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Kansas City Council member says tougher penalties on illegal dumping have cleaned up the city

A man wearing glasses talks into a microphone in a radio studio.
Claudia Brancart
Kansas City Council member Crispin Rea speaking on KCUR's Up To Date.

Illegal dumping has been a problem in Kansas City for decades. Now, a year after the city instituted tougher penalties on offenders, Council member Crispin Rea says things are moving in the right direction.

Illegal trash dumping in Kansas City used to be a big issue — with garbage and big items like mattresses ending up in vacant lots, especially in the city's low-income areas.

And while that is still a concern, the situation seems to be improving after Council passed an ordinance last year that increases penalties for offenders.

The city is now seeing a higher amount of cases investigated and prosecuted — plus clean-ups of long-standing dumping sites.

Kansas City Council member Crispin Rea, who sponsored the ordinance, told KCUR's Up To Date that illegal dumping has been an intractable problem that the city has dealt with for decades.

"I was excited to get an update from our neighborhood staff recently that showed our response times to cleaning up these sites are down by 30%. So, we're getting there quicker," Rea said.

"We're investigating and we're cleaning them up. The resolution of cases has increased by 30%, so not only are we cleaning them up quicker, but we're resolving them."

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When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
As Up To Date’s senior producer, I want to pique the curiosity of Kansas Citians and help them understand the world around them. Each day, I construct conversations with our city’s most innovative visionaries and creatives, while striving to hold elected officials accountable and amplifying the voices of everyday Kansas Citians. Email me at zach@kcur.org.
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