June 15, 2011

We’d like to give props to the city’s household hazardous waste folks up on Deramus. We’d “like” to.

But after leaving several telephone messages about dropping off some old commercial batteries, we’ve yet to get a call back from anyone to schedule an appointment.  It would seem to this crafty news-canine that the city should make the drop-off of such items easier, not harder, if it is serious about making Kansas City a cleaner place to live. But then again, since when did this city make anything associated with the waste system easy, especially given how difficult it is to schedule a bulky item pick up? Welcome to a city that still doesn’t work, folks.

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Kudos to the folks up at Mattie Rhodes and the countless volunteers who turned a blighted vacant lot in the 100 block of North Topping into a true thing of beauty. The new community garden looks fabulous and is a true credit to community volunteerism in its best form. Maybe the folks over in Scarritt can take a cue from the Indian Mounders and schedule more projects along secondary streets that beautify their core regions rather than pretending those streets don’t exist and ignoring its problems. Note to Scarritt Board: It’s called a Neighborhood Association, not a Boulevard Social Club.

Above, a look back at the Mattie Rhodes community garden clean-up. Volunteers cleared away brush and debris to make room for the community garden, 130 N. Topping. Leslie Collins