12,000 vacant homes in KCMO (Kansas City, Jackson: low income, rental, high crime)

[Versatile]

KC confronts a staggering number of vacant houses - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/19/2812610/new-estimates-raise-problem-of.html - broken link)

“The hole in the urban core is deeper and bigger than even I thought it was,” Mayor Mark Funkhouser said at a recent meeting of city officials on the problem of vacant homes.

“It’s like an ocean, and we’re trying various sizes and types of teaspoons to bail it out.”

[xenokc]

That's actually an improvement since 2000, which was over 18,000. Funk is incredibly out of touch with the city. He only knows what happened under his reign - it got worse. So glad he is now gone.


Kansas City city, Missouri - QT-H5. Physical Housing Characteristics - Vacant Housing Units:**2000

I've checked other Midwest cities of comparable size and others were in the 17K-19K range in 2000 as well. Cleveland was at 25K, no surprise. Baltimore had a whopping 42K vacant units in 2000. Even Seattle showed 12K vacant in 2000.

The East Side is a dead zone though. Unfortunately the problem will likely be 'resolved' by tearing many of them down.

[lifelongMOgal]

Decades of a disasterous KCMO school district will do that to a city. People and businesses leave. Frankly, I suspect that estimate is low. Given the population of KCMO and the historic forclosure rate, I don't see that number as appalling. That this is a surprise to Mayor Funkhouser is a bit shocking. Where has he been?

Untended vacant homes are and always have been a blight on neighborhoods. Many cities smaller than KC are already charging, or considering charging the owners a fee for leaving vacant/abandoned homes without maint. . Perhaps KC should take this road if it has not already. There is a real cost to the city/taxpayers which must be recouped.

[RichMonk]

People ditching their city will do that. The schools went bad after the wide-eyed saw a false utopia away from the city and black people.

It is just recently that there has been a trend for people to move in to the city. However, the damage left over, in housing stock and education, makes it difficult to turn these places around quickly. Regaining community control over the school system is, IMHO, paramount to ensuring that burgeoning rebirths are not slowed by a broken overly bureaucratic school district.

I am not really surprised about Funk though. It seems this whole task of governance is a surprise to him.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Decades of a disasterous KCMO school district will do that to a city. People and businesses leave. Frankly, I suspect that estimate is low. Given the population of KCMO and the historic forclosure rate, I don't see that number as appalling. That this is a surprise to Mayor Funkhouser is a bit shocking. Where has he been?

Untended vacant homes are and always have been a blight on neighborhoods. Many cities smaller than KC are already charging, or considering charging the owners a fee for leaving vacant/abandoned homes without maint. . Perhaps KC should take this road if it has not already. There is a real cost to the city/taxpayers which must be recouped.

My friends decision to move from KCMO to South OP was based solely on the fact that he has kids getting closer to gradeschool age and didn't want to pay private school costs. Public schools were NOT an option.

Wasn't there some community activist that made life a living hell for the school leadership, board etc? I seem to remember hearing about that. In any event, if the parents aren't interested in education and the community isn't willing to get tough, the schools will fail.

[xenokc]

The East Side has been on a downward spiral since the 60s... this should be no surprise. Most older cities have a dieing area.

If the 2000 stats are correct, there may have been an improvement and then a decline after the 2007 housing fallout, which has occurred in most cities. If they are just talking single family homes, then it would be higher than 2000.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Decades of a disasterous KCMO school district will do that to a city. People and businesses leave. Frankly, I suspect that estimate is low. Given the population of KCMO and the historic forclosure rate, I don't see that number as appalling. That this is a surprise to Mayor Funkhouser is a bit shocking. Where has he been?

Untended vacant homes are and always have been a blight on neighborhoods. Many cities smaller than KC are already charging, or considering charging the owners a fee for leaving vacant/abandoned homes without maint. . Perhaps KC should take this road if it has not already. There is a real cost to the city/taxpayers which must be recouped.

The state of the KCMO School district was the result white flight / urban abandonment, not a cause of it.

People left KCMO because they wanted the new cheap suburban dream away from the blacks and it ruined the school district, just like it ruined the city.

It's not like the KCMO schools just all of the sudden sucked and made everybody move to the suburbs.

BTW, KCMO has an aggressive plan and ordinances to deal with blightend rental and vacant property, but when people literally walk away from them and even live out of state or can not be found, it can be difficult to enforce.

Once again though KCMO has way too many vacant homes for the demographics of the city. Half of KCMO is suburban and you just can't compare it to Cleveland or something.

Just like crime stats, population loss etc. If you look at KCMO in Jackson County only, the city is right there with Detroit or StL with urban decay problems, it just has a decent urban corridor (river to plaza).

It's a very good thing KCMO has the Northland and Southland to make it look better on paper than it really is.

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by kcmo

The state of the KCMO School district was the result white flight / urban abandonment, not a cause of it.

People left KCMO because they wanted the new cheap suburban dream away from the blacks and it ruined the school district, just like it ruined the city.

It's not like the KCMO schools just all of the sudden sucked and made everybody move to the suburbs.

In 1973 my father sold his business bulding on Troost Ave. (N. of 63rd) where it had stood since he purchased it from the previous owner for 25+ years. He left because he could not conduct business and ensure the safety of his employees. He was tired of having to escort his secretary from one building to the next with a shotgun in his hands. Yes, it was that bad, he suffered that many robberies.

That you state people left KCMO urban core for a cheap suburban dream and to get away form "blacks" is downright insulting and not true as a blanket statement. People were driven out by the crime and violence. To move homes, businesses, employees, and pay for private schools on the Missouri side during that time was anything but cheap.

Yes, the school spiraling down was a result of and cause of the flight from the urban core, it is a circular problem. It is also a problem of decades of corrution and the district board and city council.

My grandmother was a member of the first graduating class of Westport High School. My family had a hand in the early development of this city from the mid-late 1800's and I will be the very last to leave this city later this year, 150 years after my great grandfather arrived. I've had it with the mismanagement and prefer my tax dollars go to any Missouri city government more trustworthy and responsible. I have a had a loyalty to this city because of my family heritage. No more.

[RichMonk]

Originally Posted by kcmo

The state of the KCMO School district was the result white flight / urban abandonment, not a cause of it.

People left KCMO because they wanted the new cheap suburban dream away from the blacks and it ruined the school district, just like it ruined the city.

It's not like the KCMO schools just all of the sudden sucked and made everybody move to the suburbs.

That plays a big part of it, as I'd mentioned earlier, but there was also a re-branding of the American Dream by developers and corporations. The suburbs offer the everyday American the chance to own a comfortable amount of land to call their own. Where men could call the shots about what happens on their land. The American Dream became about home ownership when it used to be about the everyday person working hard to get ahead. Now its working hard to make the mortgage.

The re-branding was, and still is, very attractive and comes with its own set of benefits and problems different from the city. As equal opportunity has slowly become something we don't need to address constantly, black couples and families that, in recent generations, have become upwardly mobile are choosing the suburban life too.

However, on the flip side of that, college-educated young adults, black, white and brown, have been reclaiming the better parts of cities. Creating jobs and opportunity for the poorer residents.

Give it time and support.

[xenokc]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Decades of a disasterous KCMO school district will do that to a city.

Not all areas of KCMO are shrinking, it's primarily the low income, high crime areas that are hardest hit - like in any city. And there are other public school systems in KCMO, so that is not entirely the reason. The perception probably hurts more than the reality.