When I was in high school in the late ’90s, my friends and I used to drive around downtown Kansas City, listening to music, smoking cigarettes and looking for something to do. We never really found much.

By the time my own kids are in high school, however, the urban landscape will have been almost totally transformed. With a new streetcar line currently being installed and dozens of new development projects in the works, the downtown development boom is already well underway.

The downtown Kansas City skyline will be changing over the next few years.

Many of the most visible signs of the downtown boom have already been completed. The Sprint Center and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts host hundreds of events each year, bringing in crowds to the new restaurants, bars and theaters in the Power & Light District and its surroundings. Cosentino’s Downtown Market was the first grocery store to open downtown in decades, and today it’s a shopping and dining hub for thousands of downtown residents, employees and tourists. On the floor above Cosentino’s is the brand-new Onelife Fitness, a health club that opened just a few months ago.

The new projects that are under development or have been proposed are too many to name in one column. In the meantime, there are plenty of tried-and-true options for shopping and dining downtown that are worth checking out next time you visit.

Shopping

Bob Jones Shoes at 1914 Grand Blvd. is a fun place to browse through hundreds of different styles of footwear that you can try on yourself (although plenty of assistants are on hand to help out). Bob Jones is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

If you go to the Kansas City Symphony, look for a 15 percent coupon for the store in the program.

While the name “Garment District” suggests a larger enterprise than just one showroom, the fashion boutique at 1350 Main St. contains an entire city’s worth of fashion lines, accessories and men’s and women’s apparel, including brands like Eyecandy, AC78 (the elegant clothing line of the former Sporting Kansas City defender Aurelien Collin), Imagery, and others.

The Garment District is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and from noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Restaurants

While downtown has several quality restaurants, including the French/American bistro Charisse at 1006 Walnut St. (formerly Aixois), and the affordable Mediterranean specialties of Zaina (at 12th and Walnut), one of my favorite spots to grab lunch during the work week is the ordinary-looking Mildred’s, located next to the downtown library in an office building at 920 Main St.

Mildred’s serves excellent breakfast items, coffee, lunch sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads and pastries from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. The family-run establishment has been in business for several decades, and if you visit, you’ll see why.

On the fine-dining end of the spectrum, look no further than the future downtown streetcar route, where high-quality restaurants like Anton’s Taproom (1610 Main St.), Affäre (1911 Main St.), and Michael Smith’s Restaurant (1900 Main St.) are all doing a brisk business in spite of the construction.

FanFest

Finally, anyone with a severely early case of spring fever should head downtown this Friday and Saturday for the 2015 Royals FanFest at Bartle Hall, including fan appearances, autograph signings and interactive games. The event is open to the public from 2 p.m to 9 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 for kids at the door. Visit royals.com/fanfest for more information.

— Lucas Wetzel is a writer and editor from Kansas City, Mo. Know of an upcoming event in Kansas City you’d like to see featured in Kansas City Connection? Email us about it at kcconnection@ljworld.com.