Legoland Lampoon

Kansas City’s Legoland attraction at Crown Center has been a tremendous plus for KC area and regional tourism.  The Lego Group boasts of $5 billion in revenue with individual sites attracting 400,000 to 600,000 local citizens and tourists per year.  To put that in perspective, that is 3 to 4 times the visitors that walk in the doors of all 16 heritage tourism sites in the Independence in spite of our annual investment of $1.4 million of public money for marketing.  The Lego Group’s parent company, Danish firm Merlin Entertainments, boasts of 60 million guests per year in their international market.  As a corporate goal, they work directly with local groups to promote local attractions by re-creating in miniature local tourism sites and landmarks from Legos which is quite interesting and creative in itself.  And because a majority of its patrons are young people, this effort connects our youth to these important sites also.  History that is presented and taught to our children plays a vital role in shaping their values and beliefs.  These types of public/private partnerships, especially those connected to our youth, are valuable in supporting and sustaining local tourism programs which translates to local economic development, increased tax revenue, and community pride.  It’s a winning combination unless you are talking about Independence.  Earlier in the year, I observed at Legoland a Lego re-creation of the very ornate Victorian Truman Home pictured above situated on a very prominent corner at Truman Road and Delaware Street in the heart of the Truman National Historic Landmark District in Independence.  Unfortunately it was labeled as the “Harry S. Truman Farm Home, also known as the Soloman Young Farm, the Harry S. Truman Farm Home was the resident of the Future President from 1907-1917” which is in Grandview, Missouri.  Oh well, I guess that is close enough for the KC folks.  In the age of information technology, we have to do a better job with educating our youth and citizens about our own local and national histories.  I noticed this blunder back in July.  Now I’m wondering if it has been fixed yet.

Political Mud Slinging Highlights Local Sex Offender

Mug shots of neighborhood legend, Randy Lande, are back on the TV screen yet again.  This time they are being broadcast state wide.  It is for political ads for Josh Hawley for Missouri Attorney General.  His opponent, Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley, released this dangerous sex offender, Randy Lande, back into the general population in a plea deal from a Cass County courtroom.   What the ad doesn't tell you is that he ended up being placed through Catholic Charities in an unsupervised group home on the 400 block of West Farmer in the Truman National Historic Landmark District adjacent to a faith-based child day care facility and family homeless shelter.  Randy ended up brutally raping an 8-year-old neighborhood girl and was sentenced to prison with yet another plea deal for a reduced sentence.  So of all the people that allowed Randy Lande to be set free, to have direct access to vulnerable children, and who didn’t even bother to exercise an outstanding warrant for his arrest prior to the rape, only Teresa Hensley is being held accountable through these TV ads.  Even Randy’s old landlord didn’t learn from this experience and continues to operate the same unsupervised group home in the Truman Neighborhood with tenants who need supervision and where visits by the Independence Police Department are routine.  To quote Steven Denn, “You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice.”  There is a reason nothing improves with respect to situations such as this.  It’s a choice!  Neighborhood children deserve better!

Loan Wolves Prey on Independence

The financial services market in Old Town Independence is evolving and sinking down to the lowest common denominator.  A number of the big banks have left including Bank of America on the Square, Central Bank on West 24 Hwy, and now just recently Commerce Bank on Osage just off the Square.  Filling these voids are payday loan establishments.  What was once the financial center of national and international trade on the pioneer trails and the western territories of an expanding nation has now been reduced to floating high-interest loans between nominal paychecks and Social Security and Food Stamp distributions.  And patrons of these services are pushed deeper and deeper into holes that are difficult to climb out of.  With the exit of big banks, there are fewer financial services for small businesses while they look for other more stable business districts to set up shop and to invest in.  To put situations in further historic context, a community that hosts the “Miracle Mile” that boasted of cruising and fast-food eating establishment, now has more payday loan companies than fast-food restaurants.  One could say we need more affordable housing for our citizens so they don’t need expensive loans but currently Independence has the third lowest rental rates in the entire country, which corresponds to depressed values in real estate.  So even homeowners are knocking on the doors of payday lenders while they are left without home equity for small loans, home improvements, or just simple home repairs.   And when you are up-side-down on your home and behind on repairs, you can’t even sell your home and move on with your life.  Public investments in ice hockey, retail, guns/ammo sales, fake water fall, and PR campaigns would have been better spent on continuing well-planned neighborhood revitalization programs in both the Midtown / Truman Road Corridor and the Fairmont / Carlisle areas and investing in our greatest assets, our history.  And it is not about spending more public money but, in reality, it should be about weaning ourselves from the dependence of government subsidies.  In fact, we should enact a moratorium on subsidized housing until we can develop an appropriate comprehensive plan for community development, housing, and preservation.  Then we may actually have a chance to live up to our name, “Independence.” 

Truman Boyhood Home gets "Stoned"

One of the three Harry S Truman Boyhood Homes in Independence is at 902 North Liberty Street is getting a nip & tuck-pointed facelift.  And it is with stone.  And not just any stone.  It appears to be a faux stone panel veneer with an update in superfluous millwork.  To get an idea of what it used to look like, pull up the New York Times article from October 15, 2010 entitled “In Truman Homes, Reflections of a City” by A. G. Sulzberger and there is a feature photo of the house with owner, Tracy E. Haley.  The article certainly provides an objective perspective of how well we are doing as a community telling the story of Harry Truman, especially during his “Wonder Years” growing up in the old neighborhood.  The house featured in the article, with the photo by photographer Steve Hebert, was a typical Victorian wood-framed home with wood lapped siding, similar to the Truman Home National Historic Site a short nine blocks away, only at a bit smaller scale.  Tracy is quoted as saying that she had lived there several years before she discovered that young Harry Truman had briefly lived there.  With this level of investment, is it clear we do not need historic preservation standards in this corner of the Old Town?  Even the National Park Service left out this property and neighborhood block from the expanded National Historic Landmark District boundaries taking away opportunities for valuable tax credits to offset expensive restoration costs that comply with those standards.  Keep in mind, Liberty Street is also the predominate route for the three National Historic Trails that connect The Square with the river boat landing on the Missouri River and is federally designated.  So in the spirit of the new townhouse project also on Liberty Street between White Oak and Truman Road, which also represents neo-eclectic and enigmatic styles and materials, we offer a salute to those who have the audacity to not only invest in our historic community but also rewrite history at the same time.  To add a quote by legendary rock band, AC/DC, “For those about to ROCK, we salute you!”  Pun intended.

The "F-Word" in Real Estate Development

So what if a real estate developer makes promises and agreements in order to receive favor either through rezoning hearings, a sales agreement, receipt of public subsidies, special public financing, or to get a bye on critical upgrades or on following preservation standards, or possibly even all of the above, then renege on those agreements after receiving favor in all of his demands?   And what if he even holds the project up as a hostage in order to receive even more public subsidies because miscalculations and/or poor planning so he can further improve his profit margins for himself and his investors/stockholders?  Within the financial world, they have a name for this and it begins with the letter “F.”  And so it would then lead one to conclude that those public officials and legal counsels who allow this action to take place while being complacent, and, in some cases, even offering praise of the actions, would be considered accomplices in those actions.  And let’s say hypothetically that if the actions are, in fact, considered criminal acts, then the accomplices would be participants in those crimes and would be subject to probes or inquiries into at least ethics concerns if not corruption or worse.  And the decision-making is done with private meetings behind closed door and absent of community and national stakeholders.  Are we so desperate for redevelopment in our historic community that we would lower our standards of integrity for all who participate?  Does this sound like the community of one of the most respected US presidents who coined the phrase, “The Buck Stops Here?”  To quote Richard Whately, 19^th-century English rhetorician & author, “All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar ... always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support.”  In other words, don’t be surprised to witness the failure of these real estate projects initiated and founded on deception.  These failures not only affect people and property, but radiate throughout our historic community.

"BREAKING NEWS - Local Truman District Too Small" - June 17th

"Despite designation as a National Historic Landmark, the Harry S Truman Historic District is rapidly losing its historic character, in part because of inadequate protection of its historic resources.  Within sight of the Truman house, several historic buildings have been replaced by parking lots and nondescript new construction.  Other threats to the historic neighborhood include changing regional economic conditions and demographics, and the contemporary problem of urban blight.  Historic homes and buildings are being demolished or collapsing because of general deterioration and neglect."

The above exert is from a press release and media campaign from the National Trust for Historic Preservation on June 17^th placing the Truman National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) in the “Top 11” list of most endangered landmarks in the country.  This campaign goes on to cite “insensitive planning policies” and “nondescript new construction” as problems negatively impacting the NHLD.  No, this “News Flash” announcement didn’t happen today.  It was on June 17^th, 1996 and, yes, it’s part of the preservation history of our community.  This news release was issued exactly 20 years ago (10:30 am to be exact) primarily because the local Truman Heritage District was alarmingly too small to protect the nationally designated Truman NHLD and its historic setting.  Exactly two decades later, the local district is not only the same small size but we now have a NHLD that three times the size it was.  So if the local district was too small in 1996, it should be even more distressing today with a much larger federal district worthy of protection.  Urban blight and economic/market pressures are also a bigger problem.  There continues to be the absence of a local not-for-profit group guiding and advocating historic preservation in Independence while City Hall has cut the Historic Preservation budget to one quarter of what it used to be.  A strong argument could be raised that situations today are even worse than in 1996.  But community leaders will not raise that concern since it would be incompatible with our recent PR campaigns, not to mention our current philosophy that, if we ignore problems, they will go away.  The hypocrisy in all this was the overwhelming support from City Hall for the expansion of the NHLD with new plaques, an open house event, and many photo-ops for politicians while we continue to ignore our national and civic responsibilities to providing real protections through local zoning and more “sensitive planning policies.”

Upgrades at Truman Boyhood Home

The Truman Boyhood Home at South Crysler added a new concrete parking lot to the front lawn area to supplement the gravel parking area to the north side.  This should go a long way to support the 7 mailboxes on this once single-family home on this very visible corner and entrance into our historic community.  This property was actually highlighted in a New York Times article published October 15, 2010 entitled "In Truman Homes, Reflections of a City" written by A.G. Sulzberger, the Times Associate Editor, referring to Independence as the "hardscrabble suburb" that "struggled in recent decades to confront the many faces of urban blight."  The article goes on to describe this property as "decaying" and having the "reputation as a drug house" in a community where our most prominent citizen was referred to as our "less favorite son."  Keep in mind the NY Times reaches hundreds of millions of readers world-wide through its newsprint and website.  Our local reaction to this publication was either ignorance of the article or dismissing it as bad journalism from a writer who just doesn't understand us.  This reaction is typical of the negative press Independence receives.  Rather than providing leadership and investments in active and successful revitalization and historic preservation programs, we prefer to throw public funds into multiple PR and "rebranding" campaigns.  We "pass the buck" for preserving and interpreting the story of Harry S Truman to two federal agencies with our only local responsibility to preserve and protect Truman's neighborhood and local sites.  How are we doing with that?  You could ask City Hall but you would get the same response for their assessment for everything they do.  It's better to get the objective opinion of an outsider representing one of the most respected media companies in the world.

Heritage House Hits Hundred% HUD Housing Highpoint

The H-bomb gets dropped in the Truman Neighborhood targeting Heritage House Apartments and the fall out will be around for decades.  In accordance to the new owner/developer’s recent application for financial support through programs with the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC), they are converting all 166 units to Section 8 HUD-subsidized, low-income housing.  This was posted on MHDC’s website 6 months ago so it is actually old news.  Keep in mind, the apartment building had already been 20 percent Section 8 housing for many decades under the ownership of the Community of Christ Church.  The 20-80 sustainable balance of mixed-income senior residents instituted their success in creating community within the building that once even had a waiting list to get in.  This balance, sense of community, and the actual demonstration that the site was viable for market rental rates were the very selling points representing the value of the property to this out-of-town investor hand-picked by the Church.  The new owner/developer even made promises to the Church, the Mayor, the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Heritage Commission, neighbors, and, for that matter, to the entire community in public meetings and under an oath of honesty that they would maintain and operate the facility just like the Church had done.  They even promised to use the same local personnel for on-site management.  Statements were made in public meetings that they were NOT going to ask for additional HUD support.  These commitments and promises were the very foundation of the support they received from the community.   Now all of that has changed.  The moving vans have been very busy moving residents out of the building and out the neighborhood where they were supporting the local economy.  And so this decision was made 1,500 miles away to add 133 low-income Section 8 housing rental units into a historic neighborhood that has been under an award-winning comprehensive M/TRC Revitalization Plan established in the very beginning to reduce government-assisted rental properties in order to improve home values and the marketability of the entire neighborhood, as stated by one of the most prominent city planners in the Midwest region, Ralph Ochsner. This transformation is being implemented with no public hearings, open discussion, and/or the participation of community stakeholders.  Even City Council members who voted in favor of this new ownership and redevelopment plan at least four times have called this transformation “unfortunate” and “uncomfortable” to discuss and have attempted to maintain what appears to be a level of secrecy over the situation.  To make matters worse, the only grocery store within walking distance of the apartment building is also going through its own transformation from providing food and fresh produce to selling alcohol and tobacco products.  It seems almost appropriate that a project that began almost 45 years ago by the forced eviction of residents through eminent domain from their well-maintained historic properties and giving them to the RLDS Church would end up with yet another chapter of deception in the history of this real estate.  As the pages turn and the narrative continues to be written, we have a new landmark and chapter in the story of a struggling presidential neighborhood.

Top Ten for 2015

10.  MACO proposed to construct rental duplexes on undeveloped land between Jones and Nickells Streets right on the hiking/biking trail marked with National Park Service (NPS) National Historic Trail signs that connects four city parks, trails interpretive panels, and the Truman Library.  This land located in the Mill Creek Valley would have been a coveted camping and staging area for early pioneers getting ready for their long journey on the trails.  In spite of its obvious historical setting, the project was not reviewed by the Heritage Commission, Parks & Recreation, NPS, the Truman Library, or even the Oregon California Trails Association (OCTA) prior to Planning Commission review and approval.  Public Works called the plan “objectionable” due to its impact to the trail.  The Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) was more polite in calling its location next to the trail “not ideal.”  But for some strange reason, two officials of OCTA representing the national trails interest back the high-density housing rezoning plan without revision in the final days of Council approval leaving no time for responses or an actual historical review process.  Ironically, OCTA was publicly advocating for the preservation green space along the national trails during this same time period.

9.  While declaring that economic development in Independence is thriving, the city ended up giving away, for free, several prime pieces of real estate to developers.  One property worth noting here is the city block bounded by Main, Truman, Liberty, and White Oak Streets given to Ken McClain.   This block used to host a wagon/blacksmith shop, stables, businesses that supported the pioneer trails, and had potential ties to the slavery trade.  This represented one of the prime archaeological sites in this region.   The property was handed over to McClain with the idea of developing townhouses through an emergency ordinance to the City Council which did not allow for open public comment.  The property is flanked on two sides by the Truman National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) and by Liberty Street which is the National Historic Trail not to mention it is across the street from the NPS Visitors Center. With this said, there was no Heritage Commission review, archaeological study, NPS review nor preservation review of any kind at any level of government in spite of the fact they are pursuing Preservation Tax Credits from the state of Missouri.  In fact, the architect described any archaeological resources as “rubbish” to be hauled away as unwanted waste.

8.  With McClain’s redevelopment project at Main and Truman Road, the Farmer’s Market had to be relocated to the other side of the Square where there is even more blighted asphalt.  Moving the Farmer’s Market, from a logistical standpoint, is actually pretty easy.  All you have to do is pick up the port-a-potty and move it to the new location.  The port-a-potty, which is left there year-round, is really the only public improvement on the site to support the Farmer’s Market.  There is a move to commemorate the old Farmer’s Market with a historic marker at the old location.  Yes, this will be the first historical marker to commemorate a port-a-potty.

7.  The Thriftway neighborhood grocery store at the corner of River Boulevard and 24 Highway is planning a renovation.  Unfortunately, plans call for it to concentrate on selling liquor and tobacco.  This was years in the making with the adjacent influences of the vagrant camps behind them, crime, panhandling, surrounding housing dominated by government subsidies and limited buying power, and the continuing trend of blight all along the 24 Highway corridor which hosts a prestigious presidential library.

6.  Work progresses on one of the NSP projects at 419 North Pleasant Street in the Truman NHLD in spite of the persistence of thieves routinely stealing building materials and tools.  One afternoon they were actually caught on camera and their photos posted on social media, including this blog, resulting in their identification.  The thieves were actually brothers so their crimes were part of a family outing.  Workers for this non-for-profit redevelopment corporation mentioned that the projects they have worked on in Independence had suffered from the worse thief problems they’ve ever encountered in the KC area.

5.  On June 24, the National Parks Serviced named Carol Dage its new Superintendent of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site (NHS).  Carol is a 26-year veteran of the site and should have a wealth of knowledge and background with respect to the NHS and the Truman Neighborhood.  We wish her and our federal preservation partners success.

4.  Cori Day, Tourism Director, and Robert Heacock, City Manager, disappear from City Hall in early August.  Both served as leaders for the Independence Events Center which currently owes more in revenue bonds today than it did when it first opened 7 years ago.  The city consolidated resources with promoting the Event Center and heritage tourism while visitor counts to historic sites dropped significantly.  Now the city wants to combine the Event Center and Tourism and place it under the direction of Parks & Recreation.  This will even further dilute heritage tourism resources from the hotel tax that were intended to be from their very inception solely dedicated to promoting our rich national history.

3.  The Jackson County Historical Society (JCHS) published an article in their Journal about the Harry S Truman National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) rehashing the 1984 local historic district reduction debacle and highlighting recent efforts by the NPS to expand the NHLD.  Unfortunately they published the wrong map making the NHLD appear larger than it actually was while omitting the fact that the local district boundaries from 1984 indignity still remain.  Keep in mind; this organization took a leadership role in 1996 to make a proclamation to the entire world through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and even David McCullough that the local historic district boundaries were alarmingly inadequate to protect the smaller NHLD.  Two decades later, JCHS appears not only uninformed about federal boundaries but indifferent about the local district boundaries and their own history on the matter.

2.  OCTA announces a 40-mile long national hiking and biking trail between Wayne’s City Landing in Sugar Creek and Gardner, Kansas.  Interestingly, they choose the River Boulevard Route from the Square to the river instead the more historic and direct route on Liberty Street that has actual historic sites and tourist destinations.  Those sites include the Vaile Mansion, the city premier museum, along with the Lewis-Jones House, antebellum home of wagon-maker, owner of the Nebraska House Hotel, and financial backer of merchants on the trails.  One of Harry Truman’s boyhood homes is also located on North Liberty Street.  The most important asset on the Liberty Street route is the Mill Creek Elementary School which could provide huge opportunities for youth involvement and public education partnerships for the national trails, always a goal of the NPS and partners.  Plus the Liberty Street route goes much further to promote Independence history, tourism, education, and revitalization.  Now I’m wondering if they were under the influence of wine when deciding on the River Boulevard route.

1.  Independence continues to struggle with no preservation not-for-profit group, a city-run preservation commission that routinely cancels meetings because there is nothing to talk about, and city officials content with a struggling heritage tourism program.  At least in 1984, when the city’s preservation program was slashed by 2/3’s, there was public outrage.  Outrage is better than indifference.