Yesterday I mapped two parks along 43rd which I decided would be the final portion - 43rd does continue east of I-435 but in the interest of some kind of coherent boundary to my city mapping, I’m keeping it within the bounds of I-435. The parks had several amenities like sports courts, picnic shelters etc. On the way between one park and another, I encountered a bar owner who wanted to chat. He noticed me taking a photo of a downed pedestrian signal button and complained about all the accidents that happen outside his bar - including the one that led to that particular damage. I reported it on the city’s 311 app and asked him if he was aware of the app - he wasn’t, so I showed it to him in case he wanted to report more accident damage in the future. A kind old man driving through one of the parks asked me if I was with Parks and Rec, and said he hoped they would add a public restroom to the park one day. I told him I agree, but explained I was just doing a hobby and not with Parks and Rec.

Today we started down Main street - a totally different land use and economic situation from the east end of 43rd St. We started at 43rd St, as my plan is to radiate out from my focal point of 43rd and Main, where I’m also documenting the streetcar-related development via periodic photos. We walked south on the east side of Main mapping the items there. We found that many businesses hadn’t been recorded yet or there were new / different ones in place. At the Community Christian Church I noticed two memorial plaques (one connected to the cornerstone) which hadn’t been mapped. We shunted off to the west to follow the named version of Main St. rather than continuing to follow it where it changes to Brookside Blvd. We went down as far as 49th St, had tea at Banksia, and hubby headed home while I mapped Main going back up on the west side. The most interesting thing we found (I thought) was that the Kansas City Board of Trade had been closed down in 2013 and that this info wasn’t accounted for yet. Several small shops were in the refurbished building where it used to stand, and there was a memorial plaque with some history about the Board of Trade.