Kansas City Playlist: Patiently Waiting For Southwest Blvd Rehab

This week we took a moment of pause to get this low-light grainy shot of a trash fire on our beloved Westside Southwest Boulevard whilst considering the future. 

Again . . .

There is an ambitious plan for change in this Kansas City corridor . . . 

Fox4:  Iconic Kansas City street moving forward on $4 million makeover

Here's what it might look like when it's finished . . . 

As always, there's more than enough reason to be skeptical. 

We admire the drawings but they exclude so many homeless junkies who have occupied the area around the train tracks for more than a generation.

Also the EPIC liquor store is excluded from the drawing and it's doubtful that place is going anywhere given that they earn cash hand over fist catering to the addictions of both hobos, tough guys and commuters. 

To be fair . . . Traffic medians might be a nice touch given that suburbanites exiting the Crossroads, street racers and impatient downtowners are typically hauling-a$$ home at around 50 mph.

Either way . . . 

Every denizen of KCMO has suffered through streetscaping promises for decades at a time and most of the plans either don't live up to expectations OR come far too late for longtime residents to enjoy . .  . Example: So many of our neighbors on Troost lived & died with garbage streets until rampant gentrification inspired city hall to spruce up the area.

Nevertheless . . . 

We merely thought our trash fire contemplation and juxtaposition with grand designs might offer a more complete view of this Kansas City scheme in the making.

Accordingly . . . Songs about Boulevards inspire our www.TonysKansasCity.com tonight . . .

To start, we share an interesting fact about this 2005 hit from America's favorite punk band: In response to Hurricane Katrina and the popularity of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", Green Day donated all of the iTunes proceeds from this song to the American Red Cross for Katrina aid efforts.

This is one of our favorite tunes from Jackson Brown . . . In 1979 he wrote about Hollywood Blvd and the tough life that many young people face chasing their dreams. However, the lyrics are applicable to so many American streets and still resonate to this day.

For some weird reason . . . Alabama makes our playlist for two weeks in a row. This song isn't one of our faves but fits the theme and offers a more optimistic view of Blvd life & good times.

Lou Reed's "Dirty Boulevard" is widely celebrated by music lovers who appreciate his thematic depction of New York slum life in some of his later work.. It's a downbeat track, perfect for our bridge, and a worthwhile listen for the late night.

Finally, we finish where we started with one of our all-time faves that launched the career of an American music icon. Here's some of the backstory: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is a signature song of Tony Bennett, who was signed by Mitch Miller to Columbia Records on the strength of Bennett's 1949 demo of the song. In his debut Columbia session on 17 April 1950 at CBS 30th Street Studio, Bennett, backed by the Marty Manning orchestra, recorded "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to serve as Bennett's major label debut single release on 27 April 1950.

As always, thanks for reading & listening this week. Have a safe & fun night.