Top 10 for ’10 in Old Town Independence

10. Bank of American, our country’s largest bank holding company with $150 billion in revenue in 2009 and 248,000 employees, continues to struggle to maintain a small parking lot on the corner of White Oak & Osage.

9. Old City Hall at 200 South Main turns 100 years old. Yes, that’s right, behind those trees there is a historic building.

8. A local Main Street program gets a national award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. No, it’s not Independence. It’s the historic community of Lee’s Summit.

7. Our million-dollar tourism program gets a new leader, Cori Day.

6. Delaware Street sidewalks continue to be an obstacle course for tourists and neighbors.

5. National Preservation Month, May 2010, ends in typical Independence style. Yes, with the demolition of 1306 West Maple.

4. The National Park Service and the US Department of the Interior holds hearings in town and in Washington DC for the expansion of the Harry Truman National Historic Landmark District.

3. The National Park Service removes 26 properties on Truman Road and Maple Avenue from the proposed Landmark District Expansion after the Midtown / Truman Road Corridor Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation fails to follow its own standards.

2. As we search for community endorsements for the Landmark Historic District expansion, we learn of a public endorsement from the Independence Public Schools. No, it’s not for the historic district. It’s for a casino in Sugar Creek.

1. The New York Times does a less-than-flattering story on homes that Truman lived in here in Old Town, the “Hardscrabble Suburb.”

Happy New Year!!! Yes, we hope 2011 is better than 2010. Some positive things are in the works and we hope to report about those in 2011.

A New “Day” for Local Tourism

Congratulations to Cori Day, our new Tourism Director whose first day on the job is this week. I believe this is one of the most important positions in City Hall. Independence is on the map not for minor-league sports but for our major-league history. And while many other industries are experiencing a downturn, heritage tourism continues to be strong. Reports indicate that visitors to Missouri spent $8 billion while traveling through our state last year. Independence, one of the most historic communities in Missouri, has a lot to offer travelers and tourists, and happens to be on one of the most traveled corridors, I-70. Here is a list of ideas and advice for Cori as she begins this important job:

1) Do a complete audit of the bed-tax (tourism) revenue and the way we handle tourism statistics. Review where past budgets have gone and how sites handle head-counts. It would not surprise me to see staff, volunteers, and even the janitor counted as tourists at some sites.

2) Revive the 12-year-old endeavor to establish a Tourism Visitor’s Center in the old Courthouse. County officials say it will take $8 million for a complete restoration of the interior. Just in the last 10 years, city officials have actually collected $8.5 million in bed-tax revenue that has been designated only to be used for tourism. The resources appear to be available with appropriate planning and priorities.

3) Establish an “Interim” Tourism Visitor’s Center somewhere on the Square until the Courthouse restoration project is complete. Maybe ICC would be interested in partnering in an interim (or permanent) facility using proceeds from Santa-Cali-Gon.

4) Use the Tourism Advisory Board to actually provide advice and input. They are not just there to coordinate schedules and statistics.

5) Push Missouri officials to replace the current under-performing Tourism Welcome Center at the Truman Sports Complex. Again, and as reported on the blog of 10-15-09, “Last Place in the Standings”, it has the lowest head counts of all the state’s Welcome Centers. Yes, even the center in Eagleville, Missouri (population 321) exceeded Kansas City’s head counts by a whopping 50 percent. “Really?” Partner with the State to implement a new state-of-the-art facility at Little Blue Parkway & I-70 with a satellite location at the Independence Square Courthouse.

6) Push Missouri officials to place KC area or, yes, even Independence citizens to serve on both the Missouri Tourism Commission and the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Currently, nobody from the Kansas City region serves on either of these important boards. There are reasons Western Missouri routinely gets left out from the resources coming from Jeff City.

7) Consider reserving tourism budget for sidewalk improvements along historical interpretive paths, maintenance and updates to interpretive signs, and improvements to the National Trails Center such as an elevator to open up additional space on the second floor.

8) Don’t allow other activities in City Hall not related to heritage tourism to use those designated tourism funds. The Events Center was sold to citizens as an investment that pays its own way and that it does not take resources from other parts of town, and in particular, Old Town.

9) Don’t forget the sesquicentennial anniversaries of the local battles and conflicts of the Civil War and Border War in Independence coming up in just a few short years. Coordinate with outside groups and plan events at the battlefield sites.

Under the current direction of the city, none of the above has happened nor is it likely to happen anytime soon until we, as a community, get over our historical self-esteem problems, our short sightedness in vision, and our hearing problems (listening to folks again who say there is no problem we cannot solve without another sales tax). Independence, once called the “Royal Suburbs” and “The Queen City of the Trails”, is now referred to recently in the New York Times as the “Hardscrabble Suburb.” You won’t see that word used in promotional brochures from the local economic development folks.

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.”