By Emily Randall
Northeast News
Oct. 13, 2010

A consumer finance website recently ranked a neighborhood on the western edge of Historic Northeast one of the 25 most dangerous in the nation — though some who live in, work in and protect that neighborhood beg to differ.

The website www.WalletPop.com compiled data from 17,000 law enforcement agencies concerning crime including violent and property crimes per capita and compared every American zip code. A segment of 64106 along Independence Avenue in Kansas City made the list as the No. 23 most dangerous neighborhood in the nation.

This neighborhood, bordered by Troost Avenue on the west, Woodland Avenue on the east, Independence Avenue to the north and 10th Street to the south, is within the boundaries of both the Independence Plaza and Paseo West neighborhoods. According to NeighborhoodScout.com, which partnered with Wallet Pop on the study, there are 82 crimes in that 32-block area (which is less than one square mile) annually. The site also claims the probability of a resident of that area becoming the victim of a crime in a year is one in 12.

“I just find it hard to believe,” said James Schriever, community interaction officer for the Kansas City Police Department Central Patrol. “These reports have surfaced before, and I just don’t agree and would like to see their method of obtaining these numbers.”

Schriever said he would not deny there is crime and that the police continue to address violent crime issues along Independence Avenue, however, he noted the report did not contain the human element to the story.

“Numbers do not tell whole story,” he said. “I did not see any quality of life categories put in there. …If you are policing directly on numbers, you’re not doing effective policing.”

He also pointed out that under newer crime reporting systems, a single crime could be reported as multiple crimes — skewing the data. For example, he said, if someone breaks into a vehicle and steals something from inside it, that would be recorded as both an incident of property damage and of stealing.

According to Neighborhood Scout, this neighborhood is among the 15 percent lowest income neighborhoods in the United States, is in the worst 4 percent nationwide for crimes per square mile with 1,355, and its residents are 61 percent African-American, 18 percent Hispanic and 17 percent white.

About nine square blocks of this area is located in the Independence Plaza Neighborhood. Neighborhood Council President Lee Lambert said he was surprised to hear it labeled the 23rd most dangerous in the nation.

“I haven’t heard of a lot of crime happening or violent crime happening in that area,” Lambert said. “I’m not really sure where they’re coming up with that. They’ve got that [Salvation Army] thrift store over there. I stop in there and don’t feel uncomfortable. …I don’t feel any different than on Independence Avenue.”

Although there are several homeless shelters and homeless services organizations and a few housing projects in and around that area, along with a few homes and apartments, the small region is mainly occupied by businesses. Lambert said per capita data could have been skewed due to this fact and due to the fact that the many homeless are not counted as residents.

Evelyn Craig is a member of the Paseo West Neighborhood board and works in the neighborhood as executive director of reStart, a social services agency and shelter serving the homeless at facilities at Eighth Street and Paseo Boulevard and at Ninth and Harrison streets. She said she recognizes there is crime in the neighborhood — probably more than in some other Kansas City areas, but she added she has never felt unsafe working in the neighborhood.

“What we’ve seen is things have been very calm here in the past,” Craig said. “We have new businesses in our neighborhood, so I would say certainly over the past three years, it’s gotten a lot better.”

She noted at the most recent neighborhood association meeting, the police had no crime statistics to report and that in the past year, children at the shelter have been able to begin playing outdoors due to increased safety.

Some other neighborhoods included on the 25 Most Dangerous list were:

• No. 1 — 60612 in Chicago.

• No. 2 — 44104 In Cleveland.

• No. 3 — 89106 in Las Vegas.

No other neighborhoods in Missouri or Kansas made the list.