Yes, Hallmark was a big employer in the area: I have no idea about its present status, though.
There's Ward Parkway, and, also, Paseo and Troost run near those areas.
There is the Crown Center and the Plaza. Apparently, the Plaza (Yes, it's the shopping area.) was intended to mimic Seville, Spain.
There is still a problem with flooding.
I was looking up Crown Center (I had forgotten whether it had an e or not.) and ran across this article: it might be interesting.
Dissecting the Troost Divide and racial segregation in Kansas City
By Diane Euston with contributing historian Tim Reidy
A long overdue conversation about systemic racism has ignited across the nation, perpetuated from the pain of witnessing on camera the killing of George Floyd. What followed were protests and genuine cries for change in our city.
Inequality etched our landscape after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Systems put into place nationwide trickled into Kansas City, forever transforming the community into segregation. Into the 1890s, the city wasn’t as racially divided as many would assume. There were several factors that changed this, and one of note recently due to the call to rename J.C. Nichols Parkway was his use of racial covenants in the growing suburbs.
J.C. Nichols and other real estate developers such as Fletcher Cowherd and the Kroh Brothers of Leawood used covenants as a tool to create a white paradise outside the confines of the urban core. These racial restrictions weren’t solely the idea of one man in one city but were common practices supported by the federal government across the nation. Residential segregation, according to Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, is “an unhidden public policy that explicitly segregated every metropolitan area in the United States.”
What drove segregation in Kansas City included blockbusting, racial covenants, real estate practices (including the federal government’s lending programs that refused to insure mortgages in African American neighborhoods), and the Kansas City Public Schools.
...
https://martincitytelegraph.com/2020/06/30/dissecting-the-troost-divide-and-racial-segregation-in-kansas-city/
Of course, Missouri has a complicated history. The area that was subject to General Order No. 11. includes a large part of present KCMO.
General Order #11
...
Highlights
- On August 25, 1863, General Ewing issued his controversial General Order No. 11. This order required all residents of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and parts of Vernon counties to vacate them.
- Those who were Southern sympathizers had to leave Missouri for the Confederacy, while loyalists could find refuge in Federal military posts or other towns.
- Troops then reportadly burned houses, shops, and farm buildings to the ground.
- Ewing believed that by clearing these counties he would rid guerillas of sanctuaries that they had effectively used throughout the war to escape capture.
- ...
...
http://www.civilwarmo.org/educators/resources/info-sheets/thomas-ewing-jrs-general-order-no-11
That was after the raid on Lawrence, KS, as noted on the above webpage. I hadn't heard of that until within the last fifteen years. Previously, I had not heard of parts of the Midwest burnt in order to get rid of Confederates.
Of course, some places in Missouri are still completely out of touch with modernity:
- The town of Waverly, MO, has a relatively recent statue (2009) to a Confederate - here.
Other places are trying to move slowly forward:
- Savannah, MO, has seen fit to keep its high school sports teams named "Savages", but they are changing the mascot - here and here.
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