Zombies invade KC!

Zombies invaded last invaded Downtown during last night’s First Friday gallery openings in the Crossroads Arts District.  These zombies were seen around 18th and Main Streets.

Kansas City Zombie Walk from Eric on Vimeo.

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Downspouts, interrupted

After only a year and a half in this new old house, I finally got around to disconnecting our gutter downspouts from the sewer system.  It wasn’t difficult at all, once I remembered the Rule #1 of KC home improvement: When in doubt, always go to Strasser Hardware on Southwest Boulevard.  That’s the only place that had the proper plugs to top kill the old standpipes.

Apparently it used to be the fashion to direct your rainwater into the storm sewers instead of onto the grass where it can be soaked up and re-used by mother nature.  This is a bit of problem here in the older park of KC where we our storm sewers are still combined with our poo sewers – when it rains a lot all at once the whole thing overflows poo into local streams.  Here in Westport our poo overflows in to Flush Brush Creek, on the banks of which sit the Country Club Plaza.

Now the Feds are finally requiring the City to fix these problems.  In addition paying much higher water bills to raise the billion dollars needed to build new sewers, regular folks can do lots of little things like disconnecting downspouts and putting the newly popular rain gardens and rain barrels.

Here’s some local info on disconnecting downspouts and some more info from Portland, where they know a thing or two about rain.

So, we are now doing our part to keep our poo out of the Plaza.

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Eric’s School Board Endorsements

For those wondering about the School Board elections today, here are the folks I’m voting for.  They are all pro-reform and support Dr. Covington’s plan to fix the district.

At-Large seats (you cast two votes in this question)
Kyleen Carroll
Crispin Rea

Subdistrict 4 (if it’s on your ballot)
Joseph Jackson

Find your polling place here for KCMO south of the river.  There are elections in other school districts, so check your local info and go vote.  For KCMO north of the river and all suburbs, consult your county election board. You can vote until 7:00 p.m.

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Missouri 5, Antarctica 25

Congratulations, Marci.  You are warmer in Antarctica than we are here in Missouri

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Our house in 1940

This is our house in 1940, thanks to photos taken by the Jackson County Tax Assessor’s Office and FDR’s Public Works Administration. The house was only 30 years old, so the old folks on the front porch might be the original owners. Our block was platted in 1897, when it was still in the Westport city limits.  The house wasn’t built until 1910, after the 1899 annexation of Westport by Kansas City.

These photos are kept at City Hall, and they will provide you with a digital copy that you can get printed. The KC Public Library has many more resources for researching the history of your house.

This is the house in 2008. It is largely intact.  The biggest change is the addition of asbestos cement shingles over the original wood clapboard siding. At some point the porch railing got froo-froo spindles and the front and rear windows sprouted aluminum shutters.  Also, the old Sanborn fire insurance maps show that the garage has replaced some chicken houses at the back of the property.

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