The new owners of KC crown jewel the Country Club Plaza have to be cringing…
That in the wake of a front page story in today’s Kansas City Star about “urban hipsters” who’ve been laying down dance party grooves and open mic concerts on a Plaza courtyard near Helzberg Diamonds and the Apple store.
Just what the upscale shopping Mecca needed.
So now, after more than 15 years of doing everything humanly possible to uh, discourage black kids from hanging out on the Plaza, some dancing dudes with car battery-powered speakers “blaring” Michael Jackson music have settled in on one of the shopping center’s highest profile corners.
Check it…
“Welcome! That is not Michael Jackson, that is Christian Robinson from the Battery Tour,” says the man behind the keyboard, an urban hipster in red and black, his fedora tipped casually to one side,” the Star story reads. “He shoots a megawatt smile to a group of starry-eyed teenagers who scream their approval. ‘My name is AY, and this is my tour.’ ”
Nothing like a high profile Plaza courtyard packed with screaming teens to set the mood for affluent shoppers.
“Someone’s down there almost every day,” says frequent Plaza flyer Kyle Yoder of Overland Park.“Normally it’s later in the day – around 4 p.m. – and then at night until the 9 p.m. curfew for people under 18.
“You can hear it at the Cheesecake Factory. They’re usually break dancers and aspiring rappers. One guy tried to sell me a mixtape for like five dollars.”
How loud is it?
“It’s loud,” Yoder says. “So loud that when you drive past it vibrates your car windows. Like if you’re in Helzberg trying to buy an engagement ring or something you can hear it in there.”
Which brings us to the noise ordinance portion of the story.
“We have not gotten any noise complaints about them at all,” says Kansas City Health Department public information officer Denesha Snell. “Nor have we gotten any complaints about the three young people playing Metallica on the Plaza either.”
Were someone to complain, “Then we would go and investigate if they were in violation and it was too loud.”
“They’re setting up on the street with power and the Plaza’s letting them do it?” adds a head shaking area businessman. “Oh, boy. I can’t help but laugh about it, but if they were doing that in Westport I’d be going crazy.”
The Plaza has a long history of running off “urban youth.”
Via curfews, shows of force with police and private security, flood lights, cops on horses – you name it.
Anybody remember a handful of years back when the Plaza booted McDonald’s to keep the urban kiddos from congregating?
Speaking of Westport, the midtown entertainment zone has managed to discourage similar situations by making the performers unplug and threatening noise ordinance prosecution.
“Our security people told one group a couple months ago, ‘You can’t amplify,’” says a source. “So they just went away…because if you’re playing amplified music, you have to have a permit from the Health Department.”
Not so fast, Snell says.
“We do have an application for one time events like a block party or something,” she says. “According to the noise ordinance there are certain decibels that have to be met. They have to be over the ambient noise levels for a commercial area.”
How loud is loud?
KCMO’s Noise Control Code is pretty broad:
As in, “any sound which annoys or disturbs humans or which causes or tends to cause an adverse psychological or physiological effect on humans.”
Last year’s KC Council contemplated noise ordinance changes to “clarify” rules for portable sound systems and car stereos.
It stipulated that loud music from vehicles not be audible from a distance of 50 feet between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and 25 feet at night with fines between $50 and $1,000.
That was then.
Current rules for “self-contained, portable, non-vehicular music, sound production, amplification devices or music of any kind” stipulate that it cannot start before 7:00 am on any given day. Sunday through Thursday and must end by 10:00 pm. except Fridays and Saturdays at midnight with a noise waiver.
Allowable decibel levels are 60 dba from 7:00 am – 10:00 pm. with the sound “not be plainly audible by any person other than the operator” outside of those hours.
None of which has much to do with the Plaza’s never-ending, losing battle to hang on to what little remains of its once pristine reputation as a shopping and dining sanctuary for the wealthy.
Stay tuned…
The Plaza’s decline into morbidity continues. The “Urban Youth” pathogen, a drug introduced into healthy societal bodies by the Progressive “Pusher Man” is more addictive than Hard Drugs. The initial promise of a Multicultural Ecstasy Pill, filled with rainbows, unicorns and the sounds of Kumbaya, turn, as they always do, to the reality of economic entropy, intimidation and dysfunction, coupled with the sound of Rap Music, the sonic wail of sirens, the taste of blood and the smell of cordite.
The degradation of the Social Contract, exacerbated by the dramatic shift in demographics and the successful efforts of Progressive Elites to over centralize power in the Federal Government force heretofore peaceful neighborhoods, shopping areas and entire cities onto their knees when faced with the Politically Correct Commissars who now run our lives from cubicles in that same Federal Government, The Halls Of Academe, The Entertainment Industry, The 4th Estate and the hundreds of millions of self appointed, sanctimonious citizen arbiters who extemporaneously decide our fate on a minute to minute basis.
This small story, in this small town is metronomically repeated every day in bigger towns with bigger stories. In Chicago, the entirety of “The Michigan Mile” is under threat from the same sub culture of blood simple, death grinding stupidity. Chicago itself is prima facie evidence of the categorical failure of the pusillanimous politically correct pathogen that infects our nation on a cellular level.
The high that Democrats get from votes tendered by those who vote for a living (Romney wasn’t lying.), Trumps the responsibility they feel, when visited in their dreams with visions of our collective future in a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Progressives know the truth, they just can’t get off of the drugs.
It’s too late for Rehab.
I see that “The Armed Citizens Project” is still handing out free guns to the poor. That, with the new laws taking effect on January 1st in Missouri, should make for some interesting entertainment in shopping areas all over the state.
Remember Osceola!
Viva Squeaky Fromme!
In the interest of accuracy, the section of Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River is called “The Magnificent Mile.”
Thanks for the catch.
Jesus Chuck, can you imagine having a beer with yourself. I can’t
funny hearne….was at the plaza didn’t notice anything unusual…
we were late there after a concert….but I’m putting you in the same
boat as glaze…a jinx.
Just like the economists on newsmax who predicted the last 20 depressions
since 2008, you predicted the demise of the plaza for the last 10 years.
Be great to see 300,000 people out there this weekend!!!!!!
Make sure your bean counters are out there to ensure we get the exact number
of people who attend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and we’ll look for chuckles the sad
clown in his white hood and white robe!
If I am in the KKK for “noticing” the violence and intimidation that accompanies large gatherings of “urban youth”, then YOU Harley, are starting to come around.
🙂
Here is your comment from just last week.
September 13, 2016 at 5:09 pm
“(F)rank…I’m like you. I go to Westport (not as much as I once did)…I go
to the power and light…I go to the plaza.
What I don’t do is park the car in any of those garages…that’s where
most of bad stuff happens even though it isn’t covered by media.”
Your perspicacious take on the dangers of parking garages is noted.
It’s ok to go to the Plaza, just avoid the parking garages full of what? Amish?
Nah…, we know what you meant and it is natural to avoid danger. You admit, that danger is present and unreported by the media (I completely agree with you Harley. Thought I would never say that.). My inference and your implication is, that those parking garages hide danger from “urban youth”.
You would be correct.
Parking garages are far more dangerous than out in the streets. That doesn’t mean that there is not danger in the streets, just ask the Mayor, who 2 summers ago, took evasive action into the bushes during a gun fight on the Plaza that “capped” a couple of folks who were “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Gimme a list of what facts are ok to “notice”.
There is a list of shopping areas here in the city, that, in our freshly remembered past, have succumbed to the influx of “urban youth” and the concomitant violence that accompanies same.
Repeated verification leads reasonable people to justified beliefs.
It is worth noting that if the Amish/Mennonite community weren’t pacifists we would all be dead.
And Jews would go first.
I’m gonna think on that as a “glass half full” kinda comment.
Should we ever meet I’ll tell you the tale of living among the Amish/Mennonites and the Aryan Nation.
🙂
wrong again white hooded liar……
2 friends of mine were harassed by white teenagers….
sorry they weren’t black…
I know it kills you.
you’re too old and broke to go down there pointedbald
head ditch digger.
They don’t want you there…..
no matter where in the city….you have to be careful…
whether you go to shalom plaza or the Baptist church…..
and its not all black youth like you and hearne portray.
Crime has gone down significantly…under Obama 20% fewer
cops have been killed…..but according to your lies
and filth you exaggerate the numbers for you and your
hooded friends.
See ya Nov. 9 you ___________________!
and Westport and the plaza and power and light and the
other entertainment districts in this city will survive. You
don’t understand business…you understand ditch digging
and that’s the slop you work it.
Hey chucklests….don’t get electrocuted.
Whats more dangerous…walking on the street of kc at
night or installin a chandelier….any bets on that one you
pointed head hooded ditch digger?
Yeah, sure.
Hey! you left out the part, where you offer 10K to back up your line of bullsh*t. I know, we are supposed to deposit 10K, anonymously in an anonymous bank account, under the name of Manti Te’o s girlfriend and witnessed by Brian Williams. Then you will deposit another anonymous 10K into an account while dodging sniper fire in Bosnia.
also hearne….just for numbers sakes….I haven’t been to the plaza during daytime
but are there any vacancies on the plaza….especially at the square footage the
owners charge for space there.
would be interesting to see if there’s any opennings.
Was in Westport for lunch several weeks ago…no vacancies that I could
see walking around.
Another scare post to keep the oldsters out of the urban core.
Westport is THE night spot these days. More new bars and restaurants than any entertainment district in KC. More people out at night in Westport than ANY entertainment area. Plaza is slow at night and has been for a few years now. There is no nightlife there save restaurants and their bar crowds that are gone by 10 pm for the most part. Power and Light is a weekend warrior save special events like Q104’s Thursday nite shows which are huge. Look people just don’t go out as much at night anymore. Sad but true. The under 25 crowd is about gone from the scene. They are busy on snap chat and dating apps…way it is today. Plus fear of violence and DUI’s is huge.
Saints was one of the top nightspots in OP. They changed names and I was shocked to hear they closed. Wow.