Blue Hills neighbors gathered on the corner of 56th and Woodland Friday afternoon to watch the house on the corner finally be demolished.
Neighbors say the home has sat vacant for nearly 15 years and has since become an eyesore.
"You don’t even want to look that direction. You don’t want to look that direction because you don’t want to see it,” said Linda Brown, who lives two blocks south of the home. She passes it every day going to and coming from work.
The home was one of the city’s Land Bank homes and was on the city's ‘most dangerous building’s' list.
Last year, Kansas City Mayor Sly James announced a plan to earmark $10 million to demolish blighted buildings.
The goal of the city’s initiative is to demolish vacant homes and put either new developments or green spaces in their place.
“We evaluate basements, foundations, walls are looking for instability, large holes in walls and crumbling foundations,” said Shockey Franciscus, manager of demolitions. “We put them into either a standard priority or high priority. Obviously we demolish the high priority first and the standard ones come next.
Homes that are in better condition are being sold to residents as part of the city's $1 or $999 home program.
Breaking down the numbers, over the last 9 months:
815 homes/properties on the city’s ‘most dangerous buildings’ list’
175 homes/properties have been demolished or are waiting for contractors to be demolished
140 Land Bank homes are in the process of being rehabbed
300 homes are in the abatement process
200 homes/properties are in the queue
"As quick as they come off the list, we get new ones. It will never end,” said Franciscus.
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
