Mission: An Initiative for Change

Pink Impression

Perhaps no street in Kansas City stirs more emotions than Troost Avenue. Only new residents, transplanted by marriages, educations or careers have (at the beginning) a neutral reaction when they first encounter Troost. Neutral that is, until someone local cants "Well, you don't want to go there at night".

In the 1930's there were movie palaces on Troost Avenue and yes, in the 1960's there were riots. There were heroin addicts in the 1970's and millionaires and streetcars in the 1920's. Troost Avenue, like any old American street, has a lot of history.

The Avenue's namesake is Dr. Benoist Troost, a Dutchman who moved here with his wife in the early 19th century and helped, in no small way, to set-up our town. He was a pioneer and also Kansas City's first doctor who is reputed to have worked in Napoleon's army before his destiny brought him here to provide health care and healing for our city's first residents. That's kind of cool, but it's not something that kids growing up now, in neighborhoods alongside Troost Avenue, know much, if anything, about.

Red Impressions

Today, Troost Avenue signifies that you are either poor or wealthy. Either you are getting an inferior education because you are growing up in an inner city public school system, or you're new to the neighborhood and your rich private school education provides you with the means to speculate on real estate, renovate what once was the home of a millionaire and wait for the abandoned commercial building you purchased "for a song" to appreciate in value, but probably not soon enough. The status quo on Troost Avenue tends to make everyone angry and everyone angry longs to feel less angry, longs to feel the kind of positive change that will make them happy. The kind of change that will give them hope and a sense of opportunity, the kind of story that was once expressed in the feature films playing in those old movie palaces along Troost Avenue.  Read More...