16/06/2012

Kansas City Weirdness

First there was Roy the Redeemer, then this.  It's your week, Roy.

SubTropolis, Kansas City

I didn't know your hometown has one of the 10 weirdest urban ecosystems on earth. Or at least according to i09.

Kansas City native

Quite a distinction.
 (link via M. Lee)

Ps. Sorry, I forgot to mention the one detail which adds color to this otherwise halftone post. Ninety percent of the world's underground office space is in, or shall I say under, Kansas City. Thx M. 

3 comments:

Roy said...

Well, I'm kind of humble about some of Kansas City's greater attractions. Yes, the "Bethany Falls Face" is very high quality rock and is quarried for gravel. They leave a pillar every 50 feet, and a couple feet for a roof, and you got some natural subterranean real estate. I have installed many a Southwestern Bell T-1 data line in these things. Also used to survey them to show the drillers where to drill for blasting as they expanded. As the article says, the temperature is sort of stable and it stays cool in the summer. The one pictured in the article is the Hunt brothers', and it the nicest of all of them throughout Kansas City. Some of them are dank and have water dripping down the walls, and you feel like if you stay down there too long you'll catch some kind of mold spore epizoodic along with radon induced mutations, as this hapless Kansas City native can tell you.

asha said...

That is so cool. Of course, you would be one of the guys who knows all about the underground. When you get back from your trip, how about some subterranean photos?

BTW, I absently-mindedly left one big detail out about the glories of KC's fabulously weird urban ecosystem but you will have to re-read the post if you want to know what it is but, of course, you probably already do know it so never mind.

Roy said...

I promise I shall lower myself down into the bowels of the city to get you some pics.

I did not know there is virtually no underground space like that anywhere else. I have been told that it exists at all because of the very rare "excellent" condition of the stratum, the Bethany Falls Face, that I mentioned. It is, essentially, a layer of solid rock that is actually solid and not broken up and fragmented, etc. That must not be too common, I guess.
I am off to my continental breakfast at the motel. I don't know which continent, but it's an adventure! I shall, with the normal amount of luck, be in Tucson today!