Fed up with KC company destroying homes on their blocks, these neighbors held a funeral

A few Kansas City Life-owned properties in the neighborhood have already been demolished in recent days, and several more could be on the way, city permit records suggest. The neighborhood association reports 23 houses have been or could be impacted and that some were occupied as recently as a few months ago, with residents receiving notices to vacate.

That would leave just a handful of buildings standing in the four blocks between 33rd and 35th Streets between Southwest Trafficway and Pennsylvania Avenue. Dozens of homes have already been razed over the decades in the neighborhood, including the historic Knickerbocker apartments in 2020, and residents worry even more properties that once provided housing could sit vacant indefinitely.

‘Destruction of a neighborhood’

Over 20 residents gathered Monday beside one of the demolished homes, now just a pile of roof shingles, shattered planks and mounds of dark red brick with an Altoona, Kansas label. The house number was still visible: 3424.

“We feel like we, as a people who live in this neighborhood, have a responsibility to try and do what we can to save this neighborhood,” neighborhood association board member Mary Jo Draper said at the memorial. “We wanted to do what we could to at least honor the memory of all of our friends and our wonderful neighbors that have lived here over the years, and to hopefully find something good that can come out of this destruction of a neighborhood.”

Draper called for Kansas City Life to stop the demolitions and collaborate with the neighborhood association on a plan for the area.

A spokesperson for Kansas City Life Insurance said the demolished buildings are a safety risk to the neighborhood.

“As long-standing members of the Midtown neighborhood, we are proactively removing vacant and non-viable buildings from our property,” the company said in a statement. “We recognize the age of these buildings, but unfortunately, time and circumstance have taken their toll.

“These vacant structures pose a risk to the overall safety and security of the neighborhood. Our goal in the coming weeks is to remove these structures with minimal disruption to the neighborhood. We are laying the groundwork to eventually redevelop this property in a manner that meets the needs of our city.”

Too many vacant lots

Kansas City Council member Crispin Rea, 4th District At-Large, told the crowd that Kansas City has way too many vacant lots, which do not provide housing or add to the tax base.

“We’re trying to build more housing. We’re trying to expand the housing stock so that prices either stabilize or go down,” he said. “This makes that difficult.”

Rea said he and other city officials reached out to Kansas City Life to ask for a meeting and express frustration that the demolitions happened without a future plan presented to the neighborhood or the city.

“I hope they will honor that request,” he said. “I think it needs to be clear that transparency is a top priority here and that the most productive way forward — I’d say the only way forward — is one, to talk redevelopment; two, to do it with the neighborhood and the city. That’s where we need to be.”

Rea said work continues on a possible city ordinance that would put more safeguards in place for demolitions that could possibly prevent similar outcomes in the future. He said the Valentine demolitions serve as a reminder to accelerate that process, which has been complex, and finalize a proposal for a City Council vote.

The City Council also recently approved buying new software that will allow the city to better track vacant properties.

According to a neighborhood association announcement, there were 68 homes in the four-block area in 1909, down to 32 by last week.