Inside Kansas City's efforts to reconnect the Westside
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Looking from the northern part of the Westside east over I-35. Photo: Travis Meier/Axios
Kansas City is looking at ways to reconnect the Westside neighborhood to the greater downtown area decades after it was separated by interstates.
Why it matters: The project, dubbed Reconnecting the Westside, aims to provide a better quality of life in a historic neighborhood that can feel worlds away due to a lack of connective infrastructure.
Flashback: Hundreds of homes were demolished in the 1960s to build I-35, displacing thousands of residents.
- "When we were building highways, the city bulldozed through neighborhoods, bulldozed through families and traditions," Mayor Quinton Lucas says in a video on the project website.
- The result today is a concrete jungle of dark underpasses and confusing roads separating the Crossroads and the Westside.
Zoom in: The project, which uses city funding and a $1 million federal transportation grant, focuses on updating aging and dangerous infrastructure, improving transportation access and safety, and addressing environmental and social concerns.
- To do this, officials from the city and the Missouri Department of Transportation have been meeting with residents since January to identify problems and brainstorm solutions.
What they're saying: In an interactive map open to public feedback, residents describe dangerous intersections with lots of loud traffic and trash piling up. Others say there's a need for more green space.
State of play: Two community summits have resulted in three overarching possibilities: keeping I-35 as it is, realigning the interstate along the cliffs to the west, or removing this portion of the interstate entirely.
- More detailed designs include a new underpass plaza, expanded parkland, and pedestrian pathways connecting to the Crossroads and Pennway Park.
Travis' thought bubble: I've walked from the Crossroads to the Westside many times and can confirm, I'd feel a lot safer with clean, designated paths and better lighting.
What's next: The last community meeting is scheduled for 10am Saturday at the Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center, 1701 Jarboe St.
- Public Works planning manager Selina Zapata Bur tells Axios they expect to have a final plan in spring 2026.