Wornall Road

You can have Ward Parkway. Take Swope Parkway, too. Berry Road and Santa Fe Drive? No thanks. I prefer the twenty-block commercial strip of Wornall Road between Meyer Boulevard and 85th Street.

Zoned like a Houston, Texas, nightmare, this street reflects the "old, weird America" that’s been knocked down and paved over almost everywhere else in Kansas City. Thrift shops bump into piano bars. Bakeries adjoin expensive salons. An Afrocentric shop resides near a grain market. Restaurant flavors include Mediterranean Mexican, German, Greek, Chinese, Indian, pizza and sports. And that’s just the mom-and-pop operators.

It’s such a cacophony that I can’t decide whether to focus on the strip’s exciting commercial potential or on its blight. Instead, I marvel at the new businesses and wax nostalgic over what used to be, such as City Lights, a live jazz venue now housing Tanner’s, and a sleazy bar that featured go-go dancers somewhere on the east side of the schizophrenic street.