The Bannister Mall - as well as the surrounding retail area - once provided the city with work for many hundreds of it's residents and hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly in sales tax revenue.
Now the entire area is a civic disgrace.
A drive down once-busy Hillcrest Road between 87th and 95th Street reveals dozens of empty and boarded-up buildings with parking lots adorned by weeds shooting up between the cracks.
In fact during the mayorial election - I proposed that stretch of Hillcrest be renamed Chuck Eddy Drive - he's one of that districts' council people who fiddled while Bannister died.
Of course to blame Dr. Eddy alone isn't right. Yes- there was the racial aspect and the white money's perception of crime at the mall.
Well - I'm white - live a mile away from the mall and I've never had a problem there. The only problem is now I have to drive to ANOTHER city to shop at some of the stores that used to be either in Bannister Mall or the nearby retail area (no, WalMart's not one of them).
I'm all for a KC Wizards soccer stadium being built there. Anything beneficial really.
Remember - black and brown people's money is as every bit as good as the white folks' cash.
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