KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More than 100 people attended Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas' first town hall meeting since he became mayor.
This one was at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the 3rd city council district.
Residents listend to the mayor and asked questions on topics such as illegal dumping, creating jobs, reducing crime and having activities for youth.
"We have gang violence, we have drugs, we have a whole lot of random things that are going on in our community and it makes it hard," Demar Fletcher said, "and so what we need is something, an advocate that's going to stand for the community."
Some in attendance said it starts in the schools.
"If they're not educated they cant give them jobs," Joyce McGartha, a Kansas City, Missouri, resident, said. "If they're older 18 years and older, you want to do things that youth probably shouldn't do in order to get money."
Another attendee, Carolyn Robinson, spoke about a need to reach out to the youth.
"Crime prevention, behavior and we always talk about the children that are doing the crime, they have been neglected someone might have threw them out of school we need to try and figure out a way how to get to them," Robinson said.
Resident Joyce Peeples had similar thoughts.
"When you have crime in the neighborhood and during the day I see children that are not at school, that goes back to that parent, what are you doing out and so having things for them to do," Peeples said .
Others, like Charlotte Fletcher, want more activities for youth to help keep them out of trouble.
"We need to as an adult community find out what those things are and create something for them to do, so if they can be busy and have their hands busy doing that and not be in some mischief, I just feel like they need to be loved and paid attention to," Fletcher said.
Lucas said he hears their concerns, but he can't fix these problems alone.
"It continues to be, I think, my paramount concern," he said. "Frankly, it takes more than just a few laws about guns though. It actually takes a lot of community involvement engagement."
Lucas will hold town hall meetings monthly at different city council districts throughout the city.
