KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two sides of the Northland are as split as the road between them.
Gladstone residents are pleased with their city’s winter weather response for the roads.
They say due to their small size, they never have to worry about snow cleaning delays in their neck of the woods.
"Well, I haven't seen a plow go by yet, even though it looks like they've gone through,” said Gladstone resident Bradley Meadows. “But I haven't seen one. I must've missed them, but usually, Gladstone does a pretty good job."
Multiple crews were out in Gladstone Thursday plowing both the roads and throughout the neighborhood. But across Englewood in North Kansas City, that wasn’t the case.
Lynn Butler lives in the Highland Gardens neighborhood and says they are often overlooked.
“So, once you cross over that right there it's Gladstone,” said Butler. “Gladstone gets attention. But this part of Kansas City, no.”
During the last winter storm, it took nearly a week for crews to make it to that part of town.
Thick sheets of snow fill the road near his home, which Butler says is the norm.
“As you can see there hasn’t been a snowplow yet,” said Butler. “We’re supposed to be an emergency snow route, but we don’t ever get that. Might as well come out and shovel myself.”
City officials say the design of many Northland neighborhoods, which often feature cul-de-sacs as opposed to the more traditional grid layout of many neighborhoods south of the Missouri River, contributes to the difficulty in clearing the streets.
Additionally, snow removal crews in the Northland often rely on pickup trucks equipped with a plow instead of dump trucks, which are more effective in removing the nearly foot-deep snow that blanketed the Kansas City region.
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