That Meyer Boulevard Turnabout

I went by the Meyer Boulevard turnabout yesterday on Ward Parkway and couldn't believe what I saw, what happened yet again. Check for yourself.

I mean really. This brings up so many thougts. Thoughts like I wonder how many times this wall, these walls have been smashed like this over the years? Last I remember, it was the one on the left that was taken down by some no doubt drunk dirver. Another thought----how absolutely smashed do you have to be to come flying down Meyer Boulevard to then round this curve and, yes, SMASH INTO and destroy this wall, one of these walls? And look how fully that wall is taken down. Don't you know that car was totalled? Unreal.Another thought and question---I wonder if it's these people's homeowner's insurance that pays for the rebuild or if it's a city wall and we keep paying for these things? Just wondering.

Race will affect traffic on Memorial Day morning

The City of Kansas City, Mo., is notifying motorists that the Amy Thompson Run (8K, 5K and 1 mile) will affect traffic in the Sunset Hill, Ward Estates and Country Club District neighborhoods on Monday, May 27 from approximately 7 a.m. to noon.

The following streets will experience rolling closures during the race:

- Wornall Road between 51st and 55th streets
- 55th Street between Wornall Road and Summit Street
- Belleview Avenue between 52nd Street and 60th Terrace
- Pennsylvania Avenue between 55th Street and Huntington Road
- Huntington Road between Pennsylvania Avenue and Belleview Avenue
- 59th Terrace from Belleview Avenue to Ward Parkway
- Summit Street between 60th Terrace/61st Street and Greenway Terrace
- Valley Road between Greenway Terrace and 64th Terrace
- 64th Terrace between Valley Road and Ward Parkway
- Ward Parkway (northbound) between 64th Terrace and Sunset Drive
- Sunset Drive between Ward Parkway and 54th Street
- 54th Street between Sunset Drive and Belleview Avenue
- 51st Street between 52nd Street and Wornall Road

Please observe caution and obey all posted detours and barricades.

Thanks and acknowledgement to Scott Wagner and his Facebook page for this information.

Shoot me, I love Trader Joe's

In case you hadn't seen it already: Besides, they used that perfect, catchy tune, right?

"Best and Worst Drinks at Trader Joe's"

For all the neophytes in the area who may want to know, there is an article out today on, as it says above, the best and worst drinks at Trader Joe's you may want to check out. (See link following). Have a great weekend, y'all. Link: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/the-best-and-worst-drinks-at-trader-joes-2520597/

It's Trader Joe's Day!!

 

It's finally here! It's Trader Joe's in Kansas City! If you've never been, go! You want great, different, fun, inexpensive foods? Trader Joe's has 'em! Things you've never seen. Can you live without them? Sure, but do you really want to? Cheeses, soups, potato chips, crackers and then all the various imported--and extremely reasonably-priced-- wines. I don't know, it all sounds silly here and now but seriously, go, check them out and see what you think. I'd be very surprised if you don't genuinely like this store, their people and their products and prices. You will especially want to go if you're either throwing a party or going to a family member's or friend's house this weekend and want to take a little something--a gift--along with you. Mark my words here. I feel sure you'll be very pleased, very surprised at what you find. I can hardly wait.

Countdown to Trader Joe's

As a reminder, Trader Joe's opens here in town July 15. As a help, I thought I'd post this link I saw today on "The Best and Worst Products at Trader Joe's". Can you tell I'm eager and looking forward to this? Link: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/the-best-and-worst-products-at-trader-joes-2504125/

The latest news on Trader Joe's!

From the KC Business Journal this afternoon:

Trader Joe's sets opening dates for Kansas City-area stores

Trader Joe’s will open its two Kansas City-area locations July 15.

The Leawood store, in the One Nineteen center at 119th Street and Roe Avenue, and the Kansas City store, in the Ward Parkway Shopping Center, will open at 8 a.m. that day. The Leawood store is the first Kansas location for the grocer. The Kansas City store will join four other Missouri locations, all in the St. Louis area.

YAHOOO!!!  They're almost here!!

Tearing down the Bloch house was a good idea?

So there it sits, at 63rd Street and Ward Parkway, what was a house and home is now an empty lot.

Who, exactly--what person or group of persons at what bank--thought this would be a good idea, to tear down a rather historic house on Kansas City's most visible avenue?

Some information on what was the house and home:

The mansion was built in 1925 and was purchased by the Bloch family in 1957. The house had over 40 interior and exterior design areas. It sat on 4 residential lots with a pool, gazebo, cabana and tennis court. The pool is believed to be the first in-ground pool in Kansas City. 

The house had 5 bedrooms and 4 and 1/2 baths.

It's a big, vacant lot now.  The home that was there was torn down 2 years ago and discarded, as we do here in the US far too quickly.

What a waste.

And now, as many people predicted, for nothing.

That this was apparently done by "Solutions" Bank only adds irony.

Link:  Historic Ward Parkway Bloch Mansion Torn Down

On Trader Joe's coming to Kansas City

I've made my first foray into a Trader Joe's retail store.

Yow.

What a find.

Now I'm even more jazzed than ever that this chain is bringing its goods to the Kansas City metropolitan area.

You want bargains?  They gotcher' bargains.

The one I visited isn't even a huge store but it surely had plenty of things in it to make you not want to go anywhere else, that's for sure.

As a small example, I don't, as a rule, buy potato chips since, if I bought a bag, I'd end up marching either completely through it, in one evening, or mostly, anyway, but they have a salt and pepper potato chips bag that is really to die for.

And that's just the beginning.

Whoever started and now runs these stores comes up with the coolest, tastiest products you'll ever want to see--AND NO ONE ELSE HAS THEM.

Go figure.

They have a line of organic soups, folks, in little cartons (they serve at least 3 bowls of soup for you) and they are absolutely delicious.  Some of the examples of them are Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato, Corn and Roasted Pepper, Carrot Ginger Soup and Butternut Squash Soup, to name just a few.  They taste wonderful, they're organic, they're good for you and--possibly saving best for last---they're only $2.80 per carton.  Really.  For three servings of soup.  It's not only outstanding on it's own right, it's also an outstanding value.

They also have a long line of cheeses you won't see anywhere else, along with crackers and cookies that are unique and delicious.

If you're a liquor store owner that is within, I'd say 5 miles of Ward Parkway Mall, where TJ's is going to open, I'd fear for my business as Trader Joe's has not only unique wines from all over the world but they also price them from their famous "Two-buck Chuck" (Charles Shaw wines) to, oh, I'd say a high price of between 5 and 7 dollars per bottle.

I'm here to tell you, this is one great store and one great chain.

They make saving money chic.  Extremely chic at that. 

We'll all look cool saving money.

Take that Wal-Mart.

Link:  http://www.traderjoes.com/

Random thoughts on a wonderful, long, beautiful holiday weekend

--The Star reports that "A 17-year-old girl remained hospitalized this morning after she was shot on Thanksgiving night in central Kansas City." I can't write very long here, today, because I'm going to join the East side clergy who are going to be protesting this and the other shootings and killings of their fellow-citizens in the city. Yeah, right;

--The Kansas City Star reported this morning that drivers who already have suspended licenses are being picked up outside court in downtown Kansas City by the police. A couple things come to mind--first, good for the cops. This is a great idea. It should have been done years before now. And two, it was reported on, I think, KCTV5 a few days ago, on the evening news. What this means is that now the Star is following the local, crappy TV news coverage, which is notoriously lame. That's how bad it's gotten at the Star. Used to be, the Star scooped virtually all news organizations in town. No more, no surprise, sadly. So it goes;

--It isn't my goal to repeatedly complain about our local newspaper but one of the big stories on the front page this morning was that the Country Club Plaza Thanksgiving evening holiday lighting ceremony "is a balm in hard times." Really? If I'm unemployed--or underemployed--how is that going to give me comfort? And this is news how? And still, to this day, the Star hasn't done one more researching story on the ousting of the City Manager--they still haven't tried to ask the questions for us of just why he was let go. Oh, well. Que sera, sera;

--People are still, amazingly, writing in to the Star today, supporting now-ex-City Manager Wayne Cauthen. Nearly unbelieveable, but for being uninformed;

--Much more surprisingly, there was yet another letter to the editor in the paper, declaring that we, the people of Kansas City, should "Just give the man a chance to be the mayor and see what good things he can do for Kansas City." And she was serious. Of course, she lived in Leawood, Kansas but what the hell, right?;

--The Star editorial staff let Mike Hendricks write yet another op/ed column about how we should ride our bicycles to work. Yeah. Right. That's gonna happen. I really don't like or want to be cynical or sarcastic but that just patently isn't going to happen. Not here in America. Not with Americans. A few of us but darned few;

--If I could, I would never hear the term "Black Friday" ever again. Same with reports the last few days, continuing all weekend, I'm sure, about the shopping season. This morning, even NPR went WAY overboard with this. One of their reports said "people are looking to save money." Really? There's a surprise, huh?

--Then there's the Reno County (Hutchinson, Kansas) defense attorney who brings and presents a "dud" hand grenade in his closing remarks for his client's case to prove a point. Oh, yeah. There's a rocket scientist;

--Who would think it would ever, anymore, be possible to crash a State dinner at the White House, no matter who the President? It's for sure someone's job--or some people's jobs--will be sacrificed. Makes me want to crash a Ward Parkway or Mission Hills party one of these days. (Not actually, but suddenly seems much more possible);

--did you see where we (the US through the US Forest Service) just bought 1200 acres of "scenic meadow land...in the Sierra Nevada neard Truckee, CA" for $3 million? Sounds cool. I'd love to go see it. I don't know how we're going to take care of it, since we don't take care of our National Parks already but what the hell. At least, hopefully, the logging companies won't get it. Hopefully;

--did you know you could die if you get stuck upside down in a cave for 24 hours? Who knew? (And I'm not being flip about the young man's death);

--Fortunately for everyone--and Wal-Mart in particular--apparently no one was killed this year, trying to get that terrific holiday bargain in the early-morning hours. (And now that I think of it, how would you like to be remembered as "the person who was trampled to death on Thanksgiving morning, trying to get that perfect holiday bargain"?);

--It's great, I think, to sit at a Panera's restaurant, writing a local blog, while listening to your favorite music, while all about you is near-chaos. (Right now, Andrea Bocelli singing "Ave Maria").

Okay, everyone, go out there and have a terrific holiday weekend!

Links:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1596294.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1596068.html
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1578438.html
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1595583.html
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/6681
http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1595391.html
http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2009/11/cauthens-dismissal.html

Obscene and grossly unfair

Blind justice?

Fuhgeddaboudit.

No, no, anyone who thinks justice is blind need only read the Kansas City Star newspaper this morning. It begins on page A4 under the headline "Prisoner's Release Spurs Ire of Family."

As well it should.

I wrote about this earlier, when it originally happened.

It seems a young 21 year old Curtis Mertensmeyer of MISSION HILLS, KANSAS (keep that address in mind) is to be released now, after having KILLED Daniel Reimann, 25, "as he was crossing Ward Parkway on foot near 55th Street."

Curtis killed another man while drunk driving, late at night near his home in one of the absolutely wealthiest neighborhoods in town. For this he, Mertensmeyer, served a whopping 120 days in jail.

Can you say "slap on the wrist?"

Check the stats:

"The victim's body was found 139 feet from the impact, his severed leg another 200 feet beyond that."

Nice, huh?

But wait, as they say, there's more--much more:

It seems this wealthy Mertensmeyer is a graduate of--where else?--Pembroke Hill and a student of Tulane University. Mertensmeyer "admitted drinking that night, speeding when the accident occurred and then fleeing the scene."

But besides the rich kid and his family getting justice at the expense of the poor schmuck, what really has to get you about this ruling by the judge--one Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrance--is that he and the court ended up BLAMING THE VICTIM for getting struck by the other drunk driver and killed.

Check it out. The judge says "It is clear that the extreme intoxication of the victim was a significant contributing factor to his being struck by the defendant's vehicle."

That is beautiful.

So it's the victim's fault FOR GETTING STRUCK BY A CAR, DRIVEN BY A DRUNK DRIVER.

Wow.

I just thought the judge might admit the truth, and that is that the wealthy family and their position in society and their wealth is getting him off the hook but no. I should have known better than that.

In fact, the judge indignantly insists "that the defendant's ZIP code and family wealth played no role in his" (the judge's)"decision."

Yeah, right.

And pigs fly.

Listen to the state of Daniel Reimann's--the "guilty victim's"--body: "...head trauma, both femurs and pelvis broken, aorta cut, spinal cord severed, lacerated spleen and liver."

And let's not forget that amputated leg.

You wouldn't think it could get any worse, would you? But, oh yeah, it does. This all happened on Mother's Day.

And then there's the fact that Mertensmeyer was driving his Mommy's 2003 Saab (cheap car, you knew that, right?), he LEFT THE SCENE OF THE ACCIDENT and "Five days would pass before Mertensmeyer surrendered to authorities."

Sounds innocent, doesn't he?

So young Daniel Reimann was in the wrong neighborhood--in this case, an extremely rich one, and you know how THEY are--got hit by a car and it's his fault.

My God, Judge Torrance, that is magnificent.

Actually, though, it shouldn't surprise me at all. It's a slight twist on an old, old story. To wit, if you're poor--or in this case, just not as wealthy--it's your fault.

There are so many things stunningly obscene, grossly unfair, unjust and ugly about this, it's hard to name them all.

Foremost in mind right this moment is how Curtis Mertensmeyer, his Father, his Mother and one Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrance can live with themselves.

I, for one, will be sure to remember Judge John Torrance's name, come election time.