Barely into the organizational stage, an ambitious project has started to rejuvenate the east side of Kansas City. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has targeted the job as one of its top five goals. The first area of work has just been identified.
After what Chamber Chair E. Frank Ellis calls fifty years of disinvestment, the project will draw neighborhoods into a partnership with business, health care, police and education. There is no time frame to gauge success. This offering is from Contractor Terry Dunn, who is a leader of the Urban Neighborhood Initiative.
“We cannot overpromise what we’re going to achieve," Dunn said. "What we can commit to is that we’re going to do what is in our power to bring resources necessary to make a difference in the lives of people who live east of Troost."
The first area to be addressed will be between 23rd and 51st Streets, Troost to Highway 71. Next week people from the nine neighborhoods in the area will tell planners what they want and need.