Oh No It's Stevo!!!!: Saturday 8 December 2007 through Friday 14 December 2007

Saturday 8 December 2007

12/08/2007 12:22:03

This is the intersection of Pershing and Main in Kansas City, Missouri.

12/08/2007 12:23:04

This is the view from my dashcam driving up Main Street north of Union Station in Kansas City Missouri. I am crossing over to the Crossroads Arts District.

12/08/2007 12:23:43

18th and Main in Kansas City, Missouri from my dashcam.

12/08/2007 13:53:21

I am heading home from work, and passing Town Topic in Kansas City, Missouri on Broadway boulevard.

12/08/2007 17:46:01

Suyen and I braved the weather to go shopping -- foolish us. I snapped this picture of the east wing of Metro North Mall. Metro North is yet another mall dealing with the dead mall phenomenon...

http://deadmalls.com/

DEADMALLS.COM FEATURE: (If you don't see the Deadmalls.com logo above, click here)
METRO NORTH MALL: KANSAS CITY, MO
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Nick Brim's Commentary
Posted November 20, 2006 (user submitted)
Metro North Mall is a 2-story, large mall, built in 1977. Metro North features 4 anchors: JCPenney, Montgomery Wards, Dillard's, and The Jones Store (a May Dept. Store, only in Missouri and Kansas). The mall had a very large parking lot, 2 pretty fountains; one by Wards, one by Jones, and a courtyard with a stage. The courtyard was a special feature, that I have never seen in any other mall, it was a stage surrounded by water, with hot-air balloons floating up and down around it. They hold magic shows, singing contests, and Santa in the courtyard stage. Metro North was decorated with lamposts, benches, plants, and many other decorative items. The lamposts and walls are supposed to look 'retro', they are a pastel green color. The mall did well, until about 2000.

Metro North lost Montgomery Wards in 2000-2001, when the company went bankrupt, and the Wards end died off, especially the top level. The lower level did a little better, but it lost quite a few stores.

There was a movie theater inside mall, at Wards end, but it closed in late 90s. They built a small, 6-screen theater outside, behind Wards and they had both theaters running at once, but they closed all of a sudden, at same time. With the 2-screen movie theater, they boarded up and planned on opening it up as a food court (mall never was built with one), a carroseul, and bouncy toys, like Independence Center had. The food court was to open in July 2003, but never did. It is now 3 years later, so I doubt it will ever open.

The mall continues losing stores at a steady pace, losing the clothing stores, The Buckle and The Avenue after the Christmas season in early 2006. Famous Footwear, Hat Zone, and Trade Secret all closed recently, within about last 3 months. The mall continues to get a fairly decent business, but it is slowly dying. The parking lot remains at about 25-50% full, even on a Saturday. Metro North is still my favorite mall, and I hope it does well and stays alive, but it doesn't look so good for it.

In September 2006, The Jones Store was renamed Macy*s, due to a merger of Macy*s and May Dept Stores. Metro North still has some popular stores in it including; Helzberg Diamonds, Foot Locker, New York & Co., Bath & Body Works, Regis Hairstlyists, Pretzel Time, Gamestop, Original Pizza, Mr. Bulky's Candy Store, Lane Bryant, Hallmark, EyeMasters, The Limited, and more. The mall is probably about 45-50% occupied, and contains about 60 stores, of the 125 storefronts.

A good thing about the mall, is that it has tons of holiday shops, because it has room, but it still does enough business to support them. Country Parlor and Country Hearts sell beautiful candles, paintings, christmas figurines, lawn ornaments, and other cute items, They have a Halloween store, selling many halloween decorations, as well as costumes and make-up products. They have a Throws n' Such, selling large throws and rugs, and a Writer at Large, selling poetic-themed items and wall hangings.

12/08/2007 18:25:25

A good thing about ice storms.... no one was shopping...

00:00 - 05:00
Zzzz

05:00 - 10:00
Up -- 3 s' I went to woik. Loaded van 1. We headed to Independence on a fatal housefire. It started freezing rain while we were there. We had to drive in the crazy weather. We almost got hit by a blue car that went out of control. We headed to state line and 435 where a Leawood cop was hit by an SUV.

10:00 - 12:45
I unloaded van 1. I tried to get gas in it but I couldn't get out of the parking lot. It was too slick. I went to Union Station for the Northern Flyer Alliance meeting. I talked to Drew there. I went to YJ's for brunch after.

12:45 - 13:30
I headed back.

13:30 - 16:00
I headed homo. We et and hung out.

16:00 - 22:30
We went to Metro North mall. Then we went to Best Buy. We got a tv for the kitchen. It is HD. We then went to old town buffet.

22:30 - 23:59
We went homo. I woiked on the video, getting it ready for tomorrow.

Sunday 9 December 2007

12/09/2007 10:35:20

n Sunday, we were tasked with weather patrol. After doing lives at north of 119th and I-35, we came into town to try to put together our required package. To my surprise, Lori was warm to the idea of trying our luck at Town Topic.

12/09/2007 10:39:46

This is the Valentine Diner money bank deposit box in the Town Topic in Merriam Kansas

www.kshs.org/diners/identify.htm

12/09/2007 14:33:24

Another Town Topic on Broadway in Kansas City Missouri. There were at one time 5. Now there are three. This one is the only 24 hour one, and it is located on Broadway. There is one on Baltimore, which is open from 5 to 15:00 daily except Sunday. It is about 3 blocks away from this one. Then there is the one on Johnson Drive in Merriam, which is an authentic Valentine diner. Two of the three have the trademark googie sign on the top. There is a former Town Topic located in the northeast bottoms. It was called Pauly's for awhile. It has the trademark sign too. The 5th one was located I beleive farther south on Broadway -- I was told about 29th. It is torn down however. There is a Town Topic sign for sale at Foundation -- a reclaimed architecture store. The sign is listed for $4500.00 and is non functional. It would also take up a huge space.

profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile...

12/09/2007 14:36:10

I headed north towards hom on Broadway. If you look at the building beyond the building with the Sub sandwhich shop, you can see a sun dial. Hard to tell the time today though.

12/09/2007 16:03:24

We were heading towards choich. the dashcam came off the dash, so now it is a handycam.

12/09/2007 16:11:04

I have a bad habit of not making my exit on Broadway off of I-35, so I ended up going down Southwest Trafficway which has no left turns, so we ended up going south by unfresh, then east on Westport where I snapped this picture of one of the oldest establishments in Kansas City -- Kelly's

www.kellyswestportinn.com/history.htm

12/09/2007 16:15:25

This is our choich. I made the mistake of falling asleep in the car and missing mass -- oops...

www.grayboxx.com/c/b/12750700.html

LPA -- weather

www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5168706&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

00:00 - 05:00
Zzzzzz

05:00 - 05:30
Up. Dressed. Headed out via 169. It wasn't precipitating too bad.

05:30 - 11:00
I loaded van 2. I had to borrow a key -- they brought Bob in early and another photographer. I had to get gas at the BP. It is slick. Lori and I headed down I-35. We found an outer road south of 111th. We did lives. It was coooold. It started sleeting bad when we were done. We headed to KDOT in Oooolathe and got sound. Then we headed to Johsnon Drive. We interviewed drivers at Town Topic. We had lunch.

11:00 - 14:15
We headed back to the station. I got gas for van 2 at the BP. I unloaded. I batched and edited in Avid 2.

14:15 - 18:30
I headed homo. The dvd is done and copied. We watched it. We headed to choich. I napped in the car and assidently missed choich. Suyen was pissed. We didn't go to jazz at YJ's.

18:30
We had din din and watched the new kitchen boob tube.

Monday 10 December 2007

Monday 10 December 2007 16:24:10

We covered the Cauthen controversy. Mayor Funkhouser decided to fire the City Manager, Wayne Cauthen. We were doing live vo/sots in front of Kansas City's City Hall. This is one of the buildings built during the Pendergast era.

members.tripod.com/ABORN.Webring/State/NotAnswered/pender...

Monday 10 December 2007 16:43:19

Tess is hard at work writing a script in van 2.

Monday 10 December 2007 16:44:30

I got a pic of the Oak Tower with the modernistic multi use garage in the foreground.

skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=559

Monday 10 December 2007 16:46:19

Across from Kansas City city hall is another Pendergast structure, the Jackson County courthouse.

Monday 10 December 2007 17:35:10

Later we were sent to do weather at the Modot salt dome near Arrowhead.

Monday 10 December 2007 21:22:41

Workers are getting the snow plows loaded up with salt to hit the highways.

TKO -- Cauthen

www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=9537120F3F6CB7D982DF315298404140?contentId=5177988&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Arrowhead salt dome

www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=A6566DD9BD09727665DE04AF01D19F7A?contentId=5180499&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Tuesday 11 December 2007

12/11/2007 13:41:15

That one tree seems to be jealously guarding the entrance to our backyard with it's low hanging branches.

12/11/2007 13:42:14

12/11/2007 13:42:14

12/11/2007 14:29:20

12/11/2007 14:30:16

12/11/2007 14:35:34

12/11/2007 14:44:30

12/11/2007 19:39:52

12/11/2007 19:48:08

12/11/2007 19:48:17

Tuesday 11 December 2007 20:00:21

www.youtube.com/v/PERVaQUtAlI&rel=1"> name="wmode" value="transparent">www.youtube.com/v/PERVaQUtAlI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355">

NLE -- Lipodissolve Doctor

www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=A1720F31994102D9B7450033FBD81470?contentId=5190529&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

00:00 - 02:00
Teevee. Woiked on the puter.

02:00 - 11:00
Zzzz

11:00 - 13:30
Homo. I woiked on the titanium. Now I'm getting Kernel Panic. Ghod I hate him. I decided to reformat the drive and start over. It is raining and yuck outside, but the icenami 2007 is less than hyped.

13:30 - 14:30
I went to YJ's to break my fast. I had a turkey sandwhich, a soy latte and a slice o' spice cake.

14:30
I'm with NLE. We went to interview a Doctor who used to work at the now-bankrupt Fig. Another media outlet was there preparing to do an ambush interview with him. We went in first as we had an appointment set up to see him. He was very frank, honest and open with us in our sit down interview. We left as the other guys were heading in. We went back to the station. An hour later the other outlet was showing promos of the confrontation they had with the Doctor.

17:30 - 19:30
I edited in Avid 3

19:25 - 20:30
I went to YJ's for dinner. It was good -- soul food plate. The weather was keeping the wimpy Kansas Citians in. The weather now is not bad. As I said before, Icenami 2007 was overhyped and some people beleive everything the teevee tells them. It actually warmed up and is just dumping cold rain, enough to melt what ice there was. So, if people went out, say to a nice cozy coffeehouse, they would have had a pleasant time without dealing with crowds.

20:30
Back at the station -- icenami was very disappointing.

Wednesday 12 December 2007

DFR -- St. Joseph without power

www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=A155A1D21BDEA40607CFB070670EF3E3?contentId=5183416&version=13&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

12/12/2007 14:17:21