Prospect. The main artery that runs North/South through the heart of the east side. Prospects are slim to none. It is as bleak a stretch of road as you will ever travel. This road played a big role in my Urban Blight Tour, and since then there has been change, sadly none of it for the better. So here are a few shots taken this morning. Click to make them bigger.
I didn't have to search far and wide to find these houses, they were in a 2 block radius.
It still amazes me that the City leaders, our buffoon of a Mayor, and the people who supposedly enforce building codes, choose to ignore one of the main causes of the decline of the east side. There is an elementary school across from some of these buildings, impressionable children walk past this shit every single day. Community "ass-tivists" and assorted groups, piss and moan about the police and the media, and who did or didn't get credit for something that happened last year, but they rarely bother to look at one of the root causes for crime in this city. Blight. If you are a 12 year old kid, who lives among this squalor, you see the only people getting ahead are the dope dealers, the thugs. You begin to aspire to be like them. It isn't a way out, but kids don't get that, they just see the shit that surrounds them. By the time they reach an age where they can weigh the consequences of their actions, it's too late, they are lost.
Most cities would condemn these places and make the owners pay for removal. If they wouldn't, the city would clean them up and/or tear them down and legally take and own the property.
ReplyDeleteWow. Those piles of junk are unreal!
ReplyDeleteI saw a follow-up on a story last night on Fox news about a lawyer who's law offices had a fire in them over THREE YEARS AGO in KC, KS. They want him to tear the building down, but he keeps fighting it for some reason. He just requested and received another stay on the case in court from the judge, and it won't be back up for review now until JUNE. How the fuck does that happen? And why doesn't the guy just tear the sucker down??? People are weird...
There are only two places I have ever been that rival KC in the blight department.
ReplyDeleteSavannah, GA. Very old houses that were once beautiful I'm sure, but had drifted into tar paper shantys waiting for a strong wind to wipe them out.
New Orleans, GA - same story, except there has been a strong wind since the last time I was there.
I'm sure other cities can compare, but probably not many. Sad thing is that a lot of these scary houses have people living in them.
If you are a 12 year old kid, who lives among this squalor, you see the only people getting ahead are the dope dealers, the thugs. You begin to aspire to be like them. It isn't a way out, but kids don't get that, they just see the shit that surrounds them.
ReplyDeleteYou just nailed the problem with those two perfect sentences.
In my experience, most activists don't give a rat's ass about some of the most basic problems facing children living in poverty - they don't live in those neighborhoods - shoot, they never even drive through them and they certainly wouldn't send their kid's to that elementary school.
Great post.
Nice post. And yes, not only do the houses become delapidated and an eye-sore, they are the safe-havens for the drug dealers, prostitutes and vagrants.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that abandoned buildings are one of the biggest things holding this city back. Fill them in, with taxpaying citizens and a good number of our problems are solved. Not all of them, but it's a huge start.
Some city somewhere has faced the absentee building owner situation and solved it. Why can we not learn from what that city did?
27th and Prospect is perhaps the worst part of Prospect. I now live in Camden, NJ and it is much worse than KC, Prospect, Troost, or the entire east side. In KC I lived a 1/2 block from Prospect. You all view this with the eyes of people who don't see it everyday or live it. When absentee landlords evict people, they put all their stuff out to the curb - hence the pile of rubbish at the curb. Often it sits the whole month for bulky pick up. Now that the city doesn't do bulky pick up monthly, it's worse. The city won't spend more money for demolition or rehab. So don't be so quick to judge the community groups. Many, such as Ivanhoe, Palestine, and Washington Wheatly work hard to make things better. But the housing court laws are lame, the city has no money, and absentee property owners often are the ones who leave the area blighted.
ReplyDeleteGood points Dyse, but I live in the city, so I do see it. search my blog under Urban Blight. The rubbish at the curb is the citys responsibility, and thats who I blame. Trust me, much of it has been there a long time. The city has suspended bulky pick up. As for groups, I was referring to some of the city funded ones, and certain activists, not the ones you listed. I've lived in midtown off and on for 30 some years, so Im not sniping from the burbs. But I agree the resident based groups, like you mentioned, do the best they can. Thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteStacy, you are right about Savannah, GA, spent 8 years in that area myself. Small world.
ReplyDeleteDo you see me is right. There are no City programs available to help homeowners fight the blight. Thanks to Cauthen and Barnes all the money is cut off to the inner city. Community Development Corporations who sponsored new construction and neighborhood clean ups were cut out of the budget. The 3% loan program is cut off thence homeowners cannot fix there homes that are often cited by the Codes Admin (in this economy the program is a god send to those who can't get financial assistance at a bank). No nothing. We have no decent curbs and sidewalks (especially out south). No decent streets. The list goes on and on. When there's no construction activity in town, no jobs - - -there's no hope. Your City was more concerned about drawing out of towners to this desolate place and forgot that they will "eventially" travel down Prospect, etc. What do they think?? The Shiggity has got to stop. Clean out City Hall. Put the money back into the community before we turn into KCKS (proper).
ReplyDeleteNot to say Prospect looks great, but there are parts of north St Louis that make east KC look like an f'n country club. That is no joke.
ReplyDelete"Do you see me?" and others are right. This looks pretty bad but it is nothing compared to many other places where poverty and crime are much worse. I think people who grew up in KC have no idea how good they have it compared. Have you ever been to south Texas? how about someplace like Canton, Mississippi? How about the coast of Oregon? (Though I think the families living in cars there was possibly by choice.) I am not saying crime and blight are not a problem here--but that crime is *much worse* in some other places, such as the South. And as far as dilapidated housing--get back to me when you get a picture of one with rats crawling on the roof and kids on the porch. Seen outside the school bus window in my hometown as the school bus went through the "bad" part of my hometown. Now, crime was not bad in my hometown although poverty was. But for crime it is hard to beat Memphis. As a lone female, I walk on Main Street all the time after dark, catch the bus all the time after dark, and I may get asked for money here and there but I never get cat-called or looked at in a threatening way like "I'd like to cut out your liver." I don't know how to explain it but there is not the menace in the air like you get in many places in the South. Heck I was in Harrisburg, PA in 2003 downtown on a bright sunny day and there was just this feeling of malaise in the air, with many people seeming to have nowhere to go and no hope. I don't know how to explain it but here in KC I don't get that feeling of malaise and nowhere to go and no hope (yet.) There may be falling down housing here and random bullets flying but you know how you get a case of horrendous child abuse about once a year in KC? Or someone grabbed at a car wash and their body found in a dumpster? about once a year? That is every day's business in Memphis and in parts of Texas. I kid you not.
ReplyDeleteYou have to check out the area just East of the Isle of Capri Casino, around 3rd & Prospect. I have been to most areas of KC until a couple of weeks ago I discovered this shitty area. There is a bar there that I wouldn't dare set foot in but I can't remember the name of it. I'll go back and find the bar and some other street names and post it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most eye opening experiences I ever had was working a summer job for the KC Public Works department. I was an Engineer Aide for the Street Preservation Office, the guys who issue and supervise the contracts to repave city streets. I went out each day to inspect contractors working on streets in parts of KC that this middle class white kid had never seen before. I went to Prospect, Paseo, Cleveland, Jackson, etc.
ReplyDeleteSpending time in those broken neighborhoods cracked open my naive teenage mind to reality and sobered me.
Every young man and woman brought up in the suburbs or any kind of comfortable surroundings should spend a summer seeing that blight. It will teach them something about life and shake them out of their insulated, complacency that makes them draw stereotypes and ignore society's problems throughout the rest of their lives.
I think President Obama's idea about mandatory national service for young adults might be a good first step to force future generations to confront the stark reality of poverty and not sweep it under the rug.