Wichita: What would you like to see w/i 10 years?

[Veritas]

-- a new skyscraper. It has been about 30 years since the last one was built. As Paula Cole sings " flatter than a Downtown Wichita skyline."
-- train service to KC, OKC, and DFW
-- a few large employers besides the airplane companies and Koch.
-- new downtown baseball stadium with a AAA team
-- 6-8k amphitheater located next to the new LD baseball stadium
-- tax incentives for refurbishing some of the older Wichita neighborhoods. The houses are falling apart.
-- City League poaching Derby, Andover, Maize, Haysville schools
-- City of Wichita annexing the entire Sedgwick County
-- slot machines at the newly reopened dog track

What say you?

[Cdizzle]

You'd better get crackin.

[Veritas]

You'd better get crackin.

You cats that live there need to get crackin' if you want Wichita to be a vibrant growing city.

[RoyalShock]

Get off my lawn, you little punk!

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I don't live there anymore, buuuut...

--More downtown development including an actual tall building
--NBA D-League team at IBA
--City and county merger
--A lot more CAVE'rs die or leave town
--Southwest stays and/or another low cost carrier comes to ENA
--Some actual progress on the northwest bypass

[AndShock]

How about a 21,000 sq foot casino with an event center attached. Imagine what that revenue could do for the city.

[im4wsu]

Thirty-eight home Shocker men's basketball games each year

[Eric]

Thirty-eight home Shocker men's basketball games each year

So the KU plan?

[WuDrWu]

6 a new skyscraper. It has been about 30 years since the last one was built. As Paula Cole sings " flatter than a Downtown Wichita skyline."
9 train service to KC, OKC, and DFW
1 a few large employers besides the airplane companies and Koch.
4 new downtown baseball stadium with a AAA team
3 6-8k amphitheater located next to the new LD baseball stadium
5 tax incentives for refurbishing some of the older Wichita neighborhoods. The houses are falling apart.
8 City League poaching Derby, Andover, Maize, Haysville schools
7 City of Wichita annexing the entire Sedgwick County
2 slot machines at the newly reopened dog track


6,7,8 & 9 could all be 9 as far as I'm concerned.

[SPEShockAlum]

Other:

1) A new governor with a legitimate plan to increase the tax base and enhance the quality of life in Wichita and the state
2) A world-class children's hospital (not a remodeled floor and facade at WMC) to recruit and retain the best pediatric specialists to what is the largest city in the state and not have people in our city have to go to Tulsa, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Denver and/or Omaha.

[BOBB]

Wichita is my hometown, but it is going nowhere fast and it has been that way for a long time. New employers go where the workers are for the most part. Wichita has been hollowed out and families with means have long left for better school districts in Maize and Andover. Wichita has a lot more in common with Detroit than Austin. Wichita would need to buck a lot of national trends in the Midwest to ever be vibrant again.
1.There hasn't been a new skyscraper built because there is insufficient demand for downtown office space.
2. Train service to car oriented metros make no sense.
3. See above about large employers.
4. A new ballpark is a big expense with little payoff. Wichita had AA baseball and supported it so well that it moved to Arkansas.
5. Not a terrible idea, maybe instead of LD Stadium.
6. In dynamic metros the old neighborhoods are gentrifying rather than crumbling because people need the housing close in. What would Midtown look like if it was a mile from downtown Seattle rather than downtown Wichita?
7 & 8. Growth by acquisition when there is no organic growth.
9. Slot machines are a poor and stupid tax. This would not attract tourism as there are a plethora of gambling options.

Someone in Wichita needs to invent the next big thing and then just decide to buck all conventional wisdom and build it in Wichita. Otherwise, what are Wichita's competitive advantages over other cities in luring relocating businesses?

[SHOCKvalue]

At the risk of overstatement, there's a veritable ton of residential activity that has happened in downtown Wichita over the past five years or so, with a good chunk of it still under development/construction. There's a critical mass of well-earning 24/7/365 residents snowballing in the area, which is something that is core to the health of any urban center. I really feel like downtown is possibly on the verge of some sort of breakthrough on the commercial and retail side of things, and I've long been a pessimist on such a thought.

The best hope on a new "skyscraper" in downtown Wichita is that when Cargill decides to build their new facility they decide to put it downtown, and they overbuild it with more SF than they need (for the purposes of leasing out the excess SF). Cargill doesn't need enough SF themselves - via the news reports - to really build anything terribly large.

It really is too bad that Koch didn't build downtown 30 years ago, because Wichita doesn't have any other major employers that make sense to be HQ-ed downtown.

[mickeylegal]

-- 6-8k amphitheater located next to the new LD baseball stadium

Andover is in the process of building an amphitheater in Andover Central Park. I don't think the plan is for it to be that big, but who knows until they start building it.

[Ta Town Shocker]

I live in NW Wichita and rarely take part in any activities downtown. A business colleague from India was in town this week and wanted to try Mumbai Rail so we walked over from the office. He noted how much more traffic and activity there was in the downtown area since his visit this time last year. I didn't make much of it but perhaps he's on to something.

[SHOCKvalue]

I live in NW Wichita and rarely take part in any activities downtown. A business colleague from India was in town this week and wanted to try Mumbai Rail so we walked over from the office. He noted how much more traffic and activity there was in the downtown area since his visit this time last year. I didn't make much of it but perhaps he's on to something.

My wife and I were out and about downtown last night. We both were surprised the volume of people in the area. Seemed like a lot of stuff was going on. Nice sign.