On Tuesday, Quinton Lucas will raise his right hand for the second and final time As mayor.

He will preside over a sea of fresh faces at City Hall as outgoing council members clear out their offices this week.

So should we expect big changes ahead or more of the same?

Plus, also with John Sherman back in the news as he sends out an open letter to fans and offers up new details and a new timeline for that ball park fan and the Chiefs finally break their silence.

Is a rolling roof on the way?

Those stories and the rest of the week's news on both sides of state line straight ahead.

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Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and thank you for joining us on our weekly journey through the most impactful, confusing and befuddling local news stories on the week review bus this week.

From KCUR News Lisa Rodriguez from Metro's newest newspaper.

Next page, KC Eric Wesson with a laser beam spotlight on downtown and other big Kansas City.

Developing stories from city scene KC Kevin Collison and tracking our region's top political stories for KCUR News, Brian Ellison Now, on Tuesday, Quinton Lucas will raise his right hand for the second and final time as mayor.

Does it seem like it's been for years?

Starting next week, he will preside over a sea of fresh faces at city hall this week.

It was out with the old, as most of the council members you have known for years were cleaning out their offices.

New council members were going through orientation training.

Matt Lucas tweeted out this week on ex social media platform out this week.

What should be the top issue the council tackles starting next week?

If you ask the public what would be number one on the list?

Eric It depends on what part of the public, but I think they still have to do something with the streets.

Street repairs, housing.

What are they going to do about reparations?

I went out warn all the other day and I posted a funny meme, but when I got through from 75th to 85th, when I got to 84th Street, my classes were like this.

Now, you know, they said they're doing the resurfacing, but the question still remains, where are they doing it at?

Because most of our main thoroughfares in the urban core are still a mess.

Number one issue that should be on the agenda, I.

Think head and shoulders.

The number one issue these days is policing, security, public safety.

The city has got not only a record homicide going on, but property crimes are going through the roof, quality of life crimes.

The city is definitely starting to get a tangible sense of lawlessness.

But do you think about four years ago at this very time, Quinton Lucas raising his hand.

Their number one issue was reducing Kansas City's crime rate.

We're not going to have triple digit murders anymore.

Didn't happen.

Did not happen.

And in fact, I think, Quentin, the mayor, Lucas, actually has pushed the process backward because of his alienation with the police department and the police commission.

So we've got a long ways to go.

Lisa, what did you put down?

I think violence.

Violent crime and homicides is clearly the top.

And I and I looked at some of the responses to to Mayor Lucas's tweet, and that was among the top responses.

But also affordable housing.

People's rents are too high.

It's too expensive to buy a home.

Homelessness was something that people brought up quite a bit as well.

Brian Nelson, right after the election you said on this show that even with all of those fresh faces coming to City Hall, though, it was more like status quo.

So are we going to see any new responses to any of these issues we've heard around the table?

I think that's a great question.

As as Eric said, I think it depends on who you ask, what's going to be most important.

And I think the reality is that, well, well, there's a lot of consensus about the broad range of priorities.

There's not a lot of new innovation.

So far in the solutions to problems like crime, like affordable housing.

And I might add to the list questions around development, what development is appropriate and where in town.

Obviously, the baseball stadium is a big part of that right now, but it could be a lot of other kinds of development as well.

We heard you mentioned, Kevin, about the police issue, but are we going to be going down even further down that road in this new term?

Over the weekend, we had a city panel doing a studying incarceration.

It devolved into an anti jail rally in which it was proposed.

Actually, the city take money it would spend on detaining inmates and placing it into alternative programs.

I demand that you shut down the jail development in Kansas City.

People say that.

Our city is growing.

We need a jail cell and we need housing.

Our city is growing.

We need access to mental health.

We can't let everybody keep coming down and robbing and pillaging our neighborhood and putting us out of business.

You know, we remember that whole painful debate over police funding that Kevin already referenced.

But is this the next debate over whether we actually even spend money on locking people up at all?

Eric Well, I was on on that commission and you had the de incarcerate group and they don't want to have to put more money or build more prisons.

They want to use alternate tips.

And in other cities the alternatives may have worked, but the culture in Kansas City is different.

So we want to know where that works and what are we going to what people are we going to do to put in those programs?

Because when somebody gets in a police car, if their house for drugs, you don't want to take them to jail too.

So they detox or what do you want to do, take them down the street and release them domestic violence the same way.

So it was kind of interesting that nobody had a concept of how many bed spaces that we need because our commission report was we didn't have enough information to determine how many more or how many less bands that we needed.

You know, Matt Lucas said this was going to be the most progressive council when they come in and take their seats next week in the history of Kansas City.

So are we going to see them a hidden being pushed in these areas, including on saying, well, perhaps we want to back out of any agreement with Jackson County on a jail?

Perhaps we want to spend less on detaining inmates, even even though we have a crime problem in Kansas City.

I think you are seeing more progressive voices on the city council.

I do not, however, think that this is going to cause the city to back away from investing in in their portion of the Jackson County jail.

I do think that these conversations will continue happening as they should.

The solution to to a new jail is not just build more beds.

You also have to figure out how to keep people out of jail and give them the resources they need.

We already know that reports say the Jackson County jail, the new one that they're proposing, doesn't have as many beds as they're recommending.

So this has to be a conversation to keep people out of jail.

But I don't think we're going to back away from the Jackson County jail.

A lot of people might yawn and change channels thinking they are hearing all about the nitty gritty details of city hall that might not be of great interest to people, particularly, as we know, 83% or almost 87% of the population didn't even bother to vote in these last elections.

When it comes to next week, what is the biggest change we in our families will see as a result of this council and mayor coming in for the second term?

Well, I don't know yet.

We're meeting some new faces or meeting some new first time elected officials.

And what I think we're going to to find out is whether the things we talked about in the campaign, which as all of us have said, centered on crime and affordable housing, are going to be the main focus or are we going to start getting into other nitty gritty details?

Is it going to be about fixing potholes?

Is it going to be about governance?

Is are we going to get into controversies around the city manager and other top layers of of appointed officials?

Are we going to see a big change?

I think the difference will be leadership and the side that's behind the scenes or whether or not Mayor Lucas is going to complete a four year term or is he's going to take a white House appointment or is he going to run for another seat to be in a federal government?

But I think the biggest difference is going to be the leadership of Leigh Barnes will be gone, Catherine Shiels will be gone, Theresa, Laura, Heather and the other people on the council that provided leadership.

So I think that will be the issue that we'll see as missing.

While the anti jail movement is underway in the case, CPD reports more than 200 fewer officers since 2019.

A growing number of businesses and entertainment venues around the city are taking matters into their own hands.

The Crossroads Neighborhood Association, which puts on the popular First Fridays event, now wants to set up its own taxing district so it can pay for its own beefed up security.

It's almost four years to the day that a young Johnson County woman was shot and killed.

At first, Friday's did.

They don't feel they're getting the protection they want now from the Kansas City Police Department, Kevin.

Well, that's one of several issues behind this city is improving security down there.

And you hear that again, all over the city.

I'm going to be having a story out this week about how Midtown KC now had a survey recently, and two thirds of the people living in Midtown are concerned that their area is not as safe now as it was a year ago.

We're having a real problem here and.

We fixed income asides, but it's things like property crimes, stolen cars, break.

Vandalism.

It's graffiti.

But I mean, but so getting back to the crossroads, so, you know, for years they've wanted to create a community improvement district.

But it was difficult because it was a very eclectic neighborhood.

A lot of artists, a lot of folks who really weren't all that interested in some kind of a formal establishment.

Now they've got a lot of people living down there who really want to see not only better security, but better cleaning, better trash clearance, better getting rid of weeds and other and other things like that.

And as you mentioned, they also you know, the crossroads has been voluntarily running the association this first Friday thing with very little, if any, help from city hall.

So they want to actually start putting a little bit more of a professional structure in how they're running first Fridays.

It's been kind of a wonderful thing for downtown, but it's been a very organic thing without not a lot of help from the establishment.

I do think, though, Nick, that the reality is that when you start investing in particular neighborhoods this way, it can be a double edged sword for it.

And a great example is, is Westport.

When they began to invest more fully in security, for example, on weekend nights?

Yes, I think some people are grateful for a higher level of safety, although it has not been absolutely, completely helpful in eliminating the safety issues.

It it also changed the feel of the place.

Going to Westport is a different thing than it used to be.

Passing through barricades, not not being able to move your car after certain hours.

Unlike Westport, though, we're not talking about putting metal detectors up for a first Fridays event.

We came in.

With all due respect, Brian, they're not talking about the kinds of things they've done in Westport.

They're talking about having one officer and one car on duty 12 hours during the day and on the call on weekends.

We're not talking about building a fort crossroads here.

I mean, these kids are being implemented because the city is failing to do the basic services it's supposed to do.

These people are double taxing themselves to get the services they should expect anyway from the city, which is the sad part of all this.

Now, for the 17th straight week in a row, Jackson County property assessments continue to dominate our headlines.

I can't stay for the entire update.

This morning, but it was a priority for me to be here even.

The short time when I'll be here just to speak to you.

All right.

This was actually one of the rare times we've had Jackson County Leader Frank White say anything about this issue.

If you're unhappy with how the county has valued your home, this is your last week to file an appeal.

Monday is the deadline to challenge your appraisal notice.

So far, more than 41,000 people have done so.

That represents actually a whopping 12% of every house in the county.

Now, without wanting to sound repetitive, because we seem to have talked about this every week for the last month, did the Jackson County legislature, Lisa, ever come up with a fix to keep people from being that angry and stopping them coming to the courthouse and physically removing officeholders from from office?

No, we've seen that.

We've seen them come up with ideas that are constantly batted down saying that doesn't actually adhere to state law.

So it's a really it's a real quandary for the legislature.

I see in the state of Kansas, they're looking to put a constitutional amendment because it's happening.

The old people have concerns, a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year that voters will decide that will cap the amount that property valuations can go up from one year to another.

Is there any such effort on the Missouri side?

There has been from time to time, but but but none of those have ever really gained traction because of the impact it has on the local taxing districts.

When you're not just talking about the impact on the taxpayer, you're talking about the impact on school districts, on libraries, and of course, on the municipalities themselves.

I think the reality is that what Gayle McCann, Beattie, the Jackson County assessor, has done is is do.

Herself or her future successors.

A favor.

She has brought those numbers up to reality for market values in a way that wasn't done for decades.

Obviously, people are upset.

Obviously people wish it were done more gradually, but the reality is that bringing it up closer to reality not only is in compliance with state law as it now exists, it's going to reduce the pain in future.

But you're not seeing anything, though, to reduce people's pain right now.

There's no solution at hand.

The solution might be for the taxing districts to decide to lower the taxes now that they have a higher tax base.

But I don't expect that to happen.

I think Brian hits it on the head.

I mean, you know, the property tax, obviously, your assessment is something that upset you, but at the end of the day, it's what the mill levy is going to be, what you're going to actually pay in taxes.

And there's a lot of flexibility there.

I hope the by Monday, when the cutoff date is, I hope to have a better system for somebody answering the phone when you call, because that's been an issue that I've been hearing about.

And I actually experienced it myself.

And a lot of people don't have the time or the energy to go down to the courthouse or the annex in order to do that, even.

Though they said they had more people working the phones in the office this week to try and process those appeals.

Okay.

All right.

Now, speaking of issues that never seem to go away, Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman offered up new details this week on the timeline for a new stadium.

In an open letter to fans, Sherman writes that detailed renderings and many other components about the project will be released in the next 30 days.

So why is that news?

Hasn't he already said he plans to reveal the new location of the new ballpark by the end of the summer, which, by the way, this year falls on September 23rd.

For all the attention this got to the actually reveal anything new.

I did not see a great deal of new information in there.

It was frustrating in that way.

There's there's this big announcement and truly nothing, nothing new renderings of the two sites that we already knew were the top two in contention.

To me, it felt like a PR push.

Hey, look, it maybe, maybe don't look at our current record right now.

Look at our big plans for this for this new baseball stadium.

So for me, there wasn't any news there.

It is a little frustrating.

I want to see more detail about how this will affect taxpayers, But but we're just simply not there yet.

But but trickling out little bits of information without making a commitment.

Could that be actually working, though, for Jon Sherman, or is he just incenting people in Kansas City and making them more infuriated?

It's hard to say whether I am representative of the Kansas City at large.

To me, it's to me it's having a negative effect in the people that I talk to.

It's just how how much longer With a record as dismal as as we have right now, how can we truly get excited about a new ballpark?

You know, I went to this press conference.

Sherman held out at the Hall of Fame at the ballpark at the end of June, and he expressed frustration with unnamed people who don't share the team's urgency on getting a deal done.

And it turns out that one of those individuals happens to be a former Royals ballplayer.

Frank White, Jr.

I've got a story out today that just quotes sources.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to get in the way of a car that basically say the county got a what they call a terms sheet term sheet from the royals back in mid-June.

And they've been sitting on it now for over six weeks without any response to the team, which in the meantime has signaled the folks in North Kansas City, hey, let's make a run for this thing, because Jackson County and the Royals don't seem to be making much progress on a downtown site.

So it's an interesting situation where we're seeing some of the real political intrigues going on here.

We also remember, of course, that the royals did.

Can Frank White and there was a little bit of bad blood about that.

We all know that there's no love between the two of them.

But I agree with Lisa.

I think they're going about this all wrong.

You when people's appetite for what's going to come and you got this cliffhanger that's hanging around, just make a decision.

This is where we're going to do.

This is where we're going to do it.

So if you're going to make $180 million commitment and.

I remember when they first announced they wanted to do a single terminal, everybody seemed to hate the idea.

It was preposterous.

And then more than 70% of voters go to the polls and vote overwhelmingly yes.

Isn't it going to be the same with this ballpark?

No, I.

Don't think so.

I think with the stadium.

Well, the airport project, you had reasons why you needed to do this.

Having the lowest, third, lowest attendance in the Major League Baseball, the record that they have, not being able to have money to get other players, that's not a good ARG.

I think there's going to be a very high correlation between the winning percentage of the royals and the percentage that the vote gets when it comes to them.

But we're talking about a 30, 40 year deal here just because they're having a crappy season this year.

Right.

You don't make a judgment and the other part of this is also going to be it's going to be the royals and the chiefs on this ballot.

Both of them are tied at the hip.

And the chiefs, as we all know, are a lot more popular these days.

And having said absolutely nothing about the stadium issue up until now, the Chiefs finally broke their silence this week.

Team owner Clark Kent says their preference is to stay put, teasing the possibility once again of a retracting roof that could help bring the Super Bowl to town.

Certainly one of the benefits of a dome stadium.

Is that you're weather protected.

Which does give you the ability to host more events already, Lisa, because you weren't as enthused about what John Sherman was saying in terms of news.

Was this a bigger news development than what we heard from the royals this week?

It's something we've been waiting to hear ever since we we started hearing about a downtown baseball stadium.

Now, the indication that they prefer to to rehab Arrowhead Stadium and stay where they are, I think it's a significant development and and particularly to a part of Kansas City that has seen a lot of disinvestment and risks losing a huge draw to that part of town if the royals do move.

It was also interesting to me because the royals had said earlier that they couldn't stay where they are because there was cancer in the cement.

That was that structural issue that meant that they couldn't just easily repair it.

Yet we are hearing from the chiefs that they looked at it structurally and they were in pretty good shape.

Yeah, Mark Donovan gave a gave gave a ringing endorsement of the building quality at Arrowhead.

I mean, look, Nick, football is a business too, just like baseball.

And Mark Donovan was was very honest in saying, hey, the reason we want to talk about a retractable roof is so we can have more events there.

It isn't about the football at all.

It's about the money.

How many more events do they want?

They got Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, I mean, yeah.

But they don't have a dome of where they can have those kind of concerts every weekend.

Now, whether they do a roof or not, I don't know.

I don't know if you could physically add a roof to the existing stadium without spending an enormous amount of money, but they do want to tear down Kauffman and they do want to build an entertainment district there.

So they have kind of the same vision as the royals of just leveraging the stadium not only for the sporting events, but also to create a destination or team attraction.

Now you can argue how much entertainment does one metropolitan area need.

I don't know about that, but you know, but it's interesting to see the team talking more about staying put, kind of putting the hot, cold water on this Kansas idea, although that could get resurrected if they don't get money from the state.

Well, speaking of big developments, Governor Mike Parson was in town this week.

In addition to visiting Arrowhead, he signed over $28 million in state cash to build a lead over the I-70 highway that divides downtown.

The so-called South Loop project would build a park over the top of the freeway like some other big cities have done.

Now there's this much state money on the line.

Is there no turning back?

This is happening, Kevin.

I would say at this point, they've got some great momentum there.

They've raised or had committed commitments to almost $100 million, which is about half the price they think it's going to cost.

So this has gone from a dream of maybe ten, 15 years ago to actually really getting some solid traction.

Now, whether they can get it done in time for the 2026 World Cup, I you know, I'm a bit skeptical, but they might be able to get a couple of blocks done.

Could John Sherman still surprise us and say he's going to actually build the downtown ballpark there instead?

No, no.

That's okay.

Well, that's what we don't want to belabor these things, everyone.

All right.

Last week, the Kansas and Missouri attorney generals were making national news as they sent letters to Fortune 100 companies warning them of the legal consequences of race based hiring.

That after the Supreme Court declared affirmative action programs unconstitutional.

Now, Kris Kobach is expanding that legal warning to state government and contracts with minority business owners.

If Kobach is successful, could it be just a small step, Brian, to the ending of race based hiring in local governments, including how Kansas City may set figures, percentage figures on minority contractors on building projects?

Well, it could be, but if Kris Kobach is successful, that actually would be a big step.

What the Supreme Court decided in that case was that affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has not said that about hiring.

Some suggest that the same set of justices might come to that conclusion a year or two from now in a different case, but that hasn't happened yet.

I do think that this Supreme Court decision on college admissions is the opening battle of what could end up throwing out MBA WB requirements.

I'm just waiting for the next legal case to start demolishing that whole concept, and that is going to be a real issue for a lot of minority and women owned businesses that have done well because the city, as we've talked about in the past, you know, generally has those demands in return for providing tax incentives to get projects done.

You know, the interesting thing about when you look at me WB numbers, the people that benefit the most from them are white women matter.

For example, the project that we had here in the metropolitan area, they had 68% of their MBA contract were white women.

So is this or are they really doing research to find out who is benefiting from this?

Or they are assuming that.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines?

What was the big local story we missed?

You don't need a meteorologist to tell you.

It's hot out there.

Triple digit temperatures forcing Kansas City fans to get creative in order to stay cool.

Early voting underway in Johnson and Wyandotte Counties ahead of Tuesday's primary election.

Who decides who's Native American Free?

Q Professors accused of faking their ancestry to advance their academic careers.

More World Cup watch parties in the Power Light district.

And guess who was number one in the TV ratings?

We're looking at you Kansas City.

A local hospital demolished the former Trinity Lutheran Hospital.

The 31st of Maine has sat empty for more than 20 years.

It'll become a new airport and complex breathe a sigh of relief.

Leawood based AMC now scrapping that plan to charge you more for the best movie theater seats.

And if it feels like Coffin Stadium's half empty this season, that's because it is.

The Royals now ranked third worst in Major League Baseball for attendance already, Leigh said.

Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I think we can't ignore the heat, and I think that's probably the biggest story of this week and the biggest story of the next few years.

The fact that nighttime temperatures aren't falling means that we don't have enough time for our bodies to really cool, especially if you don't have access to air conditioning.

So the health effects of a heat wave like this, I just think can't be understated and it affects everything.

Eric Reinhard Parks is the mayor pro tem and a committee chair.

And Melissa Robinson, who won her district by 87%, was not a chair of a committee.

And a lot of people are thinking that I.

Didn't ask the mayor pro tem deal to the max because I was thinking what what difference does that really make to people?

And could anybody name who the last pro tem was?

And does it advance them to become the next mayor of Kansas City?

What it does do is it creates a situation in the black community where the mayor can write his own head lines and say, Hey, I appointed a black woman for this position.

But on the other side, I've had some issues with some other black women, and a lot of people are thinking that it's a petty decision that he made because Melissa was so outspoken about the city manager and what happened with Andrea Dortch in the mayor's office dealing with MBA WB participation.

So it is a major issue.

Kevin You know, I have a different one in that I don't think enough coverage has been done to how our bus system's working in the city these days.

Ever since we've started this free bus service, everybody cheered.

But everything I've heard peripherally is the service is terrible.

The drivers are putting up with all kinds of abuse.

They become what a lot of people were concerned, rolling homeless shelters.

And I wish we had more coverage about what's going on with our bus transit system.

You're pushing me to add that to the agenda on a future show.

Kevin and Brian, this will also be on the agenda of a future show, the ongoing saga of the Missouri Petition Initiative to put abortion rights on the 2024 ballot.

I think we have a lot more conversation over the ways that elected officials are using their office to take political positions rather than put issues before the voters in an unbiased.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCUR's Lisa Rodriguez and Kevin Collison from City Scene.

KC from next page KC Eric Weston and Brian Elison from KC one News.

And I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well keep calm and carry on.