StockYards

Ahhh, the KC Stockyards, what made Kansas City KC. Those and the railroads, I'm told, but I'm no old timer, I'm just a young whippersnapper who loves beef and bbq and appreciates the connection between the stockyards and our city's improvement on Memphis bbq. I've been reading a lot of Kansas City history lately and have to say that the city sounded better back in the day than it does right now. And I don't think it's because historians coat the history in a romantic gloss; I think the town was chaotic, violent, drunken, raging, open late, musical and riotous--the historians make it sound like Mardi Gras 24/7.
I know corruption is bad politics, but unless I crossed the guy or was a member of the "rabbit" political machine, Tom Pendergast appeared to be the right man at the right time. The "wide-open" Kansas City attracted con artists, no doubt, but it also attracted talented musicians who appreciated a paying audience that appreciated music. In many ways the "wide-open" Kansas City of the early 20th century sounded like the New Orleans of today, or New Orleans pre-Katrina. That town has the type of nightlife and support to pay musicians a decent wage, and there are always gigs.
There is no doubt that Kansas City is a COWtown; the stockyards built this metropolis, this outpost on the Great Plains, this crossroads between the wide-open West and the dense East Coast. They shipped a lot of cows, sheep and hogs through here on their way to the plates of East Coast diners. The stockyards have been closed since 1991 and declining since the great flood of 1951. The agricultural business model changed as stockyards moved closer to the cattle farms and feed lots. The railroad too declined as shipping changed its paradigm from trains to diesel trucks and airplanes. KC is still a thriving town, but our ties to the romantic past are only present through Disneyfied reproductions like the artistic cows on the Plaza, the 18th and Vine Jazz District and Museum, model train stores and KC Masterpiece BBQ. Of course there still are excellent bbq restaurants in Kansas City: Gates, Arthur Bryants, Oklahoma Joe's, JackStack BBQ, LC's, but the city now has really no current identity to project in this age of shameless hometown promotion. So we fall back on our past glories or romantic traditions, eating a pulled pork sandwich while listening to the Bird blow his horn. And I don't think the Power and Light District can restore that tradition or change the fact that our bars are quite dull. Sure we can see some white boy blues, an occasional jazz great, the art school hipsters have their indi rock and local noise and there still are some local musicians commited to making some great music, but I think we've lost something here. Maybe the old KC overextended itself back in the "Paris of the Plains" days, maybe we're settling down to a status of a small big town that's not really a player on the national scene. If I'm not happy I could just move to Chicago...but then again, Chicago has its own issues, great and exciting as it is.