Nadia Pflaum: Downtown is to murder as Parkville is to gills

Last weekend’s outbursts of violence on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City reinforced a well-guarded perception held by some who have chosen to live just outside the city’s border. I hear it from friends who have moved to Lee’s Summit, Overland Park, North Kansas City and Parkville: KCMO is a scary place to live.

Nadia Pflaum. 

That perception is based on real information. The TV newscasters announce a death by stabbing or shooting every other evening , and if there were no murders that day, they update us on the one previous. The murder count increases by a digit or two every week. It’s real, it’s happening, and will likely continue to happen despite weak attempts to stop the bleeding (like the new citywide curfew for kids under 18 that was just approved by the City Council and Kansas City Mayor Sly James).

Will the curfew work? Yeah, right. Will KC’s cops enjoy enforcing it? Hell no. Will the city’s kids change their behavior? Not likely.

But will some unsuspecting Parkvillian who dares to venture into the confines of the city end up Swiss cheesed in the crossfire of some thuggy gang war?

Please.

Consider this: the publisher of this newspaper caught hell a month or so ago for having the audacity to cover the economic damage that flood waters from the bloated Missouri River inflicted upon downtown Parkville’s business community. Some folks preferred to smile and pretend the water wasn’t there, lest any potential visitors with money in their wallets steer clear, thinking that Parkville had turned into Atlantis.


But parts of Parkville really did get wet, and it really did have an impact on some entrepreneurs’ bottom lines. And Kansas City does, in fact, have a shamefully high rate of homicide. The media should never stop reporting on natural disasters, murders, or anything else just because leaders fear of the poor light it might cast on us and our economic outlook.

Likewise, citizens ought not to rely solely on the news to form their opinions. Not because you can’t believe everything you read, but because nothing replaces first-hand experience. When I went to Parkville during the weeks of panicky news coverage about the rising waters, I saw no need to start building an ark. And when some of your brave souls venture down to KC proper, you won’t see streets running red with blood. More likely, a few strangers passing by will nod hello, just like they do in Parkville.

Being informed means being a well-balanced consumer of information. But being a consumer from your couch alone won’t make you wiser, just like eating carrot sticks there won’t make your ass any less fat. Get up, get out, and discover what’s real. Otherwise you’ll believe that KC’s a bloodthirsty cesspool , just like Parkville’s residents have gills.

And stop watching the nightly news. They make their living by scaring the shit out of people.

Seriously.