KC Streetcar Authority

The 2023 men’s and women’s Big 12 basketball championships are getting underway at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center and Municipal Auditorium, respectively. This week's tournament will bring plenty of great games, a lot of disruptions to downtown traffic patterns, and one Shaquille O’Neal.

Construction on a northbound streetcar extension, from River Market to the Berkeley Riverfront, will begin next year. But there's still plenty of work left to do on the route to UMKC, with an expected open date in 2025.

The National Weather Service is urging people to stay home, with temperatures around negative 5 degrees and a wind chill up to 30 degrees below zero. Still, some Kansas City-area residents went to work, walked their pets, and rode the streetcar to stay warm.

Midtown will soon be home to one of two streetcar extensions, adding to demand for development. But the residents who could benefit most from accessible public transit are the same ones most likely to be priced out of the area.

Before becoming dependent on the automobile, Kansas City was once known for its expansive public transit system. At one point, it had one of the largest cable car networks in the country.

Now that underground utility work is nearly finished on Main Street, KC Streetcar workers broke ground Wednesday on the system’s extension from Union Station to UMKC. Officials anticipate to start ferrying riders sometime in 2025.

With warmer weather and COVID restrictions easing, KC Streetcar has added an extra hour to its evening schedules to accommodate the increased ridership.

Kansas Citians woke up to see several inches of snow, but the storm brought far less than the 9-12 inches predicted by the National Weather Service. Schools and many businesses closed Wednesday, while others still hit the streets for cleanup or to continue their daily routine.

After a year of water and utility work on Main Street, sewer upgrades are just beginning, as well as actual work on the KC Streetcar extension. But some businesses are still struggling with the traffic diversions and lack of parking, with years of work still ahead.

Drivers are frustrated by traffic on Main Street ahead of the KC Streetcar expansion, but most of that is preliminary work on underground utilities. Then the real construction will begin.

After the events of last summer’s protests and the ongoing pandemic, Streetcar Authority officials say they "couldn’t take a break” from holding this year’s Black History Month Celebration.

The announcement marks the third major grant the KC Streetcar Authority has received this year.