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THE BRUSH CREEK BULLETIN Volume 5, Issue 5 May/June 2003   PROSPECT BRIDGE REPLACEMENT BEGINS With the closure of Prospect Bridge over Brush Creek in June, work on the bridge’s replacement begins in earnest. The new bridge is expected to be open the fall of 2004. The new bridge will be nearly three times longer than the previous 80-foot span. It also includes channel improvements approximately 1000 feet on either side of bridge. This is to provide a level of protection that has been realized along Brush Creek where flood control work has been done, such as in the Plaza and the Paseo Reach. The $8.5 million project is being funded by a Federal Emergency Management Agency/State Emergency Management Agency grant of $5.4 million. The remaining costs will be funded through Kansas City’s capital budget. After completion of the initial Brush Creek Flood Control and Beautification Project through the Plaza to Tracy Avenue, local and federal officials committed to completing the project to the Blue River after seven people were washed off Prospect Bridge to their deaths in the October 4, 1998 flash flood. Over $150 million will be spent over the next ten years for flood control work, including bridge replacement, along Brush Creek. Drawing of view of Prospect Bridge upon completion. PARKS COMMISSION ADOPTS BRUSH CREEK PARKWAY MASTER PLAN Brush Creek 2020, a master plan for the parkway that connects the Brush Creek Corridor from State Line to the Blue River, was adopted by Kansas City Parks and Recreation Commission in May. The plan updates several previous planning documents developed by the Parks and Recreation Department, and integrates new ideas resulting from the continuation of the Brush Creek Flood Control and Beautification project and enhancements desired by the community. Citizens involved in community participation sessions about the plan said they wanted the completion of the flood control and beautification project to unite the community from east to west. They also wanted park land enhancements to contribute to protection of the environment and enhance flood control measures, while providing and improving cultural and educational opportunities. The use of the park land under the bridges at Bruce R. Watkins Parkway would provide for recreation and improved water quality in the creek. The plan includes: enhancements west of the work completed in the Plaza that would complement the bridge replacement that will occur at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Ward Parkway. Around a lake that would develop from channel improvements, there would be upgraded lighting, landscaping, paths and a waterfall and ponds to increase the area’s visual interest. Similar improvements and the addition of a neighborhood play area would be made west of Roanoke after flood control work is done there. construction of a 200-room hotel in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park along Swope Parkway at Woodland Avenue. The hotel would share the park space with the Irish Museum and Cultural Center that is planned there. development of a lake underneath the bridges of Bruce Watkins Drive. The area would feature improved aquatic features and amenities for passive recreation. construction of a festival grounds and sports fields between Prospect Avenue and Benton Boulevard. extension of the Brush Creek channel north at Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard and Elmwood Avenue for the development of retail and a residential complex around it. creation of an equestrian center near the Blue River. It would become a link in a horse trail reaching from the Missouri River to 135th Street. Markers will guide visitors along the Cultural Trail and through the Corridor. The plan also establishes a route for the Brush Creek Cultural Trail, designed to link the Corridor’s cultural amenities and guide visitors through the area. It includes a design for information and wayfinding signs that, when they are integrated with other design elements, will connect the Corridor from east to west. The Parks and Recreation Department commissioned Bucher, Willis & Ratliff Corporation to develop the plan. Upon completion of its final editing, the plan will be available through the Parks Department’s page on the city’s website.     UMKC BREAKS GROUND ON $22 MILLION RESIDENCE HALL Oak Street Housing East To Open Fall 2004 The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s friends and neighbors turned out in early May when the university broke ground on the first major building project under the UMKC Campus Master Plan. Oak Street Housing East will be a $22 million residence hall and home to 560 students when it opens for the fall semester next year. The residence hall is one of twelve breakthrough projects designed to achieve early results in demonstrating UMKC’s distinctive level of accomplishment. The five-story building will be organized into 50-person living-learning communities. Amenities include one lounge and kitchen, three music practice rooms, a classroom, study rooms and one social lounge on each floor. Its construction along Oak Street at 51st Street, just north of the Administrative Center, will begin this summer. Construction on Oak Street Housing East along Oak Street at 51st Street will begin in July. Capstone Development Corp., developer for the project, is one of the nation’s leading developers of on-campus housing. Since 1994, Capstone has developed or been selected to develop housing for more than 20,000 beds within 39 campuses. Capstone and UMKC will share management responsibilities for Oak Street Housing East. When the Master Plan that was revealed a year ago is completed, some of the other features of the enhanced Volker campus will be: a new Conservatory of Music to serve as the cornerstone of the signature Cultural Arts District at UMKC; a new, larger Student and Alumni Center; an expansion to the Miller Nichols Library combined with a new parking deck; a pedestrian esplanade; and revitalization of a portion of Troost Avenue. The Master Plan is a product of broad-based community effort involving representatives of numerous neighborhood groups, the City of Kansas City and community partners. The university’s first residence hall was built in 1955. Discussions of another residential facility at the intersection of Troost Avenue and 25th Street will take place in the near future. UMKC AND STOWERS FORM PARTNERSHIP TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN RESEARCHERS The University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have entered into an agreement to recruit and educate graduate students who will provide leadership for the next generation of biomedical and life science researchers. The relationship is geared to support Kansas City’s Life Sciences vision. Its focus is on recruiting and providing the highest caliber experience possible for graduate students. Existing arrangements provide for joint appointments and research projects, shared resources, and the use of interdisciplinary teams to address important problems in biology and generate new knowledge that will benefit society. The new agreement expands the collaboration to include: greater participation of Stowers scientists in the recruitment, selection, mentoring and supervision of graduate students; the establishment of academic requirements for students conducting research at the Stowers Institute; and, matching stipend levels for graduate students supported by the Stowers Institute and those supported by UMKC. The partnership helps UMKC move towards its goal of significantly increasing its research strength by attracting 40 to 50 top research scientists over the next five to ten years and by attracting more outstanding graduate students--particularly those whowant to work in a laboratory setting at an institute that is a national leader in research. The Stowers Institute gains a larger pool from which to recruit researchers and a heightened ability to attract researchers who want to continue teaching in an academic setting. URBAN CORE KANSAS CITY GETS DEVELOPMENT BOOST U.S. Senator Kit Bond of Missouri has secured 2.5 million for the Kansas City Engine for Economic Development (KCEED), a pilot project aimed at supporting economic development in Kansas City’s urban core. KCEED will provide direct economic aid to local community leaders and non-profit groups committed to economic development in the city. The Applied Urban Research Institute (AURI) will coordinate the KCEED program. Local organizations can apply for grants to bolster their development efforts. The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation is working with AURI to accelerate access to sustainable funds used to encourage and invest in urban development. An advisory board of local leaders will determine the recipients of KCEED grants. A TREASURE LEAVES TOWN Gertrude Keith A Force In Earliest Corridor Developments by Carol Grimaldi Executive Director When we talk about the development of the Brush Creek Corridor, we emphasize those things that have been accomplished and done well. The area along the creek around Cleveland Avenue east to Elmwood is a particular point of pride with the investment of Swope Community Builders in institutional, commercial and housing development. This occurred in the wake of public investment such as the reconstruction of Blue Parkway and the construction of the Bruce R. Watkins Heritage Center and the Brush Creek Community Center on either side of Cleveland. But before there was anything else, there was the Spirit of Freedom Fountain. The fountain was an idea created on Gertrude Keith’s front porch in 1977 by her friend City Councilman Bruce R. Watkins, and realized in 1981 with the fountain’s dedication a year after Watkins’ death. Mrs. Keith was the first Spirit of Freedom Fountain, Inc. employee, raising money for it and overseeing the project’s development. The fountain, as it turns out, is one of many of Gertrude Keith’s legacies in her lifetime in Kansas City. Gertrude Keith, 89 years young, pulled up stakes and moved to Arizona in May to live closer to family. She was a driving force in the development and support of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, and she devoted her career to working for the city. I am a relative newcomer to Mrs. Keith’s life and large circle of friends and admirers. We met over the phone in 1999 after she read a newspaper article about Brush Creek Community Partners. She wanted to be sure the organization she led, the Friends of Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, was involved in the partnership. We kept up fairly frequent phone contact until we met, face-to-face, only a couple years ago. Her love for the city is second only to her love for members of her family, of whom she is fiercely and deservedly proud. Among one of the best afternoons of my life was a recent lunch we had when she told me about living and working in Kansas City and being part of the change that outlawed racial segregation and discrimination. During the time when the boundaries where African-Americans could live were changing, she witnessed a cross burning on a neighbor’s lawn. She said her first job was as a playground supervisor with the Parks and Recreation Department. The summer was hot and she was pregnant. She relied on a trolley running near the park to get home in the afternoon. After watching it pull away several times as she was approached it, a neighborhood father, who she had reason to believe was involved in organized crime, blocked the trolley’s path with his car and warned the trolley driver he never wanted to see her left behind again. And she wasn’t. Mayor Kay Barnes wishes Gertrude Keith well after a lifetime of service to Kansas City. After a number of jobs for the city, including serving as the first director of the Wayne Miner housing project, Mrs. Keith retired as the associate director of the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority. But she remained active as a volunteer, fostering the Bruce R. Watkins Center’s growth in her longstanding role as president of its Board of Governors, which later became its friends organization. She worked tirelessly to develop the resource library of the center, partnering with retired librarian to catalog and organize historical documents and materials, and acquiring computers. As a tribute to her dedication to the city, Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes proclaimed last April 27 as Gertrude Keith Day. In May, the Parks and Recreation Commission named the center’s resource library the Gertrude H. Keith Library in her honor. She left town with no real regrets but it was clear from her comments to people wishing her well upon her departure that she would liked to have accomplished more. However, she does expect those of us who are still here to carry on in her absence.