Axios Kansas City

April 17, 2026
📢 Hear ye, hear ye! It's Friday.
⛈️ Today's weather: Highs in the low 80s, with an enhanced risk for severe weather starting this afternoon and lasting through the evening.
- Go deeper: It's tornado season.
🎶 Sounds like: "Caribbean Blue" by Enya.
- 💭 Abbey's thought bubble: I can't be the only one who wants to end up like Enya — a recluse living in a Dublin castle with 12 cats. Right?
This newsletter is 926 words — a 3.5-minute read.
1 big thing: Fight for recognition of Underground Railroad site
A Kansas City, Kansas, Underground Railroad site that sheltered enslaved people lacks federal recognition, and local lawmakers just introduced a bill to change that.
Why it matters: Quindaro Townsite is not open to the public, and the federal funding that comes with a National Historic Landmark designation would make that possible.
Driving the news: Reps. Derek Schmidt (R-KS), Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) this week introduced the Quindaro Townsite National Historic Landmark Act, which would designate the site through congressional action after the standard federal process stalled.
- National Historic Landmarks are designated through the National Park Service System Advisory Board, a federal body that formally recommends sites to the Secretary of the Interior.
- In May 2025, a federal committee unanimously recommended that Quindaro be designated. But the NPS advisory board's charter expired before it could act, leaving it without members.
- Schmidt's office told Axios the Interior Department plans to reconstitute the board, but that could take months. The Department of the Interior declined to comment.
Context: Founded in 1857 along the Missouri River in what is now KCK, Quindaro was established by the Wyandot Nation, abolitionists and African American settlers during "Bleeding Kansas," a violent pre-Civil War struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces over slavery's expansion in the territory.
- Quindaro became a sanctuary for enslaved people crossing into free territory in Kansas via the Underground Railroad.
- After the Civil War, it became a center of Black advancement, home to Western University, the first Black school west of the Mississippi River, and Douglass Hospital, the first Black community-owned hospital west of the Mississippi River.
- The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and designated a National Commemorative Site in 2019.
What they're saying: Johnny Szlauderbach of Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area, which shepherded the nomination, said his group never heard back from the Department of the Interior after last year's vote.
- "NHL designation is a crucial step for Quindaro, providing the national recognition it deserves and the resources needed to become a driver of tourism and economic development in Kansas City, Kansas," Szlauderbach tells Axios.
2. 🏟️ $600M downtown stadium plan passes
City Council yesterday voted 11-1, with one abstaining, in favor of an incentive package up to $600 million aimed at bringing the Royals downtown.
Why it matters: The ordinance, backed by major downtown stakeholders, opens a path to funding nearly a third of a new $1.9 billion stadium at Washington Square Park.
What's inside: City staff will look at issuing bonds that would be repaid yearly by the city over the next three decades.
- It's not an unconditional subsidy; it's contingent on reaching a broader lease and development deal with the Royals that could include infrastructure upgrades and additional development.
- The city would account for the payments with tax increment financing (TIF), using future taxes generated from the ballpark district.
- All of this is subject to future City Council approvals.
Friction point: Advocates opposed to the ordinance have accused the city of giving the Royals a handout, saying the package would pull funding from the city budget, which faced a $100 million shortfall for fiscal year 2026-2027.
The other side: Proponents have said the stadium and surrounding new development would generate revenue that could add to the city's funds.
Flashback: In 2006, the city executed a TIF plan to provide nearly $300 million for the Power & Light District.
- Taxes generated from the district have not kept up with annual payments, requiring the city to set aside millions from the general fund each year.
What they're saying: "We don't want to draw on our general fund" for the potential bond payments, city manager Mario Vasquez said, adding "We are really building conservatism" into tax revenue projections.
- The city is basing tax assumptions on current revenue generated by Kauffman Stadium, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
What we're watching: A lawsuit challenging Missouri's Show-Me Sports Investment Act, which could give the Royals up to 50% of the cost of a stadium, was appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court in February. No ruling has yet been issued.
3. ⛲️ Water fountain: USDA pulls KC farming funds
🌱 The USDA canceled a grant program mid-project, leaving Cultivate KC, a Kansas City urban farming nonprofit, without $2.5 million it had planned to use for farmland development. (KCUR)
🎵 The Chainsmokers, Flo Rida, The All-American Rejects and Tech N9ne were announced as headliners for the free FIFA Fan Festival, set for June and July at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. (Press release)
4. 💛🪩 GIF to go: Party your heart out

👋🏼 Abbey here. I love running into these hearts around town — this one I was lucky to pass by on a morning walk just outside City Market.
"Welcome to the Party" is one of the heart sculptures in this year's Parade of Hearts, designed by KCMO-born artist Mandolyn Bingham.
- She says she used neon colors and overlapping patterns to represent KC's mix of cultures, and hung a disco ball at the center to evoke the city's nightlife.
💜 What heart should we spotlight next?
🏰 Abbey really wishes there were a Medieval Times in or near KC.
🍩 Travis ate an incredible cream-filled chocolate Long John from Ray's Donuts in the Northland.
Edited by Chloe Gonzales.
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