Missouri offered double the incentives, but Urban Outfitters chose to build in Kansas Kevin Hardy and Allison Kite, The Kansas City Star
Dec. 22 When Kansas City lost its bid to land a massive Urban Outfitters distribution center this summer, Mayor Quinton Lucas wrote to city staff, congratulating the negotiating team for holding the line when negotiating incentives with the company.
The mayor said the Port Authority of Kansas City, which led those talks, was determined to not give away the farm, even with competition from other cities.
What was not publicly known at that time were details of the various incentive packages offered on opposite sides of the state line. In Kansas City, Port KC offered about $125 million in total incentives to lure the $400 million project.
Social justice issue : Kansas City officials try to ban flavored tobacco, fall short Allison Kite and Katie Bernard, The Kansas City Star
Dec. 16 An effort to ban flavored tobacco and vape products in Kansas City, meant to improve public health in predominantly Black neighborhoods, failed a City Council committee vote Wednesday.
Councilwomen Melissa Robinson and Ryana Parks-Shaw, who championed the legislation, said it was an issue of both public health and racial reconciliation. Flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, they said, disproportionately harm communities of color and young people. Flavored tobacco is a social justice issue, Robinson, 3rd District, said at a committee meeting earlier this fall. She said her mother, who smoked menthol cigarettes, died of a stroke.