People & Places >>

• Best Case of Terror Alert Hysteria to Hit the Heartland
  The Mysterious Firefighter from Colombia
  Back in June, local TV stations and authorities practically wet themselves with excitement when a mysterious stranger described as "Middle Eastern" approached the fire department in Pleasant Valley and asked to take pictures of the fire truck. The stranger claimed to be a firefighter himself in... More >>
• Best Morning Radio Stunt
  St. Patrick's Day Lima-Bean Eating Contest
  It was the day before St. Patrick's Day when Steven St. John and Doug Medlock of 97.3's morning team dreamed up a contest to give away tickets to the Royals vs. the Red Sox in Boston. Because the lucky winner would go to Beantown, the Planet jocks would make contestants eat beans. And because... More >>
• Best Local Unapologetic Conservative Radio Personality (1 Comment)
  Mike Shanin
  Mike Shanin, a veteran Kansas City newscaster of more than two decades, likes to say that he was "conservative before conservative was cool." For most of this summer, the St. Joseph native was the cool-headed substitute daily host in 980's morning slot after marble-mouthed Tom Bekka left the... More >>
• Best Unflagging TV Perkiness
  Carrie Coogan
  In what has to be one of the most thankless TV jobs -- i.e., being the "We Try It Before You Buy It" chick on Fox 4 News -- Carrie Coogan is a bastion of unflagging perkiness in her quest to determine what random infomercial product is crap and what actually works. Her on-air demeanor is that of... More >>
• Best Local Unapologetic Liberal Radio Personality
  Barbara Crist
  Most women hosting national radio talk shows are rabidly conservative -- Laura Schlesinger, Debbie Schlussel, Laura Ingraham -- but in our market, you're lucky to find a female voice that isn't just a sidekick to a dominating male. That's what makes 90.1's Barbara Crist's no-nonsense style stand... More >>
• Best Source of "Simpsons" Factoids (3 Comments)
  Meredith Hoenes
  With a glut of Simpsons trivia games cluttering the market, an increasing number of fans are consulting experts for the behind-the-scenes background information that could seal a win. So wise comic-book guys watch Simpsons reruns daily at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on KMCI Channel 38, waiting for... More >>
• Best KC Reality-TV Star
  Frankie Abernathy
  For those who regularly follow the antics of MTV's seven insecure fame-whores picked to live together in the fetid petri dish that is reality TV, the addition of controversial Blue Springs native Frankie "I'm too punk rock/I [heart] Hello Kitty" Abernathy elicited many strong reactions, ranging... More >>
• Best Comeback
  KKFI 90.1
  Up until a year ago, all the static emanating from community radio station 90.1's board meetings threatened to signal the demise of community radio in Kansas City. The station is known for broadcasting progressive talk shows, Grateful Dead music hours, entire afternoons of blues,... More >>
• Best Radio Personality
  Walt Bodine
  Many joke about Walt Bodine being past his prime. Shame on them. These days, Bodine is better than ever. Seriously, have you been listening to this man? Just last month, while interviewing the author of Energy Addict: 101 Physical, Mental and Spiritual Ways to Energize Your Life, Bodine noted... More >>
• Best Crushworthy Local
  Maxim Hometown Hottie Finalist Heather Paskon
  When 28-year-old Overland Park resident Heather Paskon graced the pages of Maxim this past August, she became Exhibit A for Kansas City males seeking a woman who is both smart and sexy. At 5-foot-5 and 115 pounds, the blond, blue-eyed Paskon fits easily into the current Jessica Simpson-derived... More >>
• Best "Daily Show"-like Humor in the Star
  "Three charged in robbery," January 22
  Earlier this year, a rash of bar robberies terrorized tavern owners and lushes alike. So when the bandits were finally caught, we all breathed a sigh of relief and continued our rampant binge drinking unabated. According to a January 22 Kansas City Star story headlined "Three charged in... More >>
• Best Star Headline Day
  "Chimps: Eight flee then return" and "Chunk of park appears missing," April 29
  We admit it: Whenever we find inadvertently hilarious, Onionesque headlines in the Star, we cut them out and lovingly paste 'em in our scrapbook. "Steroids just feel too good," which appeared under a picture of Joe Posnanski, was definitely a keeper. "Fruit, commute mix into a traffic jam" and... More >>
• Best Kansas City Location Shoot
  Dixie Chicks in Vanity Fair
  A little local color was tucked inside last November's Vanity Fair, an issue dedicated to music. Right there on the opening page of its extensive Music Portfolio was an Annie Leibovitz photograph of the Dixie Chicks, snapped in the backstage canyons of Kemper Arena on May 10, 2003. Natalie,... More >>
• Best "As I See It"
  Joel A. Brown
  Hell, we read the first few lines of every "As I See It" column on the Star's editorial page, in which the newspaper's average readers or noteworthy politicians get to weigh in on important topics -- and get their pictures published! Lots of times, the "As I See It" is way more interesting than... More >>
• Best Negative Campaign Photo
  John Burnett's Shot of J.J. Rizzo
  The ugly photo of an opponent is a staple of dirty politics. Some would-be leaders hire goon squads to stalk the competition like paparazzi and capture their pissed-off expressions. Some kingmakers even manipulate the images of their foes, making googly-eyed monsters out of otherwise... More >>
• Best Local Blog
  Death's Door
  Being creatures of the Internet, we can't help but snoop on the lives of others by reading their online diaries, or blogs. Lucky for us, Kansas City bloggers consistently produce lots of fascinating content to satisfy our curiosity. Among the best local blogs are Jay Manifold's astronomy-themed... More >>
• Best Overuse of the Shift Key
  The Star's Translation of Dick Cheney's Infamous Quote
  It's always amusing to see how far Star editors will go whenever they have to bleep out a naughty word. So after Dick Cheney infamously said "Go fuck yourself" to Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy on June 22, newspapers around the country were thrown into a tizzy as they decided how to convey the... More >>
• Best Co-opting of Missourah
  Claire McCaskill
  However she pronounces it, Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill beat Governor Bob Holden in the August primary by a lot more than an ee or an ah. But she apparently pronounces Missouri both ways, depending on whether she's talking to city slickers or farm folk. As reported in The St. Louis... More >>
• Best Media Blog
  Tony's Kansas City
  In every city, it seems there's at least one Internet watchdog who turns his Web site into a referendum on local media. Fortunately, Kansas City's resident media maven has a sense of humor. For about a year, Antonio Botello has been running Tony's Kansas City, a Web site that we figure must take... More >>
• Best Whiner, er, Shriner (5 Comments)
  Skip Sleyster
  There is something undeniable about Shriner Skip Sleyster's plea from inside every Sunday's Metropolitan section in The Kansas City Star. "ONE MOMENT OF YOUR TIME PLEASE!!" Maybe it's the all caps and the double exclamation points, but, well, gosh, Skip, who could say no to that honest,... More >>
• Best Mayoral Proclamation
  Flaming Lips Day
  The revelation that girls go wild on Mardi Gras has long since ceased to surprise. But when the woman in question happened to be Mayor Kay Barnes, it made us do a double take. And when Kay-B earned her Mardi Gras beads by declaring Flaming Lips Day alongside the Lips' Wayne Coyne during frigid... More >>
• Best Wet Blanket
  Overland Park Mayor Ed Eilert
  Historically, greater Kansas Citians rally behind big projects -- Liberty Memorial, the Truman Sports Complex, Bartle Hall, Union Station, the Sprint Center. Of course, residents do not always get a good bang for their buck (stay tuned for the Union Station bailout), a notion not lost on... More >>
• Best Political Introduction
  Jean Carnahan
  On June 2, Sen. John Kerry stopped at the Truman Library to give what had been billed as a major speech on defense policy. The Democratic presidential candidate had rallied hundreds of people at the downtown airport the night before, but this event was confined to a 240-seat auditorium filled... More >>
• Best State Legislator, Missouri
  Rep. Marsha Campbell
  Marsha Campbell, the 39th District state representative from Brookside, left the Missouri General Assembly this year because of term limits, but not before steering an act of heroism against seemingly insurmountable odds. Throughout the session, majority Republicans tried to make massive cuts in... More >>
• Best State Legislators, Kansas
  Sen. David Adkins and Rep. John Ballou
  The gay-marriage issue that made the Rev. Jerry Johnston a star also played a role in flushing two longtime Johnson County politicians from the statehouse. But in their departures, Sen. David Adkins and Rep. John Ballou distinguished themselves as the kind of principled men we like to see in... More >>
• Best Politician
  Jerry Johnston
  This year, the Rev. Jerry Johnston has emerged as a political force with which the metro area must reckon. Disgusted by the Kansas Legislature's defeat of a proposal that would have constitutionally outlawed gay marriage, Johnston mobilized a voter-registration and information campaign leading... More >>
• Best Activists
  ACORN
  We gained great affection for the scrappers in the local chapter of the national organization known as ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) this year when they started getting more uppity in their efforts for various causes. We were especially impressed on a cold,... More >>
• Best Expression of Solidarity
  Trinity United Methodist Church Bans Straight Marriages
  In a year ridiculously dominated by freakouts about gay marriage -- a political wedge issue that some ministers were happy to hammer into the country's already deep cultural divide -- one midtown church made a striking statement in solidarity with its gay members. Back around Valentine's Day,... More >>
• Best Kansas City Parks and Recreation Commissioner
  Bob Lewellen
  It's possible to become disoriented in the middle of Kansas City Parks and Recreation board meetings, held almost every Tuesday at department headquarters at 4600 East 63rd Street. The weekly civic circus usually features board President Sandra Doolin Aust's unnervingly cheerful smile as she... More >>
• Best New Law
  Ordinance 030692 -- Allowing Sidewalk Seating for Restaurants
  OK, we know that technically Ordinance 030692 doesn't qualify for this year's Best Of; the law, which repealed old, fuddy-duddy restrictions on setting up tables and serving alcohol outside restaurants, passed in June 2003, well before last year's Best Of came out. But we're sneaking it through... More >>
• Best Attitude Toward Downtown Gentrification
  Stretch
  Artists' studios have made downtown's Crossroads District welcoming again, and rising property taxes are the thanks they get. Which is why the artist known as Stretch decided to buy his own building and rent it out to other artists as cheaply as possible while working with the city to make... More >>
• Best Addition to the Crossroads
  Coffee Girls
  We doubt there'd be any talk of downtown revitalization if artists hadn't resettled the Crossroads District first, making it cool and drawing pilgrims from the far reaches of the metro on the first Friday of every month. And whereas most of City Hall's politicians and the town's big-business... More >>
• Best Urban Renewal
  Gillham Row
  In some ways, Gillham Road has always struck us as one of Kansas City's quintessential streets. The curvy drive leads past lovely parks and beautiful homes ... to a cluster of fast-food restaurants and auto-parts shops before descending into a canyon of blight just south of downtown. That is why... More >>
• Best Hope for Johnson County
  The "Green" Government Campus
  In early September, Johnson County commissioners thrilled us when they approved plans for a new 127,000-square-foot, $30 million government building in Olathe that promised to be a model of environmentally friendly construction. Belying the county's well-deserved reputation for... More >>
• Best Local Hero
  Carol Marinovich
  As a Kansas City, Kansas, city councilwoman in the early 1990s, Carol Marinovich built her reputation in an old-school kind of way, going door-to-door, recruiting help to rid her city of strip clubs and to fight off a proposal to build a medical-waste incinerator next to her Strawberry Hill... More >>
• Best Romantic Public Makeout Spot
  Pedestrian Bridge Over Brush Creek
  Given Brush Creek's smelly reputation, some people might argue that there are more romantic makeout spots on the Plaza -- on one of those pink, pumpkin-shaped carriages, for instance, or in any of the courtyards with fountains. But we stand by our assertion that the pedestrian bridge is a... More >>
• Best Place to Park
  Long-term Parking Lot at KCI
  Although traveling is an awesome experience, the actual getting there isn't that much fun, especially when you're flying. Even short, direct flights take at least half a day. Thankfully, KCI has made one part of traveling a bit more pleasant with its newly renovated long-term parking lot. The... More >>
• Best Lawn Ornaments
  Todd Baker's Easter Island Display
  With its organically ornate parks and arboreal landscaping, Antioch Road ranks among suburbia's most scenic cruising strips. But one corner house in particular has the power to make even harried commuters stop and stare. Using chainsaws, Todd Baker, who lives at 8040 Antioch, carves tree stumps... More >>
• Best Coffee House Dog
  Reno at Tchoupitoulas
  At the recently opened coffee shop and café Tchoupitoulas just south of the downtown loop, hot beverages are served not with squinty-eyed angst but with a long, toothy grin. Unless he's napping in his portable kennel, Reno, a German wire-haired pointer, pads across the concrete floor to... More >>
• Best Mascot
  Kauffman Gardens Cat
  With flowers that boldly blossom in arid August conditions and dramatic water arcs that leap over walkways, Kauffman Gardens boasts many enchanting attractions. However, visitors don't get much of an interactive experience while admiring the petals and fountains. For hands-on warm fuzzies, the... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Association
  Indian Mound
  Throughout the city, many strong neighborhood associations fight the good fight. But the folks at the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association in the Historic Northeast get this year's nod for all the buzz they created during the primary season this past summer, when the association's meeting hall... More >>
• Best Building Named for a Bad Company
  Union Carbide Building
  The Union Carbide Building, which stands to the west of the new downtown library, is a ten-story art-deco beauty that projects strength and elegance. The smooth, stone exterior at ground level yields to dark brick as the structure reaches for the sky, creating handsome contrast. Today the... More >>
• Best Holiday Lights
  Downtown
  It's not just the fact that downtown's light display last winter made the Plaza's look tired and dowdy by comparison. Downtown's lights kicked the Plaza's ass. They were visible from the hills all around -- the computer-controlled, ever-changing seasonal patterns and festive messages prancing... More >>
• Best Main Street
  Armour Road, North Kansas City
  A city like Overland Park was built for cars. Lunchtime pedestrians negotiating the plates of asphalt at 119th Street and Nall look as out of place as men on the surface of the moon. In contrast, the heart of North Kansas City was designed for people. Armour Road provides the kind of main-street... More >>
• Best Place to Get Carded
  Kansas City Public Library, Central Branch
  According to Cicero, "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." After we saw the revamped Central Library, we knew what he meant. Downtown's revitalization got a boon when the library opened in April; the building, which used to house the First National Bank, is... More >>