Why did the city let bannister mall collapse?

[curtyII]

I totally agree. Living south of the Ruskin Hickman area I had a Grandview of the Section 8 take over. And like the guy said earlier that negative reputation did damage places like Grandview and Raytown's image. However Grandview is looking really good present day. Thanks IHOP

[William S]

I been to Bannister Mall once back in the 80s .It didn't look to bad . There was good bookstores there.Look at Memorial City Mall in Houston it is near both a good neighborhoid in theNemorial area and south is Spring branch which has not so nice nice areas anymore.Bannister Mall could have been successful despite the low-income areas nearby.I don't judge low income people because of their situations and wh
areas they live in.Good or bad.Look at Houston.

[William S]

Spring ranch is North correction.Memorial is south.Still Houston like Kansas City still has its ups and downs .I don't look at race when it comes to decline of Neighbohoods .Their is good and bad in all races despite income and living situatins.

[empires228]

There was a dissertation done by a student at the University of Kansas. That’s pretty easy to find on Google about how the people of the Hickman Mills school district shot themselves in the foot several times by refusing to increase the mill levy or pass bonds. It documents how the district was falling apart before the demographic changes and how the neighborhood failed to organize to incorporate or fight annexation. Another interesting note that it documents is that the first wave of people of color who moved into the neighborhood were actually wealthier than the people who had lived in some of the subdivisions previously. Also had to see how far the Grandview, Raytown, and Center school districts have fallen in academic performance since the mid 80s. Grandview got hit with the double whammy of losing the military base and then having their property and sales tax revenue from Truman Corners, which was shared with Hickman Mills, take a dive after Bannister Mall opened. It would be fascinating to read further research documenting the fall of the Raytown and Center districts, especially since Center has some very wealthy neighborhoods.

[Mathguy]

Bannister mall collapsed because of crime concerns after some parking lot assaults and other issues and people stopped going.

KC doesn't have much for malls and it's easy to get there in 20-25minutes from most of the metro.

The main surviving mall in the area in OP has *relentless* security and tight rules about kids congregating. Heck, my kids honors choir got kicked out caroling lol.

We can wave our hands at a lot of stuff but the mall got a bad rep and the people with money stopped going. The end.