fashion nova hall
- police department! anybody inside?answer up. do it now! [dramatic piano music] # # male narrator: like many cities in the u.s., kansas city has two stories to tell. - we want the same chance. we want the same opportunitiesfor a job.
narrator: there''s the story about the gleaming, pretty neighborhoods. - when you talk to peoplein kansas city, you hear a lot aboutthe troost divide. narrator: a land of opportunity that''s mostly white. and then there''s the story about the east side of town, home to the black community. - well, there''s not a whole lotof people living around here. so many empty houses.
narrator: the disinvestment. the poverty. the violence. - i dove in on my floor,anticipating that the glass was going to start breakingin the house or something. narrator: shootings and homicides, young black men killing each other. - they doing all day in the penitentiary or they in the dirt, dead. narrator: this is the real story of kansas city.
it''s the story of modern america. its biggest story. its biggest shame. - you do not come on thisproperty to steal, to break in. narrator: in this film, you''ll see what it''s like to live onthe east side of town, how brave people here are fighting back, how the police are trying something new to build bridges with the community,
and how city hall is taking on its critics. [chatter over police radio] - everybody says action.nobody has an answer. if anybody had an answerto that question, you don''t think it wouldalready be being used? narrator: one monday in june,and a community gathers to mourn another murder victim. three-year-old amorian s.l. hale was asleep in his bed
when the bullet struck his house. - well, another baby was murdered. three-years-old amorian, and, you know, it was anothersenseless shooting. narrator: this is a community ravaged by violence. in 2015, as the city''s murderrate soared once again, nearly 3/4 of the homicide victims were black. of the seven children murdered,six were black. [mournful music]
- if you look at the ''50s and ''60s, ''70s, the black community-- you know, people keep on talkingabout "it takes a village." we were a village then. now, it''s two things going on: either you don''t have anybody that live next door to you, or you don''t know how they are. narrator: this is something you''d find across america: a segregated black community.
in kansas city, the area wascarved out decades ago by the the racist policies of the real estate industry, the school district, and the federal housingadministration. troost avenue marks the boundary. the blue dots show where the black community lives. according to kcpd, 3/4 of kansas city''s violent crimes occur in one area. in 2010, the carter family chose to move
to the east side of town. they knew the community herewas fractured, and they wanted to try and help rebuild it. then on a winter''s evening four years later, a gun battle broke out round the corner. - all of a sudden i start hearing gun shots, a bunch of them,really, really close, so it was comingfrom this direction. i just basically threwthe door open
and ended kind of baseballsliding into the floor. - a short time afterwards, his wife, kristen,arrived home and went upstairs to check on their two children, lainee and miles. - so i come inside, and isomehow ended up looking up and there is a massive bullethole in the wall. narrator: the bullet had passedinto the house. lainee''s bedroom was just a few feet away from its entry point.
- i can remember walkinginto the room to check on lainee, and you can''t see heruntil you walk around. it was a bit unnervingnot knowing if she was okay or not. narrator: the bullet had lodgedin an air vent in the ceiling. the violence in this area of the city is something the carters have got used to. - not a bullet coming through your house,
but drive-by shootings,murders, drugs, domestic disputes on the lawn, people cussing at theirlittle three-year-old babies about things. this is our normal.it is. this is our normal. narrator: this is their normal. according to police data,in 2014 there were 87 violent crimes
within a three-block radius of their home. that''s homicide, rape,robbery, and assaults. but the carters aren''t prepared to move out and abandon their neighbors. - what do the people dowho can''t leave, okay? what do the people dowho can''t just get up and try to go somewhere elseand do something else? how do they get to livein a community? narrator: the gun battle was fought here,
round the corner from where they live. those involved haven''t been caught. on the ground, officers found bullet casings for 7.62 caliber rounds. that''s largerthan the standard issue for the united states army. trying to reduce the violencein kansas city are kcpd''s 1,300or so officers. [siren blaring]
[intense music] - our day squad, they were watching one of our targets, and they got into a car chase, then they bailedand go in a foot chase. narrator: the man they werechasing has run into this house past the terrified owner. - we''ve got some swat guysinside searching the house now. narrator: he couldbe armed and dangerous. swat find him hiding in the basement,
and an arrest is made before anyone is hurt. you may think this wasa successful outcome for kcpd, and of courseto some extent it was, but there''sa new approach in town. this unique police unit is determined to make fewer arrests. it started in 2012, and is headed up by major joe mchale. - if i go out and arrestsomebody at 17 for a felony,
what does that do to themfor the rest of their life? they can''t get a job. it''s a self-perpetuating cycle. so as a police department, you kind of build your own problem. narrator: it''s moved on from the zero-tolerance approach parts of the black community saw in the 1990s. - we flooded that areawith police resources. did it build community trust?
did break the cycle of violencefor the people in the community? no. narrator: this is theheadquarters of kansas city''s noviolence alliance, or kc nova. joe''s team hasbeen given office space by the jackson county prosecutors. the alliance includes other law enforcement agencies, academics, and city hall. - last night,
after the three-year-oldwas murdered yesterday... narrator: they don''t just want to react to violence crime; they want to getin front of it. - it''s differentin that we''re trying to prevent violent crimebefore it occurs, but in a focused deterrencemodel, that''s the goal. - that''s right. they want to stop the crime from happening in the first place.
in other words, they want to keep young men, such as jerome,away from the violence. - i got put in a file and that''swhy i''m sitting here today. you know, trying to get my lifeon a better path for real. narrator: jerome used to be a member of a gang called the 51st street crips. it was a life with only short-term prospects. - at any second somebody could slide through and start shooting at you and you could get killed
or you could get picked up and get sentenced to lifein prison or something. that''s life onthe edge right there. you living for the moment. narrator: research shows that those in these gangs are more likely to be killedthan the u.s. soldiers deployed to the wars in iraqor afghanistan. in order for the alliance to understand these groups, it has to know who knows whom.
the names and contacts of about a thousand people were shared by the policewith academics at the university of missouri kansas city, who turned the data into sociograms. police resources can then be directed at those with the most contacts. - you''re not in trouble. have you heardof the nova program yet? have a good day.
narrator: the message delivered is that we''re watching youand your group, and you should tell othersthat we''re going to come after the next group that kills someone. - one way or the other we''regoing to stop the violence, whether they chooseto do it, or whether it''sput in our hands. narrator: but the message isn''t just a threat of arrest. the men are also offered the help of client advocates,
and they''re given an invitation to something called a "call-in." - this card here is actually his invitation. it''s letting him know that novawould really like to talk to him and explain to himwhat we have to offer him. narrator: the call-ins take place every three months, and they provide the alliance with the chance to talk tothe young men directly. these are the names on joe''s sociograms.
they hear from the mayor, law enforcement, and the community. a stark warning is delivered. - in jail or dead.in jail or dead. either one don''t do me know good ''cause i can''t help youin either place. - a three-year-old babywas killed the other day. three years old. what are we comingto here in kansas city?
narrator: but a helping hand is also offered. - it''s a processto get away from it. if you want help,we''re gonna give it to you. narrator: kc nova recognizes that an effective wayto deter crime is to equip these young men with the skills they need to get a regular job. for jerome, the offer of helpis not something he''s used to. - i do really feel likethis is the first time
i''ve been offered help,because, you know, i''m staying awayfrom the streets. they give me the resources that i need in a positive manner. narrator: jerome''s childhoodeast of troost wasn''t an easy one. - it was just, it was rough. it was, like, basically survivalof the fittest for real, and it just continued on.
narrator: his father was in prison and his mother had to work full-time. he couldn''t resist the streets. - i first seen somebody get robbed probably when i was, like, 14 years old, and i was scared, but at the same time,i was curious. narrator: at the age of 17, jerome was sentenced to seven years in jail for robbery.
- i don''t blame nobody but myself for the path that i went down. i chose to go down that path. i said, "yeah, come on.let''s go." narrator: jerome has turned his back on the violence and crime, and he''s building a new lifewith the help of andre, a client advocate. some of andre''s clients have shared with him
why they turned to crime in the first place, and he questions how muchfree will was involved. - for some of our clients,the lifestyle that they lead isn''t necessarily a choice. their world isn''t as broad as what you or i may see. because of what they were born into. - police department! anybody''s in there,answer up! narrator: jerome believesthere''s a separate city
within our city, one with its own government and courts. - we handled it how we handled it. the streets got its own government. the city got, you know,courts, municipal courts, state courts. that''s what the street got. their own courts. narrator: andre and the threeother client advocates
are working witharound 200 individuals to whom they''re offering services such as literacy classes and job training. if the initiative succeeds,it can create taxpayers who are no longer stretching police resources, and more importantly, it can save lives and help keep the streets safe for donald carterand his family. - right now we''re gonna go see
one of the best peopleon the block, mr. hill, that really kind of took a rolein our life. how are you, sir? almost like a father figure. narrator: donald and kristenhave made good friends with william j. hill, or mr. hill, who lives a few housesdown from them. mr. hill moved here as a boy with his family during the 1950s,
when the area was more of a village. - it was, "hello, mr. kerns." "hello, mr. white." it was "mister, misses." you know. "how y''all doing? anything i can do for you?" that''s the way it was. that''s the way i am still.
narrator: over the decades, he''s seen it decline. - but now, all ofthe good people are gone. all of the community structure is gone. it''s ridiculous. narrator: across the road, there''s a housethat''s causing trouble. - you start seeing the cars coming and going, coming and going. 2:00 and 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.
- so what''s goingon over there? - they selling drugs. narrator: an elderly lady owns the property, and it''s her son, who''s in his 60s, and his friends who areinvolved in the drugs. mr. hill keeps a close eye on them, and he believesthey''re watching back. he''s let them know that he owns guns. - i walked out the door witha couple of pieces of hardware,
you know, that i''ve triedto cover up with a sheet, but you can almost imaginewhat it is, you know? they''re really long. i''m more or less telling them, "you do not come on this property to steal, to break in." narrator: for him, the house has been a nuisance for years now, and he''s frustrated that the police haven''t done more.
- i used to call the police a lot, but they used to always come late. narrator: donald''s long-term strategy is just to wait it out. - my biggest thing is that, you know, younger guys come in and tryto set up shop. thank you, sir,for your time. narrator: donald and mr. hill know they back each other up. - i think that if he came down to it, yeah.
he would do whateverfor my family. - bye, daddy! - bye, babe! that''s reallywhat this is about. it''s about us beinghere for each other. narrator: the oak parkneighborhood where donald lives is home to around 10,000 people, the vast majority of whom justwant to pay their taxes and lead regular lives. most of their local representatives sit
in city hall or the state capitol, but they have at least one who lives in their community and has an office here. after winning the vote at the end of 2013, pat clark represents the area as president of its neighborhood association. - you see this oak parkneighborhood association, man, has been around for years, but neglect--
i really can''t even say wecan even use that word anymore. narrator: the challenges pat faces are huge. this area has some of the city''s most violent hot spots and over the years, he''s been to many funerals. - and as long as i''m here, i''ma go to many more. nine times out of ten, i know the family. this stuff is personal for me. narrator: with a team of two part-time staff, pat is steadily trying to build up
a network of contactson the blocks, but he''s yet to get to donald''s. - come on, man,let''s get out, man. let me show you. narrator: for over three decades now, pat has been working with the youngsters here. he wants to provide themwith a male role model that he believes too many of them down have at home. - if you got a manthat wants to be a man
and raise his kids respectfully, you don''t have have kidsdoing ride-bys. you don''t have kidswalking around with they pants aroundthey ankles. you don''t have kids cursingand being disrespectful. beat me,i''ll start calling you daddy. ball game! [both laughing] narrator: in this part of town, around 60% of the families
are made up of a single female with children. - if you build relationshipswith these kids, man. you can get anything you want. narrator: politicians on both sides of the political divide have acknowledged that the state has played a role in breaking up black families. historically, this was done by over 200 years of slavery. in recent years, it''s been prison. over the last three decades,
it''s been estimatedthe incarceration rate for black males in missouri prisons has nearly doubled. - oh, that''s off! narrator: it''s now nearly fivetimes the rate of that for white males. pat and kc nova are pushing together to try and keep the young menaway from the violence. if they can strengthen the communities, neighborhood associations have a critical role to play.
one that''s having great success is the ivanhoe neighborhood that sits justto the west of pat''s oak park. oak park knows it could learn a lot from ivanhoe, and today''s pat''s deputy, forest tyson, is meeting with ivanhoe''s margaret may. - you can''t improveyour neighborhood if you don''t have a standard. - we need a lot of work. oak park is...
is suffering. i reached out to miss may just to ask for her assistance to right the ship. - do you have a copy of ourblock contact handbook? did i give you one of those? - no. - okay, let me get thatand give it to you. narrator: the work in ivanhoe started decades ago. this is a community that has
steadily been rebuilding itself. it has its own community center and a full-time staff of four and two part-time. - appreciate what was going onat that time. narrator: it runs classes for the children and has built playgrounds. an empty lot is nowa demonstration garden where people can learn how to grow fresh, healthy food, and ivanhoe''s purchased land for development.
with financial supportfrom city hall and the missouri housingdevelopment commission, this neighborhood association is going to build quality affordable housing. - as these people come and showthis is a good place to live, we''re certainthat more will follow. narrator: the momentum in ivanhoe seems to be building. it was started and helped alongby two factors: the bravery of this couple
and the generosity of this man. mortgage banker james b. nutter has put over a million dollars of his own money into the ivanhoe neighborhood. - with mr. nutter''sassistance, we were able to renovatethis building. he''s our go-to guy. he''s come to our rescue overand over again. an incredible story.
- i frankly feel like i owe mycity something, and the more i got into it,the happier i was. the african-american people had lost their confidencein themselves, in my opinion,through no fault of their own, and ivanhoe is a good a pick-me-up. narrator: it was mr. nutter wholent ivanhoe the money to cover the construction costsof its housing project. - he always comes to our rescue
and helps with things that require dollars, and he''s always talking us up. narrator: back in 1997, mr. nutter saw an article in the kansas city starabout the young family and their attempts address the problems on their block. inspired by their heroism, he told them he wanted to help in any way he could. much like the carters in oak park to the east, this is the storyabout a family
who refused to back down. - i''m not unlike any parent. one of the greatest joys is tohave all your children together. we''re very, very proud-- the fact that they weathered the storm of living in a neighborhood like ours. narrator: alan and yolanda were not from east of troost. in 1987, as a growing family, they decided to move into a house here that alan would flip.
they had no idea what their new block was really like. - one day i was sittingin the living room watching my favorite show,"cops". i kept getting distracted because of all of the people that were arguing and fighting with the police outside. it was sobering, it was like... - a harsh reality. - this is--where we liveis worse than "cops". narrator: as with the carters, alan and yolanda decided
they wouldn''t move out and abandon their neighbors. discreetly, they started to organize block meetings to discuss how to tackle the crime, but the drug dealers found out. - there was a carloadof guys parked. they yelled out. they said, "we''re gonna kill youand all your family." that was a frightening moment where, you know, you have to decide
that godis more for you than the whole world against you. - there were several incidentslike that, i think. - yeah, several.- several threats on our lives. just because we were tryingto make our neighborhood better. narrator: they refused to give up. this was a community they felt had been abandoned by the authorities. - the philosophy was
"contain the drugsand the crime and the blightin one area," okay. keep it in that areaso it doesn''t migrate into the nicer partsof town. narrator: the youngs would call the police and they wouldn''t come. alan knew that he neededtheir help to defeat the gangs, and so in the late 1990s,
he met with a senior officer at the local patrol station. - he said, "we don''t know who our friends are in that neighborhood." and at that point, i said, "well, now you know me,and i am your friend. "we need you to help us... make our neighborhood better." [inspirational music] narrator: at his prompting,the police started to help them
shut down the drug houses. the streetlights were fixed, and the youngs and their neighbors started to clean up the mess. it''s a time their childrenstill remember. - my parents really were pioneers in this area with getting things started. neighborhood clean-upseach weekend isn''t the norm for the average family.
- it''s changed drastically. i mean, when we were younger,i think my parents even had fears of us justgoing out to the front yard. - the drug houses are gone. it''s nice to not have to worry about stray bullets. - hello! hello! narrator: on this day in june 2015, the ivanhoe community gathers for food and friendship. - oh! it''s brooke saunders!- hello.
- how are you?- i''m fine, thank you. narrator: entrepreneurs turn out to sell their wares. - i''m thinking. i''m just thinking.i don''t have-- narrator: it''s a celebration of the restoration of their park... - wow! look at all the children! narrator: but they''re also remembering father''s day and juneteenth and the ending of slavery.
and, as part of this community, officer nathan hurley is lending a hand. - i act as a liaison between the kansas city,missouri police department and the ivanhoe neighborhood. narrator: nathan is one of six community liaison officers for the police department. they operate outside of kc nova, and their purpose is to build bridges
with the communities here. - interacting with the kids, playing with the kidsis a huge part. a lot of times the kids will grow up with a negative viewof the police. narrator: as a liaison officer, he''s forming relationships that could prove critical in the event of a controversial police shooting. - if there is an incident that occurs,
we can havea conversation about it and talk about why thingshappened and what happened. narrator: ivanhoe recognizes the importance of his role. they''ve given nathan an office in their building, and because they''ve got contacts on 90 of 160 of their blocks, he''s got an intelligence network he can plug into. but spending time working with the community,
and not just responding to 911 calls, nathan has found that his own perceptions of the people here have changed. - previously, you know, i would answer 911 calls, and i''m seeing people on their worst days, but working here in ivanhoe, i''ve been able to see themon their best days and interact with themin a positive light, and that''s really changedthe way that i look at things.
narrator: there''s an argument that all police officers should have this more roundedview of the people they serve. donald carter has a unique perspective on policing. he not only lives in oak park, he grew up here, and before he took a job in finance, he served as an officer with kcpd for eight years until the fall of 2014, and he''s still in the reserves. donald''s view is that because he''s from the community,
he''s better able to police it. - i think it gave mea little bit of an edge on being able to communicate. narrator: in his opinion, there''s too little emphasis during police training on building personal relationships with those they''ll serve. - this is our daughter,laniee, and son, miles. - because of the waythat we''re trained,
we have to thinkin a certain way that we tendto objectify everybody, and so we''reobjectifying humans beings instead of recognizingthem as human beings. narrator: at police academy, kcpd recruits complete 150 hours of defense tactics, 120 hours of firearms training, and four hourson minority relations. donald believes officers would
have a better understanding if they lived in, or at least nearer to, the communities they police. - it wouldn''t be that every person that''s walking down the street is a potential suspectof some crime, and i think the people would have a different perspective of them. ''cause right now theygenerally are seen as outsiders coming in,
and the reality is that, well, for the most partthey are. narrator: but he doesn''t thinkthat black communities should only be policed by black officers. - i definitely think that a white officer could police this community and police it well. i''ve actually seen it, where there are officers who are from somewhere elsethat take a vested interest in the people that they serve,
and really it''s the onesthat have served in the same areasfor a longer period of time. narrator: kc nova''s alliance, which includesthe police department, is determined to show that it serves and protects everyonein kansas city, so on this day in spring 2015, the alliance is taking a further step into the communities east of troost.
- it''s so wonderful to havea relationship with each other before we''re in a crisis. narrator: it''s the launch of an initiative called the byrne grant area project, which will be funded by the federal department of justice for three years. the idea is to assemble a range of organizations that will work with seven of the neighborhoods here and include oak park and ivanhoe.
this isn''t about handouts. it''s about enabling this fractured community to mend itself, so that the violence can come to an end. - what we''re trying to achieveis showing the community that we have a plan. that we care, and we''re tired of the violence in kansas city, missouri,and the entire metro area.
narrator: the 2.15 square mile area was chosen because it contains some of kansas city''smost violent hot spots. despite the efforts of the associations, two of them are in ivanhoe and oak park. donald''s block is between them. sergeant garrik hayes wasappointed to head a police team of five handpicked officers. they want to work with the community leaders
to make the area safer. - so it''s a hot spot area in the city, but it''s not just, like, homicides. it''s violent crimes, assaults,aggravated assaults, shootings where peoplestill live. narrator: with support from community orientated non-profits, garrik''s team start to meetwith the neighborhood leaders. michael mansur,
from the jackson county prosecutor''s office, chairs these meetings. - we see around the country that the major institutions of everycity, like police, like prosecutors,like the mayor''s office, they have this challenge nowof connecting better with the community. narrator: during 2015, the killing of black men by police officers
around the country continued to dominate the headlines. in this context, it''s all the more important for garrik to demonstrate that kcpd wants to serve this community. - i''ve got a lot of peopleat my disposal. i''ve got vice units. i''ve got drug units. i''ve got traffic units. narrator: but the community leaders
don''t tell him who to arrest, they ask for help with the blight. - we have a lot of vacant lots, you know, vacant houses. you know... they need a lot of attention. narrator: in the black community, the blight is everywhere. - the single most challenging thing
in ivanhoe right now, the vacancy rate. either a vacant lotor a vacant house. narrator: the vacancy rate forhouses in this area of the cityis around 30%, and there are empty lots, overgrown and cracked sidewalks, weeds and trash. - if i see trash in my neighborhood,
i''m gonna pick it up. another great liquor bottle. narrator: the carters can''ttackle the violent crime head-on, but they''re trying to restoresome pride to the area by keeping it clean. - if i see somebodythrow trash in my neighborhood, i''m gonna talk to them about it. narrator: round the corner from their house,
where the gun battle was fought, the illegal dumping is getting worse. there''s too muchfor the carters to clear up by themselves, so donald tries city hall''s 311 number. it''s a service we pay for as taxpayers that''s supposed to remove illegal dumping. - it''s blockingthe sidewalk down here and then some of it''sin the street.
narrator: city hall told this program that once it''s notified of illegal dumping, it''ll usually remove it within two to four working days. donald discovers, however, that it can sometimes take a lot longer. - someone actuallycalled that in. let me notify management and let them know. hold on one moment for me. - okay, how long ago wasthat called in?
- it says... narrator: donald''s making this call at the start of july 2015. - yeah, it''s been there since march. narrator: it would seem that somebody else called about the same trash five months ago, and it''s still here. - but this was called inin march too? - right--
narrator: donald is toldto wait at least five business days before the city will remove it, because of recent storm damage that it''s yet to clear up. - well, i really appreciate it.thank you. - thank you, bye.- bye. narrator: but they won''t do anything about the condition of the properties. this is what blight looks like.
you''ll find houses like thisthroughout the black community. pat clark knows all about it. - what i''m getting readyto show you now is the way it looks. this is what it looks likeround here. it don''t do much for hope, you know what i''m saying? i mean, look at it. narrator: these houses are down the road from the carters.
city hall is well aware of the issue. at the launch of the byrne grant project, city manager troy schulte had this to say. - so thank you very much. keep up your great work andkeep moving this city forward. well, we''ve got a numberof issues in the urban core that we as a cityhave to tackle. the first and foremost issue is the large number of vacantand abandoned structures,
and that is a huge detriment to the vitality of our neighborhoods. narrator: garrik and his teamhave been asked by the community leaders to help with the blight. his officers have been specially trained to asses how urban environments can foster crime. - some of the boards onthe house have been pulled back or removed in order for peopleto get inside the house either to sleep,
to further commit crimes,for narcotic use, prostitution,things like that. got a lot of concealment for anybody that''s up to no good. there is a strong linkbetween criminal activity and these vacant houses. narrator: the board over this property''s doorway has been prized of completely. [indistinct chatter over police radio]
- there are obvious signsof squatters that have been stayinginside this house. narrator: the house is rightbeside homes with young children. - negative. narrator: the police team alsostarts to investigate the blight around the violent crime hot spots. they discover 19 empty properties with open access,
including these two properties that sit near to the hot spot at 27th and prospect. - we''re going to go and clearthese abandoned houses, make sure nobody''s inside. [indistinct chatter overwalkie-talkie] police department,anybody inside? answer up!do it now! narrator: they''ve no idea what they could encounter inside.
- watch your steps. narrator: it''s worth noting that the byrne grant project takes its name from the police officer edward byrne who was murdered in 1988 while protecting a witness in new york city. according to fbi data, over 14 1/2 thousand u.s. police officers were injured after being assaulted in the line of duty during 2013. [indistinct chatter]
- all right! narrator: the house is empty, but there are clear signs of what it''s being used for. down the street, an arrest is made. - well, he came out of one of our abandoned properties. he''s not supposedto be in there, and then he''s just got warrants. he''s gonna go to jailfor those warrants today. narrator: the man was in this house.
yes, there is a house there. the visible police presence on the block today is winning them some fans. - the neighborscan exhale and say, "hey, we''ve gotsome protection here. it''s not as crazy todayas it was yesterday." - what do you think aboutthe police operation here today? what''s you view on that? - oh, i think it''s real good.
they need to let people know ourwhereabout-- what going on around here. you know, a lot of people-- well, there''s not a lot ofpeople living around here, so many empty houses. narrator: but the police willdepart and the criminals could return. garrik hopes their efforts will send out a message. - one of the things that everybody understands
is that the streets talk. they know what''s going on. the word will get outthat abandoned property is not the placeyou want to be. narrator: but there are so many empty houses and vacant lots, it''s estimated that there are 8 1/2 thousand in the urban core, that the criminals can just move on to the next one. in ivanhoe, the numbers are overwhelming.
- there''s so many of theabandoned properties down here that it''s hard to keep tabson them all. there''s nobody activelyresponsible for them so folks will goin there and use drugs, commit crimes. - kcpd!anybody inside, answer up! - shouldn''t the owners be held responsible and made to keepthe weeds down and the doors boarded up?
in fact, all of these particular houses have just one owner. who owns them? city hall. donald carter is trying to clean up his neighborhood and he''s called city hall''s 311 service about some illegal dumping. they told him they''d need at least five business days to remove it,
but just over three weeks laterand there''s even more. a week after this, and donald goes to check on it. - this is new trash that''s here, so i don''t know if somebodyelse, like, dumped here, or if there was actuallyan effort to clean up. - for 311 call center for allcity services, press 3. [jazzy music plays over phone] - so we''re on hold for a second. narrator: it''s outside two empty properties
owned by city hall. some of it''s been bagged, but there''s plenty that hasn''t been touched. - your call is important. please wait for the next available operator. - well, it''s a start.i appreciate it. - you''re welcome.- all right, thank you. - have a good day.- you too. narrator: he''s told that they''ll let
the relevant departmentknow about it. - so yeah, it''s just goodthat something was done. so i guess we have to stay on it in order for stuffto keep being done, or just do it ourselves. narrator: two days later, and he''s back with kristen. - oh, no.this is absolutely sad. it even hasthe kansas city logo on it. maybe they ran out of room.
- ran out of room? i want to be understandingof the system and how it works, but bottom lineis that it really shows how little of a priority that our neighborhoodor neighborhoods like it... really are. we''re down here!- come here! narrator: the carters have had enough, and they call on a friendto help them remove the trash.
- we called the city on... - waste of time. - i mean, it took themabout a month to actually get cleaning upof the stuff, but then they ended upleaving their own trash. narrator: for mr. hill, it''s especially galling. earlier in the year, the cityhad taken him to court because he hadn''t carried out repairs to the exterior of his house.
now he''s clearing up a city hall property that''s in a worse condition. - i''m look at a house nowthat belongs to the city where the eaves are rotten, there''s no gutters wherethere''s supposed to be gutters. it''s not fair,in no shape or form, that the city can letthe property go below what my property looked like. that''s not fair.
narrator: in 2014, city hall issued fines of just over $660,000 for property code violations. and yet this propertyis owned by city hall. and this one, and this one, and this one. - the city can''t controlwhen people abandon houses, but if they take them overfor whatever reason-- - then they''reresponsible to maintain it.
- yeah, then they''reresponsible to maintain it. narrator: back in 2012, as the recession continued to bite and foreclosures rocketed, city hall created a land bank to take on the tax delinquent properties that don''t sellon the courtroom steps. these are the places that nobody wants. - $1,200.11. do i have any bids?
no bids?next parcel. narrator: typically, the taxes haven''t been paid on them for at least four years, and they may have sat empty for much longer. the dates on the boards givean indication. - yeah, this board was puton here at least in 2009. - july 23rd of 2008. - june 6th of 2008. narrator: on this map the city hall properties
are marked in green. you can see the dividing line. just east of troost is the paseo and east of the paseois a foreclosure town. this accounts for around 50% of the blight here. - who wants to livein this mess? who wants to live next to ahouse that looks like these do? i mean, these look like they''refrom a scary children''s story. narrator: in the last three years,
city hall has cutthe land bank''s budget by nearly 15%. this means the weedscan now only be trimmed five times a year. the second floor windows are open to the elements, and there''s not the money to keep up with demolitions. for the mayor,however the land bank''s budget is just one of manyhe has to balance out. - it''s not nearlyas simplistic as to simply say
you''re not doing enough, because the bottom lineis that we don''t have enough to do everything that we''d like. narrator: the other half of the blight is owned privately, but it''s city hall through its property code inspectors that''s supposed to ensure they''re maintained properly. these three properties that pat clark''s been trying to tackle are about a mile or so south of the carters.
there are nearly one hundred violation notices on them, many of them still open. will things improve over the summer? not really. when houses like thisare owned by companies, it''s not always easy for the inspectors to find a person responsible. city hall wants a new law to help this process. - until we are able to get someadditional legislation
that allows us to track downthe real owners and hold them accountable, then we do the best we can. narrator: it''s the neighbors who suffer. - they don''t keep the grass and stuff cut, and then when you findan empty house like that, empty place,people use that for a dump. they dump their trash,their garbage, everything. narrator: william and hisfriends
try to pick up the trash and he cuts the grass of the empty house opposite. he''s called city hall more than once to complain. - houses are falling down. they need to be torn down, the area needs to be cleaned up. narrator: city hall''s 40 code inspectors have a case load of nearly 14,000 properties. at the moment it may be easier
to chase people such as mr. hill than to hold absent owners to account. [car horn honking] the blight makes the blocks more dangerous. it attracts trash, and there are other consequences for residents. - property values go down whenever properties are in this condition. narrator: he''s right.
the blight depresses the housing market and compounds the segregation of poverty. families won''t move in. or will they? - as i drive frommy home over to ivanhoe, you can really seea true transition. it seems to really go south,if you will, as you cross that troost divide. narrator: david larrabee has become an expert
in the real estate market here. - someone''s future home. narrator: david made hisfortune in the financial services, and he believes that markets can be a force for good. - i call it compassionate capitalism. my wife and i wantedto have a goal, when i was still young enough. i could take capital,i''ve been very blessed,
and be able to tryand give back. narrator: his aim is to entice families of whatever race to lay down rootseast of troost and bring some stabilityback to the community. he bought this property in oak park from a private owner at the end of 2013. - this is one where therewere dead animals in this house when we first bought it, lots of drug paraphernalia.
narrator: david paid $13,000 for it and then put around 50,000 into doing it up. today it''s on the market for $65,000. mortgage payment,taxes, insurance, all in comes to around $412, which is much cheaper than whatpeople are paying for rent. narrator:but no one will buy it, and it''s sat emptyfor six months. the blight in the area is not helping the market.
- the boarded up houses really make it difficult. narrator: there are five empty properties on the block. four of them are owned by city hall. undeterred, david tries again, further east this time, in the ivanhoe neighborhood. rather than have the empty houses on the block frustrate his efforts, he simply bought them all.
- this is our beachhead, if you will. we''re just going to take it one house at a time, frankly. narrator: but other challenges remain. - a lot of title insurancecompanies are nervous about working with propertiesthat come from the land bank. narrator: all land bank properties are for sale, but, unhelpfully, they come with questionable title. david''s attorney had to sort this out for a property he purchased,
but for one of his finished houses, success. - we have a buyer that was close to the asking price, which we loved because we''re trying to set a market here. narrator: through a non-profit, he''d found a young couple prepared to cross the troost divide. - yeah, so for awhile i was really even scared just to come visit the houses because there were so manystereotypes of, like, this side of the city.
i don''t know, in my mind,like, people were, like, standingon the streets with guns. like,i''d never been over here. i felt so much peace when i finally did come over here. narrator: for david, it''d been a slog, 12 months from start to finish, but he thought he''d taken one small step towards rebuildingthe community. then the couple''s mortgage company said
the house was overpriced,and they wouldn''t lend. - it''s really hardto get an appraiser to come out and say,okay, yeah, that makes sense that thishouse would be worth, you know, double what everythingelse is in the area. narrator: david has let them move in nonetheless, and they''re renting from him while he tries to workwith a different bank, but he wants buyers.
in the area, around 60% ofoccupied properties are rented. - it''s been difficult. i mean, there''s-- you get your highsand your lows like in anything. i consider it a marathon,not a sprint. narrator: as well as the blight and crime, there are other factorsthat could be affecting the housing market here. - lot of these schools have closed,
and again to get families in here, and to have that community, you need to have schools. - it''s hard to attract families with children if you don''t have good schools. unfortunately, you geteither people that are older that don''t have kids, or younger that are just gettingstarted and more transient. narrator: east of troost, most of the school are run
by the kansas city public school district. kevin masters is its director of government relations. - we want our buildingsto be the glue, the fabric ofthat particular community. narrator: of the 16,000 or sostudents the district teaches, only 9% are white, most are black or hispanic. it''s a distract that''s had its share of problems. - while there are very bright kids
and very hard-working teachers, we''ve had our issues. i mean, for many yearswe were unaccredited. narrator: in 2014, the school district earned provisional accreditation and is fighting hard to gain full accreditation. for kansas city''s mayor,education is a priority because it can break the cycle of poverty that for him largely explains the homicide rate.
his "turn the page kc" project has provided reading support to thousands of kansas city''s children. - we have failed and failedmiserably over the decades at providing the kidsin this community with not justan accredited education, but a world class education. narrator: so you may think that the mayor andthe school district are in step in that both wan to seeeducational attainment improve.
they do, but a spat has broken out. the district claims that city hall''s decisions are denyingit millions every year, and a lack of funds meant itcouldn''t afford to maintain these two schools, which it''s shutin the last few years. - look, i can show you some blight that we''re also trying to correct. we''ve got water leakage throughout the building.
we''ve got lead paint. my understanding, there''s asbestos. [dramatic music] narrator: oddly enough, it''s a dispute about the tax incentives city hall has approved for property developers. these are relevantto the school district because it receives 62% of its funding from property taxes.
when an incentives freezes these taxes, the district says its income doesn''t go up as the developments go up. "you''re denying us around $25 million a year," says the district, but the mayor says back, "you''re not losing anything, "and in the long term you''ll gain as the incentives expire and your tax base rises."
- there is no bankwhere you walk into and there''s a box that says"school district money," and you take it out andyou hand it to some developer. it doesn''t exist. but when the incentives roll off, then the tax base rises. narrator: and there''s some more controversy about the tax incentives, or subsidies, as some people call them.
- almost entirely these subsidies take place in the wealthier parts of town. the east side, the low-incomeparts of the city that legitimately need and haveclaim to these subsidies don''t get them at all. narrator: most of these tax incentives are supposed to help cities developblighted areas. let''s have a look at where the city-ownedresidential blight is.
then let''s add in ivanhoe and oak park. and then let''s compare the value of tax incentives for three zip codes east and then west of troost. it''s the tax incentives downtown that have caughtthe eye of a think tank that promotes the free market. - it artificially lowersthe price of building downtown. the places thatwithout this subsidy would be attractiveto developers are again ignored.
i can''t speak to what it says about leadership, but certainly they''re not meeting their basic responsibilitiesof caring for the city and delivering basic services. - i spend a lot of timetalking to developers, and i spend a lot of timetalking to developers about trying to get themto build east of troost. if they don''t want to do it, you can incentivize them all day long.
what they look at is "how do i get a return on investment?" narrator: but according to the mayor, there''s resistance to be found in parts of the black community to workingwith white developers. - it''s sometimes difficultto work east of troost. there''s this patinaof hostility and demand that the only peoplewho are able to do things
are african-americans. that limits your poolof people right there. narrator: and he suspects that for some developers, prejudice and ignorance about the black community and its poverty playsa part as well. his response has been to have city hall invest its own money to kick-start developmentseast of troost. for example, it''s put nearly a million dollars
into a shopping center project that''s set to open not far from the carters in 2017. - this city was divideda long time ago along racial lines, and the idea that you can cure those decadesof irresponsibility in two, three, four years is not logical and it is not practical. narrator: meanwhile, there are stark differences
either side of the troost divide. - you see this.they don''t have this over there. this what they think about us. - coffee. there''s no place around hereto get, like, a cup of coffee. i can go to a liquor store in four different places. there''s really no placethat i could go to get a cup of coffee. - [laughs]
- why is that--that''s not funny. - yes, it is. - i''m saying give usthe same opportunity that everybody else got. we want the same parks. we want the same damn schools. we want the same chance. we want the same--we want thesame opportunities for a job. narrator: garrik and his teamof officers have been targeting
this one block that sits in a violent crime hot spot. despite the time they''ve spent here, they''ve been toldthat criminals are still using the city hall property once they''re gone. - a lot of signs of drug useand prostitution here. narrator: something further needs to be done... [chainsaw revving] so on a wet saturday in july, kc nova and the local community get stuck into the blight.
- we interact with the community, but oftentimes it''s notin a positive fashion. this is totally positive today, and this what we needto do more of, putting action behind our words. - so this is one of those days where your heart justkind of swells. - i could show yousomething with that. - generally i try and find justice within courtrooms
for this community, but this is another waywe find justice for them and restoration. - this is what revitalization looks like. this is absolutelya god-given day. - uh-oh, we gotto the solid part! - there you go. narrator: but despite the effort to clean up the area and make it safer,
city hall has still not boarded up its property, even though the byrne grant officers told them to about14 weeks or so earlier. - i don''t know about the specific case, but normally when we knowthere''s a board-up situation, that''s almostan emergency situation. it''s usually donewithin 24 to 48 hours. narrator: but city hall didprovide two dumpsters for the trash,
and its head of neighborhood and housing services is here. is he embarrassedby the blight? - i wouldn''t say embarrassed. i think it''s the wrong wordto use, embarrassment. i think it hardens meand makes me more resolute to try to find solutions for it. we get the properties when people don''t pay their taxes after four or five years, but if there was a way of getting this done beforehand,
that to me is really one of the key strategies i think we need to be deploying. narrator: he would like to do more, but he hasn''t been giventhe resources. - we certainly could usea few more dollars. yes, i mean, we could usea few more dollars. narrator: his department''s budget has been cut by nearly 15% in the last three years. the city hall property will remain open
until it''s demolished in two weeks or so. that can''t happen soon enoughfor the people who live nearby. - all times of the night people are in and out and running their carsand stuff. you can''t get any rest. it''s like--it''s like a dramabeing played out in the streets. narrator: for garrik, the day has been a success. he accepts their efforts are just a pinprick, but he believes in small beginnings.
- it definitely is a pinprick,but, you know, we take it one block at a time,and that''s all we can do. and hopefully the projectsget larger and larger. narrator: in 2014, the fullfirst year of kc nova, the homicide rate was the lowest it''d been in over four decades, but for 2015,it leapt back up by around 30%. - until septemberwe were on track to have yet anotherrecord-breaking year,
and then september landed us 22 homicides in one month. [indistinct police chatter] we saw spikesin domestic violence, homicide. we had a spike in child deaths this year. we''re not going to be out of this jam in three to five years. we have to investin our community, invest in our people, and do the right thing,
and then save lives. narrator: the mayor also wants to see lives saved and says he''s tryingto do all that he can. isn''t it time for action? for city hall to act? - what action? what action? everybody says action;nobody has an answer. you know, people seem to think that this is somehowa political issue.
this is a city-wide, societal problem, and the city and society has to address it, not just peoplein public office. that''s crazy. if that were the case it wouldhave been done by now. it certainly--i would havedone it by now if i had that powerand authority and ability, but i don''t evenhave the authority to keep guns outof the hands of 19-year-olds.
narrator: in november 2015, the mayor formed a new anti-violence task force charged with finding pragmatic solutions to kansas city''s high violence rate. it''s due to report to him in november 2016. - right now we''re doingeverything that we can. we''re a founding memberof kc nova with the other eight members. we work on thatevery single day. narrator: in the meantime,east of troost,
the carters are determined to try and lead a normal family life despite the threat of violence. - it''s the fourth of july, independence day. you know, we''re goingto try to have a good time, i''m gonna tryto relax a little bit. i mean, once we start-- if we start hearing any gunfire, then i''ll want them at least on the porch or something.
- when i get home, i''ll have my glass of wine, and i''ll be looking at the tv, but i will havethe 16 gauge beside me. narrator: to put an end to the violence will take a collective effort. it''s about what goes on in the home, on the block,in the schools. it''s about creating hope.
it''s about creating a strong community again. - we absolutely don''t... try to instill any fear in them to where they''re afraidto be out here because that would just really defeat the purpose of living. [loud bang,siren blaring] - you hear that? oh, yeah, it just sounded like a large caliber gunof some sort,
just probably 10 or 15 rounds. narrator: all of our city''s children, including three-year-olds such as amorian s.l. hale, should be able to sleep safe in their beds. [fireworks popping] our divided city... needs to be healed. - that''s that. you know, we''ve gota lot of work to do,
but it won''t get doneif we don''t do it together. that''s it.
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