Micah Wilkins
Northeast News
July 7, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — With bubbles, music and refreshments, the Independence Avenue Community Improvement District and the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce worked to draw neighbors to the intersection of Benton Boulevard and Independence Avenues during the first Four Corners event on Saturday, July 5.

The Four Corners events will be held every first Saturday of the month at different intersections along Independence Avenue to celebrate the businesses along the Avenue and bring the community together. Bobbi Baker Hughes, president of the Northeast Chamber said the goal is to bring the community to Independence Avenue.

“We want to be where the shopping is to help businesses improve sale opportunities, and let people know that it’s cool to be on the Avenue,” Baker Hughes said.

This month’s Four Corners event also recognized the Titan Security officers, also known as the Avenue Angels, who were hired at the beginning of the year to patrol Independence Avenue. The officers help cut down on loitering and crime in an effort to bring more shoppers to storefronts on the Avenue, Baker Hughes said.

“We’re starting to build community, create enterprise, give folks the opportunity to come out and meet one another,” Baker Hughes said.

Neighborhood children helped plant potted flowers at Saturday’s event, to be placed in front of businesses along the Avenue. All of these efforts, Baker Hughes said, are ideas that came about after the CID took a survey of Avenue property owners. The consensus, she added, was to have “less grime, less crime and more chime” along Independence Avenue. Urban Ambassadors, donning neon shirts, pick up trash along the Avenue, Titan Security officers patrol the area and now, events like the Four Corners bring more attention to Independence Avenue and its businesses.

“We may move deeper into the neighborhoods,” Baker Hughes said. “But for now, there’s plenty of Avenue.”