Introduction
I used to ride the #38-Meadowbrook bus from my parents' house in suburban Gladstone to get to school at UMKC. The bus always traveled by a big complex of red brick garden apartments in North Kansas City, and it always looked like a lot of elderly people lived there.
North Kansas City is an inner-ring, blue-collar industrial suburb of Kansas City with only 4,721 residents, according to the 2000 census. The apartments I used to ride by are called Northgate Village, and they housed a quarter of the town's population in the complex's 666 units. The buildings were constructed in the 1950s on 56 acres. Many of the residents were indeed retired on modest fixed incomes.
In July 1997, North Kansas City unveiled plans to raze the apartments and build new houses, apartments and retail. Although the city never cited the apartment buildings for code violations, the city claimed that the units were dilapidated and outdated. The apartment owners claimed that the city never approached them about renovating the buildings before unveiling the city's development plans.
The apartment owners filed lawsuits against North Kansas City, charging that the city's failure to negotiate with the owners was racially motivated. A May 2, 2001, Kansas City Star article said an apartment resident called the complex "a melting pot, with residents from the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and the South Pacific islands." North Kansas City is mostly white, as are the other suburbs north of the river in Kansas City. That lawsuit was settled out of court, but additional lawsuits filed against the city by the apartment owners delayed the development project.
In October 2001, the city won a condemnation suit filed because the apartment owners were unwilling to sell the property. The city bought the apartments for $15.5 million in January 2002 and began relocating residents the following month. According to a July 1, 1997, Kansas City Star article, "Residents will be offered two relocation options - either $500 or 'reasonable' costs of relocating, including security deposits and storage. Disabled residents could receive up to $400 more in their moves." Newspaper reports said there were at least 25 disabled residents in the apartments.
An August 21, 1997, Star article reported that Northgate Village apartment "Rents range from $335 for a one-bedroom to $445 for a three-bedroom." According to the Star on July 3, 2002, "The city's program specifies that relocated residents get dibs on the newly constructed residences, as long as they can afford it."
In 1999, the development "plans include[d] 400 apartments, 126 single-family homes, 120 apartments for older residents, 80 town houses and 30,000 square feet of retail space." The developer previously said in 1997 that some subsidized apartments could be built using a state program; some new one-bedroom apartments could cost $450 a month.
The new apartments are not yet built. Some residents are still living in the remaining Northgate Village apartments that have not yet been gutted and razed. Where the apartment buildings have already been razed, new houses are being built to sell for $200,000 and up.
On Easter Sunday in April 2004, I walked around some of the remaining vacant buildings in Northgate Village. It was sunny and silent except for the sound of window blinds knocking against walls from the breeze through the open windows and doors. I didn't move or alter anything; everything in the photos is how it was left. With shoes, bikes and abandoned toys strewn on the grass, it was one of the eeriest things I've yet seen.
One of the main streets through the complex is Erie Street.
All photos © 2004 Heidi Schallberg
