Four people are vying for current Kansas City, Kansas Mayor Mark Holland's position in the upcoming November election. Holland is finishing his first term and seeking another. The list will be whittled down after the primary August 1.
Here are the candidates:
- David Alvey - Member-At-Large for the KCK Board of Public Utilities
- David Haley - Kansas State Senator
- Keith Jordan - Radio personality on 98.9 The Rock
- Janice Grant Witt - Civic leader, ran for mayor in 2013
- Mark Holland - Incumbent
The consensus among the community is that urban development needs to happen, but the debate remains on where that focus should be.
"I've seen a lack of trust in this community like you wouldn't believe. They don't believe anything will change so they don't participate, they don't participate in giving their opinions, they don't feel anyone is listening to real issues," Pamela Penn-Hicks said of the Quindaro neighborhood.
Penn-Hicks has lived in the Quindaro area for more than three decades. She was involved with the neighborhood association until she says push-back from the city forced the association to dissolve a few years ago. She thinks the next mayor needs to focus on neglected communities, like the Northeast. She insists the mayor needs to come to the neighborhoods and talk to the residents, instead of calling town hall meetings where no one shows up.
"I give Mayor Holland an "E" for effort, to a certain extent," Penn-Hicks said. "I don't think that the understanding is there, that social justice has to be engrained into our institutions."
Other neighborhood leaders around KCK have echoed the same thought to 41 Action News, believing officials pour too much money into the Legends and Village West. They call to mind food deserts, BPU affordability, tax relief, public education, crime, and the public's perception of crime in the urban core.
"I can tell you for a fact it makes it very difficult to pay my taxes because I don't see the return on investment," Penn-Hicks said.
Another long-neglected area, downtown, wants to see a mayor that'll continue with recent progress.
"A big business or larger entity coming in would really kind of build traction for that progress," Treasurer for Downtown Shareholders Inc. Timothy Ryan said. From the downtown perspective, he says they'd like to see more core support and creating more of a residential base.
Plans are in the works for a grocery store, an apartment complex, and revitalizing the YMCA off Minnesota - something Penn-Hicks is afraid would gentrify the area.
"Living here, working here, I'm here all the time. There's been so much to pass us over and gloss us by. We're looking for that representation and opportunity to have something more," Ryan said.
