Steve Penn had a great article for the Star today discussing the petition being put together by Richard Tolbert and the Save Bannister Group. He comes right out and says how bad the idea is to try and save the mall. We even get some new quotes from Tolbert in this piece. Again we get the comment that the area is "the black community's gold mine." Tolbert continues to bring race into the issue.
He calls the project to save Bannister Mall the third phase of the civil rights movement. Yes, because Tolbert is exactly who I think of when I think of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Richard Tolbert. Tolbert says that the third phase is to get economic control of the black community. He says that the black community should have one "nice mall." How is this mall nice anymore? The entire area is an eyesore and the people that live in that area seem to realize that.
After reading through the comments I came across someone who had gotten the petition from the city clerk. Using the email the person provided, I was able to contact the city clerk as well and get a copy of the petition that was turned in with the signatures on it. It included the zip codes of all the signers.
Being someone that enjoys breaking stuff down, I went through and counted the different zip codes on the list. Here are some of the more interesting zip code break downs.
64130 had the most signers with 30. Plugging it into google maps, you see that the area is east of 71 around the Blue Parkway.
64131 had the second most signers with 28. Here's the google maps link of the area code.
64137. This is the most interesting one in my opinion. This is the zip code that Bannister Mall is located in. From the 186 signatures I was able to make out, a grand total of ONE of them were from the 64137 zip code. ONE!!!! EDIT: Although I've had it pointed out to me that 64192 looks to be a zip code specifically for the mall...
With only 1 signature from the zip code the mall is in, doesn't that make you question exactly who Tolbert is trying to appeal to?
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
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4 comments:
jimmy approves this message. excellent breakdown.
The comments by some of the readers of the Star website are plain crazy.
I need to stop reading those, they are the worst of humankind posting in there, right?
pretty much yeah they are bad. There are a few decent ones in there, but you have to wade through the filth to get there.
Linn
I am an african american female clergy of the kansas city metro area. I am 41 yrs old. I am appalled that the save mall group is speaking for all african americans for the kc metro area. I wouldn't be supprised if other local Malls are closed. This is a new era of, ecommerce and internet retail merchandising. I have noticted that the save the mall party seems to be made up of senior citizens. Old school and Old heads. Most older generations, not all, but Most; hate CHANGE! I hope that that their ancient thinking does not prevent such an exciting, and much needed renovation. I hope this debate will stop being called an "racial debate". The last memories I have of the Bannister Mall are: chanced being knocked over your head while leaving or returning to your vehicle, rapes,robbery, etc. The mall has ran its course and it is time for something BETTER for our new generation. Peace!PS:Funkhouser seems to be so cowtown minded, so sad so far that he's our new mayor.
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