Center High School Greenhouse Kansas City

Center High School, with the help of volunteers, recently got together and decided to turn an abandoned greenhouse that sat decaying behind the school for years into a functioning greenhouse where the children can learn about horticulture and the human experience with plant life. The greenhouse is a great project as most students at the urban Center High School will benefit from participating in something besides playing X Box, eating McDonald's and listening to nasty rap music.

Center School District principal Elizabeth Heide and outside volunteer Durwin Rice began making arrangements 4 years ago to restore the old abandoned greenhouse when they were working together on the Tulips on Troost Project. The Tulips on Troost Project is a community participation project that plants tulips along Troost, a street in Kansas City that is deep in the ghetto and desperately needs some polishing, and this organization has plans to plant one million tulips along the urban street. The project has made excellent progress and now it has led to another great project with the greenhouse at Center High School.

Once a prominent high school in Kansas City, Center High School is now a completely urban, primarily minority attended school. Despite what most people thought initially, Center High School is NOT part of the failing and discredited Kansas City School District, it just resembles the schools in the Kansas City School District when you look at it's student body. Center High School was a quality high school from the time it opened until about 1989. During it's glory days, Center High School drew students from the wealthy upper middle class who resided in Red Bridge, Bridlespur, and even Sante Fe Hills when it used to be a good neighborhood. Paralleled by the decline of these neighborhoods as the ghetto slowly moved it's way south and west, Center High School soon began to look like Central High School and since 1989 it has been primarily an urban, lower class school.

This greenhouse will give the students at Center High School a chance to learn about plant life and how it affects humans and the Earth as a whole, as current economic crisis have prompted many of the world's innovative leaders to start projects that lead American consumers away from the processed foods and "getting back to the farm" by encouraging more Americans to eat more "live" foods that come from local farms and to stay away from the processed foods and fast food that has made our country extremely obese and unhealthy.

To assist in the greenhouse project at Center High School, contact principal Elizabeth Heide for more information.

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KC School District Enrollment Halt Denied by Jackson County Judge

In a court hearing that many agree should not have been held in a Jackson County courtroom today, the 6 school districts who put in a petition to halt the transfer of students from the unaccredited Kansas City School district were denied today as Circuit Judge W. Brent Powell ruled against the temporary halt. Spokesmen from each of the six districts are expecting absolute chaos as thousands of inner city students and parents show up at their doorstep demanding to enroll their students in their accredited schools. The six schools who are expecting the worst at this point are The Center School District (we thought that this WAS a Kansas City School District), The Independence School District, The Blue Springs School District, The Raytown School District and The North Kansas City School District.

Let's just put up the main points in this situation to make it simple:

1. The Kansas City School District failed for a reason. The parents of the students in that district do not care enough about their children's education (the majority, that is - there are some exceptions so don't get all worked up). The fact is, the KC School District FAILED, it had it's chance, and it FAILED, so yes, we can say that the students are undereducated and that blame falls squarely on the parents who did not get involved.

2. The neighboring districts do not want an influx of students from the ghetto mixing in with their students. No one has said it, but believe me, THEY ARE THINKING IT. These students will bring an element of crime, thuggery and failure to these districts, which is not fair. These students couldn't make it work in their own district, so the answer is to abandon ship and go mess up another district? Not a good plan. Stay and fix your own problems. Can't wait to see the first urban mother on the news talking about how the neighboring school districts are "being racist" towards her children. Ah, the race card, it will definitely get played before this is all over. Race has nothing to do with the failure of your children and the society that you have created for them. Get over yourselves and fix your neighborhoods and schools and quit blaming everything on someone else. You got your president, now shut up and start doing some actual WORK.

3. The neighboring districts want their tuition PAID IN FULL, and PAID UP FRONT. It has been predicted by experts that most of these students who attempt to transfer will fail in the new school district and return or drop out within months or even weeks. The schools accepting new students have every right to demand their money up front so that they don't waste countless overhead and man hours preparing for these students, only to have them drop out when they can't keep up. The City of Kansas City wants to pay on a "month to month" basis, kind of like a low rent ghetto apartment complex or a sleazy hotel. That should tell you something right there.

4. The students and parents of the Kansas City School District DON'T NEED TO PANIC! It is ok for your kids to attend and graduate from an unaccredited school. They will still be able to get into the college of their choice on the merit of good SAT scores and academic history. If your student doesn't have a good academic history or cannot score well on the SAT, then they are going to fail anyway - a change of school district is not going to change that - sorry.

Just as a matter of easy transportation math, I would assume that the Center School District would be getting the worst of this influx of students. The Center School District lies closest to the Kansas City School District, and actually has a student body that would closely resemble the students who currently attend the Kansas City School District schools. Urban, low test scoring, police records, history of violence and bad parenting - the Center School District might actually be the best fit for the transferring students. But do they have enough room? Will the students who transfer lower Center School District's overall standing with the state as far as test scores, etc.?

Aside from the suburban school administrator's fears of large numbers of students trying to squeeze into their schools, there is, of course, a matter of money. The neighboring school districts have a policy in place that clearly states that a student wishing to transfer who does not reside in the the district boundaries must pay tuition (in North Kansas City's case around $9500.00), and the fee must be paid UP FRONT. The Kansas City School District has offered to pay around $3700.00 per student on a MONTHLY payment schedule. This is not satisfactory to the neighboring schools and is most likely a reflection on the City of Kansas City's lack of faith in the dropout rate of the students who will attempt to attend schools that are far advanced in education and curriculum, and most of the students who transfer will simply not be able to keep up and will either return to the Kansas City School District or simply drop out.

Here is a great quote from a teacher:

"What makes these school districts different is the level of parental and community support. What makes these schools different is that most of the parents are very involved in our children's lives and education and are actually parenting, raising our children to be productive, law abiding members of society."

And that, my friends sums it up pretty well.

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Hollywood Casino 400 Kansas Speedway October 9th

After posting up the worst attendance and television viewing numbers in NASCAR history last year, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race will be held again this year at the Kansas Speedway. The race will be called the Hollywood Casino 400, named after the new casino that is to open in February of 2012 near the raceway.

Hollywood Casino 400 Tickets

October 7th - Kansas Speedway's first NIGHT RACE! Sponsored by The Kansas Lottery and 98.9 The Rock, the Kansas Speedway will host it's first night race for Qualifying Day and the ARCA Racing Series. Tickets are $9.89 courtesy of 98.9 FM - Buy Tickets

October 8th - See future stars of NASCAR compete against some of your favorite NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers in this NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway. This second tier series is one of the premier racing series in NASCAR. Tickets start as low as $40.00

NASCAR Nationwide Series Kansas Lottery 300 - Buy Tickets October 9th - at 2pm NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400, the fourth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup - Buy Tickets There are also Hollywood Casino 400 ticket packages available if you want to attend for more than one day. Hollywood Casino Kansas City Kansas City will be adding yet another casino in early 2012 when the Hollywood Casino opens up at the Kansas Speedway. Penn National Gaming, Inc. has been taking over and opening new casinos all across the United States, mostly building casinos in poor ghetto neighborhoods (i.e. Kansas City, Kansas) and Hollywood Casino will be yet another link in Penn National Gaming's chain. The Hollywood Casino 400 race is an advertising ploy to introduce the new casino's presence in Kansas City.

Stanford Griswold Trial for Brian Euston

The trial starts today for Stanford Griswold, who "accidentally" killed a drunken Brian Euston last October outside of the ghetto and trashy America's Pub in Westport. You can see from the picture at the right that Stanford Griswold is an upstanding fine young man...NOT. Look at his thug pot stoned eyes, and his smug ghetto face - this guy is a trashy thug piece of shit.

This incident occurred at a time when Westport was the hot spot for ghetto trash hanging out outside the nightclubs and driving around in their boom boom cars with nasty rap music blaring and causing legal problems for the Kansas City Police and of course, killing people. This is the natural flow of events for any area of Kansas City that attracts the ghetto folk to hang out. The ghetto thugs have moved their hang out to the Plaza now for the most part, as police have finally got them out of Westport. Do they go back to the neighborhoods that they live in to hang out? No, they just moved a few blocks south and now they are harassing customers on the Plaza instead, hoping to meet white women who watch too many rap videos and think that all young black males are rich rap stars (and most of them probably claim to be). But the story of Stanford Griswold and Brian Euston is just an unfortunate result of the ghetto folk hanging out where they shouldn't be.

Brian Euston was drunk that night at America's Pub, and his BAC level was over .30 which is incredibly high. But let's consider that most young white males who engage in heavy drinking do not end up dead at the end of the night, for instance fraternity parties. But, when you place an extremely drunk Brian Euston in the same place as a ghetto thug uneducated street trash Stanford Griswold, you get trouble. Black male youths are extremely violent and they absolutely HATE white people. They only go to places like Westport and the Plaza in hopes of picking up white women, otherwise they would stay in the hood where they belong. In the case of Brian Euston, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Stanford Griswold, true to ignorant ghetto mentality, struck Brian Euston and then RAN - which is ghetto style - and luckily was later caught by police. Griswold is being charged with involuntary manslaughter for the involvement in the death of Brian Euston. Hopefully today Stanford Griswold will get a stiff sentence in court and teach the rest of the ghetto population in Kansas City to stay in their own neighborhoods to party, and let the rest of the good citizens party in their own neighborhoods where it is safe.

Jack in the Box back in Kansas City - Grand Opening

Jack in the Box to open 3 locations in Kansas City
by Kansas City News

Awwww Yeah!  America's favorite 24 hour grease-a-torium has returned to the Kansas City area.  Jack in the Box, having closed their restaurants in our fair city back in 1980, has opened a new location in a Kansas City ghetto at Prescott Plaza, 211 S. 18th St., in Kansas City, Kansas.  Don't feel left out though, as Jack in the Box also plans to open a location at 103rd and Metcalf in Overland Park, and also somewhere in pseudo-hillbilly Blue Springs.

Jack in the Box really comes in handy after a long night of binge drinking as they are open 24 hours every day and serve breakfast and burgers alike at a slightly upgraded quality than McDonald's or Taco Smell.  While I wouldn't condone eating Jack in the Box every day, it is a welcome franchise in the Kansas City area as a substitute for the other fast food chains that have gotten a little old.

Jack in the Box has the bulk of it's franchises in California (972 locations), and their menu includes burgers, tacos, egg rolls, grilled cheese, and of course the bacon cheddar potato wedges.  Jack in the Box franchises sometimes include local cuisine in their menu, so it's possible that they may attempt to offer some kind of BBQ item on their Kansas City menu.  If it's anything like the McRib, I will continue to go to Jack Stack for my BBQ cravings.  The only other fast food chain that I would like to see return to Kansas City is White Castle - now that's some late night drunk food, baby.

Kansas City Neighborhoods - A Breakdown of KC Neighborhoods

Kansas City Neighborhoods - A Breakdown

For just the GOOD Kansas City Neighborhoods go HERE.

Kansas City is probably one of the most tricky cities regarding good and bad neighborhoods. If you don't know any better, you might end up with some serious buyer's remorse.

If you're planning on moving to Kansas City, you'd better understand the different neighborhoods before buying that dream... - or nightmare home.

In order to understand this blog, you might want to pull up this Map of Kansas City for reference. Kansas City is flat with no bodies of water so the streets here run in a perfect "grid" with the numbered streets running East to West, and the named streets running North and South. Isn't that handy :)

Let's start by defining Central Kansas City:

We're not going to discuss downtown Kansas City or any suburbs of Kansas City in this article - we'll do those in another piece. We're just going to focus on the area between 39th and 103rd and between Holmes Road and State Line (look at your map - or picture a square area). This is Central Kansas City.

The first rule of real estate in Central Kansas City is easy - Anything East of Holmes Road is the ghetto. This is true all the way from 5th Street (downtown) clear up to 135th street (Kansas City's most Southern point). Don't move there, enough said.

Now that we've ruled out everything East of Holmes Road, let's start with the area between 39th Street and 47th Street - East of State Line and West of Holmes. This area is pretty much considered the Westport area. Westport has gotten pretty bad lately. There is a shooting in westport almost every week. The shootings happen late at night when the ghetto folks start "cruising" the Westport bar areas - they're not there to buy anything or go into any of the nightclubs - but just to cruise around with their boom-boom music playing and sporting their tricked out cars (who's cost probably kept them from paying that month's mortgage). They are extremely rude (especially to whites) and they will shoot you. So that's nighttime in Westport - as far as the daytime goes, Westport is pretty much full of lower class "hippie" type folks who enjoy the coffee shops and the Pitch magazine. There used to be a lot of gays in Westport but most of them are making their way downtown towards the Power and Light District condos.

South of 47th Street - North of 63rd - West of Holmes - East of State Line. This area contains the Plaza, which has made Kansas City famous for it's lush fountains and top shelf shopping and dining. The plaza is a great little area and contains everything from expensive condos to affordable apartments. Plaza living is very nice - the only drawback is that there is only one grocery store within miles and it is a MAD HOUSE. South of the plaza to Gregory Boulevard is a fairly upscale neighborhood that contains a popular dog walking / picnic area called Loose Park. This area is usually defined as Brookside and it is filled with great little shops, restaurants and neighborhood bars. Brookside is getting older, however, so the upkeep on a house would probably be a huge factor - most of the houses in Brookside are well over 60 years old. The other downside to living in Brookside is that it has ZERO access to any highway.

South of Gregory - North of 85th - West of Holmes - East of State Line. This area, more commonly known as "Waldo" is a lower class area that is deteriorating fast. Abandoned buildings are everywhere, and we're starting to see more PayDay Loan shops and Fried Chicken chains opening up - oh, and pawn shops too. Always a bad sign. For some reason everyone who lives in this part of town has a dog, and all of the men wear sandals. I would stay clear of Waldo.

South of 85th - North of 103rd - West of Holmes - East of State Line. This area includes Santa Fe Hills and the Ward Parkway "mall" - if you can call it a mall. This used to be a great area but it has gone to the dogs. The lower class folk have moved in and it is NOT a good place to live.

South of 103rd - North of 135th - West of Holmes - East of State Line. This area is still fairly nice and includes Red Bridge, Bridlespur and Verona Hills. Those who live there are looking over their shoulder, however, because they know that this will be the next Kansas City neighborhood to fall. Let me just stop and explain something here: The lower class are moving their way south and west - basically to get out of the ghetto that they live in and to get away from their own kind. In reaction to this, the wealthy people are moving South and if they can afford it, WEST into beautiful and expensive Leawood, Kansas to avoid the oncoming ghetto folk. For a good example of this movement, take a look at how far south they have built up on Metcalf - wealthy people are running SOUTH. Back to this neighborhood...The best thing about this neighborhood is 435 highway. It's just blocks away. This neighborhood will be safe for about another 5-10 years before turning lower-middle class.

To be continued...stay tuned for North Kansas City, Grandview, Independence, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs and downtown kc.