Mayor's Office

More police in neighborhoods? The Mayor makes his case

Kansas City's Public Safety Sales Tax, which paid for new Patrol stations and a new Police Academy, expires next June. Mayor Mark Funkhouser wants to ask voters to renew the tax, adding 100 police to the streets and funding capital improvements identified by the Kansas City Police Department.
The Mayor's plan calls for the tax to be renewed for 20 years, while also asking voters to approve general obligation bonds backed by the tax. The bond issue would allow the city to begin construction on two new police stations and a crime lab quickly, and hire more police officers by next summer.
Read the Mayor's white paper on the Public Safety Sales Tax here (Word document) or here (in PDF).

Another take on TIF

In an interesting take on Kansas City's current and past TIF policies, Ferdinand E. Niemann IV wrote an As I see it column for The Kansas City Star earlier this week.
In the column, Niemann, an analyst for Jackson County, said development inventives are sometimes necessary, but aren't necessarily a necessity.
   "Using development incentives responsibly is the real necessity," Niemann wrote. As an example, he analyzed the former Cenrer/Wizards proposal for the former Bannister Mall site.
   The column is especially relevant following Wednesday's refinancing of the debt for the Power and Light District Downtown.
   Read the complete story by clicking here.

Is crime theatening our childrens' future?

More police on the streets, coupled with a more business-like approach to criminal justice, could reduce crime and save cities and states millions of dollars, a leading criminologist said recently.

"If criminal justice policy these days were based on the current evidence of cost-effectiveness, we would have less money spent on prison; we would have more money spent on police; and we would would have fewer serious crimes with less total harm and fewer states threatened with bankruptcy," said Lawrence Sherman, director of the Jerry less Centers of Criminology.

"Increasingly, it's apparent that what the cost of criminal justice may become is fewer school teachers, fewer nurses, fewer public services that many of us would deem essential, but which are in some ways more controllable than the costs of criminal justice," Sherman said.

Sherman's complete presentation to experts gathered by the National Institute of Justice is online here.

Schools First: Why schools matter to neighborhoods

It's about need. The Kansas City Infrastructure Report, released in March, makes the case for maintaining streets and sidewalks.

"It is estimated that the curb and sidewalk need is near $1.6 billion, with $960 million assessable back to the property owner. Over the past five years, the City has annually averaged nearly $5.8 million in funding for curb and sidewalk work. Knowing that the City couldn’t possibly address this backlog in one generation, the suggested funding levels of curbs and sidewalk work is $20 million per year." Read the report.

It's about the future. In two articles, Enterprise Community Partners of Columbia, Md., talks about why infrastructure improvements around schools and the neighborhoods they anchor are so important.

"Common sense tells us there is a strong connection between school quality and neighborhood quality. Good schools can attract families to a neighborhood and boost property values, while poorly performing schools can exacerbate the cycle of disinvestment and population loss. But despite the obvious synergies between schools and neighborhoods, educators and community development practitioners often work in isolation from one another." Read more.

"The organic growth in school-centered community revitalization efforts in low-income neighborhoods across the country and the improved academic performance of children attending these schools attest to the concept’s promise." Read more.

Read more about the Mayor's Schools First initiative.