“The school districts within Kansas City’s borders get to vote on projects when they come before the TIF Commission. But for the past eight years, the schools and other taxing agencies were always outnumbered by appointees of Kay Barnes, a mayor who seemed to think that developers and their attorneys walked on water and healed the blind.”

If Kay Cronkite Waldo Barnes was this beholden to special interests while Mayor Of Kansas City, can you imagine her in Washington?

By David Martin

Elsa Pagán sees weeds where she used to have neighbors.

A few years ago, the homes on the south side of Pagán’s street in Kansas City, North, met the push of a bulldozer. So did the trees behind the homes, where deer liked to congregate.

The houses and the woods made way for an ambitious project off North Prospect Road, near Maple Woods Community College. The developer’s plans called for the construction of homes, apartments, and half a million square feet of retail and office space.

The project, called Renaissance North, aimed for sophistication. A sign on the property promised “contemporary living with classic flair.”

Workers built roads, laid sewer pipes, dug basements.

Then the money ran out. Work stopped. Read more…

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