Beware the Blight! .......[c]2006 by Richard L Zorek....11.16.06....... Independence City leaders have announced a new plan to combat blight in the northwest part of Independence where they say property values continue to decline. It's called the Great Northwest Independence Neighborhood Initiative. Better watch out if you live in that area. The last time the city council called something "blight," they built a hospital on it.

Independence City Motto: "It will be ours soon!" .......[c]2006 by Richard L Zorek....11.15.06....... Independence Missouri City Council is at it again. They need more land. They already did the "hospital/MCI thing," and then that big empty spot out on Noland Road near 23rd street, so they need something new. So, aside from the easement, they are taking an extra 6 and a half feet from yards out on RD Mize Road so they can widen the road. This will decrease the value of some of the homes that have been there long before some of the current city council members ever learned what the phrase "eminent domain" and "power hungry authoritarian" even meant. Independence resident, Patricia Sullivan, and homeowner near RD Mize, wrote in an editorial to the Kansas City Star "I think it is criminal." She may be right, but that statement is like a pat on the back to that city council.