Should We Celebrate Or Remain Skeptical Of Kansas City Tenant Union Renaissance?!?

Maybe both or split the difference . . .

Here's the deal . . . 

TKC is torn on KC Tenants.

To their credit . . . They're the only organized group that has pushed back against greedy developers begging for tax breaks . . . And for that they deserve credit for victories that nobody else has ever consistently achieved. 

Also . . . Nobody likes slumlords and part of their advocacy is necessary when they clearly demonstrate the deplorable conditions which exist in many local buildings. 

However . . . 

Not all of their actions deserve support . . . They argued to keep migrant locals in a slum and pushed for de facto city ownership of a hovel that should've been condemned. In that instance their "advocacy" was quick, easy, dirty and stupid. 

Also . . . Big picture . . . 

Their legal mandates against evictions and landlords actually make it HARDER to provide affordable housing and make it smarter for low-end home providers to simply exit the business. 

Real talk . . . 

KC Tenants is part of a national progressive political effort demanding free low-income housing on a massive scale and so far there isn't any funding supporting that at the federal level . . . And so their tactic is to bully all landlords until their demands are met or the unions & special interests funding them move on to the next hot topic.

And so our skepticism of the group is fair because this isn't a local grassroots movement, they're hired guns working to accomplish political directives.

Again, in fairness, here's their side of the story . . .

KC Tenants, an advocacy group that works to protect tenants, believes the increased number of unions is due to many tenants feeling like it's their only or best option.

Gabe Coppage with KC Tenants says many communities feel they've fallen through the gaps in a social safety net that was supposed to protect them.

"I feel like Kansas City really is at such a crossroads," Coppage said. "Like all this new development, this new tourism and just the rents continuing to skyrocket. It is really needed for us to have community to like have each others backs."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Organizers explain the growth of tenant unions in KCMO

KC's Quality Hill Towers is the latest apartment building with a tenant union as activist groups continue to grow across the city.