This June, hundreds of thousands of World Cup visitors are expected to pass through Kansas City. They’ll land at a brand-new $1.5 billion airport terminal, hop on the free KC Streetcar to a gleaming Berkley Riverfront — luxury apartments, restaurants and parks lining the Missouri River. They’ll see a city that looks like it has its act together.
What they won’t see is Troost Avenue.
For decades, Troost has divided Kansas City along racial and economic lines — wealthier, mostly white neighborhoods to the west, historically Black and underinvested neighborhoods to the east. The Berkley Riverfront, the new airport, the streetcar: All of it sits west of Troost. None of it is an accident…