Tired of shootings, open drug sales, gambling and prostitution at 35th Street and Prospect Avenue, city leaders on Monday vowed to close nearby businesses while residents called for taking back their neighborhood.
For the third summer in a row, the corner, with a BP gas station on one end and a liquor store on the other, is a hotbed of continued violence.
Even while city leaders promised a crackdown, Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said the community is “so tired of the performative gestures.”
“This press conference, this is a feel-good moment, and let’s enjoy it, but tomorrow you all with the power to do something … do your job. Do it with expediency. Do it with urgency,” Grant said. “Help us fight for our community. We want to reclaim our neighborhoods.”
Six people died and another five were injured during last weekend's violence, including one at the 18th & Vine entertainment district.
Angry residents of the Oak Park neighborhood described lines of people sitting along Prospect openly drinking, doing drugs and, sometimes, using firearms.
Pat Clarke, president of Oak Park Neighborhood, said young people need jobs and better things to do, which the community doesn’t offer.
“When you see 40 or 50 people on the side of a building and nobody say, ‘You gotta go,’ when you have a mother of four sitting over there, when there's shots fired across the street, at what point are we gonna say we don't want this no more?” Clarke said.
The news conference, arranged by Prospect corridor residents and leaders from the community groups Urban Summit and Prospect Corridor Task Force, was held in a parking lot off 35th Street and Prospect Avenue, an area that’s experienced decades of violence. A few dozen residents held signs reading “No more silence!” and “Sick and tired of the violence.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city can respond by pressing for more code violations.
“If you are harboring criminal activity again and again, and if you have been cited by codes enforcement, if we need to, we will shut you down, and we’ll make sure our community can be safer,” Lucas said.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson, who grew up in and still lives in the area, became emotional as she described the violence she witnessed. Last weekend, she said she could hear gunshots from her bedroom, the result of a shooting at a gas station that left one woman dead and four men injured.
“I live here. My mom lives here. My sister lives here, and these tears are not a sign of weakness. They’re a sign of frustration,” she said. “These babies that are picking up trash every single day have to watch what I call 'Club 35th and Prospect' right here outside of Big D’s Liquor.”
Grant said city leadership could increase police patrols, reduce the number of liquor stores and invest in services like parks, schools and branch banking. She called for a liquor store and service station, businesses she described as “a nuisance to our people,” to be removed.
After the conference, community members walked across the street, crowded into the gas station and demanded to speak to the owner. He told the group that he feels as if his hands are tied because hiring extra security is too expensive, and he sometimes fears going out to address crowds of people who are often armed.
