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.”