Supporters rally to reverse decision to close Gordon Parks Elementary

Sister Berta Sailer rallied parents and supporters of Gordon Parks Elementary School yesterday, urging them to call state officials who have ordered the school to close. She says the State Board of Education needs to come to Kansas City to see ...

Gordon Parks gets brief reprieve

Gordon Parks Elementary School can finish out its extended school year, which last into June. The decision came today while supporters were having a press conference urging the state to reconsider closing the school. Gordon Parks Elementary ...

Midtown Bookshelf: “The Big Divide” helps Kansas-Missouri border history come alive

  Diane Eickhoff and Aaron Barnhart live in the Volker neighborhood, just a few blocks from the state line. The historian and former TV critic have written a book about the significance of the border between Kansas and Missouri, which they ...

Neighbors and owner to discuss new Bell Street plans

Architect Mike Jantsch and property owner Qamar Khan presented a new plan for a “multi-family house” they’d like to build in Volker at a meeting last week. The owner of a controversial piece of property in the Volker neighborhood has agreed ...

Volker charter school’s closing shocks staff and students

The closing of Gordon Parks Elementary Charter School is a tragedy, according to one of the school’s founders. Dorothy Curry said yesterday that the school’s board, teachers and students were shocked to learn the State Board of Education ...

A new plan for Bell street multi-family house

Last fall, residents protests the proposed multi-family home on Bell Street. A developer has returned to the Volker neighborhood with new plans for a multi-family structure on a vacant lot that caused a controversy last year. The neighborhood ...

Rockfest coming on Saturday, May 11

  This map shows the boundaries of the cleanup area to be covered after Rockfest. The large music festival at Liberty Memorial is scheduled for Saturday, May 11. It’s the biggest one-day music festival in the United States, drawing more ...

In NW area of Midtown, concerns about traffic speed and development

Planners say 43rd Street between Wyoming and Roanoke is the only section of the northeast section of Midtown that rates as congested. They asked residents for input into a new plan being developed to guide land use, urban design and transportation ...

Volunteers make progress toward master vision in Roanoke Park

The Valentine Slope of the park, with steps leading down from Southwest Trafficway to the park, was planted with a mixture of shade-tolerant native grasses last weekend. About four dozen volunteers from the nearby neighborhoods showed up Saturday ...

Volker’s Roselawn is a tribute to the neighborhood’s founder

Just a block away from the site of a recent zoning controversy sits Roselawn, former home of William Volker, who gave his name to the neighborhood where it stands. The house is on the national register – a tribute to Volker for his low-key ...