Josh Boehm
LightNews LightNews
joshboehm.xyz
Josh Boehm
@joshboehm.xyz
390 followers 570 following 93 posts
Cities/Transportation/Maps/Pedestrian/Passenger Princess/🌈
📍 Kansas City

joshboehm.xyz
Posts Replies Media Videos
joshboehm.xyz
Kind of wild how much of the expanded streetcar transportation development district (taxing district for KC’s new streetcar) doesn’t allow for apartments, or in some cases, even duplexes.
Map showing the streetcar taxing district and locations where apartments and/or duplexes aren’t permitted
October 13, 2025 at 3:17 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Girders for the new Grand Boulevard pedestrian bridge are nearly all set!
Grand Blvd pedestrian bridge under construction
October 12, 2025 at 11:48 PM
joshboehm.xyz
We proposed something like this for the Reimagine Rainbow plan publicinput.com/Customer/Fil...
Map of 30-minute transit travel-shed from 39th and Rainbow with proposed service increases
September 29, 2025 at 9:36 PM
joshboehm.xyz
This all feels like a hallucination ngl
Apple News headlines Top Stories POLITICO Trump bypasses the Senate - and the courts — to install loyal U.S. attorneys For You NeWYORK Does Your Baby Need Their Back Cracked? News+ Editors' Pick THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. The homeowners who decided that having just one pool wasn't enough News+
August 20, 2025 at 2:05 AM
joshboehm.xyz
These digital advertising kiosks have been a huge eyesore downtown for the last 10 years.

IMO digital should be kept out of the public realm. It falls apart too easily and won’t be lucrative or well maintained in low pedestrian footfall markets like KC.
(Now removed) Citypost Digital Advertising Kiosk with large sign that says “Your Ad Here” at the River Market West Streetcar stop
August 19, 2025 at 1:21 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Meanwhile some of those same people are bragging about creating an ADA obstruction in the middle of the sidewalk.
Bus stop bench with no clear path for people who use a wheelchair Post from pedestrian pride “please leave space on the sidewalk for pedestrians to get by. Especially those with mobility issues!! A wheelchair user cannot get past this
August 1, 2025 at 1:24 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Amazing things are happening at the pit on Delaware
Construction site showing a large excavated site and a stone wall being rebuilt
July 4, 2025 at 6:33 PM
joshboehm.xyz
I truly cannot imagine a regional planning body of thousands of people.
though not the only, concern of the City Planning staff. Today, rather than being only in the hands of a civic minded committee, eity planning is under the direction of a planning engineer, a trained expert. Since 1943, the engineer and his staff have spent months studying the patterns of life in this city in order to recommend useful and adequate plans for its growth, and to chart its future The City Plan Commission staff has worked with the Park Board, the City Council, and various civic groups to develop a systematic, orderly planning program, and to coordinate the activities of all these. The Citizens' Regional Planning Council, consisting of several thousand people in Kansas City and the five counties surrounding it, has become interested in planning for regional problems. They have formed a council whose goal is to help shape public opinion so that regional improvements can be made. This council reports conditions and needs to the various city agencies, and seeks the help of the trained workers on the City Plan Commission staff. It is the job of the staff to fit these suggestions into the master plan for city development. With the civic group presenting ideas for improvements and the City Planning staff ready to make definite plans to carry them out, Kansas Citians can look forward to a long range planning program which will provide a more desirable city of the future and will be more willing to vote the bonds necessary for civic betterment. "COUNTRY CITIES" The city of tomorrow must stretch its borders far beyond the city of today. For due to the speed of modern cars and planes, as well as to interlacing highways and convenient air parks, there is a much closer link between the town and the country. People in the city need the contact with nature which is found in the countryside. People living in the country need the advantage of city culture. And with wise and careful planning, city culture can be transplanted to the country. and the beanties of nature ca be made available even in the very heart of the city. For a city, however, to know the joys of the outdoor world. its planners must see the need for greener cities, or those which provide for more grassy plots and parkways. Engineers must plan for cities which spread over enough space to make them never appear crowded or congested. They must include many playgrounds and public parks, as well as "quiet" streets, or those closed to traffie where children may know safety without being constantly on the alert for danger. City planners must also make provisions for underpasses and overpasses for dangerous highway or street intersections, so that pedestrians may have security and traffic accidents be re-duced. Schools and church locations should not only be convenient for those attending them, but should also be protected from heavy traffic. Besides green spaces and safe streets, good neighborhoods need modern schools and churches of different faiths. The school is the natural center of any neighborhood, and should be within walking distance of all the children attending it. It should have a large, roomy playground, a library, a gymnasium, and meeting rooms for adults as well as up-to-date classrooms for the children. There should be enough churches in a neighborhood to accommodate all those who wish to worship in them. For a neighborhood to be a good place in which to live, it must be served by a modern transportation system. This should include not only up-to-date street cars and busses, but stops placed conveniently for those using them. The neighborhood should be bounded by good transportation facilities as well, Shopping centers should be centrally placed rather than being scattered haphazardly throughout a neighborhood. They should be within walking distance of the homes needing them. Isolated corner stores are sometimes a blight, and mig… If a neighborhood is well planned, store owners can count on a successful business and are eager to have attractive shops. Then they, just as much as the home owners, are interested in the future of the neighborhood. Every desirable neighborhood needs recreation centers a movie theater and a get-together place or neighborhood house to serve all ages. The theatre would probably be located in the business districts but the neighborhood house could be more centrally placed. It might provide a nursery for young children, a recreation center for teen-agers, and club and game rooms for adults. It should be a center for block parties, community sings, athletic events or tournaments, and should be the friendly meeting place for an entire neighborhood. The community centers might well be located in the wings of school buildings or nearby. Kansas City has all the public agencies, including a planning engineer and a City Plan Commission, to provide for the needs of its people. But the planning of your neighborhood to obtain these needs is a job you may have to start. You are more vitally concerned in your own needs than is anyone else. For this reason, you can help by realizing that your home is far more than just a piece of real estate in a city block. It is a vital part of a neighbor-hood, and depends upon that neighborhood for its value and its future. When you fully understand this, you have advanced from being a mere resident of a city block to real citizenship in your community. Then you will realize, too, that you are responsible for protecting it from decay and preventing blight. You notice the need for changes and improvements. and become interested in zoning regulations. So you, in your own way, are a city planner, too. And you can help to make the dream of a "country city" become a reality. PLOTTING CITY DREAMS Some of the most outstanding achievements in the world of science, art, medicine, and music were once just dreams. For
May 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM
joshboehm.xyz
This whole section is a big yikes. The horrors of mixed use development! All of this in the middle of the post-WW2 housing shortage.
May 23, 2025 at 7:47 PM
joshboehm.xyz
Reading the 1947 perspective on the benefits of zoning. From the book “Your City and You” by the Kansas City Board of Education.

And yes, I read it in my head in the style of the Krusty Krab training video.
Text from the book “Your City and You” describing zoning ordinances passed in 1923. Cover of “Your City and You”
May 23, 2025 at 7:41 PM
joshboehm.xyz
The River Market was saturated with traffic these last few weekends. These were shots from Mother’s Day weekend. Are the misplaced priorities easy for others to spot? Some quick math in the thread.
5th street in the River Market with a long line of queuing cars behind the streetcar Full parking lot at 5th and Main, with streetcar in the background
May 19, 2025 at 1:11 AM
joshboehm.xyz
22,000 vehicles per day is generally considered the upper limit for a 3-lane road diet. Under 18k is a no-brainer.

According to Replica, here are the non-expressway roadways with more than 18k cars per day (bidirectional traffic, or 9k for a directional segment). Our streets are so over-built.
Map of Kansas City area highlighting selected roadways in the KC area with more than 18k vehicles per day. They include southwest trafficway, ward parkway, state line near I-435, metcalf Ave, Burlington/route 9, 135th, Shawnee mission parkway, and blue parkway
April 25, 2025 at 11:46 PM
joshboehm.xyz
ICYMI - Reconnecting the Westside Community Summit 1 materials and survey is now available online

reconnectwestside.com/community-su...
Photo of attendees at Reconnecting the Westside Community Summit Reconnecting the Westside Community Summit 1 meeting photo at boulevard tours and rec building
April 11, 2025 at 4:04 PM
joshboehm.xyz
Not sure if these are the full results for NKC, but the mayoral race there is tied 😮
Screenshot of County, Mo unofficial election results showing Jesse Smith with 324 votes and Bryant Dealing with 324 votes
April 9, 2025 at 2:18 AM
joshboehm.xyz
All Day I Dream About Slopes
Elevation + Shaded Relief in the Westside Neighborhood of KCMO
February 12, 2025 at 1:34 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Great turn out at the community kickoff for the Reconnecting the Westside study this morning.

Sign up for project updates at ReconnectWestside.com
Room of people at the Guadalupe Center Councilman Rea addressing the meeting Nicolas Bosonetto speaking about the project Reconnecting the Westside Study Area Map
January 25, 2025 at 8:14 PM
joshboehm.xyz
City Market Park is publicly owned and still uncleared; privately owned mixed use development looking the opposite direction is clean
Slick snowy sidewalk alongside city market park Cleared sidewalk along 5th adjacent to private property
January 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
joshboehm.xyz
Same situation on 5th
January 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
joshboehm.xyz
Unsurprisingly the StorageMart at 5th and Grand does not care if people break their neck in front of their building
Blurry photo of uncleared sidewalk on Grand at 5th at StorageMart
January 8, 2025 at 1:40 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Kansas City should simply put it back
7th and Main in 1900, today, and in the future. Images show destruction of historic neighborhood and potential for highway removal and urban infill
January 7, 2025 at 12:50 AM
joshboehm.xyz
Sad state of affairs at the Scarritt Building
Broken glass and boarded up doors on the historic Scarritt Building
December 30, 2024 at 5:05 PM
joshboehm.xyz
Share this drawing to trigger a St Louisan
The View of the World from 9th Avenue drawing
December 28, 2024 at 8:36 PM
joshboehm.xyz
It’s about a 50% decline from 1940…
A map of the pre-WW2 city limits of KCMO and a graph of its population change, peaking at 425k in 1950 and down to under 200k in 2010
December 5, 2024 at 10:52 PM
joshboehm.xyz
13°F this morning in Milwaukee, but I didn’t bother to check the schedule for their new Connect 1 route because it comes every 10 minutes. Not 20,15,or 12… 10 mins
MCTS bus approaching a bus stop Milwaukee’s Connect 1 BRT station on Wisconsin at Jackson. Milwaukee Art Museum in the distance.
December 5, 2024 at 1:51 PM