2022 in excellent news: 10 positive stories from the yr

It will possibly often feel just like the news is stuffed with negativity and difficult topics. As someone who reads almost every story The Star publishes, I’m here to let you know that 2022 was a yr crammed with positive and heartwarming moments too.

What follows is a set of a few of our favourite stories from this yr that commemorate success, joy, pride and excellent news from people in our region. Thanks for being a part of Kansas City’s story. Here’s to more excellent news in 2023:

‘Black joy means all the pieces’: Kansas Citians highlight moments that uplift them

For Black History Month, The Star asked Kansas Citians to inform us what Black joy means to you, and to share a recent memory out of your life that embodies this concept.

You submitted photos of family, of straightforward pleasures, nights out with friends, achievements, and moments of self care and self actualization.

Muenfua Lewis, a co-founder of By Design magazine, a Kansas City-based magazine for Black creatives, said Black joy is a preview of what the world could possibly be. A glimpse into the world he’s attempting to create. A world void of “societal implications” — freedom.

“Black Joy is an element of Black resistance. It’s a peek into Black self-actualization. It’s hope that we may be our authentic selves in any respect times,” he said. “Black joy means all the pieces. This world is brutal for Black people, moments of joy keep me going.”

Beloved Kansas City company introduced a four-day work week: ‘Not as scary as you’re thinking that’

This yr Kansas City clothing brand Charlie Hustle’s leadership launched an experiment: a four-day work week for all salaried employees in its Crossroads headquarters. Employees of the corporate began getting every Friday off work with no reduction of their pay or a rise in hours this summer.

The outcomes were clear: The brand saw a big boost in worker morale, and no decline in sales or profits. Last month, leadership officially made the change everlasting, giving 21 employees three-day weekends every week.

4 Charlie Hustle employees told The Star that the four-day model has helped create a culture of productive work days and fulfilling weekend time.

“It has been the most effective decision I’ve ever made,” said CEO Aaron Fulk in an email to The Star. “I get 110% Monday-Thursday from my team, and I do know that we’re far more productive than we ever were on a Monday-Friday schedule.”

Exploring Kansas City’s neighborhoods

Spanning a state line and a river, the sprawling Kansas City metro incorporates too many neighborhoods to count. Each has its own history, places to hang around and intangible qualities — perhaps more simply described as vibes — that make those that live there proud to call it home.

Over the past few months, The Star’s service journalism team has heard from residents everywhere in the city about what you like most in your neighborhoods. We’ve been working to create guides celebrating different corners of the metro based on recommendations that you just’ve shared with us.

So, keep letting us know: What are the classic go-tos, and what are the hidden gems in your neighborhood? You’ll be able to email us at kcq@kcstar.com to share your neighborhood highlights.

It’s official in the end: Buck O’Neil takes his place at Hall of Fame in Cooperstown

Buck O’Neil, the beloved late Negro Leagues baseball and Kansas City icon, was officially enshrined this yr on the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Latest York.

The afternoon ceremony on the Hall of Fame included O’Neil’s presentation by his niece, Dr. Angela Terry. O’Neil died in October 2006 on the age of 94 after persevering through withering racism, helping found Kansas City’s signature Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and provoking untold generations worldwide.

And now, much more will know of the triumph, grace and humility that helped define this giant of a person who became synonymous with Black baseball and the Kansas City Monarchs, yet never was boastful of, nor self-promoting in, his accomplishments.

TV show ‘Bel-Air’ is full of Kansas City art. Here’s how you may get a chunk of it

Within the TV drama “Bel-Air,” the character of Will Smith walks into the palatial home of his relatives and stands in awe. He’s surrounded by Black art of differing styles, hanging on the partitions throughout the mansion.

The brand new show, streaming on Peacock, may happen in California, but lots of those paintings were created by Kansas City artists. The series, which re-imagines the ’90s Will Smith sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” with gritty realism, is the brainchild of Kansas City native Morgan Cooper, who directed the primary episode and is a author for the show.

Cooper is using some barbers, designers and musicians from the KC area, in addition to several local Black painters to construct the glamorous aesthetic via their art.

As Cooper said on Twitter: “KC is in every episode of #BelAir — Thankful to offer a platform for the amazing talent in my hometown.”

‘Don’t you are feeling it?’ KC Current stadium will likely be groundbreaking in additional ways than one

Just over 200 hundred years after French fur traders landed here via the Missouri River and settled in rough cabins along its banks, Kansas City Current owners Chris and Angie Long with other dignitaries and family arrived Thursday on the Berkley Riverfront by motorboat to embark in earnest on an unprecedented journey of their very own.

Near the positioning that in 1821 commenced the establishment of what would turn out to be Kansas City, the Longs and co-owner Brittany Mahomes then broke ground in additional ways than one:

Literally as they dug ceremonial shovels of dirt to launch construction on the 11,500-seat, roughly $117 million ultramodern stadium. And figuratively within the sense that it’s the primary of its kind to be built exclusively for a National Women’s Soccer League franchise — and positively a rarity for any women’s skilled team anywhere.

Meet the Kansas City urban farmers who’re changing the culture of local agriculture

Alan Young Sr. and his wife, Yolanda, didn’t got down to create a sprawling community farm once they moved to the Ivanhoe Neighborhood 35 years ago.

They bought an empty lot near their home because they wanted a secure place for his or her children to play with the neighbors. As the children got older, they began to wonder what to do with the land.

“It began with my wife’s backyard garden,” says Alan Young, 59. “After the children grew up and left, we decided to expand our garden. People would walk up off the road and ask in the event that they could get something. So we began selling our produce at neighborhood markets.”

Now the Young Family Farm bridges the numerous divide separating the inner-city public from freshly grown produce. Their farm stand, at 3819 Wayne Ave. near Bruce R. Watkins Drive, is considered one of the few local businesses dedicated to addressing food insecurities within the urban core.

“I believe the allure of our farm is now we have reduced the transactional nature of food consumption,” says Henry. “We aren’t here to only sell vegetables; a relationship is occurring. We give tours and help them with advice about starting their farms or gardens.”

75 years of beer, bar jokes & celebrity sightings: The stories of Kelly’s Westport Inn

If there exists such a thing because the quintessential Kansas City bar, a powerful case could possibly be made that Kelly’s Westport Inn is it. A part of that’s about history.

Kelly’s occupies the oldest constructing in Kansas City, constructed in 1851 on the northwest corner of Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue. Additionally it is considered one of the oldest continually operating taverns in the town, with a liquor license that dates back to 1934. The identical family has owned it for 75 years as of this month. Bartenders on staff have been known to stay around for 30 or 40 years.

Warm memories don’t keep the barstools warm, though. A bar needs customers, and Kelly’s has lasted three-quarters of a century in Westport by attracting a wide selection of them. Post-college partiers on the weekends. A daily table of old-timers, known affectionately because the Squirrels, on certain school nights. Skilled athletes blowing off steam after a game.

“There’s nothing trendy about what we do here,” says Colleen Kelly, a third-generation owner of the bar. “It’s just a spot where everyone seems to be welcome. Gay, straight, black, white, young, old. Our regulars don’t fit a mold. The sign above the door says ‘Welcome,’ and we mean it.”

‘Larger and higher every yr’: Meet the Kansas City man behind phenomenon of 816 Day

Nobody calls Brian Benton by his government name. To everyone, he’s, appropriately enough, “Bizzy” Benton.

And busy as he all the time is, working his day job, going out and about within the evenings, he used to all the time hear fellow Kansas Citians complain about a scarcity of fun around town. So in 2014 he began a Facebook group, “KC Where You At?,” to advertise the fun. It could grow to considered one of the most important local pages for all things in the town, with over 30,000 members.

He began to see the outlines for what would grow into a large annual event, mixing vendors, artists, musicians and other entertainers. He would use Kansas City’s area code to offer the celebration its name, 816 Day, and annual date, Aug. 16.

“People began to know my face and know my name. I began making all these connections around town,” says the 37-year-old Kansas City native. “The thought was something small and it grew into something so big now, and it began from a Facebook page.”

Small Kansas town became a top travel destination after years of decline. Here’s how

Sometimes when Cole Herder has a free moment he likes to rise up from behind his cluttered desk at Humboldt City Hall and go stand by the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the town square. He remembers what the view once was: a city hanging by its nails, a downtown with half its teeth knocked out, a decaying hotel whose only guests were ghosts.

How things change. As of late, downtown Humboldt is tingling with so many projects and latest businesses that Herder, the town administrator, struggles to maintain track of all of it.

A music venue. A brewery. A book shop. A cocktail bar. A honky-tonk bar. A golf-simulator bar. A five-room luxury hotel. A fitness center. A present shop. A coffee shop. A confectionery. All have either opened lately or are coming soon to this southeast Kansas town of two,000.

The Latest York Times called Humboldt considered one of 52 places to go to on the planet in 2022. Gov. Laura Kelly recently declared, “There’s no higher example of the expansion and success we’re seeing in Kansas than in places like Humboldt.” And it has begun to poach young, creative residents from places like Kansas City, just two hours away.

“I can barely wrap my head around it,” said Rob Bingaman, an artist who recently relocated from Kansas City. “Whatever’s occurring here works unlike anything I’ve ever been around.”