KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nearly four months after speaking with 41 Action News about crumbling and abandoned shopping centers, which have sat vacant for years, south Kansas City, Missouri, neighbors said not much has changed.
The grocery store in the Loma Vista Shopping Center remains boarded up.
Less than five minutes away, the Robandee Shopping Center sits nearly empty as illegal dumping continues to pile in the back of the shopping center.
Both Loma Vista and Robandee have received multiple violations from the city, but neighbors don't believe the city is doing enough.
"We’ve been forgotten about for years out here," Augstine Gooch, who lives nearby, said. "This has been going on more than 15 years and nothing is ever done."
The Hickman Mills United Neighborhood Group hosted a neighborhood meeting Monday and invited Kansas City councilwoman Katheryn Shields as well as a city codes enforcement manager.
Shields does not represent the district, but she came to learn about the residents' concerns.
"The ordinances they have at City hHall are just not strong enough to deal with the issues we deal with out here," Karry Palmer said.
Palmer is the chairman of the Hickman Mills United Neighborhood Group.
Some of the changes he would like to see include an additional tax on neglected structures, more code enforcement officers and a mechanism for the city to take possession of abandoned buildings in order to knock them down and create a green space.
"We’re asking for the simplest things: get a mechanism in place to tear down a lot of these blighted buildings that have been empty for decades at this point," he said.
The city has said in the past that, if a developer is not interested in a property, there is very little the city can do.
When it comes to specific properties, like an abandoned restaurant off of Blue Ridge Boulevard and East 87th Street, the city can fine the owner for violations.
Beyond that, the city can file a lawsuit in extreme cases and ask the court for “receivership,” so that a third party can take over the property.
