KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Caring about where you live drives the pride in keeping up your neighborhood.
In south Kansas City, Ruskin Heights just scored big bucks to make the area safer and healthier.
Beth Boeger knows Ruskin Heights streets like the back of her hand, so she served as KSHB 41's tour guide
Boeger says in Ruskin Heights there are 1,875 homes, with 66% rental homes.
“We finally got it, I’m so excited, I can’t hardly stand it,” she said.
A $25,000 grant from the Regional Health Prosperity Zone funded through the KCMO Health Department and partnered with Community Capital Fund, specifically for Ruskin Heights area.
“It will make a difference there’s no doubt about it,” Boerger said. "Trim branches along sidewalks, cut down dead trees, trim trees that had branches hanging over sidewalks."
Boerger said removing the brush will help prevent crime.
“See all the brush and how it's hanging,” she pointed out. “It’s everywhere, people can’t even walk coming down a side street because there’s so much brush laying around. It’s a real tall weed and it gets purple berries on it. The brush can make you break out in hives.”
The brush makes tough to exercise.
“This is not safe because you can't see when you pull out,” she said. “It makes the sidewalk almost inaccessible. The brush hangs on the sidewalk. It’s just not safe to go out to exercise.”
That money a big deal for a small area.
“Hopefully, it’ll make a difference, because if you can start to clean it and maybe people will catch on and people will say we have a reason to be proud of our neighborhood and we can start getting some positive vibes in the community instead of everyone saying, 'Oh you live in Ruskin, I wouldn’t live in Ruskin, Ruskin’s the worst place to live. ’ It’s really not, I’ve lived here since 1973 and there are good people who live in this community and all they need is a little bit of help to show them this is the way it can be. You don’t have to live with rats and mice and snakes and you’re afraid to get outside and that’s why it's important.”
The money is earmarked for people over the age of 52, disabled, a military veteran or low-income households.
An application from the Ruskin Heights Homes Associations will be given out on Tuesday at their regular meeting.
Boerger said preference for the work will go to the homeowners and then the tenants.
If work on tenants yards were to be complete, the would also also need an agreement from their landlord that they could not raise their tenant's rent for two years.
Boerger is encouraging people to get in on the money.
“It’s not that its bad, it’s things that we want to get help for,” said Boerger.
Here’s a link to the data regarding low life expectancy predictors. This is from the Kansas City Health Department.
Health Prosperity Zones Application Info (arcgis.com) [experience.arcgis.com]
