Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: May Kansas City mall rest in peace
By Brittany Lane
University News (U. Missouri-Kansas City)
05/18/2007

(U-WIRE) KANSAS CITY, Mo. — What do Best Buy, Petsmart, Denny's, Wal-Mart, Red Lobster, Toys R Us, Hobby Lobby and Blockbuster have in common?

They are all retail stores that have closed or packed up and moved out of south Kansas City. Bannister Mall is following right behind them.

This news comes as no surprise, seeing as how the mall has had both feet in the grave for a while now. May 31 will be the final nail in the coffin for this deceased mall as its doors close to the public forever.

I'd like to take the time to mourn the death of Bannister Mall as well as the fallen businesses that surrounded it. I spent much time there and have many memories. In the early '90s, as a kid, I used to spend whole evenings with my parents shopping, eating at the food court, and capping the night off with a movie inside the mall's small theater. For the past five years, I've lived within walking distance of the mall. I also worked at the Toys R Us adjacent to the mall for two years until it closed.

It's all sad, really. Everything in the Bannister area is gone.

When the two-level mall opened at Interstate 435 and Bannister Road in 1980, it was the place to be. Macy's, the Jones Store, Sears and JC Penney drew customers. What happened?

I guess it depends on who you talk to. Some say crime happened to the Bannister area. Customers were scared to come to the mall for fear of gang violence and lawlessness. I think that reputation is baloney, a fallacy created because the area grew increasingly urban. I didn't feel like I was more at risk in the Bannister area to become a victim of a crime versus any other shopping area in Kansas or Missouri.

One thing is certain though, as more blacks moved into the area, whites moved out. Bannister Mall's decline began in the '90s, but it didn't reach the point of no return until well into 2000. It grew frustrating visiting the mall, only to discover another store was gone.

In 2005 and 2006, the mall's only two department anchors, the Jones Store and Sears, moved out. Plans to revamp the mall into a combination of stores and non-retail spaces fell through.

Today, less than 50 of the mall's 134 retail spaces are occupied. All that's left in Bannister Mall are stores selling expensive shoes and customized "grills." Some locals selling mouth jewelry can't sustain a mall.

I hate that the Bannister area has become a concrete wasteland. It was nice having retail places nearby. Luckily I have a car, because now I almost always have to drive to Independence or Overland Park to get some decent shopping done. As I look at the Landing Shopping Center off 63rd Street and Troost Avenue, I am convinced that no businesses can survive in predominately black, urban areas.

There's talk of developing the barren Bannister area into a 20,000-plus seated stadium for the Kansas City Wizards. Plopping a stadium there would bring back restaurants, offices and retail to the area. I hope these plans come to fruitition.

Kansas City needs to stop turning its back on its urban areas. Bannister needs help; it doesn't have to be a blight on the city unless we leave it that way.

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