And yet your grammar and spelling seem impeccable. How did that happen?
Posted on 08/19/2011 5:24:57 AM PDT by Salvavida
The weekend shooting of three teenagers at a large late-night "flash mob" gathering prompted local authorities to pass an ordinance on Thursday that sets curfews as early as 9 p.m. for people under age 18. At the urging of Mayor Sly James, the Kansas City Council passed the ordinance 13-0, allowing police to issue citations to parents whose children violate the curfew. Parents can be fined up to $500 per violation. Three youths aged 13 to 16 were injured by apparently random gunshots at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night in an upscale shopping and restaurant district called Country Club Plaza. James was nearby when the shots rang out and says his bodyguards shoved him down into a flower bed to keep him safe. There have been other so-called "flash mob" gatherings of youngsters in Kansas City in recent years, but the weekend shootings pushed the issue to the top of the council's agenda. No arrests have been made in Saturday's incident and the shooting victims are recovering. While the proposed curfew may not be popular, James said his message to youths is clear. "I care enough about you that I want you to be safe," he said. James noted that local police were present in the area both on foot and horseback on Saturday when shots were fired. James also said he had been present in the area that night specifically to observe the gatherings. Local community leaders have been critical of parents who allow children as young as 10 years old to roam around late at night. James said he spoke Saturday night with one 13-year-old girl he described as well-spoken and bright. "She had no idea when her mother was going to pick her up," James said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Kansas City - nice town that has made a lot of efforts at renovating its central districts, but to no avail, since the fundamental problem (having scads of Section 8 housing full of, ah, inner city types) has never been resolved.
Best bet - do your shopping in Lee’s Summit or Overland Park.
Are you from KCMO?
Originally, yes, though I haven’t lived there for about 15 years, but I do get to come back and visit.
Too bad about the Plaza. Three generations of our family considered the Plaza lights at Christmas a must do when we all lived there. Visited there recently and was shocked and saddened to see a Pizza Inn on Petticoat Lane where Harzfeld’s once stood.
I remember growing up the curfew that was in effect since who-knows-when that anyone under the age of 18 that was caught on the street without a really good reason, or wasn’t in the company of a parent, was sent home in the back of a squad car, along with the talk the cops would give to the parents upon dropping off their kid (got the ride more than once, they were the least of my worries when my Dad was woke up).
Yeah, that is a shame. KCMO gave it the old college try, but it looks like to no avail.
I saw several years ago that they finally shut down Bannister Mall. Even when I was growing up around KC, Bannister was getting bad because of all the inner-city types they bussed in - me and my friends in HS usually ended up going to Ward Parkway to hang out. The joke even then about Bannister was that they’d bus them in, but they’d steal a car for the ride home.
I *technically* grew up in Lee’s Summit - but it was waaaaay out in the country in the western part, I actually grew up more or less between the two “legs” of Longview Lake, and went to school in the Grandview school district.
Why does a mayor need bodyguards???
Another congregation of “youths” and suddenly somebody decides to fight back, and these are “apparently random” shots?
BS.
Either from the GANG or (preferably) directed towards the GANG.
Ah Grandview - my ex and his siblings all went to Grandview and his family all lives in Peculiar and Raymore now. My daughter worked at Ozanaham Boys Home for a while. Smoke Stack is still one of the best BBQ places in the world IMO. My kids went to Shawnee Mission schools - appears Johnson County still remains one of the better areas to raise a family.
Kansas city Mo? or Kansas?
Missouri. The Plaza is located off of 47th and Main. A trendy part of town-- the proprietors won't suffer this to become a trend. Bad for business- and that's probably why the city council moved quickly on the curfew. If this would have happened elsewhere in KC, they'd probably still be talking about what to do.
Grandview wasn’t too bad when I was there. I hear that a couple of classes after I graduated, things started really going downhill. My best friend’s mother was an art teacher there, and she resigned because of it, as did a ton of the other teachers at the HS and junior highs (not middle school - that’s how far back I go).
Smokestack was always good. We liked Keegan’s over in Martin City, but I heard recently that they went out of business or changed ownership or something. My friend from school still lives over in Olathe and keeps me up-to-date sometimes.
Last time I was back in KCMO, Lee’s Summit had grown to the point of almost being unrecognisable. My old pastor (First Church of the Nazarene, there on Oldham Pkwy.) is still there, but has moved way out into the county, almost to Lone Jack, to get away from the sprawl. Even out in the sticks where I used to live, there are getting to be tons of new housing developments with the cookie-cutter type of houses that I always hated when growing up. At least they haven’t messed with the woods that I used to track around in, there around both Longview Lakes.
All that rap and hip-hop have produced is a sub-culture that clashes with the rest of society at large.
Society at large wants to get on with its business, live peaceably as possible and enjoy trans-cultural aesthetics. Society at large knows that in order to “live”, certain rules must be observed, rules that are mocked and disdained by this sub-culture.
More to the point... in general, youth tend to treat mom and dad’s morays as old fashioned and seek to overrule it with their own sense of morality. In the case of the flash mob crap in KC, as well as in other places, there is a racial element that follows the same sort of pattern of youth throwing off the old-school... it is that black youth wants to throw off what they see as “whitey’s societal norms” and replace it with their own brand of social morays... they totally disrespect what they perceive as “white society”, even though many different races and cultures make up that society.
The world of rap and hip-hop has taught them to wear their pants low and fumble their genitals as a way of slapping at what they resent and reject. They have been instructed that their penalty for bad behavior will be light or nil because of the abuses their ancestors have endured. So long as the music industry is making millions from this cultural divide, don’t expect anything to change... oh, and you can expect the Country Club Plaza to become just another Bannister Mall.
This is awful! I used to live in Country Club Plaza! Felt very safe there at night — of course this was 20 years ago...
We liked Keegan’s over in Martin City...”
Don’t remember that name but do remember there used to be a place that had awesome steaks and fried chicken. We used to go to the Bigger Jigger on Friday nights - all the boiled shrimp you could eat for $5.00 and $.25 beer - boy do I miss those days!
And yet your grammar and spelling seem impeccable. How did that happen?
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