In 1997, the Rev. John Modest Miles of Morningstar Missionary Baptist Church appeared in a documentary, “27th & Prospect: One Year in the Fight Against Drugs,” about the lawlessness that then plagued this east Kansas City neighborhood.
Filmed during a sermon, he preached, “Our streets are filled with drugs and violence, and Lord we don’t know where the solution is.”
Twenty-seven years later, early last Friday morning, Pastor Miles opened his church’s hall to a breakfast meeting to discuss crime in the same neighborhood, this time centered at 31st and Prospect.
A lot has changed here in nearly three decades, including the opening of a grocery store and small businesses, and updates to a vibrant library — but the crime has returned in an incredibly disgusting way.
Shocking video and images were shown during the meeting organized by Urban Summit Kansas City, an East Side organization that supports community advocacy, civic engagement and grassroots organizing.
Before the images were displayed, there was a trigger warning for anyone who might want to leave. But the group wanted to demonstrate the crime affecting the shopping center at 31st and Prospect vividly: prostitution, public nudity, drugs, assault, shoplifting, panhandling and civil disturbances.
I will do the same here. Warning: The following descriptions are graphic.
The video and photos included a nude woman walking around grocery store aisles, throwing produce at workers before being wrestled to the ground. We saw what appeared to be people openly having sex on the sidewalk and in cars just feet from the Lucile H. Bluford public library branch, at an intersection shared by a bus stop and an adjacent low-rise apartment complex. We heard tales from Sun Fresh supermarket employees of a person entering the store brandishing a machete and threatening a “blood bath.”
Tolerance creates opportunities elsewhere
A portion of the large crowd seemed astonished, with audible gasps. But many had seen it before — the residents who live with this every day. The general outlook? Something has to be done.
Yes, something has to be done to help the residents of these East Side neighborhoods impacted by the crime and behavior of people clearly in need of mental health resources.
However, the 2 1/2-hour, wide-ranging meeting showed there are no simple solutions.
If you think this is not your problem, think again.
An ominous theme hovering over the meeting carried a warning to others: Crime doesn’t stay in one place, and tolerance of misconduct creates opportunities elsewhere.
Neighborhood organizer Marquita Taylor said, “What happens on Prospect filters down into the neighborhood.”
Pat Clarke of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association said, “This is coming to a neighborhood near you.”
The majority of what we saw happened inside and around the Sun Fresh at 31st and Prospect, all in daytime hours in full view of bystanders. Emmet Pierson, Jr., president and CEO of the nonprofit Community Builders of Kansas City — owner and operator of the market — said people are afraid to shop there. In 2023, Pierson said the store took a loss of $1.3 million. He threatened to close the store if police can’t stop this.
“We’re in this for the community good,” he said. “We don’t expect to make a profit — we just want to break even.”
Police, prosecutors, council must work together
If there was any good news to be found at the meeting, it was in the many attendees. Residents are fed up and want to work with officials, and many were there: Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves, assistant Jackson County prosecutor Ben Cox, Kansas City prosecutor Linda Miller, Director of Public Safety Melesa Johnson, 3rd District Councilwoman Melissa Robinson and others.
Noticeably absent were Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. Cox sent Baker’s apologies and said she wished she could be there, but she was out of town.
I’d like to say that the right people were in the room to fix the problem, but each has a puzzle piece that needs to fit together in a unified way.
Graves listened as Sun Fresh employees and neighborhood residents bemoaned the lack of a rapid police response. She stood up and owned the problem, promising a 24-hour police patrol of 31st and Prospect starting immediately, but also noted police frustration when perpetrators are arrested but released the same day. “We have a lack of consequences in Kansas City,” she said.
Cox said the county prosecutor’s office needs cases submitted from the police in order to do anything. Miller said Kansas City still lacks adequate jail space.
Robinson said a city jail has been discussed but the City Council committee is “defunct” and hasn’t met for six months. Graves pointed out that “the jail conversation has been going on since 2015, and the chickens are coming home to roost.”
Oak Park’s Clarke said neighbors have to own part of the problem. “This didn’t just happen overnight. We can’t blame everything on the police.”
Like I said, there is a lot of frustration and no easy solutions. But we must find one if Kansas City’s urban core can continue to thrive.
Gwen Grant, the Urban League CEO who chaired the meeting, challenged residents to get involved and come back for solution sessions. “Do you have the collective will?” she asked. But first, police “have to clean up the doggone mess.”
Not far from Brookside, Crown Center
Ideas such as community policing, police support and completed jail space along with neighborhood accountability are all good, but without a holistic approach from everyone in that room on Friday, we will go another 27 years without making a dent in this problem.
I want to see Kansas City’s East Side thrive, but it’s easy to put on blinders. In 2002, I lived in far east Kansas City, in a neighborhood tucked north of Eastwood Trafficway and Blue Parkway. I didn’t think much about Prospect Avenue back then, even though I lived just five miles away. Brookside is about that distance from 31st and Prospect. Crown Center and the Crossroads are even closer.
We all must care. Talk to your representatives in local government. If you live in Kansas City, show up at city meetings and demand action.
We have to take an interest in the central city before crime and neglect takes a toll on us all. The people who make their homes in the Santa Fe, Oak Park, Ivanhoe and other nearby neighborhoods are bearing the brunt right now. We need to help them.
