Twenty-five years ago this evening, a friend drove a van from Olathe, Kansas, in the southwest suburbs of Kansas City, to the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel, a little south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He was headed there to pick up some guests for an event in Olathe. Pulling into the circle drive loading area, he quickly realized something was wrong. Panicked people were running from the building.
Inside the hotel was a four-story high lobby. Along the lobby's west side, where the hotel entrance was, were three suspended walkways leading from one section of the building to another on the second, third, and fourth floors. The fourth-floor skywalk was directly above the second-floor skywalk, while the third-floor skywalk was a little farther away from the west wall. That evening there was a tea dance being held. The main lobby floor and skywalks were packed with people mingling and dancing to the music. Just seconds before my friend arrived, the fourth-floor skywalk gave way. It crashed down on the second-floor skywalk, taking them both to the main floor. Had my friend arrived one or two minutes earlier, he would likely have been in the lobby.
All told, 114 people were killed and many others injured. My pastor spent the whole night and much of the next day (as did many pastors and counselors) talking and praying with people trapped in the rubble and counseling traumatized rescue workers. With the number of people killed, the large number of rescuers, and the large number in attendance at the event, it seemed almost everybody in the city knew somebody who was part of what happened. It was truly a community disaster. Later it would be determined that an engineering firm and a construction firm had modified the support system without approval, and the hotel never had the skywalks inspected upon completion despite requests to do so.
Yesterday, the Kansas City Star ran a story Memories, but no marker, 25 years after Hyatt losses, as the title indicates, about the fact that there is no marker or memorial to the victims.
Another sociologist, Alice Fothergill of the University of Vermont, is surprised Kansas City has no Hyatt memorial.
“People from Kansas City know exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard, ‘Oh, my God, you’re not going to believe what happened at the new Hyatt,’ ” she said.
Fothergill said the tall hotel serves as an icon of sorts. When she visited Kansas City recently, her father-in-law pointed to the Hyatt in the skyline as the site of the disaster.
“It’s a marker for people who live here,” Fothergill recalled thinking.
But Sandi Edmundson of Gladstone, who lost her “baby cousin” Jacqueline Brooks, thinks there should be a specific, dedicated memorial.
“It affected the whole city, and why is there nothing about it?” Edmundson asked. “I have just never understood. We have memorials for so many other things. What’s holding this up?”
The subject is naturally a sensitive one to the now-Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel and to Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., which owns the building.
“It’s a delicate balance,” said Hyatt spokesman Mark Champa. “To some it would bring closure and to others it would be a constant reminder of the event.”
Champa said he did not think Hyatt would oppose a memorial somewhere. But he said decisions involving the hotel building would be made by Crown Center.
Crown Center President Bill Lucas said it was incorrect to assume — as some do — that Crown Center or its owner, Hallmark Cards Inc., would adamantly block any memorial. He said the company has heard from some who say a memorial would be painful.
I don't end up at the Hyatt very often, but it is like confronting a ghost every time I pass by. I am sure most people who pass through the Hyatt haven't a clue. Personally, I think a memorial in the park across the street might be a good idea. It would give a tribute to the victims and rescuers, but hotel guests would not be confronted with reminders of horrific death every time they enter the building, as would be the case if it were in or near the lobby.
I can appreciate a variety of emotional reactions to the memorial question. I am curious if any of you have experience with this kind of decision or what you think sounds appropriate.
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