Barbecue baron Ollie Gates has a plan to save a slice of Kansas City

"You cannot make any connections," Levy tells The Pitch, "but it was kind of strange coincidence."

Gates eventually offered $90,000. Levy, an IT specialist at Jewish Vocational Service, took the money and moved to Liberty.

With the help of $500,000 in tax-increment financing, Gates opened a new restaurant on the site in 2000. A 20-foot "Struttin' Man" sign stands outside the building. The interior pays homage to the family's original 19th and Vine location.

Gates thanked God for allowing him to build the new place. "It's happening because my mother's always praying," he told the Star before opening the restaurant's doors. (Arzelia Gates died, at age 95, in 2005.)

Levy went on to write a concise book about the block that had made way for Gates Bar-B-Q. It's available online.

Gates didn't know about the book until a Pitch reporter told him. He says those were bad times for him as well. He didn't like the city taking his property. He didn't like having to pay $90,000 for a house that was worth far less.

"I was unhappy about a whole lot of things," he says. "But that's a part of life for me. Sometimes you're happy. Sometimes you're sad."

In February, Gates and other proponents of the Black Heritage District went to Jefferson City to make their case. They found that state lawmakers respond slowly to new ideas.

First, the team had to fight some old battles. Jeff Kaczmarek, the head of the Economic Development Corporation, a city agency that administers TIF, dealt with questions from Sen. Victor Callahan, an Independence Democrat, about the use of incentives in well-off areas.

Other concerns seemed to stem from piety. Sen. Jason Crowell, a Cape Girardeau Republican, questioned whether the tax-free zone would attract bars and strip clubs.

The bill did not make it out of the Economic Development, Tourism and Local Government Committee. John Griesheimer, the committee chairman, who lives 50 miles outside St. Louis, says the concept — which would allow any Missouri city to designate a tax-free area — is noble, but he worries about setting a bad precedent.

"We just keep chipping away at our sources of revenue," Griesheimer tells The Pitch. "At some point, there's not going to be enough revenue to go around." Griesheimer says he could support the proposal if it eliminated local taxes but kept intact the state tax on goods and services.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Yvonne Wilson, a Kansas City Democrat, plans to reintroduce the measure next year.

In addition to lost revenue, decision makers must also take into consideration those areas outside the duty-free zone.

Carlos Gomez, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, says he appreciates attempts to lift minority business. At the same time, it's hard for him to get excited about a program that does nothing for the Westside and other struggling sections of the city. "I would like to see that limit to one area taken off," Gomez tells The Pitch.

Jordan Rappaport, an economist at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, listened to Gates speak at the library symposium. Afterward, Rappaport drew a comparison between the unfortunate side effects of desegregation that Gates described and those that the Black Heritage District might create if, say, the rush to fill storefronts left vacancies in other parts of town. Rappaport encouraged Gates and the plan's backers to consider collecting the 7.725-percent tax and using the money for renovations. "You'd get the district but no competition with other areas," he said.

Funkhouser and Gates made the point that TIF has created competitive imbalances for years, only on a grander scale. "You give TIF to [ad man] Bobby Bernstein on the Plaza," Gates said, naming another well-known Kansas City executive.

Later, Gates will say he is open to ideas to improving the duty-free zone. "We thought of this and hoped it would work. If it don't, hell, give us something that will work.

"Because it's the city's loss. It's not my loss. It's the city's loss."

Gates is piloting his black Chevrolet Regency SUV along the Paseo when he sees something that annoys him.

"Now, see this stupid thing. Take a great corner like 18th and Paseo and put a parking lot on it," he says.

The offending lot sits at the edge of the 18th and Vine District, the taxpayer-financed residential area and tourist destination that isn't quite either. The lot at 18th and the Paseo was a gas station before the city acquired it. Gates can't comprehend the decision to use the land for parking. He thinks something more useful and visually interesting belongs on the corner. "Look at all this space. How many building fronts could you put there?"

Gates proceeds to point out all the vacant or underused pieces of ground more suitable for parking. "The guys are not thinking," he says.

The SUV pauses on 19th Street. Gates, who studied masonry at Lincoln High School, points to a smokestack stemming from his dad's original barbecue place. "I did it when I was 14 years old," he says.

Gates lived at 23rd and Campbell in his formative years. As he drives along Troost, he names the small grocery stores that occupied nearly every block. He made 92 cents a day working at Lipsey's supermarket.