People & Places >>

• Best Do-Gooder (1 Comment)
  Felicia Safir
  Felicia Safir's title — manager of School-Based Services for the Kansas City, Missouri, School District — says nothing about the most time-consuming aspect of the job. For five years, she has coordinated the nurses and the health programs at each of the city's public schools, which... More >>
• Best Storyteller
  George Brett
  It's not often that we get close enough to hear ballplayers banter. And never do we get to hear what happened after some renegade — or former employee — at Metro Sports leaked unauthorized video of turdpedo George Brett dropping at least 3,154 fucks while telling his Royals teammates... More >>
• Best Use of Underwear
  Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks
  It didn't require clairvoyance to know that the March 4 meeting of the City Council's Planning and Zoning Committee was going to get weird. On the docket: the infamous "dress code ordinance," which aimed to stop taxpayer-funded businesses from adopting overly restrictive dress codes. The... More >>
• Best One-Liner
  Sen. Claire McCaskill
  We keep giving Claire McCaskill Best Ofs (last year's was Best Celebrity, for the first-term senator's strong debut in the national media) because she can't keep her mouth shut. This year, the recognition is in honor of her January ripping of Wall Street execs who, after taking federal bailout... More >>
• Best Politician
  Rep. Jason Kander
  Most people hate politicians because legislators tend to fall into two camps: overbearing jerks who confuse arrogance for integrity and wishy-washy pawns who default to partisanship over substance. Missouri state Rep. Jason Kander is neither. In his freshman year, the young Kansas City Democrat... More >>
• Best Anti-Hero
  Kris Kobach
  Constitutional law students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City may be surprised to find that their instructor looks like actor David Boreanaz (Angel, Bones) and has an unusually keen interest in immigration. But that's Kris Kobach — dashing, Harvard-educated law professor and... More >>
• Best Media Personality
  Kris Ketz
  No media personality is more accessible than KMBC Channel 9's Kris Ketz. The morning anchor is a Twitter addict, posting and reposting (er, re-tweeting) news, day and night, to his more than 1,700 followers (count us among 'em). Even though he's an old dog — Ketz has been at Channel 9 for... More >>
• Best Radio Show
  Kenny and Ozone Show
  KCTE 1510 changes shape throughout the day. A national sports-talk show gives way to a program hosted by once-relevant Dennis Miller. The station airs Dr. Laura's show, broadcasts health information, and provides a forum for small-business owners who've paid for the opportunity to talk about... More >>
• Best Blogger
  Jason Rosenbaum
  At a time when our daily paper barely covers the state Legislature — even though that's where politicians make decisions that affect regular people's lives more than anything happening at the federal or city levels — Jason Rosenbaum's Capitol Calling blog has become one of those... More >>
• Best Topeka Correspondent
  Maril Hazlett
  Starting with packed public hearings in 2007, the controversy over new coal-fired power plants in Holcomb galvanized Kansans like no other environmental issue. As the political drama played out in Topeka, outraged citizens followed all the twists and turns like celebrity devotees itching to know... More >>
• Best Watchdog (1 Comment)
  Melissa Eddy
  When Kansas City, Missouri, School District Superintendent Anthony Amato was fired last year, Melissa Eddy wanted an explanation. The mother of two elementary-school students was tired of the Kansas City School Board acting untouchable, so she started a group of parents that was determined to... More >>
• Best Mean Judge
  Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier
  Do not screw with Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier. In January, Beier penned a scathing opinion, chastising then-Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline for the way he notoriously handled medical records of women who had been treated at abortion clinics. In the opinion, Beier... More >>
• Best Jailer
  Nancy Leazer
  Nancy Leazer isn't a bleeding-heart, hold-your-hand kind of woman. Her voice is a little too loud; her speech is usually abrupt. But that's not surprising for someone who served as superintendent of Kansas City's Municipal Correctional Institution for nearly 15 years. What was surprising was the... More >>
• Best Agitators
  Bill Torres, Armando Diaz and Gabe Perez
  In August, the city's largest general contractor, J.E. Dunn, agreed to find $1.1 million worth of work for businesses owned by women and minorities on its (almost finished) downtown headquarters. The money amounted to tacit admission of a longstanding practice in the city's construction... More >>
• Best Bureaucrat
  Deb Ridgeway
  For years, Kansas City paid lip service to area cyclists. Officials at City Hall would trot out plans for new bike paths and cycling lanes and then promptly forget those promises. But now things are starting to change. What made Kansas City finally get serious? Deb Ridgeway. As the city's first... More >>
• Best Eco Activist
  Kate Corwin
  Kate Corwin saw a void. While a smattering of schools in Kansas City's more affluent corners were incorporating aspects of the growing green movement into their curriculums, kids in the inner city were being left out. So the former businesswoman started Green Works, an organization that, in the... More >>
• Best Public Servant in a Thankless Job
  Tracie McClendon-Cole
  In the canon of abandoned public programs, Aim4Peace has to be somewhere near the top of Kansas City's list. Since the anti-violence program got its name in 2007, the city's homicide rate has only risen. The idea was to send street-wise mediators out into neighborhoods to de-escalate tense... More >>
• Best Conspiracy Theorist
  Jack Cashill
  Kansas City writer Jack Cashill didn't jump on the birther bandwagon (that we know of). Instead, the pseudo-intellectual was too busy with his own conspiracy theory: that Dreams From My Father wasn't actually written by Barack Obama but rather by unapologetic Weatherman William Ayers. Cashill... More >>
• Best Work Site
  The Christopher S. Bond Bridge
  It's not often that a road project has to accommodate a kayak race. But the Interstate 29/35 Missouri River crossing is not just any stretch of pavement. The existing, humdrum Paseo Bridge is giving way to a $245 million landmark: the Christopher S. Bond Bridge, opening in 2011. During... More >>
• Best Place to Meet People Smarter Than You
  Writers Place
  Several times a month, brilliant utterances bounce off the walls inside the mansion at the corner of 36th Street and Pennsylvania. The Writers Place is a spot where creative types convene to express themselves and discuss their inspiration and the implication of the symbols and sounds they... More >>
• Best Place for a First Date
  Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
  What could be more innocent than a walk in the woods? But, lo, the opportunity to get out in nature carries with it a suggestion of things, well, natural. So the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, with its acres of fragrant flowers and almost six miles of hiking trails —... More >>
• Best Place to Sneak Around
  Union Station
  Union Station is an ideal place for adventuring. Of course, the exhibits, shops, museums, movie theater and restaurants officially beckon visitors to explore. But all 850,000 square feet of the 95-year-old building beg as much close inspection as one can get away with. Hell, you might as well... More >>
• Best Day Trip
  Powell Gardens
  Deep inside Kansas City's biggest parks, there's still the whisper of traffic or the buzz of a motorboat hanging in the air. Remote trails are refuges for runners and cyclists grunting and grinding out their urban frustrations. Powell Gardens is the opposite. This expanse inspires strolling, not... More >>