From Eyesore to Asset: Neighborhoods Win

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

In case you missed it, there was an excellent article on the front page of the Kansas City Star this morning highlighting the community development work that is being done by Legal Aid’s Economic Development team, including: Michael Duffy, Jeff Williams, and Ron Nguyen, along with former Legal Aid attorneys Gillian Ruddy and Kendra Mosley.  

 

(Click here to read the article.)

 

As the article shows, the work that Michael, Jeff and Ron are doing, now with Jennifer Wieman, Rachel Hogan and Peter Hoffman joining in, is on the cutting edge nationally in fighting urban core blight caused by abandoned housing.

 
Like so many other Legal Aid projects, even though the Economic Development team is doing fantastic work, very few people in the area know about it.  The article in the Star will help change that and, by doing so, will help solidify the funding that we get for this work from the City and from private foundations for the team’s work.  It will also help us make a strong case for increased funding for this important work in years to come.

Thanks and congratulations again to Michael, Jeff, Ron, Gillian, Kendra, Jennifer, Peter, and Rachel for the recognition for jobs well done.

                                                                       

A New Player Joins the Fight to Save KC's Urban Core

Gregg Lombardi-Executive Director

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 21^st Street to 51^st 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.