I am 37 will be 38 in 3 weeks and have lived in Kansas City MO my whole life. While the stats in this video may be true if you live in Kansas City you understand how the city works. If you don’t want to be in “stuff” don’t be in it and you will be fine. I frequent the very areas in this video and never have any problems. If you don’t mess with people people don’t mess with you. I think you should interview people in these cities you go to I think the story will be a little more detailed.
💯 Correct. I'm always in the west bottom, bringing my 5 yr old to mauy thai class then visit my parents in armourdale. We mind our business and never have any problems.
@@Micnastyisf yeah, I don't what this guy is talking about with the west bottoms. I was a driver for Dayton freight for YEARS and the west bottoms/down and east side was always my favorite route. I always met the most interesting people in some of the "worst" parts of this city. Don't get me wrong, there DEFINITELY areas that are terrible (also in my route area) but you know? Even as a delivery driver I never ever felt like I was somewhere "dangerous", even on the east side toward Admiral Blvd.
Hey! I’m from Kansas City and there are a lot of issues around town. However I think you come off as being disrespectful to the people that live in these communities in this video. Even in areas with high crime most of the people that live there are normal, nice people that are trying to make a life for them and their families. It’s hard for me to hear you describe people that live in Juniper Gardens as a bunch of “crackheads and thieves”. I’ve worked with many of those people and they are very kind, hardworking people who are trying their best to make a good life for themselves despite how much they and their families have been screwed by the system for decades. Many are refugees who work harder than most of us ever have or will, and they don’t get the support they deserve, or the support that most of us get and take for granted. Just my two cents.
I'm from KC too and it's total bulshit that people out here are "nice" in certain areas. Complete and total bullshit. I don't know what areas you're riding through but I disagree.
Situations in Kansas City Kansas are slowly making progress with the younger people. My daughter teaches school in this area, and when she started she was in a four-story building that was built in the 1930s. There was one bathroom on the third floor, she taught on the fourth floor. There was rust in the sink from the water and in her closet there was no ceiling it was open to the attic. Money was being siphoned from the budget for personal use by the office personnel. The discipline was horrendous and not available. The middle schoolers were out of control and were allowed to talk and behave very disrespectful. She taught there for 2 years and then they opened the new school, Carl Bruce Middle School. It is a beautiful modern building for students to go to school and learn. They hired all new principles and staff. This year is the second year the school has been opened, so all of the old students in the old building have graduated to high school, or somewhere. They are running this school very tight and very disciplined and there is a no-nonsense policy and if you don't follow the rules you're out. My daughter said it is like a miracle, and if she has a situation in her classroom it takes one phone call and they are removed. There is no cussing her out allowed or any teacher, or The student is removed. She is amazed at the wonderful learning environment that is being presented to the students. They have an assembly often to remind the students of what is expected of them, what is tolerated, and what the outcome will be if they don't follow the rules. The racial mix is Black, Hispanic, and a few white children. They come from various home conditions as you can imagine in a very poor area of town. My daughter is almost 60 and has taught for many years and is so pleased to see this year become a more pleasant year to teach. She feels this is her mission to teach these children how to be good citizens, and mannerly, and to reach for the stars. I am so proud of her. I'm glad I found your video to watch, and delighted you focused on my home state.
I think is it a mischaracterization to claim that Missouri running the financial books for the KCPD is better for KC's fight against crime. What KC is asking for is better management of the money they already have been given before throwing more money at the problem. KCPD has had an annual surplus since 2018... 2018 - $5.4 million, 2019 - $7.2 million, 2020 - $10.2 million, 2021 - $11.8 million, and 2022 - $13.5 million. And when KC's mayor asked for funding for hazard pay for police officers on the front lines during COVID he was denied... I wish the Missouri government would make up their minds.
If crime continues to increase each year while the police budget increase annually, money isn't the problem. You can't just throw money at every solution. Invest in education that's one of the biggest inequalities in every urban community in America.
Every big city has bad neighborhoods and crime. Kansas City is no different. However there’s more to Kansas City than just the core bad neighborhoods. There are vast suburbs with very diverse communities on both the Kansas and Missouri side. I have lived in a lot of cities in the United States and Kansas City is by far the best when it comes to quality of living. Kansas City is a big city with a small town feel and you don’t get that in the most big cities. And if you are looking for history Kansas City has got it!
I've been working and living in Kansas City for more than a decade now mostly as a bartender at some sometimes seedier places. Every night I walk home alone and I've never run into any issues. The problems with crime here aren't random. You don't here about getting mugged on the street and I don't really feel the need to lock my doors. People are robbing each other and shooting each other but its a small amount of people that kind of fight it out within their own scenes most of the time and if you aren't involved with it you are left alone even in the rougher hoods. Been living in the Westport area for quite a while now, and formally over off of Troost. Its a nice place and getting better.
BS. I've lived here for 7 years now and there is so much crime. I've heard gunshots at night at more times than I would like to say There is so much crack, prostitution and gun violence. I live on the Kansas side of Kansas City which is the so called good side. I'm ready to save up and move away. I hate it here.
@@mindyengledow6860 I'm not saying there isn't issues but the fact that I have no issues in spite of exposing myself to so much says something. I started here homeless living in southmoreland park and Ive seen a lot. I'm sorry you have such a bad time but I'm a few miles away from you and living in utter peace if nothing else. its not KC, It might be your neighborhood, it might be your friends even but its not KC as a whole. You can move away and I hope it works for you but thats not how any of this works. You wont just find the perfect city.
@@brianzabel6635 I think some of it is the apartment complex I live in and the area around it and that's why I will move away. My husband chose this place bc I was in the hospital at the time. I live pretty close to the CVS off of Rainbow Blvd. I wouldn't feel safe walking alone at night!. I've had a lot of health issues lately but when I'm able to work again and move, I will! I like the Westport area, I'm fairly close to it. I don't feel safe here. I haven't heard gunshots in awhile but just the fact that I've heard them bothers me. I don't think there is a perfect city but I've lived in like 7 different states and I've lived in better. Maybe it is just this area, like I said, I will move as soon as I am able. I'm glad to hear you are not homeless anymore😊. I'm actually from California and I've lived in southern and northern California in very different places so we'll see. I will take ur advice and look closer to Westport...for a job and a place to live as soon as I can.
I keep to myself by the way...no friends here right now but I know what goes on around here. We have a lot of problems with cars being stolen. We even had a car stolen a couple years ago.
Wyandotte county- Argentine, Armourdale, has always been worse than KCMO, but in the past 20 years KCMO has improved drastically. You didn't drive around neighborhoods within a couple blocks of Troost around the Plaza and Nelson Atkins. Those are gorgeous neighborhoods. Power and Light has also made a huge difference in the past 20 years.
Depends on where you go. If he had gone to the East Side he would have thought he was in the bad side of Detroit or the 64137 zip code where the majority of the murders are happening. I could be wrong about the exact zip code but there was a documentary made about this a few years about all the murders in KCMO and they were concentrated in a certain zip code. Are neighborhoods really gorgeous when people are getting murdered there 3-4 times a month? Gentrification may solve the problem once you build enough $3000 a month apartments in Power and Light and jack the price of houses up to 600K+ that where 150K, 3 years ago and kick out all those old and low wage people to live in their cars or on the street...just like every where else.
@@lashlarue59 This comment makes me think you have no real awareness of the nuances of Kansas City. You do know what Mission Hills is, don't you? Those homes are valued in the millions. You do know where it is? Just directly to the southwest of the Plaza? You have seen the homes around the Nelson Atkins museum and Loose Park? There are comparable homes all the way south on Holmes to 75th street. People live there without ever experiencing any issues with crime. As another person pointed out in the comments section, violent crime tends to exist within it's own social bubble. I graduated from UMKC in the late 90s and worked in midtown for 5 years just recently and never felt unsafe.
@@deer105 I'm not sure what your point is. Yes there is less crime in some areas and more in others; everywhere is like that. If by "social bubble" you mean crime esp. violent crime tends to be racially affinitive, again thats everywhere. There are nice areas and multi-million dollar homes in the worse cities in the US, so what? That doesn't change the fact that there are also combat zones in those same cities and those zones are getting bigger and worse as time goes by and some of the worse are in KCMO. The first time I time I heard automatic weapons fire wasn't in Iraq it was off 53rd & Prospect, maybe 3 miles from Mission Hills.
The hood in KC isn’t that bad. There’s problems & issues but there’s other places are worse. There’s no serious gang culture or normalized violence. Most of the people in KC are nice & friendly. Also troost used to be the segregation line… now it’s Paseo & even that is a gray area with a mix of people on living everywhere. KC is one of the biggest cities in terms of land mass per capita as it can take an hour and half to get through the city no traffic. A lot of the population lives in the surrounding suburbs: Raytown, independence, North KC, Leawood, OP, etc.
You went through traditionally bad KC neighborhoods. But they're actually decent now. You didn't really go into any areas that are currently unsafe. You need to go into East KC or the Independence border
Was going to say this, he should have went to south blue valley or Marlborough east, those neighbors ain’t no joke, can’t even walk up the street without someone tryna holler at you
I've been to kansas city and lots of people tell me their mayor Quentin Lucas is the problem. He and a lot of law officials are way too lenient on criminals, especially gangs
It's funny how you can jus drive around and go off stats an feel like you can have a opinion..I lived in KCMO my whole life..It ain't like that at all yall
What're you talking about bruh? The Town is a shit hole now. We literally double Chicago's homicide rate per capita. Our violent crime rate and homicide rate is top 5 in the nation every year.
I moved to Kansas city mo 10 years ago I lived on 70th never had a problem and loved my the neighborhood then moved to riverside the only reason we had a problem was the property manager celtic property left 42 small dumpsters in our driveway we bought a house in North Kansas City and its been awesome for 5 years I'm all over kc and never had a problem
I'm on Section 8 and am tired of everyone blaming us for crime. We get inspected, so why do they feel that way? We have to live under a certain standard. Home owners are the ones who don't take care of their properties here.
Well...it takes money to do that. When you pay little or nothing for housing and food, which MY tax dollars pay for (you're welcome!) It's easy for YOU to criticize...but you are correct, you are partially responsible for crime here. Statistics prove it.
@@keithkoenig5320 What crime have I committed? I don't do drugs, rarely drink alcohol and don't smoke. I need you to tell me, since you know me so well!
@@keithkoenig5320 Plus, I pay the same amount for food that you do. Section 8 only helps with housing. I am not on Medicaid, which you are confusing that with.
@@tj921able don't get mad at these people they're just angry that you pay just 30% of your income to the rent they have to put their asses out on the street to pay 100% of their income for rent that's why they always have broke Payless Shoes
My friend bought a house, made a killing about 200k profit 1 block west of troost. then bought, another one right across from a beautiful pond East of Troost. Huge houses cheap. It's cleaned up just fine. He stays up late, and keeps the doors locked. These are nice houses cheap. He's just an uber driver. It will be nice East of troost several blocks for years to come. Any hood in Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta, is way worse.
Those neighborhoods are just fine. KC is different because as long as you mind your business people generally leave you alone. Never once got my car broken into….until I moved to Johnson County. It’s rare that the violence in KC isn’t instigated by ego.
I was going to comment this. It is a lack of education and people using violence as their only.means to resolve a problem. The mix.of upper class in the southwest side and the hood is a bad combination. People wanna run their mouths to "thugs". What do people expect to be the result🤦I've been around KC my entire life and I'm 36, and I have not seen someone with a gun except a friend who carried one under his drivers seat in his car in case someone else "popped" off and he had protection cause we would roll thru the hoods.but we were never shot at and almost arguments are resolved with a front yard brawl. I grew up in Johnson County in the suburbs and the middle/high school kids broke into cars "for fun". I didnt know hardly a single kid who wasn't in Juvenile Detention at one time. I went to Oregon Trail (Olathe Trash) and Olathe North High School. At both schools there was a fight at least once a week and guns even brought into the school. There have been shootings at Johnson County schools as well.😳
It may not look glamorous on paper, but the KC area truly has awesome prospects, culture, atmosphere IMO. As someone who's lived in KC, Columbia, and St.Louis, I was BLOWN AWAY by how few, and mild the interactions I've had with the police have been . Additionally - So far atleast - KC has been the only place I've lived where I was able to cultivate any semblance of prosperity /ease of living beyond meeting ends.
So you're going to find shitty areas in any city. Especially when you go looking for them. As a piece that says avoid these areas this is helpful. However, we were just in Kansas City last weekend - both sides - and had no problems at all. Downtown has lots to do - go see the Power and Light District for night life. We went for our yearly BBQ tour where we select a city known for BBQ and see who has the best in our opinion. (That would be Slap's and Joe's KC BBQ. Both were exceptional) Last year was Austin, TX which was fun but the entertainment District on E 6th was dangerous so we stayed on Rainey St. which was awesome. BTW, Terry Black's in Austin was our favorite followed by Salt Lick but we traveled out of Austin to Driftwood. That place was great but the food edge went to Black's. Franklin's was not open for dining and their brisketbwas sold out 43 days in advance since they were only doing online order and curbside pickup so we didn't go.
I'm born and raised in KCMO and you were being very generous with your footage. I was just home visiting in July and much has changed since I moved away in 2010. With the exception of Troost and Westport I honestly didn't recognize the residential area you were in. But if you go in the neighborhoods by Central high school, Truman Rd, Van Brunt or Hardesty. You would have seen plenty of run down boarded homes and buildings with piles of garbage along most sidewalks and several homeless encampments. Everything that you said you didn't see, I saw plenty of it.
Those same areas you cite have some oasis of hope within them. Along Independence Avenue, there are organizations like "Jerusalem Farm" that are ministering to the homeless and impoverished, and the city has spent money to streetscape the area, and employ the use of "yellow-coaters" who do everything from pick up trash to giving directions to citizens, and reporting crime. The problem is not the area, but is poverty and prejudice. It's a big job, but we can fix it if we find the will, and the courage.
I thought the same thing. I used to live in one of those areas that you say is worse than what you see in the video. That area looks terrible now and people were poor back when I lived there. Maybe there is some progress going on.
Every city in thus country has crimes, just not black on black crimes but all major and minor crimes, white collar crime, blue collar and urban. All eye soars, such rotted out houses and businesses everything is about surviving not because crime is rampant. People are more evil in this day and time because they have thrown away love, respect, morals or anything that has to do with right or dignity. When the feet of oppression are on the throats of citizens everywhere hopelessness and despair reigns. This is everywhere you point a finger at one single state or city America widens the gap between her and God
I have zero idea why anyone would want to do police work in an area where they’re not wanted. Every police officer in these areas are one video away from becoming the next Derek Chauvin. ☠️
@@michaellaidler7143 … the chances of an officer being charged for murder has skyrocketed. Look around. The patrol officer has all but disappeared. Cops would just as well sit out their shift in their squad car and not intercede in a domestic violence or petty crime incident. If the blood isn’t already drying in the street, don’t expect a cop to show up. If the communities want “lay-low” cops, then they’ll get what they deserve. If ‘da peeps wanna blow each other’s brains out, then go right ahead. “BLM” is the biggest scam and psych-job ever foisted on the Black community. The cops that are able to prevent a disaster are hunkered-down in a Dunkin’ donuts shop across town. Considering all the anti-cop blow-back, I can’t blame them. Even Black officers don’t want anything to do with a wild, feral, and incorrigible people. Black officers have wives, husbands and children they want to see after work also. And sure, other ethnicities have their problems, but not at the level of the African American. Black businesses struggle because of the palpable risk of patronizing Black businesses-especially after dark. But I’m sure you’ll disagree with everything I’m saying. You haven’t seen the precipitous decline in the Black community like I have. Or, maybe you’re a White person just making comments from your “lofty perch.” “… you sleep in the bed that you make.”
@Galactic Hobo Still not worth it. Find a city that has less black people and work there and you'll not only have an easier job, but you'll risk your life much less often too.
A couple weeks ago a young North Kansas City Police officer was shot in cold blood during a traffic stop over expired tags. I haven’t got far enough into the video to know if he mentions it. I live in Olathe, Kansas, but worked at a hospital in North Kansas City for 2 years m. Crazy.
The thing you have to realize about KC; 85% + of the violent crime in the metro is confined to 3 neighborhoods. Stay away from those, and you're in the best city in the country.
@@mikeh9956 Right now I live in Phoenix. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Denver, and New Mexico. I've been to every town up and down the east coast, I've been to LA, Eugene, Bend, Tucson, Albuquerque, every town in Texas, every major city in the Midwest, every town in Colorado, and all the small towns in between that I forgot to mention. Nothing beats KC. Perhaps it's you who needs to take a look around. Have you ever traveled?
@@lw6866 I've been to every single state in the country. I live in Seattle. KC has to be the bottom of the barrel. Complete trash. Perhaps the sun has baked your brain.
Those jail terms are a complete joke! A pot head can get locked away for 15 years but a murdering rat can be out in no time! 😦Who creates these bonkers laws!? BTW: Those public housing sites don’t look as bad as there made out. There’s no rubbish and litter, no druggies loitering around outside of them. The grounds looks well maintained. It could just be down to the time of day that your driving by but it hardly appears to be Baghdad.
I remember reading where a judge who went to prison said, upon his release, "Every jail sentence I gave out from the bench was TOO LONG." When will people treat addiction as a medical issue rather than a legal one? Give my best to Juan. I missed him!
Speaking truth Frank, and the ones who go away for minor indiscretions no doubt come out ready to commit major crimes because there’s no reformation in the prison system. It’s a breeding ground for toxicity. I genuinely think prison should remain a last resort and only for those who commit murder, rape etc. even burglary and theft is committed through drug addiction or the sheer need to survive, society can help with that. It’s quite an eye opener this video.
Good grief, what do you think someone like that would say?!! No, people with addictions make decisions just you do. They bring their conditions and their consequences on themselves. Your attitude is really irresponsible and condones undue sympathy for people who don't deserve it! Last time I looked using illegal substances not only affects many others besides the user but society as a whole is a crime and to discount its impact is foolish!
@@fmcevoy1 Well, I wish you the best of luck and admire your progress as I realize it is a very difficult journey. But in all of this I can't get past the bedrock idea of personal responsibility.
I went to med school in KC in the early 2000s, and I had the same impression back then as Nick says. Even the dangerous neighborhoods look rather pleasent. Many of the old houses looked to be in fairly decent shape.
I lived in the East Blue Valley area in the 50s when it was an ethnic Polish area. We used to sit on the front porch and listen to the crickets and wait for the ice cream man. I liked listening to the guy across the street practicing the accordion. The neighborhood grocery shop was on the corner and I would walk there to buy some lunchmeat and dark bread now and then when my mom sent me. Then men played checkers in the alley behind the houses. We had a few chickens. Everyone kept their houses clean and neat and we never thought twice about walking at night. We would walk up to E. Truman Rd. and catch the bus to go downtown for a few hours. Good memories. Then something happened in the early 70's. My cousin was shot and killed in a the parking lot of a well-known store there. My other cousin still lived there after the Polish people moved out and another demographic moved in. She said she was afraid to even walk up to the church my uncle helped to build, much less sit on the porch in the evening. She said the house she used to live in was a crack house now and she could hear gunshots during the night. The music and noise were up so loud she couldn't sleep. No more Polish people worshipped at the church and it became a shelter for illegals. She left in the 90s after her house was finally sold, and moved to a smaller town. The little store is still there. It is such a shame to watch our once beautiful, happy neighborhoods becoming just hoods. KCMO used to be a thriving and fun city. It would probably make me sick to see the old neighborhood now. Or even the city. Why does this have to happen?
I live in Wyandotte aka Crimedotte but no mentioning that we also call it Dotteghanistan??? But you should’ve ventured off into the Beverly Hills of KCK near the Kansas Speedway. The higher the street numbers you go the better it is.
"defunding law enforcement" does not mean "get rid of all police". It means that instead of dumping infinite funding into police, which we've been doing with no improvement, you slice off some of that money for social programs, crime stopper programs, therapy, jobs programs, things like that instead of just figuring on shooting or jailing any problems.
@@teleologicalanalysis5291 some semi-random people have said that some of the time, do you want law enforcement to be judged by the worst things you've managed to catch any single officer doing? I bet you wouldn't.
I moved to the Kansas City, MO area this year. At least they report the crime. Two Western States I lived before tried to cover up the crime that happens there. I love Kansas City and plan to live there the rest of my life.
A few years ago there were two police departments that were mentioned by the Department of Justice for providing false information for crime statistics; the LA County Sheriffs Department and the KCPD.
Both of those departments used to be transparent. LASD was on Cops and a program about the jail system. KCPD used to be featured on Cops in a lot of episodes. I've actually experienced crimes not being reported in numerous law enforcement districts. I agree with LASD underreporting crime statistics.
The "troost wall" has been shifting more towards east of 71 over the last decade or so. Troost and specifically paseo have really been making efforts to clean things up. I will say that over the last couple years we've been seeing slightly more homeless in the main areas of the city (crossroads, downtown, power and light, etc). Still, despite those concentrated areas KC is still an awesome city with lots of character!
I've been watching your channel for a while and I was excited when I saw your latest video came through Kansas City. In fact, the first street in your video is Independence Avenue, which is the neighborhood where I live and work. I actually work for the community newspaper and our office was just three blocks west of where your video of Independence Avenue kept cutting off. We report a lot of the crime as well as all the hard work to improve the quality of life here. I'm always impressed by how accurate and fair your assessment of neighborhoods seem to be. Often times, I will hear folks mispronounce street names or offer an assessment that is inaccurate and it identifies them as an "outsider." If you'd driven around Kansas City 1-2 years ago, you would have seen a lot more homeless camps and it would have made you feel differently about how "nice" things looked. The city still hasn't found a solution for it, but they've stopped allowing the homeless to camp along main streets or in parks in massive groups. Kansas City *is* very nice but unfortunately we've seen an increase in violent crime. I attribute most of that to the Jackson County Prosecutor. After Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, MO, our prosecutor has really done a terrible job of making sure violent criminals are kept off the streets. It doesn't help that our City Council is in a constant battle with the state for control of police funding. Personally, I believe there is a lot of room for improvement withing KCPD, but the folks in City Council are not qualified enough to make the needed changes. They're more in lock step with the Jackson County Prosecutor who is ineffective at dealing with the problem. I don't know that I agree with much of what the KCK officer in your video said, but KCK is a different place that KCMO. Anyway, great video. Thanks for visiting our city!
Bruh. Memphis is grimey now. Yall had the highest murder rate in the US last year. Kansas City is ahead of yall so far this year tho. It's sad what happened to KC. It's a shit hole now.
Crime is out of control because of repeat offenders who are not put in prison but instead are released back out on the streets to commit even more crimes. Can't be a repeat offender if they are in prison serving time for the crimes they have already committed.
No...STOP..I HATE WHEN SOME WANA-BE add they 2cents..and LETS READ WHAT STATISTIC SAYS..SMH !!! you don't live here...so you don't really know how it goes around here...l
U cnt say that becuz ppl aren't bad all becuz they went to prison...alot of cats actually r reformed cumn out, an sum wasn't bad before goin in since they were raised rite jus didn't listen to counsel. They were tryn to feed their fams, wats wrong wit that? Yo there's good an bad in everybdy straight up but ppl make others bad by how disrespectful they cum across
Never been to KC, but lived in Memphis for 10 years. So much of KC Mo featured in your video looked like Memphis neighborhoods. I’ve got nothing but love for the 901 but jeez it’s getting bad there! Edit: The whole kids with guns thing is so sad. I remember there was a gang of kids (I think the oldest was 15) mugging folks and n the middle of the day with a shotgun in beautiful Overton Park in Mem.
Didn't Memphis start getting worse after Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of people who moved to other states and cities and never went back? Houston is another city that has gone to hell ever since 2005.
@@UzumakiNaruto_ I lived there from 2006-2016 so I’m not 100%. All I know is that in that span I had my car broken into 3 times, 2 bikes stolen, a near violent confrontation at a trolley stop and an attempted burglary. I lived in midtown which is the hipstery artsy part of town. Not exactly the worst hood in Memphis. To quote the locals, “As long as you don’t go too far north,south or west you’re pretty safe” lol!
Did you drive through the streets in the Northeast area of KCMO? It would’ve been right where you were at the beginning of the video (Independence Avenue). I’m just curious since you mentioned that the Troost neighborhoods didn’t look as bad as you thought they would. Northeast is really bad, unfortunately. You would’ve definitely seen and felt the lack of safety there. I love KC but yes, it’s gone down hill bad. The lack of strong laws and punishment is a major issue. They’re a slap on the hand. I just moved away after 35 years. KC has beautiful areas and I love how we have so much pride in our sports teams. Unfortunately, I wish we would put as much effort into fixing our city in so many ways. I moved out of KCMO a few years ago to a suburb in Kansas (about 20 min away from KCMO). Night and day difference. I wanted to break the cycle for my child and told myself she wouldn’t step foot in KCMO schools. Wish things were different there but I’ll always love my city. Living in Texas now, I miss it everyday but I understand it’s not a place I want my child growing up in 😞 Enjoyed your video although it hurt to hear a lot of the things you said. They’re true, though.
"Redlining" was first utilized during and immediately following the Civil War. the town of Quindaro, part of Kansas City, Kansas now, was established as a black community for emancipated slaves. As the community expanded, "white flight" took hold leaving behind deteriorating housing, and vacant businesses, and consolidating the oppressed impoverished. Now it's time we turned the corner. There's a statue of John Brown there today, and a small museum that is only open by appointment, but a group is assembling to revitalize this area.
I have grown up in Kansas City, Missouri, well the Northland. I enjoyed your video because you certainly did the research, and you are correct on many of the topics you discussed. I did notice though, your footage was the from North East section of the city, which historically, yes has had a lot of problems, but it actually is turning around in certain areas (gentrification). You're absolutely spot on about the great social divide between the old eastern sections of the city being historically black, and the western parts of the city being white. One thing I didn't hear in the video, which was back in 1951, when the US highway and transportation department built a national highway through a historically black neighborhood, it displaced thousands of families. That really set the bar from East/West and controlled the real estate market on allowing multicultural integration into each other's communities. Now, I realize the video's premise was about the hood's of Kansas City, and that's all good, and informative. But you should see some of the great things this city has to offer, and it isn't in the 'hood' so to speak. Anyway, great content, looking forward to watching more of your videos.
KCMO is looking a bit better than it did in the past. Looks like they got most of the discarded appliances and old furniture that used to litter the streets and vacant lots.
I moved from Kansas City,MO to San Antonio,TX...I honestly felt more safe in the larger city of San Antonio than KC...Today I'm living in the Cleveland area of Ohio and it feels like Kansas City all over again
I think the reason KCMO doesn't look as bad (while the crime is very comparable) as urban hellscapes like parts of Detroit or East St. Louis is because the KC city government has had the money to tear down abandoned buildings much faster than other cities. In Detroit you might have block after block of burned out, bombed out buildings sitting there for 10 or 20 years but you don't see that as much in KCMO.
No, he wasn't where the rundown and boarded up buildings with piles of trash on the sidewalks. I left KC in 2010 and was there in July. I couldn't believe how dirty it was and didn't understand how on every other street there weren't piles of garbage. There were also several homeless encampments. Something I'd never seen growing up.
@@themodeltyra1517 I disagree a little. On my old street all the houses except one are gone; same thing with the surrounding streets only 1-2 houses left. What I've noticed on my trips back there is vacant houses seem to be left standing 3-5 years, maybe less and then they're torn down, if they're not being maintained. As bad as that is its much better than some cities where they are left to rot for 20+ years. From talking to people it looks like it costs around $10K to tear down a house and dispose of all the waste; multiply that by 1000's of houses and thats a lot of money for the city. Now imagine a city the size of Detroit and we're talking 100's of millions. I agree about the trash when they tear down a house people seem to be buying the land, putting up rickety fences and using them as private dumps. Also there are lots of abandoned streets that are pretty much dumps. So the city is semi-good about tearing down vacant houses but bad about all these dump sites. When I left there in 2007 their was no homeless camps now its everywhere especially on the east side. Too bad; he definitely didn't go into the real bad parts of town and he mostly stayed in Kansas. There are parts of KCMO that look a lot like Detroit or Flint compared to what he showed.
It may be too small, but if you head over to Topeka, I'll let you know where "not" to go. For a town of only 125k, Topeka ranks as one of the most dangerous places to live in Kansas. What was once a safe place to live is now a sad example of what happens when a certain type of politician gains control. You know the ones that tax, spend and defund the police. Just reply if you need info on Topeka. BTW Johnson County Kansas in KC (Overland Park, Lenexa) is the safe area of KC.
Avoid the whole damn city. A Topeka resident once told me " if God was going to give the world an enema Topeka Ks is where he'd put it" But it did go up a notch when Fred died and made Topeka and the world a better place.
There has to be a different way to pay for schools. It should be equal and then if parents want to add some cash, then cool. It would be similar but fair. Nice districts would be everywhere and not just certain spots. Not everyone likes the suburbs. I walked my ex girlfriend’s dog around the block at 34th and troost at all times of the day and night. Passed by a party shop and never had a problem. Fedex’d around northeast and from independence ave to 63rd, up and down Troost, Paseo, to the Plaza and then only to river market. Then West Bottoms to 39th. Love the vids.
I deliver here in these exact neighborhoods on a near daily basis & it's just a shame seeing such nice buildings fall into disrepair. I love this city to death, I've grown up in the metro all my life & have so many fond memories here & I really hope there's a future for the area & that someday we can get ride of the troost divide, I would love to see how the city looked before it let things go like this, & nobody deserves to lose their home like this. I'd love to see the west bottoms get fixed up a bit too, though I admit that it's current state has always been super nostalgic to me also, I admit, I've only been working down here consistently for a year, mainly all around downtown, troost, & prospect & I won't lie I am very very surprised & lucky that I haven't ran into any trouble yet
Got to add to the post I just made. The system has not really helped those who are caught in the criminal web. In fact, I think they have destroyed structure of "family", and deliberately created a horrid dependency of hand outs instead of hand ups. Because of poverty, parents are too busy trying to survive to have the strength to do the parenting they may want and need to do. Mentores are nonexistent, and kids are left with whatever influance the neighborhood can give and it most often is not positive. Taking crime out infected neighborhoods and put more money into helping more adults learn working skills and more serious after school assistance for kids with positive experences would go a long way in making positive changes that last. Also more stringent monitoring of what residents are allowed to live in housing projects. The thing about these kinds of ideas is they often start out with good intentions, then some arse comes along and #%*^% it up via corruption. Who's going to watch the watchers?
There were some beautiful homes in those crime ridden neighborhoods. That is a shame. Hopefully they stop destroying homes. Think 'traffic-calming solutions' like intersection islands might deter crime in some areas because criminals want easy getaways. Making streets pleasantly walkable deters crime as well.
So would flowers. I remember somewhere a study was done in a high crime area. They planted flowers all around, all kinds. The crime did decrease, so I guess criminals don't like pretty flowers.
@@Miami7 Quite likely. Something about plant appreciation (biophilia) that gets people to slow down and look around, maybe even walk and bike that might also help.
They are NOT destroying them. They can't afford to fix many of the problems with these old majestic homes. Usually starts with a roof needing fixed. Even a small ranch house in the burbs can cost 10-20k to reroof. .
@Jane Atwell Robinson's 3G-Grandkid, Christine* You're worried about homeless camping when you could be thinking about other things. Ever hear of bioswales? They are cross between permaculture swale and a raingarden. They are usually planted with diverse native or other site-suitable plants in depressions in the ground that tend to stay moist that capture rainwater. During a rain event they fill up with water and helps recharge the local groundtable. They watered though curbcuts that divert street runoff. They reduce flooding/drought impacts; crime; heat island effect; increase walkability/bikeability, add beauty; comfort; reduce air and water pollution; reduce power grid strain; etc. There is this and many other positive impacts to rehabbing streets and cities through other means.
I moved here 2 years ago from a "larger town" in Kansas. I've found the people here in every area I've been in are very friendly and helpful, more so than any other larger city I've been to. I really LOVE living in KCMO!
Some of the neighborhoods in those areas are deceiving. Older but large homes in good condition. Quiet during the day but good lord don’t get caught down there at night. The North East neighborhoods off Independence Ave are scary too.
Therapy is not the answer. Creating an environment where kids are raised in 2 parent families. Giving financial incentives for families and two parent households would help keeping families in tact.
Many of these offenders need rehab, not prison time. They get demonized too much and as a result perpetuate violence between police and offenders. I speak for myself; many of these neighborhoods have had it hard and need more love
@@enriqueavila1463 maybe, but when DA's won't put real criminals u know the ones that make working folks afraid to go the grocery store, then that's a disservice for the whole neighborhood. Real love doesn't enable a person it lifts them up so they can rise above their circumstances. I'm a fan of malcolm x, he loved capitalism.
@@CarterMc3 my alternative? Dmf I say enforce the fucking law. God dam when a crime is committed it's always better to put the criminals in jail. The "alternative" now obviously isn't working to protect the law abiding citizens.
"Nobody deserves to live in an environment like this." what about druggies, lowlives, ppl who just wanna mooch off the system, and those who wanna make nothing of themselves? id say THEY deserve to be there
First, you don't cross a river to go to KCK from KCMO. You just drive across State Line Road. Get your Google Maps out and look at it. Drive west on Westport Road and suddenly it becomes 43rd Street. You're in KCK. And as for "no one deserves to live like this" 11:38 (public housing) but there is a waiting list of tens of thousands of people to get into public housing in KCMO. Think about THAT. Public Housing is a step up for many people. And if you think moving to neighborhoods from public housing is going to happen, you should know that landlords don't have to take vouchers. Many won't. This all gets entangled into problems with poverty in the US. Early on you mentioned what percentage of people in the Troost-Prospect corridor are "on welfare". But what is "welfare"? Bill Clinton put a 60 month maximum on collection of AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and changed the name to TANF (Temporary Asistance to Needy Families) and the state gets to help set time limits and qualification limits that yank that funding if you stop looking for a job etc. All you seem to be doing is scaring nice white gentrifiers with poor people and minorities.
Kansas City really suffers from having almost no social safety net whatsoever. Without a car and a good home you are inevitably going to really struggle to ever pick yourself back up, and that leads to the heavy crime and homelessness issues. We don't have enough housing, especially in the downtown areas. Our public transit system is incredibly lackluster with only a slow and unreliable bus system to move people without cars around, normally at a fare, and a single streetcar which mostly serves as a tourism and business option rather than a reliable source of transportation. Everything is spread out and car centric, we are the highway capital of the U.S. and it really shows. I think even the people in the worst parts of KC really do care for the city and want it to be a nice place, we have a lot of good people here, but the decisions made today and in the past make it really difficult to get out of the slump we're in. Anti homeless benches and a simple streetcar expansion aren't solutions. The city needs to upzone, it needs to build a proper bicyclist network for those that can't afford to or would prefer not to drive, it needs better and more varied transit options, it needs to knock down the highways that divide neighborhoods, and our roads in general are just bad. They're bad at moving people, they're bad for pedestrians, they're often bad for drivers too. They've been needing an overhaul for a long time.
You know what I find really funny is that compared to some places I have seen this place actually is quite decent. At one time went to the hood and a foreign country and it looked like a total war zone so what I'm looking at right now is Paradise compared to what I saw in Europe because that ghettos are just down right depressing
Westport is notorious for crime. I’ve been a few times during the night and I feel a dark energy there. I hear stories and I feel a lot of it is due to gang initiations. Very sad… I have no desire to go there again. The Power & Light district is much nicer and a better experience. I hope there’s a video that highlights the good neighbors and places on the MO side because it truly is a great city. Thanks for visiting us and shedding light on our issues.
Westport is nowhere near that , most of it is college students , come over to the area by the VA hospital and you see real poverty!! Go up Van Brunt half the apartment building are burned down!!!
I've been working and living in Westport for 10 years now and have always walked alone at night back to my apartment. There is almost no gang presence whatsoever. We can get 30,000 visitors in a weekend here often drinking heavily. Bad stuff can happen when you get those numbers but its overall pretty safe.
Last April, on Easter Sunday, we were parked downtown between 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. for a volleyball tournament. Our Toyota's passenger side window was smashed out and all our luggage was stolen. The police took my statement over the phone because it would have taken at least three hours to get an officer to the scene. Complete shit hole run by criminals
Mixed residential does work hence why crime is relatively lower for a large city like Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦. 3 million in the city, less than 100 homicides a year. The metro area is about 7 million plus still less than 200 homicides
Nick, we all keep hearing you and other youtubers say when you have high poverty that leads to high crime. Can I suggest that it's closer to a chicken vs. the egg thing and that it's as likely to be crime, then poverty rather than poverty, then crime. Businesses and people of all races just don't want to move to where there's high crime, period, they want to move where there's less. NYC is a good barometer - the poverty rate may stay the same but if the crime rate goes up, people move out; if the crime rate goes down, people move in.
Are you impoverished/when was the last time you made less than $13,000 and still had to pay for all of the same exact things as you do now? You can pay for most things but nothing is left over. It would take decades to save up enough money just to go to school if you don’t have other support or don’t want to take out predatory education loans. You are systematically kept in the same lower state just ping ponging around employers trying to find one that treats you like a human being. Then people turn to crime because it offers something nobody else around you is offering, a way out. Even if, in reality, it’s not a way out. It’s just predatory people in an unregulated market (street market) taking advantage of people in bad situations. Were most end up dead or in jail. When you’re working these jobs people consider lower class jobs, you’re stuck. These jobs aren’t structured for you to do anything else other than work for them. That’s where crime jumps in, on the desire for freedom. What’s a little crime, for making it out of being a 21st century indentured servant. Either a slave to a bills you have to play to stay alive or a slave to the people who saddled you with a lifetime of debt just for “going to school, getting a real job, and being a productive member of society”
i live 5min south from here.. these homes used to go for $25k-$50k about 2 years ago. Now they're in $100k+ range like wtf. This place is like the hood, but as soon as you cross the state line into kansas, like a 5min drive west.. the area completely changes into upper middle class neighborhood
Why do I have to work for you? I'm not willing to work because I despise the society which restricts me in every way possible. Can't build a house on my own in the way I want, can't buy a normal new car that I could fix by myself anymore. All what you want is to put me in a walled garden and make me "work" because it is "good". Take my big F
Kansas City is NOT a dump. I moved here from Hershey, PA about 8 years ago, and have found KC to be absolutely beautiful, with rich culture and many interesting things to do. Of course, with your video having some sort of a negative spin agenda, you wouldn't know it. Where is it that you live again? I assume it has not one bad neighborhood? 🙂
Some investigators in media need to do an in-depth examination of what happened to police being on patrol; traffic stops, or investigations. Where are the police hiding? How was KCMO able to conjure 800 officers to attend the Chief’s rally at Union Station but we never see them in the surrounding neighborhoods? Why have traffic stops stopped when more stolen cars are being driven with impunity and the streets have never been so crowded with hazardous drivers? Why is the illegal trade in guns and drugs allowed to flourish openly, dangerously? We pay high taxes for law enforcement and unless we resort to vigilantism we do expect the police to actually do their job. KCPD Chief Graves needs to publicly answer these questions.
Its pretty simple really, this country has a revenue generating problem, we are still are utilizing the momentum from last century when we were a powerhouse with production. So its like putting your car in neutral, slowly coming to a stop, and cars need upkeep just like economies. It is what it is, but places like Kansas are everywhere, not much revenue moving around, lack of it. Not a tourist attraction...not easy.
Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, although geographically close, are two separate and distinct cities with no real connection to one another. They only share a name. It was painful to watch the KC, Kansas police officer struggle to answer questions about KC, Missouri where he neither works nor lives. Oh well, it was still interesting to learn about the problems in Kansas City, Kansas.
I’ve lived in KC all my life. I’m clean and sober for over ten years now. It’s really not that bad, even after dark. Look, if your into drugs and that life, yeah, you might run into trouble… that is expected ANYWHERE. I do installation work around KS. I’ve done jobs on troost and prospect. Walking around, in people’s backyards…. Yes, obviously you knock on the front door and ask lol. I would never live in those neighborhoods, but it’s not as bad as some people make it. If you do, or sell drugs… yup, you might get robbed or shot one day….. that’s not just a KS thing
I'm a sergeant with public safety in kc and called in the shots from that shooting in Westport. I see dozens of guns a night and fight with these people constantly. I worked Wyandotte too. All bad. It's a lost cause
I just returned from a business trip in KC and I was not impressed to say the least. The city is absolutely filthy, parks were in dire need of maintenance and repairs, sewage odors emanated all over the city, and finally, the amount of transients/ tweakers, etc. was astounding.
I have lived in northeast Kansas City off St. John and I have lived off 31st by prospect. Keep your head down (but not really) and mind your business. Be aware of your surroundings. I always carried some type of weapon with me though. I always made sure to get home before dark.
I live and work in Midwest for 25 years but I never like it at all, everyday I just want to pack my stuff in my car and drive it all the way to California, finally in 2017, I quit my job and drove all the way to San Diego California without looking back,I bought a condo paid it off then enjoy a good life,too many places and many things to do in San Diego,I go to the beach fishing and surf anytime I want to, walking,biking all year round because the weather is so nice.
I have lived just outside kc my entire life but I spend most my time in the city in so called rough areas, I'm white and I never get messed with it's all about how you carry yourself and show respect. It's the few that do all this horrible shit that give the many a bad look and that's bullshit. I have met so many families that are just trying to get by everyday and most of the ones that sell drugs are doing to keep a roof over there families head and food on the table they would never pick it as a career choice it's just what they have to do, so to the guy who made this video and everyone else you don't know shit about kc so keep your mouth shut, until you have lived here or lived that way of life you have no room to say shit. Love you KC
I'm confused. Exactly WHICH "River" do you think you crossed when passing from Kansas City Missouri to Kansas City Kansas? The KANSAS River flows INTO the MISSOURI River west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri; but the BORDER between the STATES of Missouri and Kansas in much of metro Kansas City is simply the white painted center line of State Line Road. NO river at all is involved when crossing from Missouri into Kansas! At least that's true south of the Missouri River/ Kansas River confluence.
Your channel, your right to state your opinions, even when they are extremely prejudiced. Parson's refuses to fund mental health services, but arms the cops to the teeth, homes in low income areas are condemned and torn down to allow corporate A-holes to build unaffordable apartment complexes, then beat and bully the homeless. You should at least mention that in money grubbing R states who refuse basic health services adds mightily to the crime rate.
It's poverty...Kids are trying to live these "social media" good lives with no real means to do so. The adults are barley making it. The cost of living and gentrification is out of control. There's nothing to do unless you have money. The desperation turns to not caring about anything. The City isn't moving fast enough to fix the run down areas...most of the decent jobs are in KCKS(Johnson)...and you have to have reliable transportation for that.
My son lives in Kansas City! It really makes me furious that you drove through their neighborhood, showed their home as well as other homes on their neighborhood. They have absolutely NO CRIME in their neighborhood. Not their street or anywhere around them. You need to get your facts straight before you talk about these people. They are lovely people & they have neighborhood meetings, movie nights in their backyard & visit with each other all the time. Get your facts straight!
Thank you for all of your videos , it has helped me decide to never ever move lol. I got a home at a perfect time and the price was right in 1998 . People can not even afford my area now and close to everything including a Whole Foods , very nice public pool two cool little cities and my gym 4 parks great independent top restaurants all in around a 10 minute radius .
@@NickJohnson Do a drive into East Atlanta and Little 5 Points take Memorial drive to Oakhurst /Decatur Georgia , Druid Hills , Avondale , Stone Mountain ,Covington Hwy to 🎥 Doom Patrol set /City of Lithonia , movie 🎥 district , Vampire Diaries, Legacy's , the Resident 🎥 Conyers and Porterdale, Covington , Madison 🍿🍿 🎥
KCMO resident my whole life here . I live in the hood ,never really felt unsafe. The violence isn't random, it's usually gang rested and specific. Just mind your bussiness and you'll be fine.
I am 37 will be 38 in 3 weeks and have lived in Kansas City MO my whole life. While the stats in this video may be true if you live in Kansas City you understand how the city works. If you don’t want to be in “stuff” don’t be in it and you will be fine. I frequent the very areas in this video and never have any problems. If you don’t mess with people people don’t mess with you. I think you should interview people in these cities you go to I think the story will be a little more detailed.
I agree about minding your own business. I’m 39 and I’m born and raised in kcmo. It’s not hard to stay out of trouble if you really want to.
💯 Correct. I'm always in the west bottom, bringing my 5 yr old to mauy thai class then visit my parents in armourdale. We mind our business and never have any problems.
@@Micnastyisf yeah, I don't what this guy is talking about with the west bottoms. I was a driver for Dayton freight for YEARS and the west bottoms/down and east side was always my favorite route. I always met the most interesting people in some of the "worst" parts of this city. Don't get me wrong, there DEFINITELY areas that are terrible (also in my route area) but you know? Even as a delivery driver I never ever felt like I was somewhere "dangerous", even on the east side toward Admiral Blvd.
@@scotthull9535 Try doing deliveries at midnight. You might have a different outlook.
Yupp
Hey! I’m from Kansas City and there are a lot of issues around town. However I think you come off as being disrespectful to the people that live in these communities in this video. Even in areas with high crime most of the people that live there are normal, nice people that are trying to make a life for them and their families. It’s hard for me to hear you describe people that live in Juniper Gardens as a bunch of “crackheads and thieves”. I’ve worked with many of those people and they are very kind, hardworking people who are trying their best to make a good life for themselves despite how much they and their families have been screwed by the system for decades. Many are refugees who work harder than most of us ever have or will, and they don’t get the support they deserve, or the support that most of us get and take for granted. Just my two cents.
I agree
Copium.
I'm from KC too and it's total bulshit that people out here are "nice" in certain areas. Complete and total bullshit. I don't know what areas you're riding through but I disagree.
Hey man I’m from KC, I respect this comment. Very very true, housing structure doesn’t always match the people inside around here… goes both way
Ways
Situations in Kansas City Kansas are slowly making progress with the younger people. My daughter teaches school in this area, and when she started she was in a four-story building that was built in the 1930s. There was one bathroom on the third floor, she taught on the fourth floor. There was rust in the sink from the water and in her closet there was no ceiling it was open to the attic. Money was being siphoned from the budget for personal use by the office personnel. The discipline was horrendous and not available. The middle schoolers were out of control and were allowed to talk and behave very disrespectful. She taught there for 2 years and then they opened the new school, Carl Bruce Middle School. It is a beautiful modern building for students to go to school and learn. They hired all new principles and staff.
This year is the second year the school has been opened, so all of the old students in the old building have graduated to high school, or somewhere.
They are running this school very tight and very disciplined and there is a no-nonsense policy and if you don't follow the rules you're out. My daughter said it is like a miracle, and if she has a situation in her classroom it takes one phone call and they are removed. There is no cussing her out allowed or any teacher, or The student is removed. She is amazed at the wonderful learning environment that is being presented to the students. They have an assembly often to remind the students of what is expected of them, what is tolerated, and what the outcome
will be if they don't follow the rules.
The racial mix is Black, Hispanic, and a few white children. They come from various home conditions as you can imagine in a very poor area of town.
My daughter is almost 60 and has taught for many years and is so pleased to see this year become a more pleasant year to teach. She feels this is her mission to teach these children how to be good citizens, and mannerly, and to reach for the stars. I am so proud of her.
I'm glad I found your video to watch, and delighted you focused on my home state.
kck and kc are not the same thing. he’s in missouri.
I think is it a mischaracterization to claim that Missouri running the financial books for the KCPD is better for KC's fight against crime. What KC is asking for is better management of the money they already have been given before throwing more money at the problem. KCPD has had an annual surplus since 2018... 2018 - $5.4 million, 2019 - $7.2 million, 2020 - $10.2 million, 2021 - $11.8 million, and 2022 - $13.5 million.
And when KC's mayor asked for funding for hazard pay for police officers on the front lines during COVID he was denied... I wish the Missouri government would make up their minds.
As a Jackson County resident I totally agree with you. Politics is all about control.
If crime continues to increase each year while the police budget increase annually, money isn't the problem. You can't just throw money at every solution. Invest in education that's one of the biggest inequalities in every urban community in America.
Every big city has bad neighborhoods and crime. Kansas City is no different. However there’s more to Kansas City than just the core bad neighborhoods. There are vast suburbs with very diverse communities on both the Kansas and Missouri side. I have lived in a lot of cities in the United States and Kansas City is by far the best when it comes to quality of living. Kansas City is a big city with a small town feel and you don’t get that in the most big cities. And if you are looking for history Kansas City has got it!
I've been working and living in Kansas City for more than a decade now mostly as a bartender at some sometimes seedier places. Every night I walk home alone and I've never run into any issues. The problems with crime here aren't random. You don't here about getting mugged on the street and I don't really feel the need to lock my doors. People are robbing each other and shooting each other but its a small amount of people that kind of fight it out within their own scenes most of the time and if you aren't involved with it you are left alone even in the rougher hoods. Been living in the Westport area for quite a while now, and formally over off of Troost. Its a nice place and getting better.
BS. I've lived here for 7 years now and there is so much crime. I've heard gunshots at night at more times than I would like to say There is so much crack, prostitution and gun violence. I live on the Kansas side of Kansas City which is the so called good side. I'm ready to save up and move away. I hate it here.
@@mindyengledow6860 I'm not saying there isn't issues but the fact that I have no issues in spite of exposing myself to so much says something. I started here homeless living in southmoreland park and Ive seen a lot. I'm sorry you have such a bad time but I'm a few miles away from you and living in utter peace if nothing else. its not KC, It might be your neighborhood, it might be your friends even but its not KC as a whole. You can move away and I hope it works for you but thats not how any of this works. You wont just find the perfect city.
@@brianzabel6635 I think some of it is the apartment complex I live in and the area around it and that's why I will move away. My husband chose this place bc I was in the hospital at the time. I live pretty close to the CVS off of Rainbow Blvd. I wouldn't feel safe walking alone at night!. I've had a lot of health issues lately but when I'm able to work again and move, I will! I like the Westport area, I'm fairly close to it. I don't feel safe here. I haven't heard gunshots in awhile but just the fact that I've heard them bothers me. I don't think there is a perfect city but I've lived in like 7 different states and I've lived in better. Maybe it is just this area, like I said, I will move as soon as I am able. I'm glad to hear you are not homeless anymore😊. I'm actually from California and I've lived in southern and northern California in very different places so we'll see. I will take ur advice and look closer to Westport...for a job and a place to live as soon as I can.
I keep to myself by the way...no friends here right now but I know what goes on around here. We have a lot of problems with cars being stolen. We even had a car stolen a couple years ago.
My thoughts exactly. Check out my post.
Wyandotte county- Argentine, Armourdale, has always been worse than KCMO, but in the past 20 years KCMO has improved drastically. You didn't drive around neighborhoods within a couple blocks of Troost around the Plaza and Nelson Atkins. Those are gorgeous neighborhoods. Power and Light has also made a huge difference in the past 20 years.
Depends on where you go. If he had gone to the East Side he would have thought he was in the bad side of Detroit or the 64137 zip code where the majority of the murders are happening. I could be wrong about the exact zip code but there was a documentary made about this a few years about all the murders in KCMO and they were concentrated in a certain zip code. Are neighborhoods really gorgeous when people are getting murdered there 3-4 times a month? Gentrification may solve the problem once you build enough $3000 a month apartments in Power and Light and jack the price of houses up to 600K+ that where 150K, 3 years ago and kick out all those old and low wage people to live in their cars or on the street...just like every where else.
@@lashlarue59 This comment makes me think you have no real awareness of the nuances of Kansas City. You do know what Mission Hills is, don't you? Those homes are valued in the millions. You do know where it is? Just directly to the southwest of the Plaza? You have seen the homes around the Nelson Atkins museum and Loose Park? There are comparable homes all the way south on Holmes to 75th street. People live there without ever experiencing any issues with crime. As another person pointed out in the comments section, violent crime tends to exist within it's own social bubble. I graduated from UMKC in the late 90s and worked in midtown for 5 years just recently and never felt unsafe.
@@deer105 I'm not sure what your point is. Yes there is less crime in some areas and more in others; everywhere is like that. If by "social bubble" you mean crime esp. violent crime tends to be racially affinitive, again thats everywhere. There are nice areas and multi-million dollar homes in the worse cities in the US, so what? That doesn't change the fact that there are also combat zones in those same cities and those zones are getting bigger and worse as time goes by and some of the worse are in KCMO. The first time I time I heard automatic weapons fire wasn't in Iraq it was off 53rd & Prospect, maybe 3 miles from Mission Hills.
yup and the tyranny is just as bad.
Fun fact.
Missouri has the highest black homicide rate in America among all 50 states.
The hood in KC isn’t that bad. There’s problems & issues but there’s other places are worse. There’s no serious gang culture or normalized violence. Most of the people in KC are nice & friendly. Also troost used to be the segregation line… now it’s Paseo & even that is a gray area with a mix of people on living everywhere. KC is one of the biggest cities in terms of land mass per capita as it can take an hour and half to get through the city no traffic. A lot of the population lives in the surrounding suburbs: Raytown, independence, North KC, Leawood, OP, etc.
the last places you named are in kc and some of those are kansas. this about kc not other cities.
@@bvsteel990 Metro KC
You went through traditionally bad KC neighborhoods. But they're actually decent now. You didn't really go into any areas that are currently unsafe. You need to go into East KC or the Independence border
Was going to say this, he should have went to south blue valley or Marlborough east, those neighbors ain’t no joke, can’t even walk up the street without someone tryna holler at you
You think Northeast is the hood? 😂 I'm dead. Go to 35th and Prospect and come back to this comment.
I've been to kansas city and lots of people tell me their mayor Quentin Lucas is the problem. He and a lot of law officials are way too lenient on criminals, especially gangs
It's funny how you can jus drive around and go off stats an feel like you can have a opinion..I lived in KCMO my whole life..It ain't like that at all yall
Right
Yeah it’s a dump
What're you talking about bruh? The Town is a shit hole now. We literally double Chicago's homicide rate per capita. Our violent crime rate and homicide rate is top 5 in the nation every year.
I moved to Kansas city mo 10 years ago I lived on 70th never had a problem and loved my the neighborhood then moved to riverside the only reason we had a problem was the property manager celtic property left 42 small dumpsters in our driveway we bought a house in North Kansas City and its been awesome for 5 years I'm all over kc and never had a problem
I'm on Section 8 and am tired of everyone blaming us for crime. We get inspected, so why do they feel that way? We have to live under a certain standard. Home owners are the ones who don't take care of their properties here.
Well...it takes money to do that. When you pay little or nothing for housing and food, which MY tax dollars pay for (you're welcome!) It's easy for YOU to criticize...but you are correct, you are partially responsible for crime here. Statistics prove it.
@@keithkoenig5320 What crime have I committed? I don't do drugs, rarely drink alcohol and don't smoke. I need you to tell me, since you know me so well!
@@keithkoenig5320 Plus, I pay the same amount for food that you do. Section 8 only helps with housing. I am not on Medicaid, which you are confusing that with.
@@keithkoenig5320 Actually, I meant Welfare
@@tj921able don't get mad at these people they're just angry that you pay just 30% of your income to the rent they have to put their asses out on the street to pay 100% of their income for rent that's why they always have broke Payless Shoes
My friend bought a house, made a killing about 200k profit 1 block west of troost.
then bought, another one right across from a beautiful pond East of Troost. Huge houses cheap. It's cleaned up just fine. He stays up late, and keeps the doors locked. These are nice houses cheap. He's just an uber driver. It will be nice East of troost several blocks for years to come. Any hood in Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta, is way worse.
@cHriS man it must be miserable being this paranoid all the time. I've lived here 10 years and dont even lock my doors.
I disagree. Do you live here?
@@Msthoro1 what do you disagree with? These are big houses cheap. I ve lived in KC on and off for years.
Those neighborhoods are just fine. KC is different because as long as you mind your business people generally leave you alone. Never once got my car broken into….until I moved to Johnson County. It’s rare that the violence in KC isn’t instigated by ego.
I agree, i have gotten my car broken into in Grain Valley and Olathe more then i have living 15 years in KCMO
I was going to comment this. It is a lack of education and people using violence as their only.means to resolve a problem. The mix.of upper class in the southwest side and the hood is a bad combination. People wanna run their mouths to "thugs". What do people expect to be the result🤦I've been around KC my entire life and I'm 36, and I have not seen someone with a gun except a friend who carried one under his drivers seat in his car in case someone else "popped" off and he had protection cause we would roll thru the hoods.but we were never shot at and almost arguments are resolved with a front yard brawl. I grew up in Johnson County in the suburbs and the middle/high school kids broke into cars "for fun". I didnt know hardly a single kid who wasn't in Juvenile Detention at one time. I went to Oregon Trail (Olathe Trash) and Olathe North High School. At both schools there was a fight at least once a week and guns even brought into the school. There have been shootings at Johnson County schools as well.😳
@@blackcherry6877 no doubt, it's definitely a shit hole
joco is in kansas
@@bvsteel990 thanks for the geography update Magellan
Who would want to get their home consulted with this guy!? LOL 😂
If asked myself, ‘what if my housing search was lacking the sociopathic perspective?’, i would bookmark this channel.
Go educate youself. Stop hating
The fact is people who can afford to live far from section 8 will. You can't blame someone for wanting to live in a good neighborhood.
The problem is you shouldnt have to have lots of money in order to live in a good neighborhood. It didnt used to be that way.
@@Chaz4543 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Some ppl with section 8 lives far out in a good neighborhood as well.
It may not look glamorous on paper, but the KC area truly has awesome prospects, culture, atmosphere IMO.
As someone who's lived in KC, Columbia, and St.Louis, I was BLOWN AWAY by how few, and mild the interactions I've had with the police have been .
Additionally - So far atleast - KC has been the only place I've lived where I was able to cultivate any semblance of prosperity /ease of living beyond meeting ends.
So you're going to find shitty areas in any city. Especially when you go looking for them.
As a piece that says avoid these areas this is helpful.
However, we were just in Kansas City last weekend - both sides - and had no problems at all.
Downtown has lots to do - go see the Power and Light District for night life.
We went for our yearly BBQ tour where we select a city known for BBQ and see who has the best in our opinion.
(That would be Slap's and Joe's KC BBQ. Both were exceptional)
Last year was Austin, TX which was fun but the entertainment District on E 6th was dangerous so we stayed on Rainey St. which was awesome.
BTW, Terry Black's in Austin was our favorite followed by Salt Lick but we traveled out of Austin to Driftwood. That place was great but the food edge went to Black's.
Franklin's was not open for dining and their brisketbwas sold out 43 days in advance since they were only doing online order and curbside pickup so we didn't go.
I'm born and raised in KCMO and you were being very generous with your footage. I was just home visiting in July and much has changed since I moved away in 2010.
With the exception of Troost and Westport I honestly didn't recognize the residential area you were in. But if you go in the neighborhoods by Central high school, Truman Rd, Van Brunt or Hardesty. You would have seen plenty of run down boarded homes and buildings with piles of garbage along most sidewalks and several homeless encampments. Everything that you said you didn't see, I saw plenty of it.
Those same areas you cite have some oasis of hope within them. Along Independence Avenue, there are organizations like "Jerusalem Farm" that are ministering to the homeless and impoverished, and the city has spent money to streetscape the area, and employ the use of "yellow-coaters" who do everything from pick up trash to giving directions to citizens, and reporting crime.
The problem is not the area, but is poverty and prejudice. It's a big job, but we can fix it if we find the will, and the courage.
I thought the same thing. I used to live in one of those areas that you say is worse than what you see in the video. That area looks terrible now and people were poor back when I lived there. Maybe there is some progress going on.
Every city in thus country has crimes, just not black on black crimes but all major and minor crimes, white collar crime, blue collar and urban. All eye soars, such rotted out houses and businesses everything is about surviving not because crime is rampant. People are more evil in this day and time because they have thrown away love, respect, morals or anything that has to do with right or dignity. When the feet of oppression are on the throats of citizens everywhere hopelessness and despair reigns. This is everywhere you point a finger at one single state or city America widens the gap between her and God
Love the tree lined streets. Most of our poorer areas in South Africa are litter ridden dustbowls
Yeah so why don't you go back to the Netherlands because you all are responsible for it
I have zero idea why anyone would want to do police work in an area where they’re not wanted. Every police officer in these areas are one video away from becoming the next Derek Chauvin. ☠️
Diversity isn't our strength.
You mean a murderer? Are you shocked people don't want to be murdered by cops?
@@michaellaidler7143 … the chances of an officer being charged for murder has skyrocketed. Look around. The patrol officer has all but disappeared. Cops would just as well sit out their shift in their squad car and not intercede in a domestic violence or petty crime incident. If the blood isn’t already drying in the street, don’t expect a cop to show up.
If the communities want “lay-low” cops, then they’ll get what they deserve. If ‘da peeps wanna blow each other’s brains out, then go right ahead.
“BLM” is the biggest scam and psych-job ever foisted on the Black community.
The cops that are able to prevent a disaster are hunkered-down in a Dunkin’ donuts shop across town. Considering all the anti-cop blow-back, I can’t blame them. Even Black officers don’t want anything to do with a wild, feral, and incorrigible people. Black officers have wives, husbands and children they want to see after work also.
And sure, other ethnicities have their problems, but not at the level of the African American. Black businesses struggle because of the palpable risk of patronizing Black businesses-especially after dark.
But I’m sure you’ll disagree with everything I’m saying. You haven’t seen the precipitous decline in the Black community like I have. Or, maybe you’re a White person just making comments from your “lofty perch.”
“… you sleep in the bed that you make.”
@Galactic Hobo
Still not worth it. Find a city that has less black people and work there and you'll not only have an easier job, but you'll risk your life much less often too.
A couple weeks ago a young North Kansas City Police officer was shot in cold blood during a traffic stop over expired tags.
I haven’t got far enough into the video to know if he mentions it. I live in Olathe, Kansas, but worked at a hospital in North Kansas City for 2 years m. Crazy.
The thing you have to realize about KC; 85% + of the violent crime in the metro is confined to 3 neighborhoods. Stay away from those, and you're in the best city in the country.
LOL. "Best city in the country." Get out of the house more.
@@K.B.Williams those 3 areas they are referring to is Eastside, Northeast and Southeast
@@mikeh9956 Right now I live in Phoenix. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Denver, and New Mexico.
I've been to every town up and down the east coast, I've been to LA, Eugene, Bend, Tucson, Albuquerque, every town in Texas, every major city in the Midwest, every town in Colorado, and all the small towns in between that I forgot to mention.
Nothing beats KC. Perhaps it's you who needs to take a look around. Have you ever traveled?
@@lw6866 I've been to every single state in the country. I live in Seattle. KC has to be the bottom of the barrel. Complete trash. Perhaps the sun has baked your brain.
@@lw6866 do you have plans to move back? What brought you to Phenix?
Those jail terms are a complete joke! A pot head can get locked away for 15 years but a murdering rat can be out in no time! 😦Who creates these bonkers laws!?
BTW: Those public housing sites don’t look as bad as there made out. There’s no rubbish and litter, no druggies loitering around outside of them. The grounds looks well maintained. It could just be down to the time of day that your driving by but it hardly appears to be Baghdad.
Where did you get those jail terms? It’s decriminalized and we have medicinal. Unless you’re selling , possession is a fine
I remember reading where a judge who went to prison said, upon his release, "Every jail sentence I gave out from the bench was TOO LONG." When will people treat addiction as a medical issue rather than a legal one?
Give my best to Juan. I missed him!
Juan says HI!
Speaking truth Frank, and the ones who go away for minor indiscretions no doubt come out ready to commit major crimes because there’s no reformation in the prison system. It’s a breeding ground for toxicity. I genuinely think prison should remain a last resort and only for those who commit murder, rape etc. even burglary and theft is committed through drug addiction or the sheer need to survive, society can help with that. It’s quite an eye opener this video.
Good grief, what do you think someone like that would say?!! No, people with addictions make decisions just you do. They bring their conditions and their consequences on themselves. Your attitude is really irresponsible and condones undue sympathy for people who don't deserve it! Last time I looked using illegal substances not only affects many others besides the user but society as a whole is a crime and to discount its impact is foolish!
@@louislamonte334 Sorry, but I'm in recovery myself. I've been alcohol and drug free for over 41 years. Still an addict; still treating it.
@@fmcevoy1 Well, I wish you the best of luck and admire your progress as I realize it is a very difficult journey. But in all of this I can't get past the bedrock idea of personal responsibility.
I went to med school in KC in the early 2000s, and I had the same impression back then as Nick says. Even the dangerous neighborhoods look rather pleasent. Many of the old houses looked to be in fairly decent shape.
Kansas City is great with visiting and watching their sports. But living there is sometimes great, but not always due to these hoods.
I lived in the East Blue Valley area in the 50s when it was an ethnic Polish area. We used to sit on the front porch and listen to the crickets and wait for the ice cream man. I liked listening to the guy across the street practicing the accordion. The neighborhood grocery shop was on the corner and I would walk there to buy some lunchmeat and dark bread now and then when my mom sent me. Then men played checkers in the alley behind the houses. We had a few chickens. Everyone kept their houses clean and neat and we never thought twice about walking at night. We would walk up to E. Truman Rd. and catch the bus to go downtown for a few hours. Good memories. Then something happened in the early 70's. My cousin was shot and killed in a the parking lot of a well-known store there. My other cousin still lived there after the Polish people moved out and another demographic moved in. She said she was afraid to even walk up to the church my uncle helped to build, much less sit on the porch in the evening. She said the house she used to live in was a crack house now and she could hear gunshots during the night. The music and noise were up so loud she couldn't sleep. No more Polish people worshipped at the church and it became a shelter for illegals. She left in the 90s after her house was finally sold, and moved to a smaller town. The little store is still there. It is such a shame to watch our once beautiful, happy neighborhoods becoming just hoods. KCMO used to be a thriving and fun city. It would probably make me sick to see the old neighborhood now. Or even the city. Why does this have to happen?
I grew up on independence Ave, and yes we had crime but no more then another places, and bear in mind that this was in the 90s during the crack times
I live in Wyandotte aka Crimedotte but no mentioning that we also call it Dotteghanistan??? But you should’ve ventured off into the Beverly Hills of KCK near the Kansas Speedway. The higher the street numbers you go the better it is.
I grew up in Juniper Gardens in the 80’s. Didn’t seem that bad because it was all I knew. Crazy how things change as we evolve as people.
"defunding law enforcement" does not mean "get rid of all police". It means that instead of dumping infinite funding into police, which we've been doing with no improvement, you slice off some of that money for social programs, crime stopper programs, therapy, jobs programs, things like that instead of just figuring on shooting or jailing any problems.
@@teleologicalanalysis5291 some semi-random people have said that some of the time, do you want law enforcement to be judged by the worst things you've managed to catch any single officer doing? I bet you wouldn't.
KCK is much smaller than KCMO. And locally KCK is considered worse than KCMO. I think it's because it's smaller and most of it is run down.
Way less murders in kck than kcmo.
@@victor-2566 kck is much more run-down!
I moved to the Kansas City, MO area this year. At least they report the crime. Two Western States I lived before tried to cover up the crime that happens there. I love Kansas City and plan to live there the rest of my life.
A few years ago there were two police departments that were mentioned by the Department of Justice for providing false information for crime statistics; the LA County Sheriffs Department and the KCPD.
What brought you to KCMO?
Both of those departments used to be transparent. LASD was on Cops and a program about the jail system. KCPD used to be featured on Cops in a lot of episodes. I've actually experienced crimes not being reported in numerous law enforcement districts. I agree with LASD underreporting crime statistics.
@@Jjjaaahhnn, to buy a house and live near my family.
The "troost wall" has been shifting more towards east of 71 over the last decade or so. Troost and specifically paseo have really been making efforts to clean things up. I will say that over the last couple years we've been seeing slightly more homeless in the main areas of the city (crossroads, downtown, power and light, etc). Still, despite those concentrated areas KC is still an awesome city with lots of character!
Definitely feeling the encroachment in the suburbs to the east.
I agree with you 💯 but 71 runs north and south lol.
Yes. They tried to take my home from me - Garfield …
I've been watching your channel for a while and I was excited when I saw your latest video came through Kansas City. In fact, the first street in your video is Independence Avenue, which is the neighborhood where I live and work. I actually work for the community newspaper and our office was just three blocks west of where your video of Independence Avenue kept cutting off. We report a lot of the crime as well as all the hard work to improve the quality of life here.
I'm always impressed by how accurate and fair your assessment of neighborhoods seem to be. Often times, I will hear folks mispronounce street names or offer an assessment that is inaccurate and it identifies them as an "outsider."
If you'd driven around Kansas City 1-2 years ago, you would have seen a lot more homeless camps and it would have made you feel differently about how "nice" things looked. The city still hasn't found a solution for it, but they've stopped allowing the homeless to camp along main streets or in parks in massive groups.
Kansas City *is* very nice but unfortunately we've seen an increase in violent crime. I attribute most of that to the Jackson County Prosecutor. After Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, MO, our prosecutor has really done a terrible job of making sure violent criminals are kept off the streets. It doesn't help that our City Council is in a constant battle with the state for control of police funding. Personally, I believe there is a lot of room for improvement withing KCPD, but the folks in City Council are not qualified enough to make the needed changes. They're more in lock step with the Jackson County Prosecutor who is ineffective at dealing with the problem.
I don't know that I agree with much of what the KCK officer in your video said, but KCK is a different place that KCMO.
Anyway, great video. Thanks for visiting our city!
You think you got it bad in KC, come to Memphis, you'll be running back to KC on the first thing smoking
Memphis is a shithole. Why tf do you live there
Right !!
Bruh. Memphis is grimey now. Yall had the highest murder rate in the US last year. Kansas City is ahead of yall so far this year tho. It's sad what happened to KC. It's a shit hole now.
@@JohnM_816 it's sad what happened to Memphis, it wasn't always like this
Crime is out of control because of repeat offenders who are not put in prison but instead are released back out on the streets to commit even more crimes. Can't be a repeat offender if they are in prison serving time for the crimes they have already committed.
No...STOP..I HATE WHEN SOME WANA-BE add they 2cents..and LETS READ WHAT STATISTIC SAYS..SMH !!!
you don't live here...so you don't really know how it goes around here...l
U cnt say that becuz ppl aren't bad all becuz they went to prison...alot of cats actually r reformed cumn out, an sum wasn't bad before goin in since they were raised rite jus didn't listen to counsel. They were tryn to feed their fams, wats wrong wit that? Yo there's good an bad in everybdy straight up but ppl make others bad by how disrespectful they cum across
@@tinaunion5831 rite thanks trina
Never been to KC, but lived in Memphis for 10 years. So much of KC Mo featured in your video looked like Memphis neighborhoods. I’ve got nothing but love for the 901 but jeez it’s getting bad there!
Edit: The whole kids with guns thing is so sad. I remember there was a gang of kids (I think the oldest was 15) mugging folks and n the middle of the day with a shotgun in beautiful Overton Park in Mem.
Didn't Memphis start getting worse after Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of people who moved to other states and cities and never went back? Houston is another city that has gone to hell ever since 2005.
@@UzumakiNaruto_ I lived there from 2006-2016 so I’m not 100%. All I know is that in that span I had my car broken into 3 times, 2 bikes stolen, a near violent confrontation at a trolley stop and an attempted burglary. I lived in midtown which is the hipstery artsy part of town. Not exactly the worst hood in Memphis. To quote the locals, “As long as you don’t go too far north,south or west you’re pretty safe” lol!
If you’d like to help we’d appreciate it more than a video telling us how “bad” the city is
Dude, no! Let him rant about shit he doesn't know. It will keep the "coast people" from moving here.
Fix that dump yourself. Too bad he didn't make it to Emanuel Cleaver.
Did you drive through the streets in the Northeast area of KCMO? It would’ve been right where you were at the beginning of the video (Independence Avenue). I’m just curious since you mentioned that the Troost neighborhoods didn’t look as bad as you thought they would. Northeast is really bad, unfortunately. You would’ve definitely seen and felt the lack of safety there. I love KC but yes, it’s gone down hill bad. The lack of strong laws and punishment is a major issue. They’re a slap on the hand. I just moved away after 35 years. KC has beautiful areas and I love how we have so much pride in our sports teams. Unfortunately, I wish we would put as much effort into fixing our city in so many ways. I moved out of KCMO a few years ago to a suburb in Kansas (about 20 min away from KCMO). Night and day difference. I wanted to break the cycle for my child and told myself she wouldn’t step foot in KCMO schools. Wish things were different there but I’ll always love my city. Living in Texas now, I miss it everyday but I understand it’s not a place I want my child growing up in 😞 Enjoyed your video although it hurt to hear a lot of the things you said. They’re true, though.
I like Kansas City I do ❤️
"Redlining" was first utilized during and immediately following the Civil War. the town of
Quindaro, part of Kansas City, Kansas now, was established as a black community for emancipated slaves. As the community expanded, "white flight" took hold leaving behind deteriorating housing, and vacant businesses, and consolidating the oppressed impoverished.
Now it's time we turned the corner. There's a statue of John Brown there today, and a small museum that is only open by appointment, but a group is assembling to revitalize this area.
It needs to be brought back
I have grown up in Kansas City, Missouri, well the Northland.
I enjoyed your video because you certainly did the research, and you are correct on many of the topics you discussed.
I did notice though, your footage was the from North East section of the city, which historically, yes has had a lot of problems, but it actually is turning around in certain areas (gentrification). You're absolutely spot on about the great social divide between the old eastern sections of the city being historically black, and the western parts of the city being white.
One thing I didn't hear in the video, which was back in 1951, when the US highway and transportation department built a national highway through a historically black neighborhood, it displaced thousands of families. That really set the bar from East/West and controlled the real estate market on allowing multicultural integration into each other's communities.
Now, I realize the video's premise was about the hood's of Kansas City, and that's all good, and informative.
But you should see some of the great things this city has to offer, and it isn't in the 'hood' so to speak. Anyway, great content, looking forward to watching more of your videos.
I’m in the Northland too!
KCMO is looking a bit better than it did in the past. Looks like they got most of the discarded appliances and old furniture that used to litter the streets and vacant lots.
I moved from Kansas City,MO to San Antonio,TX...I honestly felt more safe in the larger city of San Antonio than KC...Today I'm living in the Cleveland area of Ohio and it feels like Kansas City all over again
I think the reason KCMO doesn't look as bad (while the crime is very comparable) as urban hellscapes like parts of Detroit or East St. Louis is because the KC city government has had the money to tear down abandoned buildings much faster than other cities. In Detroit you might have block after block of burned out, bombed out buildings sitting there for 10 or 20 years but you don't see that as much in KCMO.
@cHriS Are you referring to the 1% city earnings tax?
No, he wasn't where the rundown and boarded up buildings with piles of trash on the sidewalks. I left KC in 2010 and was there in July. I couldn't believe how dirty it was and didn't understand how on every other street there weren't piles of garbage. There were also several homeless encampments. Something I'd never seen growing up.
@@themodeltyra1517 I disagree a little. On my old street all the houses except one are gone; same thing with the surrounding streets only 1-2 houses left. What I've noticed on my trips back there is vacant houses seem to be left standing 3-5 years, maybe less and then they're torn down, if they're not being maintained. As bad as that is its much better than some cities where they are left to rot for 20+ years. From talking to people it looks like it costs around $10K to tear down a house and dispose of all the waste; multiply that by 1000's of houses and thats a lot of money for the city. Now imagine a city the size of Detroit and we're talking 100's of millions. I agree about the trash when they tear down a house people seem to be buying the land, putting up rickety fences and using them as private dumps. Also there are lots of abandoned streets that are pretty much dumps. So the city is semi-good about tearing down vacant houses but bad about all these dump sites. When I left there in 2007 their was no homeless camps now its everywhere especially on the east side. Too bad; he definitely didn't go into the real bad parts of town and he mostly stayed in Kansas. There are parts of KCMO that look a lot like Detroit or Flint compared to what he showed.
“I hired you people to get some track laid, not jump around like a bunch of Kansas City fakkits!”
How about some more beans Mr.Taggert?
@@carolinawest5686 I’d say you’ve had enough!
I get no kick from Champaign
It may be too small, but if you head over to Topeka, I'll let you know where "not" to go. For a town of only 125k, Topeka ranks as one of the most dangerous places to live in Kansas. What was once a safe place to live is now a sad example of what happens when a certain type of politician gains control. You know the ones that tax, spend and defund the police. Just reply if you need info on Topeka.
BTW Johnson County Kansas in KC (Overland Park, Lenexa) is the safe area of KC.
Yes I covered Johnson county in the first video!
It's declining in certain areas. Usually areas that are turning blue Sad.
Avoid the whole damn city. A Topeka resident once told me " if God was going to give the world an enema Topeka Ks is where he'd put it" But it did go up a notch when Fred died and made Topeka and the world a better place.
There has to be a different way to pay for schools. It should be equal and then if parents want to add some cash, then cool. It would be similar but fair. Nice districts would be everywhere and not just certain spots. Not everyone likes the suburbs. I walked my ex girlfriend’s dog around the block at 34th and troost at all times of the day and night. Passed by a party shop and never had a problem.
Fedex’d around northeast and from independence ave to 63rd, up and down Troost, Paseo, to the Plaza and then only to river market. Then West Bottoms to 39th. Love the vids.
You haven’t heard uh ? Overland Park not as safe as u think
I deliver here in these exact neighborhoods on a near daily basis & it's just a shame seeing such nice buildings fall into disrepair. I love this city to death, I've grown up in the metro all my life & have so many fond memories here & I really hope there's a future for the area & that someday we can get ride of the troost divide, I would love to see how the city looked before it let things go like this, & nobody deserves to lose their home like this. I'd love to see the west bottoms get fixed up a bit too, though I admit that it's current state has always been super nostalgic to me
also, I admit, I've only been working down here consistently for a year, mainly all around downtown, troost, & prospect & I won't lie I am very very surprised & lucky that I haven't ran into any trouble yet
Yes indeed but if u keep holding ppl that's less fortunate back by not building up affordable homes for them to stay in, they wnt ever prosper
@@PrettyNicky50 Who is going to invest to build affordable homes? Or do you mean Section 8 apartments?
Got to add to the post I just made. The system has not really helped those who are caught in the criminal web. In fact, I think they have destroyed structure of "family", and deliberately created a horrid dependency of hand outs instead of hand ups. Because of poverty, parents are too busy trying to survive to have the strength to do the parenting they may want and need to do. Mentores are nonexistent, and kids are left with whatever influance the neighborhood can give and it most often is not positive. Taking crime out infected neighborhoods and put more money into helping more adults learn working skills and more serious after school assistance for kids with positive experences would go a long way in making positive changes that last. Also more stringent monitoring of what residents are allowed to live in housing projects. The thing about these kinds of ideas is they often start out with good intentions, then some arse comes along and #%*^% it up via corruption. Who's going to watch the watchers?
There were some beautiful homes in those crime ridden neighborhoods. That is a shame. Hopefully they stop destroying homes.
Think 'traffic-calming solutions' like intersection islands might deter crime in some areas because criminals want easy getaways. Making streets pleasantly walkable deters crime as well.
So would flowers. I remember somewhere a study was done in a high crime area. They planted flowers all around, all kinds. The crime did decrease, so I guess criminals don't like pretty flowers.
@@Miami7
Quite likely. Something about plant appreciation (biophilia) that gets people to slow down and look around, maybe even walk and bike that might also help.
They are NOT destroying them. They can't afford to fix many of the problems with these old majestic homes. Usually starts with a roof needing fixed. Even a small ranch house in the burbs can cost 10-20k to reroof. .
I don't want to give some verdant lounging place for the "homeless" to panhandle though.
@Jane Atwell Robinson's 3G-Grandkid, Christine*
You're worried about homeless camping when you could be thinking about other things.
Ever hear of bioswales? They are cross between permaculture swale and a raingarden. They are usually planted with diverse native or other site-suitable plants in depressions in the ground that tend to stay moist that capture rainwater. During a rain event they fill up with water and helps recharge the local groundtable. They watered though curbcuts that divert street runoff. They reduce flooding/drought impacts; crime; heat island effect; increase walkability/bikeability, add beauty; comfort; reduce air and water pollution; reduce power grid strain; etc.
There is this and many other positive impacts to rehabbing streets and cities through other means.
I moved here 2 years ago from a "larger town" in Kansas. I've found the people here in every area I've been in are very friendly and helpful, more so than any other larger city I've been to. I really LOVE living in KCMO!
Politicians create the conditions that make or break the people. Until you start insisting on better you are never going to get it.
Never Say NEVER😎 Justin Bieber
Some of the neighborhoods in those areas are deceiving. Older but large homes in good condition. Quiet during the day but good lord don’t get caught down there at night. The North East neighborhoods off Independence Ave are scary too.
I spent two summers knocking on doors across the kc's and I could not believe how bad kck was. It was actually sad
Therapy is not the answer. Creating an environment where kids are raised in 2 parent families. Giving financial incentives for families and two parent households would help keeping families in tact.
"Young people with guns." Those damn "young people."
Being soft on crime isn't good for anyone. Sadly, it's the popular view across the country 😕 great video Nick 👍
And your alternative is ... ? the "hard on crime" stance over the last 40 years that has been a massive failure?
Very true, look at how law enforcement has stood back in recent times and done nothing while crime happens. We need to tighten things up a lot
Many of these offenders need rehab, not prison time. They get demonized too much and as a result perpetuate violence between police and offenders. I speak for myself; many of these neighborhoods have had it hard and need more love
@@enriqueavila1463 maybe, but when DA's won't put real criminals u know the ones that make working folks afraid to go the grocery store, then that's a disservice for the whole neighborhood. Real love doesn't enable a person it lifts them up so they can rise above their circumstances. I'm a fan of malcolm x, he loved capitalism.
@@CarterMc3 my alternative? Dmf I say enforce the fucking law. God dam when a crime is committed it's always better to put the criminals in jail. The "alternative" now obviously isn't working to protect the law abiding citizens.
This "bad nieghborhood" doesn't look bad . You don't see thugs hanging out
"Nobody deserves to live in an environment like this." what about druggies, lowlives, ppl who just wanna mooch off the system, and those who wanna make nothing of themselves? id say THEY deserve to be there
First, you don't cross a river to go to KCK from KCMO. You just drive across State Line Road. Get your Google Maps out and look at it. Drive west on Westport Road and suddenly it becomes 43rd Street. You're in KCK.
And as for "no one deserves to live like this" 11:38 (public housing) but there is a waiting list of tens of thousands of people to get into public housing in KCMO. Think about THAT. Public Housing is a step up for many people. And if you think moving to neighborhoods from public housing is going to happen, you should know that landlords don't have to take vouchers. Many won't. This all gets entangled into problems with poverty in the US.
Early on you mentioned what percentage of people in the Troost-Prospect corridor are "on welfare". But what is "welfare"? Bill Clinton put a 60 month maximum on collection of AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and changed the name to TANF (Temporary Asistance to Needy Families) and the state gets to help set time limits and qualification limits that yank that funding if you stop looking for a job etc. All you seem to be doing is scaring nice white gentrifiers with poor people and minorities.
Kansas City really suffers from having almost no social safety net whatsoever. Without a car and a good home you are inevitably going to really struggle to ever pick yourself back up, and that leads to the heavy crime and homelessness issues.
We don't have enough housing, especially in the downtown areas. Our public transit system is incredibly lackluster with only a slow and unreliable bus system to move people without cars around, normally at a fare, and a single streetcar which mostly serves as a tourism and business option rather than a reliable source of transportation.
Everything is spread out and car centric, we are the highway capital of the U.S. and it really shows.
I think even the people in the worst parts of KC really do care for the city and want it to be a nice place, we have a lot of good people here, but the decisions made today and in the past make it really difficult to get out of the slump we're in. Anti homeless benches and a simple streetcar expansion aren't solutions.
The city needs to upzone, it needs to build a proper bicyclist network for those that can't afford to or would prefer not to drive, it needs better and more varied transit options, it needs to knock down the highways that divide neighborhoods, and our roads in general are just bad. They're bad at moving people, they're bad for pedestrians, they're often bad for drivers too. They've been needing an overhaul for a long time.
Amen to that
Most people with even a little bit if spaek in them will strive to have a car and thier own home....Geeezzzzzzz
This is nonsense. We have public transportation. Sounds like an excuse for being lazy
You know what I find really funny is that compared to some places I have seen this place actually is quite decent. At one time went to the hood and a foreign country and it looked like a total war zone so what I'm looking at right now is Paradise compared to what I saw in Europe because that ghettos are just down right depressing
Westport is notorious for crime. I’ve been a few times during the night and I feel a dark energy there. I hear stories and I feel a lot of it is due to gang initiations. Very sad… I have no desire to go there again. The Power & Light district is much nicer and a better experience. I hope there’s a video that highlights the good neighbors and places on the MO side because it truly is a great city.
Thanks for visiting us and shedding light on our issues.
I do talk about kcmo later in the trip!
Westport is nowhere near that , most of it is college students , come over to the area by the VA hospital and you see real poverty!! Go up Van Brunt half the apartment building are burned down!!!
I've been working and living in Westport for 10 years now and have always walked alone at night back to my apartment. There is almost no gang presence whatsoever. We can get 30,000 visitors in a weekend here often drinking heavily. Bad stuff can happen when you get those numbers but its overall pretty safe.
@@NickJohnson why do you love all the negative comments about the city. You don't know shit about this city
Last April, on Easter Sunday, we were parked downtown between 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. for a volleyball tournament. Our Toyota's passenger side window was smashed out and all our luggage was stolen. The police took my statement over the phone because it would have taken at least three hours to get an officer to the scene. Complete shit hole run by criminals
Mixed residential does work hence why crime is relatively lower for a large city like Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦. 3 million in the city, less than 100 homicides a year. The metro area is about 7 million plus still less than 200 homicides
i can say that as someone who moved here from georgia a few years ago, kcmo has got my heart.
Nick, we all keep hearing you and other youtubers say when you have high poverty that leads to high crime. Can I suggest that it's closer to a chicken vs. the egg thing and that it's as likely to be crime, then poverty rather than poverty, then crime. Businesses and people of all races just don't want to move to where there's high crime, period, they want to move where there's less. NYC is a good barometer - the poverty rate may stay the same but if the crime rate goes up, people move out; if the crime rate goes down, people move in.
Great point ☝️ why start a business in a high crime area and open yourself up to the possibilities of theft, damage, and vandalism?
Are you impoverished/when was the last time you made less than $13,000 and still had to pay for all of the same exact things as you do now? You can pay for most things but nothing is left over. It would take decades to save up enough money just to go to school if you don’t have other support or don’t want to take out predatory education loans. You are systematically kept in the same lower state just ping ponging around employers trying to find one that treats you like a human being. Then people turn to crime because it offers something nobody else around you is offering, a way out. Even if, in reality, it’s not a way out. It’s just predatory people in an unregulated market (street market) taking advantage of people in bad situations. Were most end up dead or in jail. When you’re working these jobs people consider lower class jobs, you’re stuck. These jobs aren’t structured for you to do anything else other than work for them. That’s where crime jumps in, on the desire for freedom. What’s a little crime, for making it out of being a 21st century indentured servant. Either a slave to a bills you have to play to stay alive or a slave to the people who saddled you with a lifetime of debt just for “going to school, getting a real job, and being a productive member of society”
Okay, just answer this simple question: Why do most people commit crimes?
You just turned left on a one way street heading right. :) Thanks for the video, I live in the suburbs of KC.
Ran a stop sign too.
i live 5min south from here.. these homes used to go for $25k-$50k about 2 years ago. Now they're in $100k+ range like wtf. This place is like the hood, but as soon as you cross the state line into kansas, like a 5min drive west.. the area completely changes into upper middle class neighborhood
Kansas City has some really bad neighborhoods, but the rest of the city is amazing. It's definitely a Yin/Yang situation.
Lol ya white & blk like the yin yang
“Affordable housing”: Housing for people unwilling to work and/or use birth control.
Incentives provided by the govt. Both fed and state.
100%
Spot on…..
Why do I have to work for you? I'm not willing to work because I despise the society which restricts me in every way possible. Can't build a house on my own in the way I want, can't buy a normal new car that I could fix by myself anymore. All what you want is to put me in a walled garden and make me "work" because it is "good". Take my big F
Nothing like a white guy telling us the problems with minorities
Springfield checkin in. In Springfield, you can stay much safer just by staying out of the trailer parks.
All the jobs,wealth and density are in Johnson county Kansas now where Overland Park is
Jesus 7k a year! Thats just impossible. 1k a month is just tolerable.
Kansas City is NOT a dump. I moved here from Hershey, PA about 8 years ago, and have found KC to be absolutely beautiful, with rich culture and many interesting things to do. Of course, with your video having some sort of a negative spin agenda, you wouldn't know it. Where is it that you live again? I assume it has not one bad neighborhood? 🙂
Some investigators in media need to do an in-depth examination of what happened to police being on patrol; traffic stops, or investigations. Where are the police hiding? How was KCMO able to conjure 800 officers to attend the Chief’s rally at Union Station but we never see them in the surrounding neighborhoods? Why have traffic stops stopped when more stolen cars are being driven with impunity and the streets have never been so crowded with hazardous drivers? Why is the illegal trade in guns and drugs allowed to flourish openly, dangerously? We pay high taxes for law enforcement and unless we resort to vigilantism we do expect the police to actually do their job. KCPD Chief Graves needs to publicly answer these questions.
Its pretty simple really, this country has a revenue generating problem, we are still are utilizing the momentum from last century when we were a powerhouse with production. So its like putting your car in neutral, slowly coming to a stop, and cars need upkeep just like economies. It is what it is, but places like Kansas are everywhere, not much revenue moving around, lack of it. Not a tourist attraction...not easy.
Some parts of KCMO (although not as deadly as the city of St.Louis nor as bad as Detroit) is starting to get just as bad as South side Chicago.
South Chi is nice compared to East KC lol idk what you smoking
I'm from Kansas City born and raised the problem is no fathers in the home and there's nothing to do
Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, although geographically close, are two separate and distinct cities with no real connection to one another. They only share a name. It was painful to watch the KC, Kansas police officer struggle to answer questions about KC, Missouri where he neither works nor lives. Oh well, it was still interesting to learn about the problems in Kansas City, Kansas.
I am from KC and St Louis. What does that make me?? A really nice young lady!❕. ♥️
I’ve lived in KC all my life. I’m clean and sober for over ten years now. It’s really not that bad, even after dark. Look, if your into drugs and that life, yeah, you might run into trouble… that is expected ANYWHERE. I do installation work around KS. I’ve done jobs on troost and prospect. Walking around, in people’s backyards…. Yes, obviously you knock on the front door and ask lol. I would never live in those neighborhoods, but it’s not as bad as some people make it. If you do, or sell drugs… yup, you might get robbed or shot one day….. that’s not just a KS thing
Nick, you went the wrong way on a one way street.
No way
Yup, turned left onto Flora and drove the wrong way. It happens, I've made the same mistake and realized quickly and turned around.
@@NickJohnson KC is sneaky danger
I'm a sergeant with public safety in kc and called in the shots from that shooting in Westport. I see dozens of guns a night and fight with these people constantly. I worked Wyandotte too. All bad. It's a lost cause
I just returned from a business trip in KC and I was not impressed to say the least. The city is absolutely filthy, parks were in dire need of maintenance and repairs, sewage odors emanated all over the city, and finally, the amount of transients/ tweakers, etc. was astounding.
Where are earth we're you at?!
That describes many areas of Kansas Shitty.
I have lived in northeast Kansas City off St. John and I have lived off 31st by prospect. Keep your head down (but not really) and mind your business. Be aware of your surroundings. I always carried some type of weapon with me though. I always made sure to get home before dark.
I live and work in Midwest for 25 years but I never like it at all, everyday I just want to pack my stuff in my car and drive it all the way to California, finally in 2017, I quit my job and drove all the way to San Diego California without looking back,I bought a condo paid it off then enjoy a good life,too many places and many things to do in San Diego,I go to the beach fishing and surf anytime I want to, walking,biking all year round because the weather is so nice.
Go ahead buddy. Safe travels
I have lived just outside kc my entire life but I spend most my time in the city in so called rough areas, I'm white and I never get messed with it's all about how you carry yourself and show respect. It's the few that do all this horrible shit that give the many a bad look and that's bullshit. I have met so many families that are just trying to get by everyday and most of the ones that sell drugs are doing to keep a roof over there families head and food on the table they would never pick it as a career choice it's just what they have to do, so to the guy who made this video and everyone else you don't know shit about kc so keep your mouth shut, until you have lived here or lived that way of life you have no room to say shit. Love you KC
Louisiana Imprisons more citizens per Capita than any place in the world and Crime is still record breaking.
I'm confused. Exactly WHICH "River" do you think you crossed when passing from Kansas City Missouri to Kansas City Kansas? The KANSAS River flows INTO the MISSOURI River west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri; but the BORDER between the STATES of Missouri and Kansas in much of metro Kansas City is simply the white painted center line of State Line Road. NO river at all is involved when crossing from Missouri into Kansas! At least that's true south of the Missouri River/ Kansas River confluence.
What do all of these neighborhoods have in common? Hmmm.
Don’t notice patterns
run down, rust belt towns inside of the midwest in red states. 😁🤙🏾
@@malcolmx61 wrong
Black democrats
Please, tell us!!!!
Your channel, your right to state your opinions, even when they are extremely prejudiced. Parson's refuses to fund mental health services, but arms the cops to the teeth, homes in low income areas are condemned and torn down to allow corporate A-holes to build unaffordable apartment complexes, then beat and bully the homeless. You should at least mention that in money grubbing R states who refuse basic health services adds mightily to the crime rate.
It's poverty...Kids are trying
to live these "social media" good lives with no real means to do so. The adults are barley making it. The cost of living and gentrification is out of control. There's nothing to do unless you have money. The desperation turns to not caring about anything. The
City isn't moving fast enough to fix the run down areas...most of the decent jobs are in KCKS(Johnson)...and you have to have reliable transportation for that.
My son lives in Kansas City! It really makes me furious that you drove through their neighborhood, showed their home as well as other homes on their neighborhood. They have absolutely NO CRIME in their neighborhood. Not their street or anywhere around them. You need to get your facts straight before you talk about these people. They are lovely people & they have neighborhood meetings, movie nights in their backyard & visit with each other all the time.
Get your facts straight!
Thank you for all of your videos , it has helped me decide to never ever move lol. I got a home at a perfect time and the price was right in 1998 . People can not even afford my area now and close to everything including a Whole Foods , very nice public pool two cool little cities and my gym 4 parks great independent top restaurants all in around a 10 minute radius .
Where is it?
Never Say NEVER 😎 Justin Bieber
This is true, but he was in the Core. Obv KC is very large- more opulent areas abound!
@cHriS it was not luck.
@@NickJohnson Do a drive into East Atlanta and Little 5 Points take Memorial drive to Oakhurst /Decatur Georgia , Druid Hills , Avondale , Stone Mountain ,Covington Hwy to 🎥 Doom Patrol set /City of Lithonia , movie 🎥 district , Vampire Diaries, Legacy's , the Resident 🎥 Conyers and Porterdale, Covington , Madison 🍿🍿 🎥
KCMO resident my whole life here . I live in the hood ,never really felt unsafe. The violence isn't random, it's usually gang rested and specific. Just mind your bussiness and you'll be fine.
My man's driving down a one-way Street the wrong way at 19:13 😅😅😅
Its nice seeing you drive the streets that I know lol