Troost

Most of Kansas City’s four-lane roads are too fast and too empty. The Kansas City Council decided to slim down a batch of 28 roads the next time they’re repaved to make them safer.

The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven has played a central role in Kansas City's music and counterculture scene for 50 years. But now owner Jan Fichman is retiring, leaving longtime customers to reflect on what the record store has meant to them.

Constructed around 1940, the space at 3740 Troost Ave. was one of Kansas City's first purpose-built structures for grocery store giant Safeway. Developers plant to turn it into a business complex that will be "positive for the neighborhood."

Nearly 200 people died in Kansas City car crashes in 2022 and 2023. The numbers suggest that high speeds and intersections, particularly on Truman Road, pose the greatest danger.

For two years, business owners on Troost Avenue have campaigned for Kansas City to rename the street. That effort is now stalled in the city council.

Business owners have campaigned for nearly two years to sever Troost Avenue from its slaveholding past. But the effort has hit a bureaucratic roadblock, as Mayor Quinton Lucas tries to avoid another public controversy like the failed renaming of The Paseo.

New eateries continue to open on Troost between 30th to 79th Street, with offerings that include African, Jamaican, Irish, Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisines. Restaurant owners hope that the rest of the city rallies around the historic thoroughfare as a business district of its own.

After several years inside Made in KC's Midtown market, Brian Roberts is expanding the Black Pantry into its own, 1,500-square-foot storefront on Troost Avenue. The store is expected to feature a retail area with a diverse selection of Black-owned home goods and self care products.

Installed inside gas stations, liquor stores and smoke shops, cryptocurrency kiosks tend to be placed in Kansas City neighborhoods with larger numbers of Black and Latino residents. Critics say they're a targeted attempt to exploit financially vulnerable people with steep fees for a volatile product.

About 300,000 complaints have been filed with the Kansas City 311 hotline since March 2021 — spanning issues like trash, street maintenance and property violations. The KC Media Collective analyzed the problems, where they are and how long they take to be fixed.

Leah Rothestein, co-author of "Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law," examines ways in which local governments can take steps to remedy socioeconomic issues that are the result of racist policies.

Give Black KC is an annual fundraiser that focuses on providing funds for high-impact organizations on the east side of Troost Avenue.