Public Works
Jumping on e-scooters on the fly? Think twice
Exiting her daughter’s apartment building on a recent Sunday, Janet Korte spotted something that looked just like the motorless Razor scooters her children loved to ride. “So I thought, ‘This’ll be a piece of cake,’” said Korte, 52, who was visiting Kansas City from Wichita. She pressed her thumb on the throttle, and the scooter…
Are Rental Inspections Good For a City?
We follow two Missouri cities — Independence, which recently passed a rental inspection measure and Kansas City, which takes its to the voters in August — in this vignette that’s part of our “Public Works? A Level Foundation” series. [FLEX-CONTENT] — Follow Flatland @FlatlandKC
Part-Time Student, Full-Time Homeless
Washington has an invisible problem: College students face homelessness in some of the biggest numbers anywhere. Michael is 19, transgender, and homeless. As a transgender person of color, Michael embodies some of the most sobering data on who is impacted by homelessness. Most estimates put LGBTQ people at less than 7 percent of the population….
Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Naturalistic Legacy
By Christopher G. Olszewski Our area certainly has some distinctive architecture, including the art deco Power & Light Building in downtown Kansas City and the massive new Church of the Resurrection sanctuary in Leawood, Kansas. Before those bricks were laid, one of the world’s most famous architects left his mark on Kansas City. During a…
Changed Locks: Getting Evicted in Wyandotte
It takes two minutes for the woman in the wheelchair to roll in front of Judge R. Wayne Lawson. It only takes another two minutes for her to be legally evicted. “You have to leave, just not today,” Lawson tells her. The plaintiff’s lawyer asks her to wait for him in the hallway. He still…
How’d We Get This Data? See the Human Side of Records Analysis
44 days. That’s how long it took our research intern to obtain all the eviction information for Wyandotte County. Across that month and a half, Flatland’s Ryan Hennessy spent about six hours a day combing eviction records the only place they were available: on one of three public computers on the first floor of the…
What’s the Oldest House in the Kansas City Area?
Retired teacher Del Candler can trace her ancestors’ arrival in Jackson County to the 1840s, and wondered what structures remain from that period and Kansas City’s origins. She asked curiousKC, “What is the oldest house still standing in the Kansas City area?” With help from the Missouri Valley Room at the Kansas City Public Library…
Can You Improve an Area Without Gentrifying It?
By Anne Kniggendorf As a traffic engineer, Jay Aber worries that some of the improvements he designs have the exact opposite effect of what he had hoped. “We try to improve the street for the people who live there,” Aber said. “Then, the people who live there end up getting pushed out in favor of…
The Inside Job
The Marlborough Community Coalition’s Facebook page recently featured a newspaper story documenting the surprising luxury housing and commercial development boom taking place a few miles north in Kansas City’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The story was accompanied by a message: “Change can happen!” In fact, a different kind of change already is happening in Marlborough, the…
Five Things You Can Do To Protect Your Rights As A Tenant
Flatland sat down with Gina Chiala, executive director and attorney for the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, to see what advice she offers to rental tenants in Kansas City as part of Public Works? A Level Foundation, our in-depth series on eviction, gentrification, and affordable housing in the metro. This is the transcript for…