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.”
