Trending News:KC Tenants Hosts Stadium Community ForumsAvenue Angels Complete Narcan Training CertificationEssig Family McDonald’s$3 million slated for 9th & Van Brunt soccer park improvementsLocal Hispanic small business selected to receive $10,000 in grant moneyPequeño negocios Hispanos locales son seleccionados para recibir una ayuda de $10,000Letter to the Editor: Bring Soccer Back to the CommunitiesFiber Arts Workshop is sew fun!School playground equipment destroyed in weekend fireHealing House opens new family facilityRemember this?Empress Theater once a hotspot for VaudevilleGrime, Crime & ChimeUnleashing Happiness: The Healing Power of Pets on Our Mental HealthCultural Tourism & the World CupClassifiedsCommunity Calendar329: Youth Services Division, D.A.R.E, & First Impact Teen Driver TrainingChapter 7: Solar Eclipse Language ArtsCapitulo 7: Eclipse solar Lengua y LiteraturaPoolside on The PaseoSound Off! Keepin’ it real on The AvenueErin’s House to open this Friday Guadalupe Centers Breaks Ground on Affordable Housing InitiativeGrime, Crime, and ChimeCascio’s CornerRemember This?ClassifiedsCommunity Calendar328: Growing Community Papers with Erica LittleUpdate: Kansas City man convicted in East Bottoms double homicideLexington Avenue traffic calming discussion tonightManaging EditorIntern ApplicationThe Northeast News recognized by the Missouri Press AssociationCounty rolls out new property tax freeze program for area seniorsSix Plex to be demolishedFeast of St. JosephLatinx Education Collaborative celebrates the 2024 Latinx Educator Awards Latinx Education Collaborative celebra los Premios al Educador Latinx 2024 Northeast Fun fact: Parks and RecreationNortheast Fun FactChapter 6: Cultural Legends about Solar EclipsesCapítulo 6: Leyendas culturales sobre eclipses solaresGrime, Crime and ChimeCommunity CalendarClassifiedsRemember this?Aye, ‘Tis a grand St. Paddy’s Day to ye!UPDATED. Two dead in convenience store shooting327: Introducing the Newest Northeast News Staff!County announces public hearing on new stadium development in Crossroads Art DistrictSpecial Edition Podcast: Committee Against New Royals Stadium Taxes #SaveTheKRemember this?Fairyland Park: The working man’s amusement parkOpinion: Don’t be Bullied, Keep the K at Kauffman.Letter to the EditorCall to Action addresses lack of shelterSTEM Fest showcases student projectsChapter 5: Solar Eclipse ArtCapítulo 5: Porque Ocurren los Eclipses SolaresADCO: Printing for Northeast since 1967ClassifiedsCommunity CalendarCharges filed in Saturday evening shooting near 9th & WoodlandCharges Filed in Crown Center Shooting326: Kansas City Museum on Restorative PoeticsA Call to ActionCSL PlasmaYour Truman thrift storeState Farm Insurance | Tony GuySeeburg MufflersFrontier SchoolsScimeca’s DeliCentral Bank of Kansas CityRevolución EducativaCore Coffee & EateryKansas City UniversityKansas City MuseumIndependence Avenue Community Improvement DistrictNortheast Kansas City Chamber of CommerceGrime, Crime, and ChimeNew Weathervane for the Carriage House Psychological First AidKC STEM Fest is back Vuelve el KC STEM Fest Sheffield Place expands to meet growing needCity Council Wrap UpTrash carts available this springRemember this?Penn Valley Park, a testament to the Kessler legacyCommunity CalendarClassifiedsCandidate Filing Opens Today!Indep/Van Brunt scene of city’s latest fatal shooting325: KC Stemfest on March 1st with Frontier SchoolsChapter 4: Ways to View Solar Eclipses SafelyCapítulo 4: Maneras seguras de observar eclipses solares Dual language program at local high school promotes language and cultural literacy
Trending News:KC Tenants Hosts Stadium Community ForumsAvenue Angels Complete Narcan Training CertificationEssig Family McDonald’s$3 million slated for 9th & Van Brunt soccer park improvementsLocal Hispanic small business selected to receive $10,000 in grant moneyPequeño negocios Hispanos locales son seleccionados para recibir una ayuda de $10,000Letter to the Editor: Bring Soccer Back to the CommunitiesFiber Arts Workshop is sew fun!School playground equipment destroyed in weekend fireHealing House opens new family facilityRemember this?Empress Theater once a hotspot for VaudevilleGrime, Crime & ChimeUnleashing Happiness: The Healing Power of Pets on Our Mental HealthCultural Tourism & the World CupClassifiedsCommunity Calendar329: Youth Services Division, D.A.R.E, & First Impact Teen Driver TrainingChapter 7: Solar Eclipse Language ArtsCapitulo 7: Eclipse solar Lengua y LiteraturaPoolside on The PaseoSound Off! Keepin’ it real on The AvenueErin’s House to open this Friday Guadalupe Centers Breaks Ground on Affordable Housing InitiativeGrime, Crime, and ChimeCascio’s CornerRemember This?ClassifiedsCommunity Calendar328: Growing Community Papers with Erica LittleUpdate: Kansas City man convicted in East Bottoms double homicideLexington Avenue traffic calming discussion tonightManaging EditorIntern ApplicationThe Northeast News recognized by the Missouri Press AssociationCounty rolls out new property tax freeze program for area seniorsSix Plex to be demolishedFeast of St. JosephLatinx Education Collaborative celebrates the 2024 Latinx Educator Awards Latinx Education Collaborative celebra los Premios al Educador Latinx 2024 Northeast Fun fact: Parks and RecreationNortheast Fun FactChapter 6: Cultural Legends about Solar EclipsesCapítulo 6: Leyendas culturales sobre eclipses solaresGrime, Crime and ChimeCommunity CalendarClassifiedsRemember this?Aye, ‘Tis a grand St. Paddy’s Day to ye!UPDATED. Two dead in convenience store shooting327: Introducing the Newest Northeast News Staff!County announces public hearing on new stadium development in Crossroads Art DistrictSpecial Edition Podcast: Committee Against New Royals Stadium Taxes #SaveTheKRemember this?Fairyland Park: The working man’s amusement parkOpinion: Don’t be Bullied, Keep the K at Kauffman.Letter to the EditorCall to Action addresses lack of shelterSTEM Fest showcases student projectsChapter 5: Solar Eclipse ArtCapítulo 5: Porque Ocurren los Eclipses SolaresADCO: Printing for Northeast since 1967ClassifiedsCommunity CalendarCharges filed in Saturday evening shooting near 9th & WoodlandCharges Filed in Crown Center Shooting326: Kansas City Museum on Restorative PoeticsA Call to ActionCSL PlasmaYour Truman thrift storeState Farm Insurance | Tony GuySeeburg MufflersFrontier SchoolsScimeca’s DeliCentral Bank of Kansas CityRevolución EducativaCore Coffee & EateryKansas City UniversityKansas City MuseumIndependence Avenue Community Improvement DistrictNortheast Kansas City Chamber of CommerceGrime, Crime, and ChimeNew Weathervane for the Carriage House Psychological First AidKC STEM Fest is back Vuelve el KC STEM Fest Sheffield Place expands to meet growing needCity Council Wrap UpTrash carts available this springRemember this?Penn Valley Park, a testament to the Kessler legacyCommunity CalendarClassifiedsCandidate Filing Opens Today!Indep/Van Brunt scene of city’s latest fatal shooting325: KC Stemfest on March 1st with Frontier SchoolsChapter 4: Ways to View Solar Eclipses SafelyCapítulo 4: Maneras seguras de observar eclipses solares Dual language program at local high school promotes language and cultural literacy
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL Northeast News January 18, 2013
If you’ve taken the Paseo entrance ramp to I-35 northbound any time recently you’ve no doubt noticed the blue and green tarps in the woods and the seemingly endless parade of foot traffic along the east side of the entrance ramp to the top of the hill where someone “flies the sign” to garner spare change, food, water and the occasional free beer or half pint of hooch. This morning however, acting on citizen complaints, workers with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department along with Police Officers eradicated the encampments, discovering a number of “hot” portable meth-labs in the process.
“It really was a pretty sophisticated kind of layout” said one Parks Department worker as he stood in the middle of a “courtyard” of sorts that was once ringed by tents, tarps and shanties. “This one here” he said, pointing to a holed out area in the ground, ringed by large stones. “This was a huge tarp that had separate sleeping quarters, a latrine and even a kind of patio area.”
The area is accessed only by a complex network of paths and walkways cut through the woods. Like cul-de-sacs off a residential street, tents and tarps were arranged around a central courtyard of sorts, all with separate cooking areas, latrines and clothes lines. Each latrine consisted of a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat on top. When the bucket got “full”, it was removed to a ditch a short distance away and a new bucket was secured and the process started all over again. Each cul-de-sac area off the main path housed five to seven tent “spots” much like a modern campground. Farther down the main path, in a secluded hollow, a makeshift cabin crafted from pallets, lumber, tarps and stolen street signs had been erected by an enterprising person. Complete with windows and a port for cooking fire smoke to escape. Clearly, there’s a pecking order even among the homeless. At one of the primary points of access to the encampments, there was even a small bulletin board wedged in to a tree where printed messages could be left to occupants, reminiscent of the hobo camps of old with their own communication signs. It is estimated the complex network of trials and living areas along the hillside housed upwards of 200 people at any given time.
Police and FBI officials accompanied the Parks Dept workers in case any resistance was encountered by squatters and to deal with the hazards that come with portable methamphetamine labs. “We picked up one of those piles and liquid just squirted out all over the place” said one Parks Department worker who was clad in a white safety suit. “We found about five hot labs up here and another five or so down over the hill” he said, pointing to an area farther in the woods toward Guinotte Ave.
Police made no arrests but Drug Enforcement Units from the department systematically cleaned up the labs eliminating the bulk of the hazard to Parks Department workers who were responsible for the clean-up. “It’s a never ending cycle” said another Parks Dept. worker. “We’ll be back here in six months and it’ll be built back up, probably better than this”.
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