Getting better all the time

In their current issue, The Pitch published an article claiming that a recent murder in the Paseo Corridor was a setback to progress that the neighborhood has achieved. Clearly, the assertion is not only false but dangerous. Anything close to Paseo hasn’t been decent since the sixties and the fact that murders declined in the 90’s wasn’t a sign of improvement but merely a statistical anomaly. If you read further into the article the author (Bryan Noonan) lists welfare fraud, prostitution and barrages of gunfire as continuous problems in the area. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of an urban renaissance.

The truth about nearly every part of KC proper east of Troost is that not even Black people want to live there. The area is a hopeless shithole inhabited mainly by the worst (gangsta, drug dealer) elements in the city along with people too broke to live anyplace else and this is a fact that The uber-hip, ultra liberal Pitch won’t publish, the TV news won’t report and The Star along with the City Council and Mayor Kay seemingly ignore. The Eastside of KC is a wasteland. Every Black person I’ve met with anything resembling a nice income has scurried out of the place. The Black middle and working class have spilled over into Grandview, Raytown, and Lee’s Summit. You can argue semantics, I’m sure there are a few places that are livable but both you and I know that I’m referring to the poor black parts, the areas with the highest crime, places like the Paseo Corridor.

The article notes the September 11 dedication of Piano Park near Charlie Parker Square but fails to recall that (within walking distance of the area) serial killer Terry Blair was performing a murderous hooker killing jam session only last year. In the end, it doesn’t matter if the neighborhood is getting slightly better or worse; the kid lamented in the story is still dead because of a basketball game and that kind of story is typical all over Kansas City’s East side. There won’t be any real change in the neighborhood without an accurate portrayal of the area that eschews political correctness. So far, it seems that even the local media are skirting the problems of KC’s eastside and avoiding a painful discussion regarding the inexorable link between poor Black neighborhoods and violent crime.