On a nearly four-mile walk along the length of Independence Avenue in Kansas City on Friday morning, longtime Historic Northeast resident Joseph Flores noticed a glaring issue: A lack of public trash bins.
The absence stuck out to him like a sore thumb and left him holding onto an empty coffee cup for several blocks.
“Not everybody's gonna hold on to that cup like me for two, three blocks,” Flores said. “‘Oh, there's no trash can.’ Boom! Throw it right on the floor.”
Near the intersection with Benton Boulevard, Flores noted the first receptacle he saw.
“One trash can,” Flores said. “And we're halfway through our walk.”
The dearth of trash cans along the area’s primary thoroughfare was just one issue that Flores and more than a dozen of his neighbors noticed as they hosted Mayor Quinton Lucas on a tour of Independence Avenue.
Over the course of two hours, neighborhood residents highlighted the Historic Northeast’s best qualities and pointed out the problems in need of city solutions — not just to Lucas, but to their neighbors, too.
“You have to make stuff accessible for people,” Flores said. “Whether it's the simplest things as a trash can.”
For Lucas, the walk was the first time observing Independence Avenue as a pedestrian.
“We should actually just come out and walk and talk with the people, because the number of people who are folks that I've never met, who have been in their community for generations, and some who are new — I mean, this is the sort of perspective you need,” he said when the walk concluded at Columbus Square Park.
‘The blight has taken over’
Letitia Torres has lived in the Lykins Neighborhood, just south of Independence Avenue, for a decade. Torres, a member of the Lykins Neighborhood Association, noticed the many vacant, boarded up buildings lining the avenue.
“What has happened to this specific area is insane,” she said, near the intersection with Hardesty Avenue. “Go to Google Maps and go to the pictures, before, of this spread, and you'll see how the blight has taken over.”
Near the BP gas station east of Van Brunt Boulevard, Torres pointed out an empty parking lot.
“There used to be several food trucks here, and so you would see people coming in and that positive foot traffic,” she said. “But right now you can see the negative foot traffic.”
Carlos Ruiz-Finch, executive chef for Tiki Taco in Kansas City, grew up in the Northeast and still has family members who live in the area.
He said the strong presence of international markets and grocery stores is one of its best qualities, but the area needs more investment.
“There's not a whole lot of opportunity,” he said. “You've either got gas stations or you've got car dealerships, like small-town car dealerships, and cash loans.”
Ruiz-Finch said he joined Friday’s walk to shine a spotlight on the area where he grew up.
“It has some really strong bones, it has some great opportunities,” he said. “But there are some obstacles, some challenges, currently.”
“Hopefully, with having everyone out here today, maybe we can generate, bounce some ideas off of each other on how we can revitalize the Northeast,” Ruiz-Finch said.
‘Our next phase of what Kansas City is’
Lucas said a lot of residents talked with him about issues with crime and nuisance activity, and that a model of neighborhood policing could be an effective way to address those issues outside of calling 911.
As for the walk, Lucas said the quality of infrastructure stood out.
“The early part of the walk, on the far east side of Independence Avenue, it just didn't feel safe as a pedestrian,” he said. “The sidewalk was narrow, the cars are going pretty fast.”
Lucas said an immediate solution that City Hall could address is widening the path to make it safer for pedestrians.
Lucas said the city owes it to the Historic Northeast to give it more attention and investment.
“When you think about the dynamism of Kansas City and its greatest diversity — those many different groups, the large immigrant population, and the growth — I think that this should be the center of where we see our next phase of what Kansas City is,” he said. “Where we see density, where we're seeing more kids in schools nearby on Independence Avenue and Truman Road.”
