Welcome Back: Cruisers flood Kearney Street

It was a hot and muggy Friday evening in the Ozarks as thousands set up chairs along Kearney Street to revive a practice not seen for more than 20 years on the north side of town.

The first annual cruising on Kearney officially kicked off with a ribbon cutting May 26 on the corner of Kearney and Melville Avenue, ushering in thousands of cars and, organizers hope, reviving the long-gone tradition.

“From about 8:30 to 9 p.m. it was bumper to bumper along Kearney,” said Zone 1 Councilwoman Phyllis Ferguson. “I’ve gotten emails from cruisers telling me it was great and they would be back.”

Timed to coincide with the 34th annual National Street Rod Association’s Mid-America Street Rod Nationals, Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau  predicted an economic impact boon of $1.5 million for the city, including some 3,400 room nights during the last weekend in May.

Kearney Street businesses such as Buckingham’s looked to capitalize on the crowd. Situated on the corner of Kearney and Glenstone Avenue, the Springfield-based barbecue restaurant closes its parking lot and has picnic tables at the ready for viewing of street rods during the national festival.

“We love doing this every year because our corner is primed for it,” said Chris Smith, Buckingham’s kitchen manager. “Sales wise, we did about $3,000 more that Friday than on a normal night.”

While Ferguson and north-side leaders were excited to see the spectacle over Memorial Day weekend, crusing on Kearney won’t always be so large. Technically legal at anytime under the revised ordinance City Council passed its April 17 meeting, the pilot project sponsored by Ferguson only will encourage cruising from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. the second Friday of April-October.

“We’re honestly unsure what to expect from the next cruise without the street rods in town,” she said. “We’ve had such a good kickoff; the hope is the word spreads up to Kansas City and St. Louis.”

According to city code, cruising is defined as “driving a motor vehicle on a public street past a traffic control point located within a designated cruising control area more than twice within a two-hour period of time.”

According to Springfield Business Journal archives, the code also cautions the negative impact of cruising on the community’s health, safety and economic welfare. Cruising has been known to congest traffic, delay timely emergency services, impair access to businesses and generate air pollution.

With the street rods now headed home, Smith hopes to see a bump during cruising hours this summer, but isn’t counting on it.

“It really depends on the people,” Smith said. “Just cruising, I doubt people line up to watch that, but you never know.

“We haven’t been around here long enough to remember when cruising Kearney was big, so, it could be great.”

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