Celisa Calacal

2 weeks ago | kcur.org | Celisa Calacal

For more stories like this one, subscribe to A People's History of Kansas City on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Barbara Johnson’s east Kansas City neighborhood once had all she needed: homes filled with other kids and families, vibrant schools, churches, and places to shop, all within walking distance. It was her whole world. “We had everything on this side of Troost, everything for Black folks to live,” Johnson said.

1 month ago | kcur.org | Celisa Calacal

Kansas City voters renewed a local sales tax on Tuesday that officials say will help fund the construction of a new municipal jail. Voters passed Question 1 by more than 8,000 votes; 60% to 40%; renewing the public safety sales tax for 20 years. Extension of the tax is a crucial step in the city’s yearslong plan to operate a municipal detention center again. This is the third time Kansas City voters have supported the quarter-cent public safety sales tax.

1 month ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Celisa Calacal

ballot Question 1 on April 8 and renew a public safety sales tax, work on another new jail could begin right next to it. “What am I showing my child, my 4-year-old child?” she asks. “Like, ‘hey, your mom is just trying to survive, but down the street there's going to be a new jail by the elementary school that you're gonna go to. That's the future that you're going to have.’” “Nah, I don't want that,” Valdes said.

1 month ago | kcur.org | Celisa Calacal

Lizette Valdes loves her east Kansas City neighborhood — where she grew up and where she’s raising a family — and she loves the view it provides of Kansas City from the playground in Blue Valley Park, about a mile away from her home. But she worries how that view might change soon.

1 month ago | thebeaconnews.org | Celisa Calacal

This story was originally published on KCUR 89.3. Kansas City voters will decide on April 8 whether to renew the city’s public safety sales tax, as part of its efforts to fund and build a new municipal jail. Supporters of the tax renewal say the city is long overdue for its own detention and rehabilitation center — for a decade the city has not had its own jail to detain people who commit city offenses.