Here's the deal. North Kansas City is home to three of the Northland's largest employers in NKC Hospital, Harrah's™, and Cerner™. Traffic on Routes 9, 210, and 1 is a booger at 8 and 5. MoDOT's broke and so that won't change anytime in the near future.
I observe what I assume to be employees of those places jogging in cattle paths along 210 during the lunch hour. I see numerous employees of these companies driving to Burger King™ or similar places for lunch. Macken Park is one of the most used and full range of outdoor activities around (squash, tennis, soccer, playgrounds, skate track, etc). I've blogged before about how hard it is to get to downtown or the NEID by bike.
It's time for you that live in NKC to start asking to get connected to the Platte County and KCMO bikeway and trail system. This is your chance on Thursday to push the idea of opening up the levee system on the north side to connect these major employers and amazing regional park. Imagine a world where that park is connected to the retail restaurants along Armor/210, to those employers, and to the non-cookie cutter housing stock and the rest of the region. That's only going to happen if people show up this Thursday and ask for it.
I don't know if anyone in leadership at any of those three large employers have thought about how to retain and attract younger employees but it would seem to me that I would want employees who exercise since that relieves stress, improves creativity, and reduces health care costs. What better way to do that then having the ability to jog or walk to Macken Park over lunch or to walk to eat lunch anywhere on Armor?
KCMO has improved Chouteau to include bike lanes and a sidepath. The Chouteau Bridge has accommodations to get people into the employment centers in the NEID. Platte County, Riverside, and KCMO have this connected bikeway trail system underway that will actually allow folks to get places.
It's all starting to come together. What's needed is a desire to connect NKC to all of this.
As I see it, the alternatives are an area that exists solely for people to drive through at high rates of speeds on state routes and sit in traffic with the associated air quality reduction or a place where people want to be because everything you need (work/home/retail) is all accessible by foot or bike.
If you live there, please take the time to participate either at the meeting or send some comments via the website.