Devan’s Dozen: The Paseo Edition
12 Reasons to Vote Yes on Question 5
Published October 30, 2019
A NOTE FROM THE WRITER: From the inception of Devan’s Dozen, this column has been a passion project that follows the traditional web ranking template to infrequently share what I consider to be the very best of Kansas City. With a focus on local food, drink, entertainment, and culture, Devan’s Dozen is the culmination of my love affair with the City of Fountains. It may then shock some of my prior readers that this particular edition will center on what would be considered by most to be a civic or political matter. Considering the history of The Paseo and its significance to a number of Kansas City’s cultural institutions - including, but not limited to, our fountains, barbeque, baseball, jazz, and our diversity - I felt this deviation from the norm to be warranted.
For me, writing has always been an avenue to feed my own heart and soul and share a piece of myself with those willing to read. Since Kansas City has my heart, I will be damned if I do not take the time to defend The Paseo - this city’s soul.
“I live on The Paseo.”
Over six months have passed and those are the words that I cannot shake. It was the day before the Kansas City Mayoral Primary and the man who would become our current mayor, Councilman Quinton Lucas, was speaking at a private event. I had the opportunity to ask the councilman about his involvement in the controversial renaming of Kansas City’s most historic boulevard and in the course of answering my question he said those words to me. However, they were no longer true.
On January 24, 2019, the Kansas City Council voted to rename The Paseo Boulevard to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard as the seemed conclusion to an effort spearheaded by Councilmen Lucas and Jermaine Reed, and strongly endorsed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). While the City Council lacked any legal authority to make such a change (more on this to come) they had successfully changed the name of The Paseo. At the time of my question, Mr. Lucas had been living on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard for over two months and yet he said those words to me.
“I live on The Paseo.”
While an unlikely faux pas, or perhaps even a Freudian slip, from Quinton Lucas, these same words were once a point of pride to the hundreds of Kansas Citians who live along this city’s longest thoroughfare and understand its significance to this city. While a privileged few were able to have their voices heard in regard to this change, the masses did not. Fortunately, this is a wrong that can be righted.
Less than a week from now, on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, Kansas City will have the opportunity to vote on Question 5 which will determine whether or not to restore The Paseo name to Kansas City’s most historic boulevard. At this point, you may have some familiarity with this initiative. You might even be aware of the controversy that surrounds the renaming. Yet, you still might have some questions.
“What is so special about The Paseo?”
“What’s the big deal about renaming a street?”
“How did we get here and what can be done now?”
“What is the best way for Kansas City to honor Dr. King?”
Perhaps it is best if we start at the beginning.
Still evident today, the congruence of parks, monuments, and streets into the already existing landscape was the hallmark of George Kessler's vision for Kansas City and his crown jewel - The Paseo. (Image from the Historic Kansas City Foundation Postcard Collection)
A Brief History of The Paseo
Kansas City boasts more boulevards than any city in the world except for Paris and more fountains than every city besides Rome. While these designations may seem trivial or coincidental, they were in fact very intentional design elements put in place by this city’s first landscape architect, George Kessler.
In the late 1800s, the City Beautiful Movement was beginning to sweep the nation as a response to mass urbanization. The movement represented a renaissance in American urban planning that focused on beautifying cities and public spaces as a vehicle to promote social order, create civic pride, and stimulate urban economies. Primarily, this movement focused on mimicking the aesthetic opulence of “old world” European cities in the United States.
In Kansas City, this movement was championed by The Kansas City Star co-founder William Rockhill Nelson. Nelson used his voice to lobby for paved streets, improved sewers, and street lighting. In 1892, he worked with the first president of Kansas City’s Park Board, August Meyer, to hire the aforementioned George Kessler.
“[Kansas City] should have some place where everybody can see beautiful flowers, and flowers more or less rare, in abundance and under condition of artistic grouping or display. The Paseo offers this opportunity.”
Kessler believed that cities should work in harmony with their natural surroundings and be “decent places for masses of people to live in.” More so, he believed that a system of parks and monuments connected by an expansive transportation network was necessary for Kansas City to become a metropolitan destination and in order for the surrounding region to prosper. His vision for what Kansas City could be was dependent on an intricate network of boulevards that would interconnect the hundreds of acres in parks that Kessler would create for this city. At the center of Kessler’s vision was the crown jewel of his parks project - Paseo Boulevard.
Inspired in part by, and named for, Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma, this boulevard stretches nearly ten miles and contains over 200 acres of land in the form of several small parks highlighted by green spaces, gardens, and a pergola in the Beaux-Arts style of Paris. Most important to this city’s identity, The Paseo was where Kessler constructed this city’s first fountains. If not for George Kessler and The Paseo, it is unlikely that we would have ever become “The City of Fountains”.
Located at 9th St. and The Paseo, The Women's Leadership Fountain was the second of George Kessler's fountains and the oldest surviving fountain in a city renowned for them. PHOTO CREDIT: KC Parks
The Paseo was such a marvel of civil engineering and city planning that many cities saw Kessler’s Paseo as the benchmark for what urban beautification should be. In the years that followed the completion of The Paseo, Kessler would design a number of stunning landscapes and thoroughfares across the nation but his boulevard in Kansas City remained his magnum opus. Beyond the natural beauty and architectural grandeur of The Paseo, the boulevard continued to put Kansas City on the map long after Kessler left Kansas City.
In 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Kansas City during his famed “Tour of the West”, his processional took him down The Paseo. Over 20,000 schoolchildren, and thousands of other spectators, lined the boulevard, waving flags to catch a glimpse of Teddy.
Of course, it was at the corner of 19th and Paseo that Henry Perry, “The Barbecue King”, opened Kansas City’s first barbeque restaurant in 1910. Without Perry, and the continuation of this culinary tradition by the likes of Arthur Bryant and George Gates, it is unlikely that Kansas City would have its current reputation as “The Barbeque Capital of the World”.
Just a few blocks from Perry’s famed restaurant on Brooklyn Avenue, the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the greatest teams in the history of professional baseball, played their games at Muehlebach Field. In fact, the entire Negro National League was founded and chartered by Baseball Hall of Famer Rube Foster at the Paseo YMCA! This city’s love affair with baseball, and sports in general, began with Satchel Paige, Buck O’Neil, Hilton Smith, and the Monarchs. Most notable in the history of America’s pastime, the Kansas City Monarchs were playing baseball at night under large, portable lights a decade before the American League or National League dreamt of doing so. Today, the biggest games in professional sports are played in prime time under the bright lights. This innovation was born along The Paseo corridor.
“Do yourself a favor: Go down to 18th and Vine just to see a bit of Kansas City history. It was exciting. Yeah. There were musicians and baseball players and beautiful women and men dressed up like you wouldn’t believe. Every restaurant, hotel and bar had a band playing sweet music”
And of course I would be remiss if I did not mention the 18th & Vine District. Bordered by The Paseo on the west, the 18th & Vine District is considered one of the most important locales in the history of jazz. It was here that Charlie Parker and Count Basie, among others, infused elements of blues into jazz. In revolutionizing the American art form, they created a sound that was purely Kansas City.
Some of our city’s grandest architectural marvels, our most notable culinary tradition, our signature style of music, and our passions for sports all have stories that begin with The Paseo. In recent years, The Paseo name had become a point of pride for, and even seen by many as an homage to, this city’s significant and vibrant Mexican-American population. Historically, The Paseo served as an epicenter of both Kansas City’s identity and African-American culture.
Recognizing The Paseo’s significance, Kessler’s innovations in city planning, and the boulevard’s historical and artistic contributions over the past 125 years, The National Register of Historic Places designated the oldest stretch of The Paseo (from Independence Avenue to 18th Street) as a historic district in 2016.
Traditionally, such a measure serves as a means to preserve a place of great importance for future generations. Unfortunately for The Paseo, that has not been the case.
An Unlawful Civic Action
“The nominating body is to include with the request package a petition of support for the proposed honorary street name. The petition is to be signed by no fewer than 50 residents of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, and shall also include 75 percent of the property owners abutting that section of the street proposed to be honored.”
I had thought my question was quite simple. Quinton Lucas had just finished speaking about the importance of voting and how everyone in Kansas City would have a voice with him as mayor. When given the opportunity, I inquired how I was supposed to feel confident that I would have a voice in a Lucas Administration when just months earlier he had led an effort that ignored due process, bypassed a city ordinance, and had silenced the voices of the residents and property owners who live along The Paseo in order to rename this street.
To provide some necessary background, according to Ordinance No. 011178 of Kansas City’s charter, a petition signed by three-quarters of property owners along a given street is required to change the name of said street. Neither the SCLC nor any other body ever submitted such a petition or produced the necessary number of signatures needed to rename The Paseo.
Furthermore, it must be noted that the power to rename streets after individuals lies with the Parks Board, not the City Council. Consequently, in April of 2018, the SCLC approached The Parks Board about renaming The Paseo for Martin Luther King. Given that the Parks Board were the organization originally responsible for commissioning the construction of the boulevard, it should come as no surprise that The Parks Board, citing The Paseo’s designation as a historic district, voted against the name change.
In spite of not having the approval of The Parks Board nor having the necessary consent of those who live along the boulevard, the SCLC forged ahead. Their efforts were championed by Councilmen Jermaine Reed and Quinton Lucas. After multiple efforts to get City Council to vote on a name change for The Paseo, including disguising such a provision as a rider on another piece of legislation, this group prevailed. In January of this year, Lucas, Reed, and the SCLC were able to move the City Council to vote on a measure they had no authority to vote on.
In other words, when the City Council moved forward and changed The Paseo’s name to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard earlier this year, they did so unlawfully.
On January 24, 2019, City Council voted 8-4 to change the name of The Paseo Boulevard to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Opponents of this action cited a lack of constituent support and flaws in the process.
PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Orosco, "Northeast News"
For someone who had fielded many questions about The Paseo over the past few months, it felt as if my inquiry had taken Councilman Lucas by surprise. In what can only be described as a slapdash response, Lucas conveyed how his academic career made him an authority on due process and then dropped his ill-fated address faux pas before arriving at a line of reasoning he had expressed publicly on multiple occasions. To paraphrase, Lucas expressed that the ordinance requiring the necessary signatures has been “rarely enforced”. He seemed to insinuate, in the opinion of this writer, that any examples of this ordinance being overlooked in the past seemed to justify it being ignored in the present. This general sentiment is indicative of everything wrong with the renaming of The Paseo.
Former Councilwoman Alissia Canady, who represented many of the neighborhoods along the historic boulevard, voted against the name change citing that this was not a change her constituents wanted and insisted that “this action that we are taking is suppressing the voice of the African Americans who live on Paseo who do not support it. ... I don’t think this is a responsible process.”
In the most rapidly completed public works project that I can remember, Kansas City scurried to replace road signs along The Paseo. Workers were witnessed replacing signs on nights, weekends, and holidays at a frenetic pace which only serves as a further indictment of the questionable nature of this action. PHOTO CREDIT: AP Photos
A Lawful Citizens’ Referendum
This illicit action by the City Council represented a disenfranchisement of property owners and suppression of voters. It did not take into consideration the will of the people who lived along The Paseo or account for the associated costs of an address change to the residents and businesses along this street. It is this recklessness of the City Council that led many to oppose this action and created a demand for this city’s leaders to be held accountable. The movement to preserve The Paseo’s name is about historical preservation and addressing procedural failures.
It was the failure to engage the community and negligence to gain the support of property owners that encouraged a group of concerned residents along the former Paseo to come together and form “Save The Paseo” less than two months after the fateful name change. This group, in accordance with the same ordinance that the City Council had previously ignored, accomplished in a matter of weeks what the SCLC failed to over the past few years, they collected the necessary signatures.
In fact, Save The Paseo submitted petitions with over 2,800 signatures (1,000 more than required) to Kansas City’s Election Board. Upon approval of these petitions, City Council was left with no choice but to finally give Kansas City voters the opportunity to have their voices heard on this issue and placed Question 5 on the November ballot.
The Spanish Cannon at 12th & Paseo - in recent years The Paseo has grown in importance to the Latin community. The loss of The Paseo name signifies a loss of a community identity to some Kansas City Latin Americans.
The Elephant in the Room
At this point, it would be unfair for me not to address the elephant in the room. After all, when the street name you are trying to remove is that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eyebrows are going to be raised. As you can assume, there are many who have attempted to mischaracterize the intent of Save The Paseo as being racially motivated. Resistance to renaming this street has always been about protecting both the voting and property rights of those who live along Kansas City’s most historic boulevard.
“It’s not a race issue. It’s a procedural issue. ”
However, it is true that prior to January’s City Council vote, Kansas City was believed to be one of the largest cities in the nation without a street named for Martin Luther King, Jr. It is quite surprising considering that King was the face of the Civil Rights Movement and is one of the most important figures in the history of the United States. While he is not a Kansas City native and spent very little time here, King’s contributions to our city, to this nation, and to the world cannot be overlooked.
It is for this reason that the Parks Board elected to rename Brush Creek Park in his honor in 1978. Additionally, Kansas City also has an elementary school named for King. There are those, like former Councilman Scott Wagner who voted against the name change, who would argue that the best way for Kansas City to honor the memory and legacy of Dr. King would be for us to be better stewards of the landmarks already named for him.
“There is nothing else in [King Park] that distinguishes it from any other green space in the city. As we talk about what is deserved for Dr. King, my answer is, you’ve had a park named since 1978 for him, and he deserves a lot more. ... My question is, what will happen to the Boulevard in 40 years, because I’ve got 40 years of track record on a park with his name and it’s disgraceful.”
In spite of this city’s track record regarding landmarks already named for King, the vast majority of those who I have conversed with about preserving The Paseo name would like to see a street in Kansas City named to honor Martin Luther King. Like myself, many of these people do not believe that honoring Dr. King should come at the expense of a boulevard as historically significant as The Paseo. There is no logical reason that support of The Paseo should ever be confused with opposition to Martin Luther King, Jr.
In my conversations, the most common suggestion has been to rename 63rd Street, an east-west thoroughfare that unites a diverse collection of neighborhoods, for Dr. King. Interestingly enough, last year when Mayor Sly James’ MLK Advisory Committee was asked to recommend a street to be named after Martin Luther King, it was 63rd Street, not The Paseo, that received two-thirds of the committee’s votes.
As long as Kansas City complies to Ordinance No. 011178 and receives the necessary approval of residents and property owners, I would be incredibly supportive of naming 63rd Street for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition to honoring MLK, I would be supportive of renaming almost any of our numbered streets after other icons important to this city such as Henry Perry, George Kessler, Charlie Parker, and Amelia Earhart, as long as the city had the consent of residents and property owners.
After all, this has always been about the process. This has always been about the voting rights and property rights of Kansas City residents. This has always been about preserving our city’s most historic boulevard.
In the present time, I do not know if the people of Kansas City will choose to honor this great man with a street. What I do know is that we have not yet elected to do so. While there are a number of great ways to honor the memory a man who championed suffrage for so many, I know that suppressing voting rights is not one of them. We can talk about our options for how to best memorialize a man who spent his life fighting to give a voice to so many, but I can guarantee you that silencing hundreds of people will not be one of them.
The question of how to best honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a discussion we should have.
It’s a discussion we were robbed of in January. But for now, Question 5 still looms large. While the illegal action of City Council is allowed to stand; while The Paseo name lies dormant; any conversation about who to honor and how to best honor them is not germane to the conversation.
12 Reasons to Vote YES on 5
“Shall the City of Kansas City change the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., which is approximately 9.98 miles in length from the center line of Lexington Avenue south and east to a point south of the center line of East 85th Street, back to The Paseo Boulevard?”
Less than a week from now, on Tuesday, November 5, Question 5 will appear on ballots in Kansas City, Missouri giving voters the long-awaited chance to preserve the legacy of our city’s most historically significant boulevard for future generations. Voting YES on Question 5 would not only restore The Paseo’s rightful name but would send a powerful message to our City Council about the importance of property and voting rights for all.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
It is at this point that I feel I must apologize to my readers. I know that at least one-third of you depend on me adhering to the traditional rankings template that many web articles follow. You have likely skimmed and scrolled to this point hoping to see my rankings in descending order. Ultimately, I am bound to such a format and I do not intend to disappoint.
Rejoice my friends! Your moment has arrived! The rankings you have meticulously scrolled down for are here at last for your skimming pleasure.
12. City
11. Council
10. Acted
9. Unlawfully
8. By
7. Disenfranchising
6. Property
5. Owners
4. And
3. Suppressing
2. Voters
1. #SaveThePaseo
What else can be said that has not already been said? It’s awfully simple really.
If you are registered to vote in Kansas City, Missouri, be sure to stop by your polling place on Tuesday, November 5 and vote YES to preserve the name of Kansas City’s most historic boulevard.
Vote YES to safeguard a landmark that is significant to a number of communities and people groups in this city.
Vote YES to protect the rights of property owners who were disenfranchised.
Vote YES to defend the right to vote of those Kansas City residents who were silenced by those they elected to represent them.
Get to the polls on November 5th and vote YES on Question 5 to save The Paseo.
