Mayor Q Blames 'Absentee' Lot Owners For Town Topic Hot Mess

Once again . . . Parking lots are to blame for local violence according to Mayor Q . . . 

This follows a pattern given that the city hall honcho also put blame on parking lots after a deadly mass shooting downtown in 2025.  

On the bright side, it's nice to see this sad turn of events garnering attention from city hall.

However . . .

Anybody who thinks that better lighting and trash pickup will take unruly early morning crowds hasn't REALLY seen the late night gatherings.  

Most importantly, here's what Mayor Q has to say following a major cultural shift for Kansas City late night traditions . . . 

"I'll ask public safety officials at KCPD and the City's public safety task force to evaluate what steps they can take to get the restaurant comfortable with 24 hour operations once more, should the restaurant so desire. 

"Blame for the conditions for closure rests primarily on individuals--criminals--with no regard for our community, human life, or even a modicum of emotional control to handle a dispute without pulling out guns and bringing us into shoot outs anywhere at any time.  These criminals' immature decision making mixed with ready access to firearms, alcohol, and drugs in typically late night hours undermines the peace of our community and the safety of us all.  

"Also blameworthy are property owners, like the ones cited by the restaurant, who for years allow violence, dumping, and nuisance activity to proliferate on privately-owned spaces.  Like here, their neighbors call them often without much, if any, response and, ultimately escalate to call the police who inform neighbors that the property owners themselves needs to call and report trespassers.  Absent, often out of town owners rarely do and care far less.  Later, the City is often called, which may lead to small-dollar code citations. The process then repeats, again and again.  Lest you think this just occurs in violence, this is the story in too much of the City with vacant lots, encampments, and abandoned, decaying structures.  

"Our City is blessed by a great many things, but our City is plagued by absent property owners who don't give a damn about their neighborhoods, our community, or anything other than sitting on properties for decades watching property values appreciate through no efforts of their own.  You, their neighbors and our community, deserve better.  I have proposals now before  Council to curtail some of this behavior, have already done some with absentee parking lot owners, and will keep at it until all in our community handle their responsibilities rather than cashing checks far away while local businesses, local neighborhoods, and local victims suffer.  

"Shouting 'thugs,' clicking your heels three times, and casting about for blame is cathartic, no doubt. But, this is where I'll be fair to all. Our institutions can always do better, but KCPD doesn't exist to nanny privately owned properties where the owner doesn't care to call. The prosecutor's office can't get convictions where groups congregate, nobody talks, and no cameras capture the scene at lots and properties where these things happen consistently and where the owners know it does.  Civil juries and liability awards may some day cure this blight on our community, but in the meantime, I hope absentee owners start to care as they continue to destroy the quality of life for us all."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Mayor Q On FB: "Like you, I read with disappointment about the recent decision of Town Topic to close earlier due to what they cite are concerns following a recent 4AM shooting and years of violent and nuisance activity in a privately owned lot adjacent to their restaurant."

Developing . . .