The Hyde Parker
VOLUME 46, Issue 4
A publication of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association | www.hydeparkkc.org
July/August 2016
Board on April 11th to provide them
with updated information. The Hyde
Park Board agreed the best course
of action would be to add the third
proposal as an option alongside the 2
proposals currently being considered
by the City of Kansas City. Both
Squier Park and Old Hyde Park
responded with the same conclusion to consider all 3 proposals.
Neighborhoods Meet to Discuss Traffic
Calming and Bike Lanes on Armour
Since mid-December 2015 a
working group made up of
representatives from Hyde Park,
Squier Park, Old Hyde Park,
Center City, Troost Coalition and
BikeWalkKC have been meeting
to discuss traffic calming and bike
lanes on Armour Blvd from The
Paseo to Broadway. The objective is
to create a better walking, biking and
driving environment for the area and
perhaps even make this portion of
Armour an example for the rest of the
city.
On April 7th, this group met with city
planners and engineers regarding the
city’s two proposed options to create
MARK
YOUR
CALENDAR
appropriate traffic calming including
bike lanes for Armour Blvd from The
Paseo to Broadway. At this meeting
the working group, universally and
unanimously, requested the city
planning department consider a
third proposal in addition to the
two options introduced at the April
7th meeting. The group members
were then charged with taking the
information back to their respective
neighborhood boards for further
discussion.
Matt Levi and Jill Burton representing
Hyde Park, along with Matt Nugent
representing Squier Park met with the
Hyde Park Neighborhood Association
The next working group meeting has
not yet been scheduled. However the
group is committed and looks forward
to further discussions in the near
future and hopes these discussions will
lead to an at large community forum.
BIKE FACT | Americans use
their bicycles for less than one
percent of all urban trips. Europeans bike in cities a lot more
often—in Italy 5 percent of all
trips are on bicycle, 30 percent in
the Netherlands, and seven out
of eight Dutch people over age 15
have a bike.
Facts taken from: Bicycle: The History by David Herlihy,
The World Almanac Book of Records: Firsts, Feats,
Facts & Phenomena by Mark Young
The Hyde Park Ice Cream
Social is Tuesday, July 19th.
Mark your calendars for July 19th for the annual HPNA Ice Cream Social.
The event will be at Cornerstones of Care, 36th and Gillham (west side)
at 6:30 pm. Bring friends and family!
Page 2
A publication of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association | www.hydeparkkc.org
Hyde Parkers (and Preservationists)
Share Neighborhood’s History.
Tom and Linda Becker moved
to Hyde Park in 1976, newly
married and he fresh out of law
school. Evening walks around the
neighborhood were typical and
after spotting a for sale sign on a
particularly good-looking property
at the corner of Campbell and
Gleed, they purchased what would
become their family home for nearly
forty years. Linda worked for the
Landmarks Commission at that
time, educating the general public
about historic preservation, and
working to pass an ordinance that
stopped or slowed down demolition
of historic structures, an important
tool, it turned out, for her new
neighborhood.
Tom got involved in neighborhood
issues right away, noticing with others
that Hyde Park seemed to have way
more than its share of homes with
institutional usages, mostly with
absentee owners. He and Hyde
Parkers Clif Hall and Jim Glover did
a neighborhood survey and confirmed
that suspicion. This began years of
making sure that zoning laws were
enforced, a topic that the City was
not particularly focused on at that
point. Real estate ads were scrutinized
because they often advertised Hyde
Park homes as investment properties
VOLUME 46, Issue 4
The next big push was a rezoning
effort and many players were involved.
Lisa Merrill, HPNA president at
that time, got herself appointed to
the Board of Zoning Adjustment,
Tom and Susan Borge were longtime
members of the Westport Citizen
Action Coalition, Allan Hallquist
continued to focus on zoning
enforcement, and Hyde Parkers
became City Council and School
Board members. Rezoning was and
is a lot of work, requiring research,
petitions, hearings, and lobbying, but
the effort succeeded in protecting the
neighborhood from uses detrimental
to positive growth.
with multiple apartments. Tom found
Linda had moved on to working for
that a change of ownership was a
the Historic Kansas City Foundation,
good time to correct the mis-usages,
and also worked for the
which included quite a
few group homes as well
Rezoning was and City Council as Jim Glover’s
legislative aide, as well
as multi-unit apartments.
is a lot of work,
Visits to the Real Estate
requiring research, as researching National
petitions, hearings, Register nominations with
Board, to mortgage lenders,
former business partner
and lobbying, but
and simply going after the
worst absentee owners were the effort succeeded Cyd Millstein.
in protecting the
Tom was heavily involved
the necessary actions taken
neighborhood from in the complicated project
by these early activists. Tom
uses detrimental to of bringing Costco and
said it was “more fun than
positive growth.
Home Depot to midtown.
going to work!”
Specifically, the land
The first Hyde Park festival
had to be acquired using eminent
in 1977 brought fresh interest to
domain, and Bazookas had to be
Hyde Park (Don and Mary Arney,
convinced to move to a location
Hyde Parkers to this day, were key
with proper zoning. Known as the
organizers) and the trend toward
Glover Plan because of Councilman
single-family owner occupancy was
Jim Glover’s dogged determination
begun. A Home Savings program
to make it happen, Tom and others
launched at that time provided a
spent countless hours meeting
huge boost by loaning purchase and
with developers to advocate for the
rehab money to buyers wanting to
best possible stores and physical
deconvert multi-unit properties to
appearance for that location.
single family. Tom and Jim Murray,
another early pioneer, had researched
a similar program in Texas and were
able to convince bank officers, after a
visit to Murray’s pretty swell Janssen
Place home, to make it happen. Mark
Shapiro and Westport Tomorrow,
were key players in all things related to
a rebirth of midtown at that time.
Tom and Linda raised two great
kids, Thomas and Shannon, and will
be locating to the Washington DC
area where they first met and where
Shannon and her husband and two
daughters live. Thanks to both of you
- we appreciate your work and we will
miss you!
A publication of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association | www.hydeparkkc.org
VOLUME 46, Issue 4
Page 3
Urban Farm planned as part of
Westport Commons.
Cultivate Kansas City is a non-profit organization
founded in 2005 to grow food, farms and
community in support of a sustainable, healthy, and
local food system in Greater Kansas City. Over the
years, the organization has become a powerful advocate
for urban agriculture and the number of urban farms
has grown from four to 125. They provide technical
assistance to help farmers get started, solve problems,
increase production, and sell and distribute produce.
They also work with the City of Kansas City and other
municipalities on policy issues as they relate to urban
agriculture.
Pam Gard Sells Hyde Park.
When I talk with clients about
Hyde Park I say it is a small town
in the middle of a great city with
friendly neighbors and beautiful
historic homes.
3652 Charlotte
SOLD IN ONE DAY!
3631 Charlotte
SOLD IN TWO DAYS!
3655 Campbell
If you’re thinking of
selling your house, the
Mid-town market is
HOT! HOT! HOT!
SOLD IN ONE DAY!
3635 Campbell
SOLD IN ONE DAY!
Pam Anderson Gard,
Realtor and Hyde Park Resident
ReeceNichols Country Club Plaza
[email protected]
M. 816-729-1241
O. 816-420-5180
Recently, Katherine Kelly and Ami Freeberg from
Cultivate KC met with representatives of HPNA
and the Old Hyde Park and Southmoreland
neighborhoods. They outlined a plan for a new urban
farm as part of Westport Commons (in the field to the
north of the former Westport Middle School) and how
it might interact with and benefit our neighborhoods.
Westport Commons will house non-profit tenants
including Cultivate KC when the renovation is finished
next year. Our neighborhoods are assured of some
public meetings to more fully understand and discuss
the project, but those of us at the meeting were very
pleased with their stated goals: “to increase community
engagement in the local food system, teach and
demonstrate expert food production methods, provide
surrounding residents a nearby source for organic fruits
and vegetables, and be a catalyst for increased urban
agriculture and improved healthy food systems in the
Kansas City metropolitan area.”
Learn more about the organization at cultivatekc.
org or on social media @CultivateKC.
The 2016 Hyde Park Homes
Tour is coming this Fall!
The Committee has toured many
beautiful homes, but we are still
in need of a few more. Contact us if you are interested
in being on the tour, sponsorship or volunteer
opportunities.
For more information contact: Melissa Jennings
([email protected]) or Jenna Munoz
([email protected]).
Don’t forget to save the date…September 30th
(Candlelight Tour) & October 1st!
Your 2016 HPNA Board
Meetings & More
Monthly Meetings –
Central Presbyterian Church
3501 Campbell
HPNA Board: Second Mondays,
6:30 p.m.
General Membership: Third Tuesdays,
7:00 p.m.
Crime and Safety: The KCPD Central
Patrol offices on Linwood Boulevard have
responsibility for Hyde Park. Our proactive
officers can be reached at 816-398-0405.
Officers meet with neighbors monthly at
7 p.m. on the last Thursday from January
through October at the Central Patrol
Station’s Community Room.
The HP Playgroup: Wednesdays
10:00 a.m. to noon. Contact Stephanie
Swanson at [email protected]
President
Angie Splittgerber
1st Vice President
Jenna Munoz
816-531-3899
[email protected]
[email protected]
2nd Vice President Patrick Guinness
636-448-9218
[email protected]
Treasurer
Stephanie Kozak
785-218-5673
[email protected]
Recording
Secretary
Melissa Jennings
913-205-8231
recordingsecretary@
hydeparkkc.org
Corresponding
Secretary
George Moss
816-820-5659
correspondingsecretary@
hydeparkkc.org
Historian
Susan Borge
816-645-4528
[email protected]
North Area
Directors
Slawik Pech
Kit Kubis
816-419-4969
816-753-8745
[email protected]
Central Area
Ashley Akers
307-277-3597
[email protected]
South Area
Directors
Lydia DeMonte
Troy Batson
816-695-1757
913-461-7108
[email protected]
The Hyde Parker contact information
Editor/Publisher: Susan Borge and David Kimmis.
[email protected]
Two dumpsters will be located at
the playground on 41st in Gillham
Park — one for trash and one for
yard waste. 8:00 a.m. until Noon.
Dumpster Days are
September 24th &
October 29th.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Hyde Park Neighborhood Assoc. Inc.
P.O. Box 32551
Kansas City, MO 64171
NON-PROFIT ORG
US POSTAGE PAID
PERmIT NO. 1754
KANSAS CITY, mO
The Hyde Parker is a monthly newsletter published by
the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, Inc.
VOLUME 41, Issue 1
The Hyde Parker
Page 4