The Kansas City Star is never far from my mind, and I know a lot of your readers like to know what’s going on at and around the newspaper, so here are some recent developments…
Sanchez gone
I’ve heard from two very good sources that Mary Sanchez is out after a career of more than 30 years as a reporter and columnist. From what I understand, this is not a cost-saving layoff but just the result of ongoing, often-inevitable, work-related friction.
In early 2017 Sanchez, then a Metro columnist, was named a member of the paper’s revamped editorial-page operation under the oversight of Colleen McCain Nelson, whom Publisher Tony Berg hired from the Wall Street Journal in late 2016.
As I’ve said many times, Nelson has done a fabulous job of reviving the editorial page, and before Sanchez’ recent departure, it was fully staffed at eight people.
From arm’s length, and from what I’ve seen of her personality, Nelson seems like she would be an inspiring and easy person to work for, but, as we all know, friction arises in many supervisor/direct-report relationships. Both of my sources mentioned relationship difficulties as a possible factor in Sanchez’ departure.
In any event, Sanchez had a great run at the paper and can take gratification in a very successful career there, regardless of how it ended…And The Star, of course, will continue to muddle along without her.
The story on the “non-election”
It’s extremely rare that you see an election canceled — I can’t remember ever having seen it happen before — but that’s the situation with the primary election for Jackson County Sheriff. What happened was county officials gave would-be candidates a chance to file for the office after the March 27 filing deadline. They did so because the former sheriff, Mike Sharp (you remember that mess!) resigned in April, after the filing deadline.
Two Republicans and three Democrats, including interim Sheriff Darryl Forte and Capt. Mike Rogers of the Sheriff’s Office, filed during the re-opened period. However, the Jackson County Democratic Committee filed suit, contending the county did not have the right to reopen filings. On Tuesday, a Jackson County Circuit Court judge sided with the committee and ruled that the Democratic County Committee and the Republican County Committee will each select a nominee to run in the November general election…It’s out of voters hands at this point, although the candidates’ names will be on the ballot because the ballots were prepared before the judge ruled.
But the story here — the story as it relates to The Star, anyway — is that, as far as I can tell, the paper somehow managed to miss the fact that the Democratic County Committee had sued the county in an attempt to stop the primary election.
I think the first that KC Star readers knew about the lawsuit was after the judge ruled on it. The paper prominently displayed the story — and an accompanying editorial — on its website Tuesday, but it didn’t run the story and editorial in the printed edition until yesterday, Thursday.
Not running the story and editorial in Wednesday’s printed edition was a disservice to readers, but the biggest disservice was being in the dark on the legal challenge. That’s exactly what happens, though, when reporters are spread too thin. You can’t lay off scores of editorial staff members and offer the same level of coverage…This says it all: Where The Star once employed more than 2,000 people, it’s now down to somewhere between 200 and 300.
(P.S. KCUR published a story about the lawsuit a week ago today.)
Renovation of the former 1729 Grand building
In the CityScene KC blog, former KC Star development reporter Kevin Collison wrote last week about developer Vince Bryant’s planned $95 million redevelopment plan for the former KC headquarters, which Bryant and his partners bought for $12 million last year.
Construction already is underway on the north side of the property, where freshly printed newspapers were loaded onto delivery trucks waiting at a series of docks. That area is being converted to a sports pub with several outdoor, sand volleyball courts.
Other key components of the redevelopment plan include:
— Renovation of the 225,000 square-foot existing building into office, data center and retail space
— Construction of a new 45,000 square-foot “food hall,” boutique grocery store and office complex on the south side of the property, along 18th Street. (That has been a grassy area with big, old trees.) Bryant is also planning a 500-space, four-level garage beneath the food hall and grocery/office building.
…That all sounds fine, but I’m left with one big question: What the hell is a “food hall”?
What I’m envisioning is an upscale Horn & Hardart automat, with row after row and machine after machine of irresistible items, including many kinds of pie…
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Hmmm… I can’t say I read her, but what I saw of her on TV once gave me the impression that she was very bright and quick on her feet. (Sort of the opposite of Lewis). The end of an era of sorts.
PS Another of The Star’s investigative pieces paid off. A piece Lowry and Thomas did on gut and go legislation turned out to play a significant factor in another example of the Watkin’s family’s endless lies as they blamed Caryn Tyson for voting on something she didn’t actually vote on.
That’s now a few times that recent investigative pieces have proven prophetic. Maybe The Star ought to replace Sanchez with another investigative reporter.
Jim, slow your roll and check your copy …
Right you are, Miss G.
You are longing for a return to the Nelson Room, and the Kansas City made, Automotique sandwich vending machines. Still available on collector sites. I suggest you purchase one for your den. Hot soup, ham and cheese, egg salad, jello, hamburger, chips, cake, pie, candy bars etc. Drop a cup down of pop (no ice button option), coffee, hot chocolate, and tea.
I was an AP copyboy, and it was not “kosher” to send me down for food, but it was permissible for me to fetch a pack of smokes or cigars. (No need to send me for coffee…AP coffee was made in house, on a pro Bunn machine and, if fact, was a labor-management negotiated franchise controlled by the AP tech side [Herb Mundt]. Many Star employees would wander through and get a 10/25 cent cup. And EVERYONE paid…The teletype operators kept a sharp eye out for entitled, shady and broke Star reporters who might try and skip putting coins in that locked, steel box.)
Good stuff, Ned.
So I suppose that means the big, old trees will come down? Boo!! Hiss!!
Many kinds of pie is a good thing. Come to think of it, look at all the movies where pie is mentioned: Michael, The Help, Men in Black II …
Regarding developer Vince Bryant’s “Renovation of the former 1729 Grand building,” like they say, “There goes the neighborhood!” And with regard to Mary Sanchez, I’m sorry to see she’s no longer with The Star.
That’s a nice sentiment — “there goes the neighborhood” — Rick, but the truth is that Bryant’s planned $95 million redevelopment should be a boon to the already burgeoning Crossroads Arts District. There was virtually nothing of a retail nature in that area when I went to work at The Star in 1969; it was a wasteland. Now the area is booming, and it’s thrilling to see. In addition, of course, with some 200 employees, The Star no longer has any business being in that huge three-story building. The Star’s future is electronic; the Crossroads’ future is “boots on the ground.”
I think a food hall is a big open space with multiple small tenants providing specialty foods, either as a foodservice or a grocery, or maybe both. Washington, D.C., has lots of them: http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=food+hall&find_loc=Washington%2C+DC Here’s a fun take: http://www.washingtonian.com/2018/05/18/how-to-tell-youre-in-a-food-hall-not-a-food-court/.
Thanks, Mike…That helps…Patty, who’s up on most everything, described it similarly to how the Washingtonian describes it. (And that is a very funny piece, i.e., “Julius is your mixologist, not your orange drink.”)
It sounds interesting — and pricey.
…In her Sunday story about the Plaza getting a makeover from its new owner, Taubman Centers, Joyce Smith refers to food halls as “one of the hottest trends in retailing.”