The streetscape along Broadway in Midtown had really started to deterioate in the last year or so. There are some decent looking 1990-ish custom street lights and traffic signals, flower planters, and brick crosswalks. However it doesn't seem to have been maintained very well lately. The poles are peeling paint and visible rust, and many of the brick crosswalks are losing bricks. The area around 39th and Broadway is especially bad.

Its a shame isn't it? That stretch of Broadway was done in the mid 90's. I can't believe that someone let this happen.

I was thinking the same think just last week. Broadway just doesn't seem right, I guess this might be why, I didn't really notice what is was, but I can tell the corridor seems to be dragging a little asthetically.

Same with the Trfwy. That median looks like shit now after the parks dept filled the tree wells with bricks. I'm not sure what it needs, but Broadway and SW Tfwy need sprucing up again.

As someone who lives right off of Broadway, I agree. The whole area's gotten scummier over the last few years. We have friggin' drug deals right outside our windows every nite, & the police do NOTHING about it.

It's getting both uglier & less safe.

The reply I received the offices of 4th District council members Rowland and Glover was that these problems should be covered by the city's regular maintainence work, but that the list was so long it could be years before they go to it.

They suggested submitting requests for repairs to the PIAC (Public Infrastructure Advisory Committee) - the citizens' board that decides on neighborhood improvement projects. Additional requests from more people would be helpful, as well as from the Valentine and Broadway-Westport neighborhood associations.

Let Cauthen know in writing....this is the reason he let all those shmucks go.

Is is just me or is Broadway between Valentine and Westport been on the news an awfull lot latley with shootings, stabbings, roberies and even murders?

Another one today.

What's up with Broadway? Has the rebirth of Main Street pushed the trash west?

I dunno the reasons for it, but like I said - it's definitely gotten rougher around here. We just had a 5-cop-car + a Paddy Wagon incident in the parking lot right next to our building a couple nights ago.

And even though we gave the cops SPECIFIC info about the drug deals in that same lot ( we're talking friggin' license plate numbers, etc. ) they still never did anything. I get pissed just thinking about it...

Hey, this is all very dissapointing to hear. Out of curiosity, is there any kind of neighborhood association in the areas surrounding Broadway?

It's funny that police in Mission Hills and Fairway have the time and resources to sit and lurk amongst the Kansas shadows and follow me all the way back to State Line from friends homes and yet this type of activity is being allowed to happen right outside peoples windows, especially people with the presence of mind to record plate numbers and report them

just my thoughts, Alexi

p.s. i understand that Mission Hills and Fairway are much, much, much smaller cities and have a wealthier tax base, but nonetheless the disparity in police activity is unfortunate.

I'm always amazed at how few cops I see around KC. I guess they must be prepping and preening for their appearances on "COPS."

And when they DO show up, it's always WAY too late. We had some suspicious activity going on in our back parking lot a couple months ago, & the cop car showed up 90 MINUTES after we'd called for them.

Another time they wouldn't send a car to a potential assault situation ( man SCREAMING at woman violently up in her face for 10 + minutes in the same parking lot where all the drug deals went down ) because he hadn't actually smacked her yet. I got into an argument with the 911 operator on that one, asking her why they would wait until he started beating the stuffin' outta her before doing something.

Then there was the time I witnessed a car getting broken into...the cops took all my info, CAUGHT THE GUY & had me ID him on the spot - then it was several MONTHS later when they had me come down to the Police Station to give more info. I was told I'd have to tell the story on the stand in a trial, which I was fine with. Never heard from them again.

It's this kind of stuff that makes people move to Kansas, folks.

some people i know were eating at Chubby's on Broadway a couple of weeks ago and saw a big fight in the parking lot, which ended up escalating into an exchange of gunfire. people in the restuarant called KCPD....who showed up (to a SHOOTING mind you) over a halfhour later.

one of the guys i know who was there had three or four bullets shatter his car windows, and when he was talking to the police when they got there to report it, he made the mistake of asking him "so how come when there is a shooting it takes 35 minutes for ONE cop to come, but if there is a rave or something going on, there are 6 cop cars there to break it up before it even starts?"

the cops response: "1. we were busy fighting crime in other parts of the city and 2. tone it down or i'm walking away and youre not getting your police report."

grrrrreat.

The inner core of Kansas City will never compete with the suburbs, or truly "take off" until city leaders deal with crime issues, and the perception of crime.

For example, as I've said several times in other posts here, there are no police officers apparent on the streets of downtown. Many area residents and visitors continue to have the idea that downtown is unsafe still (which I don't share). One contributing factor that supports that belief stems from the fact that one never sees police walking the streets. Even parking cops drive around instead of walking.

It's ironic that Police Headquarters is located downtown, and police squad cars are always parked along E. 12th St., yet one never physically sees police officers in the downtown area walking the streets. They need to physically present to be effective and to counter public perceptions (that many in the suburbs especially have) that downtown remains unsafe.

At night, one is more likely to see private security patrols around downtown than actual police. It appears that downtown property owners have to hire their own security because they can't count on the police department to do their job.

Putting police back on the streets--instead of riding around in squad cars--actually works. Crime plummeted in Manhattan to its lowest level in 30 years after NYPD put cops back on the streets walking a beat.

In addition to Kansas City, I've lived in two major cities--one on the east coast, and one in the west. I can say that I see fewer police officers in Kansas City than either of those other cities.

Perhaps if tax dollars that were levied for police and fire protection were actually spent on those efforts, instead of being diverted to TIF projects, then the city would have adequate policing of its streets.



The earlier post that indicated the response of the cops when questioned why they took so long to respond indicates bad training among police officers. They should have never uttered those words. That's bad public relations.

Because a citizen who's willing to give a statement questions police response time, which they have the right to do, should not result in an officer making that remark and indicating that they would walk away and not take the report. That is unacceptable. The proper thing to do in that situation is to take the name and badge number of that officer, or license plate of his squad car, and report it to his superiors and also send a report to your district council member, and the mayor's office.

One should also not have to argue with the 911 operator about whether officers should be dispatched to address a public disturbance in a parking lot. Whether that woman was being physically assaulted or not shouldn't have mattered, because it was a public disturbance that could very well have turned into an assault. How can a 911 operator assess that situation and make such a judgement over the phone?

I see to recall the police shooting and killing a blind man (brandishing a knife)--who didn't speak English--recently because he was creating a scene and not responding to police's efforts to calm him. He was not assaulting anyone at the time, yet the police asserted that they had the perception that they were in imminent danger. If actual police officers had such difficulty assessing a situation correctly, then how could a 911 operator decide that the man shouting at that woman in a parking lot in Midtown was not capable of assault?

After all, the police are they to protect "and to serve" the public. If they have that type of attitude about their job, they should be doing something else.

Perhaps it's time to start pointing these things out to the mayor and council members.

One could argue that the appeal of recent "conceal and carry" gun permit legislation in Missouri would not be so popular if residents actually felt the police departments were effective. When gunfire is breaking out in the Chubby's parking lot in Midtown, it's easy to see why some residents feel the need to carry guns with them.

I couldn't find a better place to put this:

It's the Downtown Council's plans for all sections of the Broadway corridor. It has some small graphics and overviews of their plans from the Northland bluffs to 12th Street downtown.

Downtown Council Documents

Any date on the completion of this project?

An old thread.....
It looks like this area has really turned it around since the forum made these comments. Good to see.