Government Shutdowns-Downtown KC About to Be Ghosted

 Sure, Go Ahead and Axe Those Federal Jobs—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

There was a time when the crossroads district  in downtown Kansas City looked like a scene out of The Walking Dead. Empty streets, dark windows,  empty heroin needles blowing down Grand Avenue — good times at least when this lil rock enjoyed its, cheap rent and blend of seedy dives underground raves and hipster art lofts and interesting vagrant hobos.   Then, in 2005, the IRS rolled in and plopped 4,000 federal jobs downtown, joining another thousand at the Murry Federal Building. And just like that, downtown had a pulse again.

Those bureaucrats with their lunch breaks and coffee habits did what decades of city “revitalization” plans couldn’t: they made downtown worth showing up for, at least for them. The KC already had a vibrant art scene in the in the crossroads, but this did not survive. Hipsters were replaced with yuppies and suddenly, developers were falling over themselves to build condos and lofts, law firms like Shook, Hardy & Bacon decided it was chic to have a downtown address, and the Power & Light District sprang up like a shiny new toy for the grownups.

Lunch-hour crowds and Friday Night Art walks kept small restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries alive. For once, Kansas City’s downtown wasn’t just a place to avoid after dark — it actually had people.

Then the pandemic hit, and everyone learned how to work in sweatpants. Offices went quiet again, but thanks to hybrid schedules, at least a few thousand folks still showed up during the week. It wasn’t the heyday, but it wasn’t the apocalypse either. Downtown limped along.

Now comes the latest genius idea: a federal reduction in force, or “RIF” — government speak for “let’s see what happens when we take a sledgehammer to the local economy.” Sure, maybe it looks good on a spreadsheet in D.C., but back here in the real world, it means hundreds or thousands of paychecks suddenly disappear from downtown Kansas City.

You don’t need an economics degree to see how that plays out. No workers means no customers. No customers means no shops, no bars, no boutiques. Before long, the fancy new lofts will be echo chambers again, and downtown KC will go right back to the zombie apocalypse vibe the KC elites worked so hard to escape.

It took two decades to rebuild downtown after the last time government and business leaders looked the other way. But hey, why learn from history when you can repeat it? Just don’t act surprised when the restaurants close, the developers bail, and the Power & Light District becomes the Dim & Empty District. But this lil will be just fine when downtown has cheap rents again.