The Star's Saturday editorial

Last April, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver began promoting an effort to use federal stimulus funds to upgrade 150 square blocks of inner Kansas City. He called it the Green Impact Zone.

“I’m so excited, I’m trying to calm down,” Cleaver had said. “This is a perfect storm of opportunity.”

Unveiled at that time were plans to weatherize every house that needed it, improve energy efficiency for homes and businesses, train people for jobs and build a green sewer demonstration project.

Those remain sound strategies to help revive an economically struggling part of the city — 39th to 51st streets, and Troost to Prospect avenues — that includes more than 8,300 people.

But seven months later supporters are trying to make sure the hopes they raised do not turn out to be false ones.

The primary problem is that the spigots are not being turned on as quickly as Cleaver and many other local officials had hoped. A number of communities, not just Kansas City, are waiting for the feds to release billions in stimulus funds.

Ultimately, the Green Impact Zone could succeed or fail based on how successful local officials are in winning federal funds. At this point:

 Not one of the seven grants pursued by Green Impact Zone supporters has come through yet. That’s a total of more than $86 million in limbo.

 An examination of the requests reveals that — even if the zone gets Washington’s approval to spend money — much of it could be used in other parts of Kansas City or even in other area cities.
One request, for example, is for $35 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to acquire and upgrade foreclosed properties. But Independence and Kansas City, Kan., are also seeking a share of that money. Two other grants — one for job training and the other to clean up abandoned properties — could be spent “in and around the zone.”

It’s unlikely the Green Impact Zone will get anywhere near the federal funds it is seeking from at least some of the larger grants.

For instance, Mid-America Regional Council officials submitted an $87.7 million area-wide bid for funds from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. Of that, $26.1 million could go to rebuild bridges, streets, sidewalks and bus shelters in the Green Impact Zone. However, this region’s request is 6 percent of the overall $1.5 billion in potential TIGER grants nationwide — or 10 times our region’s share of the U.S. population. But the region’s requests have strong points.

MARC, a respected planning agency, helped put the bids together. Plus, the involvement of other communities in several requests could bolster chances for funds as the feds reward local governments that are unified.

“We are better organized going into this process than other cities are,” especially because of MARC’s assistance, says Cleaver aide Danny Rotert.

Cynics already are questioning whether the zone needs its own staff, wondering if the staff is duplicating what City Hall ought to be doing.

If the zone fails to win significant grants by this time next year, it would disappoint residents. Rotert acknowledges Cleaver knows “his name’s on the line” for this program, and is lobbying hard in Washington.

The idea of targeting resources to a depressed area of Kansas City could work wonders in the long run — but only if federal funds make it to the Heartland.