Kansas City closes 2.5 miles of roads to provide outdoor space during COVID-19 crisis
Kansas City will block off more than 2.5 miles of roadway between the Missouri River and 85th Street to provide more pedestrian and recreational space during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo from the city.
With residents suddenly under stay-at-home orders, crowds are filling up parks, sparking concerns about a lack of social distancing. The city’s COVID-19 orders say people can go out only for essential business or to get food and medicine, but they also permit and encourage recreation.
Mayor Quinton Lucas and Councilman Eric Bunch proposed measures to provide more space, including blocking off some city streets to car traffic to allow only pedestrians and cyclists, for now.
The Public Works Department selected four routes, according to a department memo that Lucas released on Twitter Thursday. They are:
▪ Kenwood Avenue between 39th and 43rd streets, near Gillham Park
▪ Brookside Road between Meyer and Gregory boulevards
▪ Brookside Road between 77th and 83rd streets
▪ River Front Drive from the Union Berkeley apartments east to the dead end by the Missouri River, near Berkley Riverfront Park
According to the memo, those routes will be closed by the end of the week.
The department is also working to ensure that crosswalk signals turn on automatically so that pedestrians don’t have to press the button at intersections. Kansas City will also allow neighborhoods to apply for block-level closures online.
Public works personnel are also considering closing lanes at the following locations, according to the memo:
▪ Around Loose Park: The inner lanes of Wornall Road, Summit Street, 51st, 52nd and 55th streets
▪ Country Club Plaza: The east lane of JC Nichols Parkway, between 43rd and 47th streets
▪ Downtown: Walnut Road closed except for local traffic and limited cross street traffic between the River Market and 18th Street
Lucas’ original ordinance proposed three east-west streets to better connect eastern and western parts of town, which remain highly segregated.
The combined legislation proposed closures in “all geographic areas” of the city, but the closures are all west of Troost Avenue, the city’s historic racial dividing line.
