Trending News:Gilbert Raymond HughesRemember This?Cyclones Hit Macon County, Excess Property Damage ReportedIntroducing Affordable Housing Latinx Education Collaborative’s Weekly Pulga Draws Local Entrepreneurs, Community InterestRevEd Brings Entrepreneurship Classes to Spanish-Speaking AdultsNortheast Arts KC President Shares Theatre ExperienceCat Scratch Fever — Inky Guides Community Through Kitten SeasonIndependence Avenue CID ZONE 2: Retail & ShoppingCommunity CalendarClassifieds346: Art as Mentorship Prepares for Celebrate AMERIK’ANA Music and Arts FestivalMARC Hosts Age of Celebration Block Party, Addresses Challenges for Older Adults Garrison Community Center Welcomes Northeast Refugees Letter to the Editor: and So it Goes …Billy Wayne BrassfieldHow you can support local journalismUNESCO Creative City KC Jerusalem Farm: Historic Northeast resident FeedbackKansas City Museum honors Los Vaqueros LegacyIt’s a Grand Old FlagRemember This?Community CalendarClassified & Service Directory345: Between the Avenue — Illegal DumpingSurvey Offers Input for Lake ImprovementsTruck Trap Makeover: Muralists to Transform 12- Foot ‘Truck Eating Bridge’As The Doobie Brothers said, ‘Listen to the Music’International Melodies: Beau Bledsoe Trio Opens Summer Dusk Concert Series at ColonnadeOp-Ed: Surprise On-Ramp Closure Has Northeast Residents Seeing RedRevEd brings Youth Entrepreneur Workshops to NortheastAnita B. Gorman Discovery Center Offers Community Free EntertainmentArt Installation Concludes Paseo Gateway… With Big Pointy TeethKCPD Debuts Safe Space to Community, Soft Investigation RoomIndependence Avenue CID Street Ambassador Spotlight : Jackson DavidMuseum’s Elixir Soda Fountain Creates New MenuMemorial Honors First Parks Board PresidentRemember This?Community CalendarClassifieds344: Essig Family Mcdonalds Shares Resources, Outreach OpportunitiesBeau Bledsoe Trio to Open Summer Dusk Concert Series at Colonnade BuildingKansas City Public Library’s Kids Cafe Resumes — addressing Summer Food Insecurity343: Welcome UNESCO Creative Cities Kansas CityFormer MU Football Player Hosts Youth Camp at Kansas City Public LibraryArt as Mentorship’s Summer Ignition Camp Ends on High NoteKansas City PIAC Encourages Public Input for Neighborhood Improvement ProjectsPedro Trueba Showcases Latin Art and Culture in “Energía y Transformación 2024” ExhibitMuch Delayed Intersection Project Nears CompletionCommunity Neighbors Solicit Feedback on former Pearl’s Beauty Salon SpaceRemember This?Manual Training High SchoolIndependence Avenue CID ZONE 1: Educational InstitutionsCommunity CalendarClassifiedsRobbers Target Credit Union a Second TimeUNESCO Creative City KC Inc.342: Kansas City Museum Prepares Juneteenth CelebrationsCelebrating Sugar Creek’s Slavic Festival 38th year!Community CalendarClassifiedsRecognizing a Lifetime of Community ServiceKansas City Museum’s Lawn Concert Series Kicks Off with Brass Rewind June 14Wellness Event Provides Services, Family Fun!Samuel U Rodgers Health Center vision comes to fruition with new facilitiesOn Your marks, Get Set, River Boat — Kawsmouth River Carnival Paddles to Finish LineEx Campeona de boxeo con PAL se convierte en entrenadora e inspira a los jóvenes Independence Avenue CID Street Ambassador SpotlightNeighborhoods in Northeast: Paseo WestRivers key to Kansas historyRemember this?KCPL kicks off Lykins Square Pop-in at the ParkDisc Golf Association donations top $150,000 to Bishop Sullivan Food PantryJerusalem Farm to Create Energy Solutions for Northeast ResidentsFormer PAL Boxing Champ turns coach, inspires youth Introducing UNESCO Kansas City — Creative City of MusicBULLETIN BULLETIN! Indep /Paseo Intersection Work Almost Ready for Traffic341: Paseo West Neighborhood AssociationKawsmouth River Carnival to Set SailMissouri governor sets vote on tax exemption for child care centers, Kansas City police fundingHealing House Hosts Ceremony for May GraduatesSugar Creek Slavic Festival kicks off 38th yearRemember this?Cleansing Crime from a Waldo residenceThe NEKC Chamber invites you to its bi-annual International Taste and Tour June 7ClassifiedsCommunity CalendarKCPL hosts Summer Reading Kick-Off FiestaLocal Credit Union RobbedKansas City Honors Negro League Baseball Update: One dead in Sunday afternoon shooting340: Lykins Neighborhood AssociationClassifiedsCommunity CalendarKansas City Museum this Summer!Neighborhoods in Northeast: LykinsCity announces harsher penalties, more enforcement against illegal dumpingMuseum displays latest art commission destined for carriage house roofDisney exhibit a tribute to local cartoonist
Trending News:Gilbert Raymond HughesRemember This?Cyclones Hit Macon County, Excess Property Damage ReportedIntroducing Affordable Housing Latinx Education Collaborative’s Weekly Pulga Draws Local Entrepreneurs, Community InterestRevEd Brings Entrepreneurship Classes to Spanish-Speaking AdultsNortheast Arts KC President Shares Theatre ExperienceCat Scratch Fever — Inky Guides Community Through Kitten SeasonIndependence Avenue CID ZONE 2: Retail & ShoppingCommunity CalendarClassifieds346: Art as Mentorship Prepares for Celebrate AMERIK’ANA Music and Arts FestivalMARC Hosts Age of Celebration Block Party, Addresses Challenges for Older Adults Garrison Community Center Welcomes Northeast Refugees Letter to the Editor: and So it Goes …Billy Wayne BrassfieldHow you can support local journalismUNESCO Creative City KC Jerusalem Farm: Historic Northeast resident FeedbackKansas City Museum honors Los Vaqueros LegacyIt’s a Grand Old FlagRemember This?Community CalendarClassified & Service Directory345: Between the Avenue — Illegal DumpingSurvey Offers Input for Lake ImprovementsTruck Trap Makeover: Muralists to Transform 12- Foot ‘Truck Eating Bridge’As The Doobie Brothers said, ‘Listen to the Music’International Melodies: Beau Bledsoe Trio Opens Summer Dusk Concert Series at ColonnadeOp-Ed: Surprise On-Ramp Closure Has Northeast Residents Seeing RedRevEd brings Youth Entrepreneur Workshops to NortheastAnita B. Gorman Discovery Center Offers Community Free EntertainmentArt Installation Concludes Paseo Gateway… With Big Pointy TeethKCPD Debuts Safe Space to Community, Soft Investigation RoomIndependence Avenue CID Street Ambassador Spotlight : Jackson DavidMuseum’s Elixir Soda Fountain Creates New MenuMemorial Honors First Parks Board PresidentRemember This?Community CalendarClassifieds344: Essig Family Mcdonalds Shares Resources, Outreach OpportunitiesBeau Bledsoe Trio to Open Summer Dusk Concert Series at Colonnade BuildingKansas City Public Library’s Kids Cafe Resumes — addressing Summer Food Insecurity343: Welcome UNESCO Creative Cities Kansas CityFormer MU Football Player Hosts Youth Camp at Kansas City Public LibraryArt as Mentorship’s Summer Ignition Camp Ends on High NoteKansas City PIAC Encourages Public Input for Neighborhood Improvement ProjectsPedro Trueba Showcases Latin Art and Culture in “Energía y Transformación 2024” ExhibitMuch Delayed Intersection Project Nears CompletionCommunity Neighbors Solicit Feedback on former Pearl’s Beauty Salon SpaceRemember This?Manual Training High SchoolIndependence Avenue CID ZONE 1: Educational InstitutionsCommunity CalendarClassifiedsRobbers Target Credit Union a Second TimeUNESCO Creative City KC Inc.342: Kansas City Museum Prepares Juneteenth CelebrationsCelebrating Sugar Creek’s Slavic Festival 38th year!Community CalendarClassifiedsRecognizing a Lifetime of Community ServiceKansas City Museum’s Lawn Concert Series Kicks Off with Brass Rewind June 14Wellness Event Provides Services, Family Fun!Samuel U Rodgers Health Center vision comes to fruition with new facilitiesOn Your marks, Get Set, River Boat — Kawsmouth River Carnival Paddles to Finish LineEx Campeona de boxeo con PAL se convierte en entrenadora e inspira a los jóvenes Independence Avenue CID Street Ambassador SpotlightNeighborhoods in Northeast: Paseo WestRivers key to Kansas historyRemember this?KCPL kicks off Lykins Square Pop-in at the ParkDisc Golf Association donations top $150,000 to Bishop Sullivan Food PantryJerusalem Farm to Create Energy Solutions for Northeast ResidentsFormer PAL Boxing Champ turns coach, inspires youth Introducing UNESCO Kansas City — Creative City of MusicBULLETIN BULLETIN! Indep /Paseo Intersection Work Almost Ready for Traffic341: Paseo West Neighborhood AssociationKawsmouth River Carnival to Set SailMissouri governor sets vote on tax exemption for child care centers, Kansas City police fundingHealing House Hosts Ceremony for May GraduatesSugar Creek Slavic Festival kicks off 38th yearRemember this?Cleansing Crime from a Waldo residenceThe NEKC Chamber invites you to its bi-annual International Taste and Tour June 7ClassifiedsCommunity CalendarKCPL hosts Summer Reading Kick-Off FiestaLocal Credit Union RobbedKansas City Honors Negro League Baseball Update: One dead in Sunday afternoon shooting340: Lykins Neighborhood AssociationClassifiedsCommunity CalendarKansas City Museum this Summer!Neighborhoods in Northeast: LykinsCity announces harsher penalties, more enforcement against illegal dumpingMuseum displays latest art commission destined for carriage house roofDisney exhibit a tribute to local cartoonist
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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