How a group of KC neighbors convinced the city to build a sidewalk on their street
Whether it’s building a new airport terminal or capping the freeway for a downtown park, big projects coming out of City Hall grab headlines.
But most City Council members will tell you that Kansas City’s half million residents are far more concerned with basic public services. Garbage pickup, plugging potholes and sending help when they call 911. Do that first.
Or in the case of one Northland neighborhood named Chaumiere, getting city officials to build a sidewalk along a busy road. That was their top priority. And now that the project is complete, Chaumiere residents have a message for others who feel their neighborhood has been ignored for too long.
“You can do it,” says Laurel Shoger-Hall, the Chaumiere neighbhorhood association vice president who helped lead the effort to get that sidewalk built along with her friend and association president Olivia Meade. A couple of years ago, they didn’t know the first thing about advocating for public improvements in their area.
Now here’s their advice: Speak out. Don’t be cranky, but don’t be timid, either. Be persistent and humble enough to know what you don’t know, and take the time to learn the ins and outs of city process.
Follow that formula and good things can happen.
“You know, we were constantly told to give up, that it was going to take us over a decade to see anything, and it didn’t even take us 12 months because we used our voice and advocated for ourselves and connected with our council members and politely explained our situation,” Shoger-Hall said.
They aren’t done by any means. It cost about $1 million to build that sidewalk and pedestrian bridge on the north side of Northeast Russell Road, along with the installation of seven school bus stops throughout the neighborhood.
With help from 4th District Councilmemembers Eric Bunch and Crispin Rea, Shoger-Hall and Meade hope to leverage this project into obtaining city funding for another $8 million in improvements someday soon.
One would turn a patch of grass and weeds with a baseball diamond on it into a full-fledged city park. Another sidewalk project along Cleveland Avenue would connect residents with a shopping district immediately south of where Chouteau Trafficway connects with Interstate 35.
“We don’t have the exact plan nailed down yet,” Rea said, “but I think we can find the money to get some of that done.”
Said Meade: “We’ve got hope it will be a bit easier now that there’s some existing infrastructure.”
Might one sidewalk beget another?
Bunch and Rea were at the kickoff celebration for the Russell Road sidewalk project a year ago. And now that it’s completed, Chaumiere residents feel safer walking to the Kansas City North Community Center at Russell’s west end or the Northland Clothing Center on the opposite end where Russell intersections with Cleveland.
A year ago, Russell was like a country road through a two-bit town, a two-lane strip of blacktop with no shoulders, and ditches on either side.
No more. Now midway through his first term, Rea invited a reporter to see the changes by taking a stroll down that sidewalk on a Friday morning in August mild enough that Rea could wear a blazer and not melt during the tour.
Shoger-Hall and Meade came along to explain how the project came to be. They recalled how they contacted City Hall, found helpful ears and learned that each council district had a pot of money allotted to it each year for public improvement. It’s a competitive process, and the trick is to making a convincing case to officials that your needs should be a top priority.
That they did. But mostly, they spoke about the benefits they’ve seen since the work was completed, not only in public safety but in the greater sense of community that came from making the street safer.
“We’ve seen a lot more foot traffic,” Shoger-Hall said. “People walking their dogs, families out and about. We’ve seen families of even like 10, 15 people out on walks, people heading down to the community center now and getting access to the playground equipment down there.”
Half of the work was done by last Halloween, which upped the trick or treaters substantially that Halloween, Rea said. The rest of it was finished this spring.
“So I’m really excited for this Halloween,” he said.
Meade said the improvements have made the neighborhood more welcoming for young families. Even before the new sidewalk was put in, Meade said she noticed that there were more kids in the neighborhood, as houses belonging to long-time owners were bought by young families.
“An interesting thing about the neighborhood is that in the 2020 census, the median age was 55,” Meade said. “So now we’re starting to see a lot of turnover. I know I live on this street right up here. We’re seeing a lot of houses go up for sale and more families move back in. For instance, two on my block have sold, and two families have moved in.”
Another benefit of the improvements, Shoger-Hall says, is that residents are taking greater pride in the upkeep of their homes. And in helping their neighbors do that too. On our half-hour stroll down Russell Road, she helped an older gentleman trundle his garbage cart back to the garage.
Kansas City has a lot of neighborhood improvement projects that deserve funding, the neighbors and councilmembers acknowledge. Many are daunting, and perhaps more deserving of the city’s assistance. But what helped Chaumiere rise to the top of the list, Rea said near the end of the 1.5-mile round-trip walk from one end of the sidewalk project to the other, was that the neighbors were engaged and had a plan worked out that could produce immediate results.
Another piece of advice for those who want to dupicate Chaumiere’s success.
“One of those factors that makes it easier to prioritize is when you have a neighborhood group that you know, knows what they want, and on the city side of that, you feel like you can meet that expectation,” he said.
“We do plenty of work and upgrades and big projects in areas that don’t have as strong of a voice and as we should, but this one, there was just an immediate opportunity to get in and work with folks that were ready.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
