By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Many pluses and minuses have surfaced in four seasons of living downtown.

A minus in the spring: The absence of birds loudly singing before sunrise. That sound was always a sign of life awakening from winter’s deep sleep. I loved it during 28 years of homeownership.

Also missing: The silence at night found in many traditional neighborhoods and the sight of stars salting the ebony sky.

Traffic noise ripples the air downtown with the occasional wail of sirens, trash trucks emptying dumpsters, yelling partiers and the whipping of helicopter blades. Light pollution kills the night’s darkness.

Another fond ritual from home-ownership days in South Hyde Park and in the Martin City area was the start of school in fall and the end of classes in the spring.

I miss seeing kids of all ages waiting in the morning for school buses and those same yellow vehicles dropping kids off in the afternoon.

As strange as it sounds, I even bugged a friend to let me mow her yard.

Living downtown amid all of the asphalt and concrete made me miss grass and my ritualistic weekly lawn mowings. But doing it once in the spring was enough.

New reliefs? No shoveling snow from my sidewalk and driveway. Not worrying about skidding out of control or having a wreck getting to work or home in bad weather. That anxiety is something I’ll never miss.

But no garage is a definite minus. It was where I stored tools, did car maintenance work and cleaned and polished my vehicles. Now I maintain a stash of quarters for a self-serve public car wash.

Concerts, events at the Sprint Arena and new attractions downtown, while good for the city, complicate urban dwellers’ parking difficulties.

Another minus: Not being able to play music or the news loudly. Homeownership affords a special amplified freedom that one rarely recognizes until it’s gone.

And it takes more than a hike now to find low-priced grocery stores, cleaners, drugstores and other places to shop.

Still, the pluses of living downtown exceed the minuses. Getting to work any day is just a two-block walk.

No need for traffic reports to make sure the route to work is clear. I don’t have the 20-mile, 30-minute commutes, the extra cost of higher gasoline prices or the frustration that accompanies paying more.

My gasoline expenses have dropped substantially, along with the intervals between oil changes. My 7-year-old van with 178,000 miles may have a real chance of lasting until 2017 when I hope to trade it in.

Downtown offers no shortage of things to do, see and eat, especially on First Fridays when the area swarms with people from throughout the metropolitan area hungry for a taste of Kansas City’s urban revival. The community of middle-age baby boomers and young people living downtown continues to grow.

The eclectic mix enjoying downtown living finds something new is always happening.
The Power & Light District draws crowds every evening. The open-air community space, with stage and big-screen TV, appears to be the area’s biggest sports bar on game nights and entertainment zone other nights.

Living downtown promises to keep getting better for new and old pioneers who call it home.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to .