Neighborhood Revitalization – Gridlock on the Gridiron

The cover story in the KC Star Magazine from the Sunday paper is an article about Ralph Ochsner of Ochsner Hare & Hare, the creator and consultant of the Midtown / Truman Road Corridor (M/TRC) Neighborhood Revitalization project. It’s actually a good article and Ralph is brilliant and very creative but when discussing M/TRC, it requires a reality check. First of all, I believe it is important when doing the math and counting investments, the balance sheet should account for the losses. $85 million is a great total but we lost an $80 million hospital in the process. And if you read earlier blog entries, you may come up with several more items and setbacks to place in the loss column. Determining the overall success without accounting for the losses would be like playing a football game but only counting the scores from your team. In the article, a project was touted where “The front façade of that home was lying in the yard. Both stories were open to the elements, and a homeless guy was living in the basement.” The successful preservation of that circa 1853 building actually had very little to do with Ralph and M/TRC. It was a small group of neighbors who banded together, took the risks, and implemented that project while going all the way to Jefferson City to get the financial backing. In fact, some M/TRC Board members were, at the time, critical of the project while requests to M/TRC for financial support were refused. But with the assistance of neighborhood volunteers, the Truman Heartland Community Foundation, a group of architectural drafting students from William Chrisman, and the determination of a wonderful lady who wanted to contribute to a presidential neighborhood, the project was a huge success. The project got national attention on Bob Vila’s program, “Restore America” during the first season of a brand new cable TV network called HGTV. I’m glad to read in the Star Magazine that Ralph was pleased with the restoration of that Antebellum home but to somehow mention the project to a journalist while touting your accomplishments is misleading. But back to the football game, the half-time show is over, the score is dead even, and it’s time to put a fresh team on the field. We have great game plan thanks to Coach Ochsner, but the players need to actually read the plan, the players and the coach need to follow the plan, and finish with a victory before handing out trophies or awards.

Democracy on Pleasant Street

On this day, exactly 62 years ago, was one of the most dramatic elections in United States history. And, yes, that story began here in Independence, Missouri. I was actually reminded of this anniversary this morning on National Public Radio. November 2, 1948, Harry Truman, accompanied with Bess, Margaret, and several Secret Service personnel, walked one block east to the Memorial Building from his home on Delaware Street. Imagine being a student in Palmer Junior High sitting in a classroom on that day and having the teacher interrupt the lesson plan to direct students toward the windows or to the sidewalk to witness the President and his entourage marching across Pleasant Street towards the Memorial Building, scaling 16 stair steps to the front doors of the building to cast his vote for himself. This would be quite a lesson in civics. I’m sure that would be an image hard to forget every time you would cast a vote from that point on. A.G. Sulzberger, journalist with the New York Times, recently reminded us that our local history is actually very important to the nation. The physical evidence of that story is presented to the nation in our built environment; our sidewalks, the old courthouse, school buildings, neighborhood blocks, church steeples, and some of our Section 8 government-subsidized rental property. We should appreciate the national and international attention we get from the National Archives, the Truman Library, the National Park Service, and the New York Times. But let’s work together as a community to make sure that attention is positive. On that note and in the spirit of the 1948 election, support democracy, be sure to vote today.

Would Jesus Vote Yes on Amendment 3?

As our political season approaches its final week, it is interesting to see the political signs, especially here in the Truman Neighborhood. Some signs of particular interest are the four signs supporting Missouri Constitution Amendment 3 on the property of Heritage House Apartments at 660 North Spring. Most folks don’t know this but Heritage House is actually a not-for-profit tax-exempt organization affiliated with the Community of Christ Church. And the proposed Amendment 3 would ban governments from establishing a sales tax on real estate transactions. This ballet measure was initiated by an association of “for-profit” real estate professions. So why would a tax-exempt religious institution want neighborhood voters and, in particular, their renters (most who don’t own real estate), to vote to ban real estate sales tax? This is actually the million dollar question. And this is not the real irony. The rest of the story is that Heritage House is actually the polling place for the most of the neighborhood. Yes, that’s right, the landlord that pays no taxes and actively campaigns against taxes is the host of our neighborhood polling place where the voting booths are just an elevator stop for their hundreds of renters, where votes are cast concerning, yes you guessed it, taxes. And this particular campaign is somewhat deceptive. The fact is that purchasing a home is one few things that average middle-class American families can do to actually lower their tax bill. Whoever said that politics and religion don’t mix apparently never lived in the Truman Neighborhood. “Read my lips, no new taxes, pass the tea, and Praise the Lord!” I’m Tongue&Groove and I approve this message.

Truman Homes & Independence get Exposure

Problems associated with Truman’s Neighborhood and Old Town finally got some attention in the press. No it was not The Examiner or the KC Star. It was the New York Times and the Herald Tribune. Yes, the NY Times has a paper circulation of 1 million and 18 million daily visits (national and international) on their website.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101016/ZNYT02/10163015/2055/NEWS

This is what happens when your community hosts an important presidential history and you don’t take it seriously. The article speaks for itself and does not depict our community as good place to invest or raise a family. Will our community leaders read this and respond appropriately?

Lady Liberty Liberated

As a ship full of young soldiers was returning home from Europe in the aftermath of World War I, a war that generated 37 million causalities and 16 million deaths, a young Army Captain wrote to his future bride, “I’ve never seen anything that looked so good as the Liberty Lady in New York Harbor.” That soldier was Harry Truman writing a letter to his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace. This vision and setting of the statue where, “even the most hard-bitten veteran had trouble blinking back the tears,” was presented again in a speech by President Ronald Reagan at the Opening ceremonies of the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York on July 3, 1986 where the president actually quotes from this letter written by Truman. Only three years prior to this speech, President Reagan would sign the legislation to create the Harry S Truman Home National Historic Site. Flash back again, this time one hundred years to the summer of 1884, the corner stone for the foundation that supports Lady Liberty in New York Harbor was laid, the statue was officially handed over to the ownership of the United States, and a child was born in Lamar, Missouri who would eventually help preserve liberty and freedom in the world as Commander and Chief. In more recent history, midway through President Truman’s second term, the Boy Scouts of American would dedicate a replica of the Lady Liberty in front of the Palmer School building and across the street from the old Memorial Building, a building dedicated to those WWI veterans who did not make it back on those returning ships through New York Harbor. The Memorial Building, Palmer School, and the Statue of Lady Liberty would eventually become contributing elements of the Harry S Truman National Historic Landmark District. President Truman would pass by that statue thousands of times during his walks through the neighborhood during his time in office and in his retirement. In 2003 the Independence School District celebrated the renovation and preservation of the Palmer School Building while receiving the W.Z. Hickman Award for Historic Preservation. Unfortunately the restoration of statue which had suffered from vandalism and a lack of maintenance was excluded from the School District’s plans. Last year, the City of Independence Beautification Commission was successful in resurrecting Lady Liberty and tasked with finding a more appropriate location for its home. In June of 2009, the restored Statue of Liberty was praised and celebrated at its new location at the new Midwest Genealogy Center located 4 miles away in a suburban site. The Beautification Commission should be congratulated for their successful restoration and relocation. And as the city’s Heritage Commission works diligently to review the smallest of detail for a tiny window on the second floor of a home on Delaware Street, we somehow need to recognize that a big and important piece of the Truman National Historical Landmark District not only was moved out of the neighborhood but its move was actually a celebrated event. It is my hope that we have a neighborhood where these historic and patriotic symbols of our liberty and freedom are always considered appropriate. We apparently still have a lot of work to do. And maybe we should add a third plaque to the base of Lady Liberty that states, “This statue used to reside in Harry Truman’s neighborhood on the property where he attended school, across the street from where he voted, and on the sidewalks where he walked.”

“Size Matters”

There is some encouragement in Independence for the proposal to expand the existing Harry S Truman National Historic Landmark (NHL) District. Expanded boundaries were first drawn almost ten years ago (see map) by the National Park Service (NPS) and were intended to cover more properties connected to the story of President Truman. If you examine the current proposed boundaries and compare them to boundaries first presented to the community you will notice that it got smaller. Here in Independence, we actually have a history of one of the nation’s only shrinking historic districts. But why did the NPS shrink the proposed NHL district expansion? The most noticeable bite taken out the original plan happens to be in the SW corner adjacent to the Community of Christ Church properties, which ironically represents our community’s most significant and visible investments led by the Midtown / Truman Road Corridor (M/TRC) Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation. Did M/TRC and City Hall support too many demolitions during this work? M/TRC standards for their activities including their tax abatement program include adherence to federal historic preservation standards. So if federal standards were really followed during redevelopment, then why did the NPS remove these blocks from their proposed federal district? Because of this omission, those property owners will not be eligible for current or future federal and state financial assistance programs for historic properties. Will this encourage further reinvestment? These blocks are only a half a block from the Truman Home National Historic Site and include properties connected to the Truman’s. It appears to me that significant public investments in programs do not guarantee their successes (sound familiar?). With the limited resources available for historic neighborhoods, it is most critical that tax dollars are spent wisely and effectively. In this case, were we smart with our public investments? From the perspective of our nation’s assets, it appears not, but I guess we will let history be the judge.

Santa-Cali-(is)-Gone

Yes, it was Santa-Cali-Gon time again in Independence. And yes, attendance appeared to be up (along with the BMI of the average attendee). And of course, it’s the festival named after and intended to celebrate our pioneer trails heritage but does nothing to promote this important history. As successful as one may judge this 4-day festival to be, the fact is that it promotes undeveloped space and blighted asphalt parking lots for the remaining 361 days of the year. The blighted empty parking lot owned by Bank of America (8-29-09 blog entry) looked even worst this year than last. The pile of brush and weeds that was in the middle of the lot wasn’t even cleaned out. The good church-folks that got permission from the bank to sale parking places there just shoved the debris to the corner towards the street to optimize the number of parking spaces (while minimizing their clean-up efforts). The bank didn’t even bother to mow the grass. If the Independence Chamber of Commerce would just pull the blinds on their windows and, of course, open their eyes, they would see this. The rusty strands of barbed wire that protect(?) this lot actually extend within a few feet of playground equipment for Hillcrest Ministries youth. Yes, Hillcrest is located on the NE corner of Spring & White Oak Streets which happens to be within the proposed expanded Truman National Historic Landmark District boundaries. Ironically, Hillcrest Ministries has no off-street parking for their patrons. No, this is not just about historic preservation. It’s about being a good neighborhood, public safety, economic development, and raising the bar with respect to community stewardship. We need community values we can “bank” on.