fatal shooting at the recent Chiefs victory rally last month still has many Kansas City families rattled.

Would it discourage you from going to a downtown parade?

Again, it's a question that's weighing heavily on organizers of this weekend's Saint Patrick's Day parade.

The annual event is marking its 50th anniversary this year.

While parade organizers say safety is top of mind on Sunday, Betsy, what additional steps have been taken, if at all, to enhance security?

Well, they say they've taken additional steps.

As usual.

They will detail all of those steps because they say if we tell you everything we're doing for security, then people who want to go around that security will know how to get around it.

They talked about fresh debrief with law enforcement agencies and making sure they have a strong communication plan.

And they advised to people who are attending the parade to also communicate, see something, say something sort of thing.

And they also pointed out that they've always had a focus on security.

I mean, any time you have a big event, you focus on security.

Right.

And one of the things with the Chiefs rally is, you know, we got to remember, this isn't like the NFL draft that's in a confined area where you can have one place in and out.

It's not like a concert where there's one in and out.

I mean, you can't go so far as to like, want people or have metal detectors.

So what can they do?

Yeah, I mean, I think the I think the St Patrick's Day parade, I mean, we heard from Mayor Lucas even the day of the shooting at Union Station that this will not put an end to to other public gatherings along with that language of this is not the city we are.

I think the reality, Nik, is that steps will be taken.

There will be some some more visible officers.

But in fact, what happened at Union Station was not some sort of terrorist threat.

It was a kind of squabble, the kind of the kind of shooting, the kind of violence that happens in this city every day, all over the city.

That was true before the shooting.

And it's true today.

And I think it's important to point out that the scale of the St Patrick's parade versus the Super Bowl parade is vastly different.

There were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who showed up for the Super Bowl event.

You only, I would say maybe 40, 50,000 tops that are going to show up for the St Patrick's Day parade.

It always has had a strong police presence and it's a different kind of demographic as well.

And I think there has been a shooting at a St Patrick's Day parade before, so this wouldn't be a unique experience and you're talking about 40 or 50,000 people.

The bigger question is will people show up for the fear of what could possibly happen there?

But I'm back to Brian's point, which was really what happened at the Chiefs rally, was really the kind of incident that is happening all around the city.

And it's worth pointing out that Lisa Lopez Galvin, who was killed at the rally, was the 13th person to be murdered in Kansas City this year.

And since then, 13 more people have been added to the homicide count, right?

Yes.

Yes.

And the majority black males.

Yeah.

And that doesn't include, of course, the Jackson County court worker was memorialized this week after being shot to death, executing an eviction notice in independence.

By the way, when someone gets killed in a police chase, there are calls for law enforcement to abandon high speed pursuits as the shooting of Dexter Mack and police officer Cody Allen led to calls for changes to carrying out eviction orders in Kansas City and in our metro.

I believe it does.

And I believe that the people that are doing it are more conscious now about how they approach situations.

I have a friend of mine who does it and his first comment was I always make sure I got my vest down.

I don't stand in front of the door.

I stand to the side of the door.

So I thought it might have been a stage where he thought it might have been a situation where the victim in this case was sort of a little lax in the way that he approached the situation and not knowing that that was what was going to happen to him.

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?

The sound of squeaky shoes on.

Highly polished hardwood floors reverberate around downtown, and they will for a lot more years to come.

The big 12 announcing the women's and men's tournament will stay in Kansas City through 2031.

So it wasn't just Andy Reid's mustache that froze.

Research Medical Center says it performed 12 amputations on Chiefs fans who got frostbite after that subzero wild card game.

But Arrowhead, Texas, bound Not anymore.

Bryan Platt withdraws as a candidate for the city manager job in Austin.

Was he just angling for a big pay raise in Kansas City?

Now that Missouri Governor Mike Possum has commuted the prison sentence of former chiefs coach Britt Reid is former Kansas City police officer Eric Dvorkin.

Here next.

Abortion back on the agenda in Kansas.

The House votes to require women to answer an 11 questions survey about why they want to terminate a pregnancy.

Now that Donald Trump and Joe Biden have the delegates they need to clinch their party's nominations.

Does anyone care that Kansas votes on Tuesday?

It's the state's first primary in 20 years.

Missouri Democrats don't vote until March 23rd.

And it's not just a new soccer stadium opening in Kansas City this week.

After nearly eight years of planning, the rabbit hole swings open its doors, bringing storybooks to life with immersive life size scenes from kids classics like Goodnight Moon.

The museum is the longtime dream of the former owners of the Reading Reptile Bookstore in Brookside.

It opened in a four story warehouse building in North Kansas City's Iron District on Tuesday.

All righty.

Bryan Allison, did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

Something completely different.

I couldn't be here and not talk about something in Jefferson City.

Could I go?

Governor Mike Parson, way back at the State of the State address, announced this $52.7 billion budget proposal.

We have heard almost nothing about it.

I think this is going to actually be a huge kerfuffle in an election year and there's even some talk that they may not get the budget approved by the end of the regular session.

So it's something we're keeping an eye on.

Eric, I picked Bryan Platt as the city manager and his contract coming on the heels this week of a lawsuit, a discrimination lawsuit being filed by Andrea Dortch alleging discrimination and other things that he did.

And there are probably six more lawsuits that'll be following.

But isn't the city fast tracking this now to try and get to the state?

They are fast tracking it.

And in addition to that, one of the council members was telling me that they increased the amount of money that they set aside for lawsuits because there are so many discrimination.

And EEOC complaints coming under Bryant's watch.

Betsy Parson Pardon, which hasn't happened yet.

And it reads the commutation of Brett Reed sentence.

It's come back on our radar.

Right.

It was something that was being talked about a while ago.

Now we're wondering, is this going to happen?

But the one thing I was talking to some people about is they wanted to make sure people understood that the commutation of a sentence is not the same thing as a pardon.

You know, Brett Reed's sentence was three years.

He served almost half of that, little less than half of that in prison.

He still has to serve out the rest of his sentence on house arrest.

A pardon is like your goods.

You're clean, you're out, and your record is well.

But but this shows that the governor has more options when it comes to considering.

Eric Cavalcante I'm going to go with the frostbite amputation story.

I know the NFL is the uber entertainment of the universe these days, but to have a game with those kinds of weather conditions, it really makes you wonder if we're getting a little too carried away down that road.

And some people might say, well, if only they had a roof at the stadium, which they're not doing as part of the improvements, that might not have happened at all.

All right.

That's we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCTV Five's Betsy Webster.

And from KC 1 news, Brian Allison, now writing for the Kansas City PBS digital newsroom flatland Kevin Collison and from next page Casey Eric Wesson and I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well keep calm and carry on.