Urban Times: October
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
The October edition of Urban Times is out early. The magazines are usually distributed at the First Fridays gallery showings in the Crossroads district and placed in bins shortly thereafter, but this month they’re already available throughout the city. I’ll include links here when PDFs have been uploaded to the site.
I was assigned three articles for this issue. The first was a piece about scooters and the culture that has arisen as that mode of transportation has become more popular in urban areas. The second was a feature story on historic local developer and entrepreneur J.C. Nichols and his prized development, the Country Club Plaza. And, the last was about Jim Davis, the Business Journal reporter who passed away last month after a long bout with cancer. Mr. Davis passionately covered real estate and development in downtown Kansas City and was the consumate journalist.
The latter two pieces, in their own ways, opened my eyes once again to time’s brevity and the importance of enjoying our time here. Strange how you need a reminder every so often.
Nichols left behind a short document recording the most signifcant moments in his life. The historian I spoke with said he more than likely wrote it in his waning days so his heirs could know something more about him than what historians or urban planners would eventually write. I found his memoirs a surprising window into the human side of a man who has been made into a legendary figure with his name steel-bolted onto buildings around town.
Mr. Davis wrote his own obituary and eulogy. His obituary described in great detail the outings he took with his son, Spencer. I actually met Spencer a few days after I wrote the story when I drove to Leawood to pick up photographs to illustrate the piece, which of course was an honor and great pleasure. The eulogy was memorable because Mr. Davis used the Power & Light District and the controversy around certain aspects of its development to illustrate his point on using your time to its fullest. I thought that was brilliant on its own, but also incredibly selfless. He was concerned about Kansas City and its future even in his last moments. That was the sort of man I learned he was.
Sometimes, when I’m writing stories, I have trouble writing the last line and that was no different for the piece about Mr. Davis. It was past 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning when I reached that point in his story. I was just about to go to bed and write the last line later when I decided to scroll down in the Word document. There, at the bottom, was a sentence I’d written earlier and decided not to use. It was perfect for the last line: “Selfless, as always, the man who some perceived as the consummate professional remained so, and yet offered an intriguing glimpse at the genuine passion he had for life.”
I thanked Jim out loud for that one and went to bed.
