Need help from people who really know KC (Raytown, Grandview: low income, section 8)

[kcatheart]

Hi all,

This is my first post and would like some people to answer a few questions for me.

But first a little background info on me. My family are of vietnamese decent that came over in 1975 and were taken in by a church in KC. Of course being refugees we were very poor. However, my parents worked there butts off and finally was able to buy a modest house in near Bannister Mall a couple of years later. I still remember the address, 8608 e. 93rd st. Again, now knowing the area, we were lower income.

However, growing up there and going to Truman elementary school and one year at Ervin jr. high had to be the best years of my life. I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world! (We moved to Houston in 1982).

Now my question is, how did that area become so bad? I don't mean to offend anyone but that is all I hear that that area is now the pitts! Again, I'm not trying to stereo type and I'm only going from what people in KC tells me now. When I lived there up until I was 12(again, we moved in 1982), all the kids in my neigborhood besides my family, of course, were basically white. And in Truman, I only remember having one black student in the school and he was my friend. Now I hear that only black people live there and it's really runned downed. Again I'm not racist and I'm only going by what people from KC has told me.

I remember being able to hang out with my childhood friends till the wee hours of the night without any worries at all.

Was I just blind at the time and it was always like that or has it gone downhill? If so, why?

Again, I'm not trying to offend and if I did, I apologize.

Thanks for the replies.

[kcmo]

The Bannister Mall area is quite a story for anybody interested in demographics, urban planning etc.

In a matter of 5-7 years, this area went from a very fast growing suburban area and one of the largest, most successful shopping districts in the entire Midwest to blight and neglect.

Growth in South KC came to a grinding halt. You can still see it now when you drive around and notice all the subdivisions that never finished, the roads that never became fully developed etc. It all just stopped and went to other parts of the metro.

There are several reasons for this. First off. KC was, and in many cases, still is an extremely racially divided town. There are not many parts of town where many races seem to live work and play together. So as KCMO’s black population began to move southeast from the city, whites began to flee.

But they didn’t flee just because blacks where moving in. They left because of the crime wave that hit the area and the soon word of mouth, the press and what they were seeing made it clear that the area was in decline and the rest is history.

But the reason the crime went up was not because more blacks were moving in, it was mostly due what KCMO did to the area.

In the mid 80’s, KCMO began to place hundreds of section 8 housing in this area. 1 out of every 4 homes was section 8. KCMO was required to spread out section 8 (low income projects), tear down the urban building complexes and put the people in single family homes and apartments throughout the city. Well, SKC bore the brunt of this.

Too much section 8 in too small of an area and you are going to have problems. Homes began to fall into disrepair, people that cared began to flee. Carjackings, armed robberies etc seemed to invade the area. More and more crime and the press rode the crime wave like there was no tomorrow.

Bannister mall made things worse by building up so much of a security presence that the mall looked like a dangerous place to go. The Walmart couldn’t sell enough to offset the shoplifting, the bus stops were never maintained and looked trashy. The area in general just went downhill and KCMO didn’t do enough to try to correct the problem before it was too late.

SKC was a mess and it took Raytown and Grandview with it as they were, and still are, fine areas, but got a bad rap for being so close to SKC.

So the problem was twofold, KCMO putting way to much section 8 housing in a suburban area that just couldn’t handle it and the fact that this city can’t seem to support a racially diverse area of whites and blacks and keep out the thugs at the same time.

This is the main reason the P&L district is so caught up with a dress code. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with keeping out the thugs of all races. If they don’t keep out the thugs, the district won’t last 5 years.

[RjRobb2]

The entire area where Bannister Mall and the surrounding retail is is going to be revitalized as the Three Trails Project that will include a 18,500 seat stadium, a 250 room hotel, and over 1 million square feet of office and retail space.

Groundbreaking will start this fall with the first phase opening in Spring 2010.

From the renderings, it should be a very nice area and a new entertainment destination for the entire city.

[kcatheart]

Originally Posted by kcmo

The Bannister Mall area is quite a story for anybody interested in demographics, urban planning etc.

In a matter of 5-7 years, this area went from a very fast growing suburban area and one of the largest, most successful shopping districts in the entire Midwest to blight and neglect.

Growth in South KC came to a grinding halt. You can still see it now when you drive around and notice all the subdivisions that never finished, the roads that never became fully developed etc. It all just stopped and went to other parts of the metro.

There are several reasons for this. First off. KC was, and in many cases, still is an extremely racially divided town. There are not many parts of town where many races seem to live work and play together. So as KCMO’s black population began to move southeast from the city, whites began to flee.

But they didn’t flee just because blacks where moving in. They left because of the crime wave that hit the area and the soon word of mouth, the press and what they were seeing made it clear that the area was in decline and the rest is history.

But the reason the crime went up was not because more blacks were moving in, it was mostly due what KCMO did to the area.

In the mid 80’s, KCMO began to place hundreds of section 8 housing in this area. 1 out of every 4 homes was section 8. KCMO was required to spread out section 8 (low income projects), tear down the urban building complexes and put the people in single family homes and apartments throughout the city. Well, SKC bore the brunt of this.

Too much section 8 in too small of an area and you are going to have problems. Homes began to fall into disrepair, people that cared began to flee. Carjackings, armed robberies etc seemed to invade the area. More and more crime and the press rode the crime wave like there was no tomorrow.

Bannister mall made things worse by building up so much of a security presence that the mall looked like a dangerous place to go. The Walmart couldn’t sell enough to offset the shoplifting, the bus stops were never maintained and looked trashy. The area in general just went downhill and KCMO didn’t do enough to try to correct the problem before it was too late.

SKC was a mess and it took Raytown and Grandview with it as they were, and still are, fine areas, but got a bad rap for being so close to SKC.

So the problem was twofold, KCMO putting way to much section 8 housing in a suburban area that just couldn’t handle it and the fact that this city can’t seem to support a racially diverse area of whites and blacks and keep out the thugs at the same time.

This is the main reason the P&L district is so caught up with a dress code. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with keeping out the thugs of all races. If they don’t keep out the thugs, the district won’t last 5 years.

Thank you so much for the very informative info.

I remember in the late 70s early 80s that Bannister mall was the place to go.

A couple of questions,

If the area around there was growing so much and had so much promise, why did KCMO let it go and not other parts of KCMO where they put section 8 housing in? I believe you stated that the section 8 housing had to be spread out all over KC so did all those other places went down too? If not, why then near Bannister Mall? I figured if it was a hotspot, the city would/should have never let it go down the dumps.

Do you think that area will ever improve?

It just breaks my heart cause again, my childhood was the best I could have hoped for. All the neighborhood kids just had a blast with each other and we were able to walk by ourselves to and from Truman elementary to home without a fear in the world and us being only 10 yrs old at that.

One last thing, is Farley fields still there? We used to ride dirt bikes there all the time. I'm sure it now has housing on it huh?