Participating Communities
The initial three-year campaign selected 10 neighborhoods that show promise for successful revitalization.  All went through an intensive Quality of Life Planning process to identify neighborhood priorities and projects. 

Six of the target neighborhoods developed Quality of Life Plans that meet the high standards of funding required by NeighborhoodsNOW.  We identify these six as "Sustainable Communities Focus Neighborhoods."

Kansas City, Missouri   Click here for a map

Sustainable Communities Focus Neighborhoods:

Blue Hills - Wabash Village expansion area

Ivanhoe Northwest

Scarritt Renaissance

Developing Neighborhoods:

Oak Park Southeast

Palestine East

South Town Fork Creek

Vineyard Northwest

Kansas City, Kansas  Click here for a map

Sustainable Communities Focus Neighborhoods:

Downtown Kansas City, KS

Douglass-Sumner

St. Peter/Waterway

Within these neighborhoods, smaller block were selected as the focus for concentrated redevelopment.

How Neighborhoods Were Initially Selected

A large mix of factors went into determining the neighborhoods. A diverse team of representatives from Greater Kansas City LISC, the cities of Kansas City Missouri and Kansas, UMKC and other community development organizations worked together to evaluate a detailed list of criteria and made selections based upon this evaluation. In general, we began by looking at neighborhoods that:

• Were eligible for federal Community Development Block Grants through HUD
• Where strong redevelopment partners work and where strong grass-roots neighborhood leadership exists
• Had a community policing presence

Once these neighborhoods were identified, one or more of the following factors were also considered: proximity to a strong urban center, single-family ownership, housing conditions, owner occupancy, crime, voter participation, vacant residential lots, diversity of income and employment. We chose neighborhoods using the “goldilocks theory” – not too blighted that we couldn’t change the conditions, but not too healthy that our investment would be wasted.

Click here for the PDF of Key Neighborhood Statistics.