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Formerly incarcerated Missourians struggle for decades to find stable housing
Contractors donate more than $20,000 to rip up plastic netting in Parkville’s wetlands
The plastic netting covering Parkville’s wetlands project will be gone by spring after city officials approved a $29,140 donation to remove the potentially hazardous material on the contractor’s dime. The netting is the most visible of several problems with the wetland restoration project in Platte Landing Park that the city of Parkville and U.S. Army…
When justice goes virtual: how KC’s municipal court changes when COVID-19 cases rise
As COVID-19 infections continued to rise in Kansas City, Missouri, in January, the KC Municipal Court took a step back and returned to virtual operations for a few days. The statistics behind the decision were grim: About 20% of all court workers were infected or isolating due to close contact with an infected person. On…
A swing and a miss: After resident backlash, Parkville pauses plan to build multipurpose fields in Platte Landing Park
The athletic fields in Parkville’s Platte Landing Park have seen better days. Faded lines and dry grass mark the spaces meant to be used as venues for baseball, soccer and other sports for youths and their families. A lack of upkeep and their small size has resulted in the fields attracting few visitors. Instead of…
Does a past criminal conviction bar you from serving on a board or commission? Not in KCMO.
Every year, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, appoints hundreds of people to the city’s dozens of boards and commissions, which give ordinary citizens a voice in everything from city planning to liquor control. Those appointments keep Alphia Curry constantly busy. As the city’s boards and commissions manager, she’s responsible for compiling information on dozens…
Dry ground and unmet promises: Parkville’s wetlands project is dead in the water
A wide expanse of plastic netting sits partially buried by dirt and vegetation in Parkville’s Platte Landing Park. Intended as the base of an ongoing wetlands restoration project, the netting has instead become an expensive — and dangerous — nuisance. The City of Parkville in 2017 signed an agreement to participate in a restoration project…
How an ordinance over bike lanes became a flashpoint for conversations about Kansas City infrastructure
It began with a Kansas City Council member’s concerns about bike lanes and their place in the long list of needs in Kansas City’s often overlooked, less-affluent neighborhoods. Those concerns coalesced into a proposed piece of legislation that included language calling for the city to remove existing bike lanes if neighborhood associations did not want…
Hey, where’s that snowplow? Kansas City adopts a new method for guiding them
With winter in Kansas City, Missouri, comes snow. And with snow comes the full force of the KC snowplow crew. Responsible for clearing hundreds of routes each day, drivers have for years been forced to rely on old-fashioned maps to guide them. “I rode with a driver last season and he literally had a paper…
The goal for new Kansas City neighborhoods director: less enforcement, more engagement
If a new department head has his way, Kansas City, Missouri’s city government will act more as a helper and less as an enforcer in neighborhoods. The Kansas City Council approved the creation of a standalone Housing and Community Development Department and a separate Neighborhoods and Community Services Department — splitting what used to be…
‘I still haven’t been allowed to live’: Ex-KCKFD firefighter left in financial limbo after discrimination verdict
In April, ex-KCK firefighter Jyan Harris won a racial discrimination lawsuit in federal court against his old employer, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. A federal jury awarded him $2.4 million in damages, money that Harris needs to support his family. Eight months later, Harris hasn’t seen a cent. “In some…
What renters need to know about Kansas City’s new right-to-counsel law
Beginning in June, all tenants threatened with eviction will be guaranteed access to a lawyer if they want one, thanks to an ordinance the City Council approved last week.
KCMO councilmember provides free transportation to City Hall Thursday for opponents to proposed Northland redistricting
Northland residents upset about the proposed redistricting map have been offered a free ride to a meeting of the Kansas City Council on Thursday. Kevin O’Neill, a council member for the 1st District, announced he would provide a bus to pick up people at the offices of Northland Neighborhoods Inc. and deliver them to City…
KCMO auditor looking into city board and commission conflicts of interest
Are all of Kansas City’s board and commission members filling out required conflict of interest forms? Do those forms include the necessary questions to determine whether a conflict exists? The Kansas City, Missouri, auditor’s office is now examining those questions in a new audit that’s a follow-up to a 2019 inquiry that found multiple VisitKC…
‘Survey was not scientific by any means’: KCPD relies on officers self-reporting COVID-19 vaccination status
No one knows how many Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. Not the city, which relies on officers to interact with the public when responding to calls, or the department itself, which doesn’t require officers to get vaccinated. In a Tuesday meeting of the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee, KCPD…
Kansas City’s Northland divided over proposal to redraw City Council districts
The nine-member panel, which includes representatives from each of Kansas City’s six council districts, voted 6-3 to recommend a map to the City Council that eliminates the north-south border between the 1st and 2nd Districts.
Kansas City declared a climate emergency. Now what?
It’s been 13 years since Kansas City, Missouri, passed its first climate protection plan. At the top of the list: drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Now the city is preparing a new plan, and emission reductions remains a focus. In 2008, the city set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2000…
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