Odds are that you saw last week that the Kansas City Chamber
of Commerce has announced a major urban core initiative to improve the quality
of life in neighborhoods along the Troost Street Corridor from 21st
Street to 51st Street.
The Chamber’s focus on this work is fantastic news. The Chamber and its members have access to tremendous resources and the ability
to influence major decision-makers in a way that can help transform these
neighborhoods.
Legal Aid has been doing community development work to
improve these neighborhoods for more than 25 years. Every year we work
with neighborhood associations, the City, individual homeowners and other
not-for-profits to transform 80-100 blighted and abandoned properties in the urban
core of Kansas City into high quality, occupied, tax-paying housing. That
work has been critical in helping neighborhoods like the Ivanhoe neighborhood
greatly improve themselves and in keeping other neighborhoods that will be a
part of the Chamber initiative from falling into irreversible disrepair.
Because of limits on our resources, however, the work that
we do leaves thousands of blighted and abandoned properties untouched.
According to the most conservative estimates, there are now approximately 7,000
abandoned properties in the City’s urban core.
So, having the Chamber join the fight is a breath of fresh
air. We will collaborate with the Chamber and its partners in every way
that we can to make sure that the new urban core initiative is a success.
As part of this, among other things, we will assist in acquiring blighted
properties for rehab for Chamber projects. We will also
recruit for-profit law firms to work on the project on a pro bono basis.
We welcome the Chamber to the battle against urban core
blight in Kansas City and look forward to working with them on their wonderful,
new initiative.
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