Axios Kansas City
October 14, 2026
1 big thing: 🏗️ Two years, one block
Construction will begin this winter to build one block of Roy Blunt Luminary Park over I-670, from Wyandotte to Baltimore.
Why it matters: The project will close a portion of the interstate for almost two years in order to build a fraction of the full concept, a step leaders hope will help fund the rest of it.
The big picture: Both ways between I-35 and I-70, plus east and west Truman roads between Broadway and Baltimore, will close from this December through September 2028.
- Wyandotte and Baltimore bridges over the interstate will have intermittent closures.
Context: The I-670 closure will begin one month before the expected I-70 closure east of downtown, which will last 11 months.
Zoom in: In addition to the park, phase one will also build out about half of the tunnel infrastructure, including two blocks of needed improvements under the KC Convention Center.
- Part of that includes fire and life safety systems that will support the entire highway tunnel that, if completed, will run six blocks from under the convention center to Grand Boulevard.
Follow the money: This first phase will cost roughly $164 million, which in 2017 was within the projected range for the entire project. The full park is now projected to run $315 million.
- Current funding, which covers phase one, comes from a mix of federal, state, local and private sources.
- City Council in September authorized $51 million in bonds, which will be repaid over 15 years through the city's convention and tourism tax.
What they're saying: Building the tunnel support system will "really kickstart funding coming in, both from private donors, but also through other grants," Assistant City Manager Jeff Martin tells Axios.
Reality check: The city has been denied four federal grants worth a combined $185 million, three of them during the Biden administration.
2. ☕️ Creating jobs for people with disabilities
A new Northland coffee shop wants to change how employers see adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Why it matters: Latte Life is taking on a national problem: Americans with a disability who were looking for work last year faced an unemployment rate more than double everyone else's.
State of play: That rate remains high despite decades of laws meant to lower it, and Latte Life has that history on its walls.
- Framed posters walk through decades of disability rights laws, from a 1975 law guaranteeing kids with disabilities a free public education to a 2014 workforce law pushing for fair pay alongside coworkers without disabilities.
How it works: Latte Life opened Monday in the former Post Coffee space on Armour Road. It's run by Life Unlimited, a North KC nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
- Workers learn skills including running the register and stocking inventory, general manager Fiona Kennedy told KSHB.
- Then they take those skills "out into their communities," Life Unlimited chief operating officer Amy Taylor said.
Zoom in: On its second day, around 30 people from The Farmer's House, a separate Northland disability nonprofit, came in for coffee.
- "We want to support inclusive workplaces, and plus it's a good cup of coffee," executive director Amy Allison tells Axios.
What they're saying: Allison tells Axios that people with IDD rarely come up in workplace diversity conversations: "We're not bottom of the barrel. We're like 6 feet under."
- She says the shop could reach employers who "didn't ever think about employing somebody with autism or Down syndrome until they saw them in action."
3. 🍽️ KC chefs rally for immigrant workers
Local tortilla maker Yoli Tortilleria rallied some of the city's top chefs last night to push back on federal immigration enforcement.
Why it matters: Yoli is using the national profile it earned with a 2023 James Beard Award to take a public stance against recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics, which have reached the metro's own food industry.
State of play: Immigrants made up less than 7% of the KC metro's population in 2017 but more than 1 in 4 of its chefs and cooks, according to a 2019 analysis.
- Since last summer, ICE has searched two metro restaurants and a Historic Northeast food warehouse. Advocates and witnesses said workers were detained, and federal officials confirmed one arrest.
Zoom in: To raise money for immigrant families and speak out on their behalf, chefs from across KC's food scene turned Yoli's kitchen into a live-fire asada barbecue for an Anti-ICE Supper Club.
- The chefs included Johnny and Helen Jo Leach of The Town Co. and Dear Donna, Jeff Workman of Workman's, Fernanda Reyes of Taco Naco and Robin Krause of Billie's Grocery.
Zoom out: The dinner made KC part of a national push, led by food and travel publisher Roads & Kingdoms, that has held similar fundraisers for local immigrant rights groups from Los Angeles to Mexico City.
Follow the money: Proceeds go to Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR) which helps immigrant families in Kansas and Missouri cover housing, food and a first meeting with a lawyer.
What they're saying: "By raising funds for AIRR, we can speak out and help provide the tools immigrants need to protect themselves," Yoli co-owner Marissa Tapia Gencarelli said in a statement.
4. ⛲️ Water fountain: Cash for data centers
Axios Kansas City
