Misc Crossroads News

[WoodDraw]

Perfect example

[DColeKC]

older conservative white men, the Fox news demo

So I guess younger liberal men, the cnn demo, is afraid of rural areas?

It’s such a ridiculous way to look at this. As someone who lived downtown for years, I enjoyed the experience and the diversity of people I got to know. There are many more conservatives living downtown than you may think and they’re typically not scared of the city from my perspective.

Regardless, I think it’s asinine that his race and assumed political affiliation was brought up in an attempt to discount his valid concerns.

As mentioned above, important decisions are being made by personal experience rather than polls. If the city doesn’t focus on making downtown safe, we will see a decline in our progress. We don’t need a stat sheet to know we have a homeless issue. We don’t need a crime map to know we have a theft issue. We don’t need to value one’s opinion more or less based off of how they look or who they vote for.

Downtown is the exact opposite of diverse. Every building I lived in was essentially 25% educated white empty nesters and 75% educated white people in their 20-30s. The "suburban" area I live in now is FAR more diverse in terms of ages, races, education levels, etc.

Quite the opposite of my experience. Sure, majority white and that’s easily explained. There are Hispanic, Indian, black, Asian etc living in the light buildings. People from other countries including Nigeria, Australia etc.

Anyway, back on the topic. We need more police presence. Like a lot more. All the businesses downtown pay taxes and shouldn’t have to come out of pocket even more to pay for off-duty PD outside of event specific requirements.

[DColeKC]

Perfect example

How would your ideal rag look? Notice how the threads and comments ramp up when we discuss real shit? Would you prefer the slow and occasional posts? “Abbot buys another building, hope he paints it white”. Riveting stuff.

When crime is mentioned, it’s going to get political and it’s going to get dicey.

[WoodDraw]

Perfect example

How would your ideal rag look? Notice how the threads and comments ramp up when we discuss real shit? Would you prefer the slow and occasional posts? “Abbot buys another building, hope he paints it white”. Riveting stuff.

When crime is mentioned, it’s going to get political and it’s going to get dicey.

If people want to have trolly fights about fox and cnn and simplistic racial bs, that’s fine.

It’s just a conversation I don’t much care for. Checking this forum less often. So enjoy, I guess? I’m sure one of you will win.

[KCPowercat]

What demo is afraid of cities?

older conservative white men, the Fox news demo

So I guess younger liberal men, the cnn demo, is afraid of rural areas?

It’s such a ridiculous way to look at this. As someone who lived downtown for years, I enjoyed the experience and the diversity of people I got to know. There are many more conservatives living downtown than you may think and they’re typically not scared of the city from my perspective.

Regardless, I think it’s asinine that his race and assumed political affiliation was brought up in an attempt to discount his valid concerns.

As mentioned above, important decisions are being made by personal experience rather than polls. If the city doesn’t focus on making downtown safe, we will see a decline in our progress. We don’t need a stat sheet to know we have a homeless issue. We don’t need a crime map to know we have a theft issue. We don’t need to value one’s opinion more or less based off of how they look or who they vote for.

Statistics do matter and is how our PD deploys resources. We can go by "feel" all we want but that feel is almost entirely based on one's anecdotal experiences. As I mentioned earlier does that feel come from age/experience/predisposition/typical living environment? For example some people have had their car broken into a lot. So not safe right? I've parked my car in public garages for 10x that time and never broken into once (knock on wood). Difference? Maybe my car? Maybe I keep my car clean? What matters though is the statistics to see if that crime is going up or down.

Downtown is safe from my experience from decades down here safer than it was but it is different now that we have more population. Before there was nothing going on so how would there be crime? So it does feel different than when I started downtown. I do agree we need to do more to help our unhoused, mentally unstable, and addicted populations. Throwing them all in jail isn't an answer I'm willing to entertain. We need social programs to help. That will help all sides of this discussion.

[KCPowercat]

This forum has gotten very reddity and twittery

God forbid we have serious, unfiltered conversations in here. Let’s all just be fake and dance around the issues.

You find reddit/twitter serious conversations? Let's all start by removing "left" "right" "conservative" "liberal" from our posts when trying to make a point, it only steers away from real conversation.

[WoodDraw]

A lot of people have developed brain worms and can only think in certain ways.

I live in the crossroads and it's fine? I got an email from my place the other day saying there has been a big increase in car break-ins. I'm not sure that's different than any urban area. I've seen the same message any place I've lived.

The KC police are less than useless downtown. Do your job
Tax parking lots into oblivion.
Take away liquor license from places with repeat violations
Better lighting and sidewalks

Just some ideas

[shinatoo]

older conservative white men, the Fox news demo

So I guess younger liberal men, the cnn demo, is afraid of rural areas?

It’s such a ridiculous way to look at this. As someone who lived downtown for years, I enjoyed the experience and the diversity of people I got to know. There are many more conservatives living downtown than you may think and they’re typically not scared of the city from my perspective.

Regardless, I think it’s asinine that his race and assumed political affiliation was brought up in an attempt to discount his valid concerns.

As mentioned above, important decisions are being made by personal experience rather than polls. If the city doesn’t focus on making downtown safe, we will see a decline in our progress. We don’t need a stat sheet to know we have a homeless issue. We don’t need a crime map to know we have a theft issue. We don’t need to value one’s opinion more or less based off of how they look or who they vote for.

Statistics do matter and is how our PD deploys resources. We can go by "feel" all we want but that feel is almost entirely based on one's anecdotal experiences. As I mentioned earlier does that feel come from age/experience/predisposition/typical living environment? For example some people have had their car broken into a lot. So not safe right? I've parked my car in public garages for 10x that time and never broken into once (knock on wood). Difference? Maybe my car? Maybe I keep my car clean? What matters though is the statistics to see if that crime is going up or down.

Downtown is safe from my experience from decades down here safer than it was but it is different now that we have more population. Before there was nothing going on so how would there be crime? So it does feel different than when I started downtown. I do agree we need to do more to help our unhoused, mentally unstable, and addicted populations. Throwing them all in jail isn't an answer I'm willing to entertain. We need social programs to help. That will help all sides of this discussion.

Hopefully, the new mental hospital being built will help with this. It's nearly impossible to find any type of mental health services if you are uninsured. Impossible if you are the one going through it and don't have someone to advocate for you.

This is a problem all over KC. I see lots of homeless in the Plaza area, all the way down to Waldo. If you bike the Indian Creek, Trolly, or Brush Creek trails you will see regular camps. And KC isn't even near the worst.

The "professional unhoused" that some people speak of; "they want to homeless" or "they are making 80 grand a year panhandling on the Plaza" is a reality, but a minuscule minority. Most are dealing with mental health issues, drug addiction, human trafficking, or domestic violence.

Plus there is a large silent group that are underemployed and living rough because they can't find a housing situation they can afford. That is only going to get worse as rents continue to rise.

[DColeKC]

Perfect example

How would your ideal rag look? Notice how the threads and comments ramp up when we discuss real shit? Would you prefer the slow and occasional posts? “Abbot buys another building, hope he paints it white”. Riveting stuff.

When crime is mentioned, it’s going to get political and it’s going to get dicey.

If people want to have trolly fights about fox and cnn and simplistic racial bs, that’s fine.

It’s just a conversation I don’t much care for. Checking this forum less often. So enjoy, I guess? I’m sure one of you will win.

I get it. I don't care to win, I just think it was stupid to try and imply a certain race of people are "afraid" of downtown. That's all. And I hate the implication that anyone who watches certain news channels are a member of a certain stereotype. "Must have got that from Fox News" is used as in insult too often. Like people honestly think they're better than someone else based on where they get their news. It's just comical.

Regardless, I understand your point.

[WoodDraw]

So I guess younger liberal men, the cnn demo, is afraid of rural areas?

It’s such a ridiculous way to look at this. As someone who lived downtown for years, I enjoyed the experience and the diversity of people I got to know. There are many more conservatives living downtown than you may think and they’re typically not scared of the city from my perspective.

Regardless, I think it’s asinine that his race and assumed political affiliation was brought up in an attempt to discount his valid concerns.

As mentioned above, important decisions are being made by personal experience rather than polls. If the city doesn’t focus on making downtown safe, we will see a decline in our progress. We don’t need a stat sheet to know we have a homeless issue. We don’t need a crime map to know we have a theft issue. We don’t need to value one’s opinion more or less based off of how they look or who they vote for.

Statistics do matter and is how our PD deploys resources. We can go by "feel" all we want but that feel is almost entirely based on one's anecdotal experiences. As I mentioned earlier does that feel come from age/experience/predisposition/typical living environment? For example some people have had their car broken into a lot. So not safe right? I've parked my car in public garages for 10x that time and never broken into once (knock on wood). Difference? Maybe my car? Maybe I keep my car clean? What matters though is the statistics to see if that crime is going up or down.

Downtown is safe from my experience from decades down here safer than it was but it is different now that we have more population. Before there was nothing going on so how would there be crime? So it does feel different than when I started downtown. I do agree we need to do more to help our unhoused, mentally unstable, and addicted populations. Throwing them all in jail isn't an answer I'm willing to entertain. We need social programs to help. That will help all sides of this discussion.

Hopefully, the new mental hospital being built will help with this. It's nearly impossible to find any type of mental health services if you are uninsured. Impossible if you are the one going through it and don't have someone to advocate for you.

This is a problem all over KC. I see lots of homeless in the Plaza area, all the way down to Waldo. If you bike the Indian Creek, Trolly, or Brush Creek trails you will see regular camps. And KC isn't even near the worst.

The "professional unhoused" that some people speak of; "they want to homeless" or "they are making 80 grand a year panhandling on the Plaza" is a reality, but a minuscule minority. Most are dealing with mental health issues, drug addiction, human trafficking, or domestic violence.

Plus there is a large silent group that are underemployed and living rough because they can't find a housing situation they can afford. That is only going to get worse as rents continue to rise.

This was a good post.

Just to follow up with you or anyone else, are there any best practices that are working?

[DColeKC]

This forum has gotten very reddity and twittery

God forbid we have serious, unfiltered conversations in here. Let’s all just be fake and dance around the issues.

You find reddit/twitter serious conversations? Let's all start by removing "left" "right" "conservative" "liberal" from our posts when trying to make a point, it only steers away from real conversation.

That''s easy to do as long as someone doesn't try to imply a persons opinion or perceptive doesn't matter as much as the next persons due to their race, gender or political views. I'm not going to ignore stupidity when I see it.

TO your other point about statistics. I know they play a role but most of the smaller business owners are going to be making decisions based on their own experiences and the experiences of their employees. Is this man lying about multiple employees of his dealing with crime? Even though I've dealt with my fair share of negative experiences, I still think downtown is safe. I'm the first to defend downtown when I see people labeling the entire area as dangerous.

[WoodDraw]

I won't speak for kcp, but I'm just saying let's keep it local. Trash talk the police or mayor or anyone you want, but let's avoid the this all goes to *names popular super online national political issue*

I'm completely okay with the crime talk. I think it's important. Let's just talk about our city

[Highlander]

Statistics do matter and is how our PD deploys resources. We can go by "feel" all we want but that feel is almost entirely based on one's anecdotal experiences. As I mentioned earlier does that feel come from age/experience/predisposition/typical living environment? For example some people have had their car broken into a lot. So not safe right? I've parked my car in public garages for 10x that time and never broken into once (knock on wood). Difference? Maybe my car? Maybe I keep my car clean? What matters though is the statistics to see if that crime is going up or down.

Downtown is safe from my experience from decades down here safer than it was but it is different now that we have more population. Before there was nothing going on so how would there be crime? So it does feel different than when I started downtown. I do agree we need to do more to help our unhoused, mentally unstable, and addicted populations. Throwing them all in jail isn't an answer I'm willing to entertain. We need social programs to help. That will help all sides of this discussion.

Hopefully, the new mental hospital being built will help with this. It's nearly impossible to find any type of mental health services if you are uninsured. Impossible if you are the one going through it and don't have someone to advocate for you.

This is a problem all over KC. I see lots of homeless in the Plaza area, all the way down to Waldo. If you bike the Indian Creek, Trolly, or Brush Creek trails you will see regular camps. And KC isn't even near the worst.

The "professional unhoused" that some people speak of; "they want to homeless" or "they are making 80 grand a year panhandling on the Plaza" is a reality, but a minuscule minority. Most are dealing with mental health issues, drug addiction, human trafficking, or domestic violence.

Plus there is a large silent group that are underemployed and living rough because they can't find a housing situation they can afford. That is only going to get worse as rents continue to rise.

This was a good post.

Just to follow up with you or anyone else, are there any best practices that are working?

As much as I dislike Houston, they have actually succeeded in greatly reducing their homeless problem and are recognized as a success story. I remember my first visit to downtown Houston and you could not walk down a street with stepping over multiple homeless people. It's much improved and they didn't do it by just moving the problem somewhere else.

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/howardce ... first.html

[WoodDraw]

That mostly agrees with my priors.

Awhile ago I volunteered with new immigrants and one thing we'd do is walk them through all the basics and then catch up every week after and then every month and then every year, and just be like what's up?

And they'd be like everything's perfect, and we'd be like no seriously just what's up and there would always be a problem that was easy to solve but that they didn't know how to.

Over time they started to teach people in the community and it was super successful. We got defunded during trump

But I think it's a model that could work well, but also knowing like a certain percent need in patient care.

[KCPowercat]

God forbid we have serious, unfiltered conversations in here. Let’s all just be fake and dance around the issues.

You find reddit/twitter serious conversations? Let's all start by removing "left" "right" "conservative" "liberal" from our posts when trying to make a point, it only steers away from real conversation.

That''s easy to do as long as someone doesn't try to imply a persons opinion or perceptive doesn't matter as much as the next persons due to their race, gender or political views. I'm not going to ignore stupidity when I see it.

TO your other point about statistics. I know they play a role but most of the smaller business owners are going to be making decisions based on their own experiences and the experiences of their employees. Is this man lying about multiple employees of his dealing with crime? Even though I've dealt with my fair share of negative experiences, I still think downtown is safe. I'm the first to defend downtown when I see people labeling the entire area as dangerous.

The only crime he mentioned was two stolen cars wasn't it. I mean.

[DaveKCMO]

To bring this back on topic, hopefully some of these issues can be aided by the Crossroads Community Improvement, District the area is putting together.

It’s frustrating that the community is taxing themselves extra to do a job that should already be done by the city and KCPD.

Never miss an opportunity!

https://fox4kc.com/news/board-member-th ... rty-crime/

https://kccrossroads.org/community-impr ... -district/

[WoodDraw]

To bring this back on topic, hopefully some of these issues can be aided by the Crossroads Community Improvement, District the area is putting together.

It’s frustrating that the community is taxing themselves extra to do a job that should already be done by the city and KCPD.

Never miss an opportunity!

https://fox4kc.com/news/board-member-th ... rty-crime/

https://kccrossroads.org/community-impr ... -district/

Dave, I don't know the laws here. Why did empty parking lots get off so easy when they are the worst about trash?

[taxi]

Downtown KC is not unique in this sense. As with nearly every urban problem (homelessness, crime, STRs, etc.), all we have to do is look at cities that are a little larger than us. Their issues and problems are heading our way, as we are typically just behind the curve. We can learn from them, but we rarely act preemptively or proactively. We wait until things are a real problem and then move at a snail's pace to address them. I understand people's frustration – there's been great effort to revitalize downtown and it doesn't take much to move a step backwards.

[moderne]

I went and got NARCAN. With all the unhoused in the park across the street from me and at night the obviously strung out people moaning and groaning there may be eventually a time when calling 911 will be too late and personally intervening may save a life. Parks have a closing time but that is not enforced. Many people living in their cars use the park road as the overnight hotel. Police cars cutting through just pass them by.

[FangKC]

Hopefully, the new mental hospital being built will help with this. It's nearly impossible to find any type of mental health services if you are uninsured. Impossible if you are the one going through it and don't have someone to advocate for you.

This is a problem all over KC. I see lots of homeless in the Plaza area, all the way down to Waldo. If you bike the Indian Creek, Trolly, or Brush Creek trails you will see regular camps. And KC isn't even near the worst.

The "professional unhoused" that some people speak of; "they want to homeless" or "they are making 80 grand a year panhandling on the Plaza" is a reality, but a minuscule minority. Most are dealing with mental health issues, drug addiction, human trafficking, or domestic violence.

Plus there is a large silent group that are underemployed and living rough because they can't find a housing situation they can afford. That is only going to get worse as rents continue to rise.

Jails and prisons are our country's defacto mental hospitals. Congress and state legislatures have been negligent about funding mental health adequately. It is consistently among the first things cut. Congress doesn't even seem to have the appetite to fund adequate mental health services for veterans. A good percentage of the homeless and mentally ill are veterans.

Federal leaders and Congress are always gung-ho at throwing money at wars and the defense department but they never follow up with taking care of veterans. It's been this way since the Vietnam War. If someone asked me about joining the military, I would warn them against it simply on this matter alone. If you are damaged by war, they won't take care of you.

If some states hadn't been so loathe to expand Medicaid, many mentally ill would have gotten basic mental health care and had a consistent source of medication. Since Missouri expanded Medicaid, hopefully, more people living with mental illness will be treated.

It's almost impossible to treat the chronically mentally ill without having them housed. The nature of the illness is such that the client cannot maintain responsibility for their own treatment so you need someone helping them.