Sharp End once pulsed along Walnut Street between Fifth and Sixth—a Black business district inside Columbia’s Douglass neighborhood built from dignity, hustle, and genius. Barbers kept the chairs full, cafés like Elite and Vi served meals with respect, Green Tree Tavern booked nights, and McKinney Hall drew legends. Then came two words that always sound like progress until the bulldozers arrive: urban renewal. Condemnations, razing, parking lots. In this episode, we walk the footprint, say the names, and read the receipts—so memory outlives erasure. We also trace today’s efforts to honor the past and support new entrepreneurs on the same ground.
If your family holds photos, menus, letters, or stories from Sharp End, please share them—details in the notes. Follow, rate, and pass this on to someone who needs to hear it. This is That Doesn’t Make Sense: where we mark the places, name the people, and make sure the story doesn’t end where the bulldozers began.

At 75th & Prospect, Kansas City’s summer playground promised “family fun”—but for decades, Black families were turned away except on “private” days. This 20–25 minute episode walks you from the rides and bandstands to the picket lines: youth-led protests at the gates, the push that led to 1964 public accommodations, and the park’s final years after storms and new competition. We visit the jazz ties (Charlie Parker played here), the policy choices behind exclusion, and what stands on the grounds today. I open the door—you walk through it. Names, places, receipts… then go look them up.

Hop Alley—steam from laundries, lanterns over doorways. How St. Louis erased its Chinatown for a downtown stadium—and what remains today, from Alla Lee to On Leong Way and the archives keeping the story alive.

That Doesn’t Make Sense delivers 10–20 minute deep dives into erasure, policy, and power—giving you the names and sources so you can go verify the record. I open the door; you walk through it. Follow, tap the bell, rate, and share.

In this episode of That Doesn’t Make Sense, Michael Porter uncovers the story of how a federally funded highway carved straight through Black neighborhoods — displacing families, shuttering businesses, and dismantling churches and schools that once held the community together.

From the vibrant days of 18th & Vine to the bulldozers that leveled entire blocks, this is the history of a city divided by concrete. Featuring the voices of leaders like Pastor D.A. Holmes and Bruce R. Watkins, we examine how the scars of Highway 71 still shape Kansas City today — and the fight to reconnect what was lost.

Because what happened here wasn’t just about roads. It was about lives.

Steptoe was once one of Kansas City’s oldest free Black neighborhoods—built by freed men and women after slavery, filled with homes, churches, and schools. This episode uncovers how it thrived, how it was erased, and why remembering Steptoe still matters today.

The Gateway Arch stands as a symbol of progress, but its foundation was built on erased neighborhoods, displaced families, and forgotten Black history. This episode uncovers the lives, businesses, and culture lost beneath St. Louis’s shining monument.

When the U.S. Government Used St. Louis as a Test Lab