It's a tossup whether the bathroom walls or the patrons sport more ink at Buzzard Beach. On weekend nights, the Westport bar is a hive of beer-sloshing partiers with fashionably mussed hair and stepped-on shoes, all part of a meticulously cultivated posture of not giving a fuck. When someone does give a fuck, it typically follows several hours of drinking and is sometimes accompanied by a sloppily thrown right hook.
Ryan Shank, a 32-year-old drummer in several local bands, was certainly drunk in February 2009 when he made his bad decision. After leaving Buzzard Beach, he hopped into his car instead of walking the four blocks home. At Westport's core intersection, Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue, he began to make a right. As he turned, he narrowly missed a security guard who was crossing the street on foot.
Seeing the near accident, security guards swarmed Shank's car and banged on the windows. Shank pulled over. The guards ordered him to walk home — a generous offer considering that he almost flattened one of their comrades. But then they said something peculiar: They ordered him to stay out of Westport. For a year.
Shank recognized his luck. Had he been dealing with Kansas City police, he figured, he likely would have been reciting the alphabet backward on his way to jail. But Westport's streets are public property, so how could the security guards ban him from an entire neighborhood?
Three days later, he headed back to Westport. He was walking toward Buzzard Beach when a nearby security guard spotted him.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"
In a matter of minutes, Shank was wearing handcuffs and shivering in the winter chill while security guards radioed the Kansas City Police Department.
Getting banned from an entire swath of city may have sounded absurd. But as Shank was about to find out, the consequences would be very real.
Date night? Drop a paycheck on dinner at the Country Club Plaza. Got some new game to try out on the ladies? Try Power & Light. But for Kansas Citians looking for a night of plain old drinking, Westport is their favorite pair of jeans: familiar, unpretentious and perfectly happy to absorb a spilled beer.
The neighborhood's crop of locally owned bars, restaurants and stores draws a loyal-to-KC crowd that is proud of the district's reputation for driving out chains. When Broadway Café outlasted a Starbucks there in 2008, it merited a David vs. Goliath business story in The New York Times.
The lingering recession has smacked around Westport's bar and restaurant owners, just as it has everyone else. And those owners worry about competition from the three-year-old Power & Light District, which is operated by Baltimore's Cordish Company and subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
But Westport's stakeholders have learned over the years that even in a good economy, challenges arise. That's why they chose to form a united front.
The Westport Merchants Association started circling its booze-fueled wagons in 2001, when it asked the city to do away with the public right of way on two major streets in the heart of the neighborhood. Portions of Westport Road and Pennsylvania Avenue would have become private property, giving business owners more control over who did — and, more important, who didn't — frequent the area.
"Privatization would allow our officers — working with police but independently as well — to enforce more of the rules of behavior at all times," Craig Glazer, then owner of Stanford and Sons Comedy Club, said at the time.
The proposed ordinance provoked a groundswell of public protest. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that privatizing the streets "creates a zone of inequality and authorizes private merchants to violate ... constitutional rights." The NAACP accused bar owners of wanting to keep blacks and Latinos out of their businesses. Before the City Council's vote, activists distributed handbills around midtown, urging citizens to fill the council chamber to oppose the plan.
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Hello again everyone!!! I'm just loving these comments... keep 'em up. See ya this weekend. Bitches
Wow Caleb. You look good even with the wig and glasses on. Why cover up that sexy face.
Wow Caleb. You look good even with the wig and glasses on. Why cover up that sexy face.
Andrew, show up in Westport, identify yourself, and I will personally haul your punk-ass off to jail, you are a troublemaker, your type is not welcomed in Westport!
I heard last night that Andrew's punk ass had reappeared, Andrew, are you a lonely man? Why don't contribute something useful to society, maybe fighting youth gangs on the Plaza, or being that homeless guy Jerry who (sits in front of Barnes and Noble) down there, mentor him- hell he has more sense then you do!
Andrew, show up in Westport, identify yourself, and I will personally haul your punk-ass off to jail, you are a troublemaker, your type is not welcomed in Westport!
I heard last night that Andrew's punk ass had reappeared, Andrew, are you a lonely man? Why don't contribute something useful to society, maybe fighting youth gangs on the Plaza, or being that homeless guy Jerry who (sits in front of Barnes and Noble) down there, mentor him- hell he has more sense then you do!
Andrew had his penis removed while at the Irish Fest in Weston, not even his Therapist could save him! He should be easy to spot now, Andrew, how come you didn't show up on Friday Sept. 3rd at 10:30? corner of Westport Road and Pennsylvania, we were there?
You talk all this shit, yet you were a pussy and didn't show? Your comments are pointless after that! You had your chance to show up and respond, but you stayed away like the pussy-chicken you are, they would have hauled you off, but you were a "no-show" so just be quite!
If you can't show up when called to do so, who really gives a fuck what you have to say? You Punk!!
Andrew had his penis removed while at the Irish Fest in Weston, not even his Therapist could save him! He should be easy to spot now, Andrew, how come you didn't show up on Friday Sept. 3rd at 10:30? corner of Westport Road and Pennsylvania, we were there? You talk all this shit, yet you were a pussy and didn't show? Your comments are pointless after that! You had your chance to show up and respond, but you stayed away like the pussy-chicken you are, they would have hauled you off, but you were a "no-show" so just be quite! If you can't show up when called to do so, who really gives a fuck what you have to say? You Punk!!
Andrew, you have to wear a shirt that has your name on it? Is that so you don't forget that you are a dumb ass!? I say let's all dog pile this Jerk, maybe he'll stay away for longer then a month. Keep your ass is Weston!
Shithead Andrew came out of hiding, quit lying you ain't been to Westport, You fagg!
Andrew, what a took a month or so to come out of hiding? You finally responded back? You are such a pussy! Talk to you in another month you moron!!
Andrew, you have to wear a shirt that has your name on it? Is that so you don't forget that you are a dumb ass!? I say let's all dog pile this Jerk, maybe he'll stay away for longer then a month. Keep your ass is Weston!
Shithead Andrew came out of hiding, quit lying you ain't been to Westport, You fagg!
Andrew, what a took a month or so to come out of hiding? You finally responded back? You are such a pussy! Talk to you in another month you moron!!
Ah, the sounds of silence... Oh BTW I'll be making another appearance this weekend. This time at Irish-fest in Weston. I'll be wearing a green shirt that say "Andrew" on the upper left breast. Any of you working in Westport have seen me as I've def been around.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Ah, the sounds of silence... Oh BTW I'll be making another appearance this weekend. This time at Irish-fest in Weston. I'll be wearing a green shirt that say "Andrew" on the upper left breast. Any of you working in Westport have seen me as I've def been around. Si vis pacem, para bellum
The guy with the mirrored glasses should be banned for violating the laws of time and space since he clearly took a leap out of the 80s, the not so sexy portion at that.
Forget the anti-sagging laws where's that anti-mullet law when you need it.
The guy with the mirrored glasses should be banned for violating the laws of time and space since he clearly took a leap out of the 80s, the not so sexy portion at that. Forget the anti-sagging laws where's that anti-mullet law when you need it.
In Westport-We kinda have the attitude of you take one of us on, you take all of us on, ain't that right Andrew, I own a shop on Pennsylvania and Jefferson, troublemakers stay away, we have some of the finest Security in Kansas City protecting all of us, they do an excellent job, I interact with them daily!! come down here jacking around and we will "politely" ask you to leave, signed-a shop owner for over 20 years!
It's amazing how the folks that say "we are never going to Westport again" haven't been down here for years, just the same, stay away, who needs your attitude down here, I work at Kelly's, so there!!
In Westport-We kinda have the attitude of you take one of us on, you take all of us on, ain't that right Andrew, I own a shop on Pennsylvania and Jefferson, troublemakers stay away, we have some of the finest Security in Kansas City protecting all of us, they do an excellent job, I interact with them daily!! come down here jacking around and we will "politely" ask you to leave, signed-a shop owner for over 20 years!
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