"We need some better leadership," said Eva Schulte, executive director of the Kansas City Church Community Organization, which has been lobbying City Hall to pay more attention to neighborhoods.
The mayor and council elections are coming up early next year. Yet whoever leads the city will have their hands tied somewhat.
A series of city reports have described mounting "financial pressures" on the city because of rising debt payments, unfunded commitments and tax-increment financing obligations. That means there’s less flexibility in the city budget to boost neighborhood funding.
"We have some major investment issues for our neighborhoods," City Manager Wayne Cauthen said.
Crumbling streets and sewers
So far this decade, Kansas City voters have passed two bond issues to repave streets, repair parks and replace sewers. That’s obviously provided some help, but the city is actually falling further behind in dealing with its crumbling and cracking infrastructure.
Take a look at some statistics: The city’s newest capital improvements plan estimated that roads, bridges, parks and the like needed $3.79 billion worth of work, while the city’s projected funding covered just $587 million of that work.
That means the city expects to meet just 16 percent of its infrastructure needs. Just a few years ago, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce determined the city was meeting 25 percent of its infrastructure needs.
That was alarming, and now it’s even worse.
Residents feel this whenever, for instance, they cross the state line from bumpy city roads to smoother suburban streets.
The chamber has studied this issue for more than a decade and is issuing a new report this month that "more needs to be done," in the words of chamber senior vice president Kristi Wyatt. A new chamber vision for the city calls for renewing a capital improvements sales tax. But other sources of money will be needed, too, if the city is serious about making more headway.
This is something candidates for mayor are beginning to talk about.
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