Diversity and Opportunity Goal

Ensure the built environment strives to eliminate disparities, embrace diversity, and create economic opportunity


A city’s physical form and built environment can lessen disparities across diverse communities, or it can make them worse. To eliminate disparities, Kansas City must use an “equity in all policies” approach to guide its planning efforts and policy development stemming from the Playbook.

Equitable development draws on both environmental justice and smart growth and describes how to create communities and regions where residents of all incomes, races, and ethnicities participate in and benefit from decisions that shape the places where they live. Equitable development is a way to meet the needs of underserved communities, with policies and programs that reduce disparities and foster places that are healthy and vibrant. This approach aims to provide residents of all incomes, races and ethnicities with access to their economic, social, and health needs in a safe and healthy environment. Equitable development also requires that residents are engaged and empowered in decisions that shape their neighborhood.

Where a person lives in Kansas City can have a big impact on the level of inequity they experience. (See the Equity Mapping tool for more information on disparities between different communities in Kansas City.) Disparities are greater in underserved communities, predominantly populated by people with low incomes, people of color, and immigrants. Disparities result in limited access to the essentials for economic, social, and personal well-being, such as:

  • Daily needs (shopping, services, recreation, etc.)
  • Jobs and economic opportunities
  • Education
  • Amenities (parks, public gathering spaces, etc.)
  • Affordable housing
  • Healthy food
  • Healthcare
  • Transportation
  • High-speed Internet
  • Strong social networks and opportunities for social interaction

Economic disinvestment and the resulting disparities also lead to more exposure to things that negatively impact personal health, safety, and quality of life, such as:

  • Blight and abandonment
  • Dangerous buildings
  • Crime
  • Predatory lending and other predatory financial practices
  • Poor health outcomes and shorter life expectancy
  • Major physical barriers such as highways that divide communities and bring noise and pollution
  • Traffic deaths and injuries
  • Environmental contamination and pollution
  • Incompatible land uses
  • Natural hazards, such as flooding

Eliminating disparities will ensure all communities – regardless of where they are or who lives there – can thrive to their fullest potential.

Playbook Equity Statements

How can the KC Spirit Playbook address these disparities? Through public engagement and discussions with the Empowerment Committee, a list of “Supporting Equity Statements” were crafted (below) that describe how an equitable Kansas City would look in the built environment.

Equitable development touches all Goals and Objectives in the Playbook, and strategies related to equity issues are embedded throughout. To achieve the goal of eliminating disparities, the city will work to:

To measure the city’s progress toward becoming more equitable, it must create metrics that can assess policies, both existing and future ones, on how they affect social, gender, cultural, ethnic, racial, economic and religious equity.


RELATIONSHIP TO VISION STATEMENTS

The Playbook has fifteen Vision statements for Kansas City. The Playbook’s Vision describes what we want to be and outlines how we want our city to develop in the future, in line with community values and priorities. Those that are closely related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Affordable Community: We will create and nurture an affordable community and strive for abundant opportunity and employment at a livable wage for our residents.
Supporting affordable communities will create diversity and opportunity through access to housing and economic mobility, which will strengthen communities and improve the quality of life for all residents.
Cultural Amenities: Our diverse cultural amenities, parks, and open spaces will provide a rich variety of experiences and vibrant environments.
Cultural amenities provide a platform for community members to come together around their unique cultures, histories, and traditions. This builds community pride, promotes cultural understanding and engagement, and supports local arts.
Desirable Place: Our community will attract people and employers through being a desirable place to earn, learn, live, and thrive.
An economically thriving community has employment opportunities and is rooted in a diversity of people, viewpoints, and workforces. Facilitating access to this pool of talent is key to attract and maintain employers. And developing desirable places to live is key to attract employees for these businesses.
Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable: Our capital investments and growth will be equitable while maintaining the fiscal sustainability of the city.
Community engagement is the foundation of equitable growth. It reveals which reinvestments are needed in distressed and abandoned areas. Fiscally sustainable growth will ensure the city has adequate resources to provide maintenance and services equitably to all areas.
Healthy Environmental Systems: We will promote and value the health of our environmental and natural systems and protect them from degradation.
A healthy environment provides mental and physical health benefits to all Kansas Citians.
History and Heritage: We will preserve places that celebrate all facets of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage.
Preserving and enhancing a community's culture and history is essential to equitable development.
Innovation and Creativity: We will cultivate innovation and creativity in our governance, business, and educational practices related to smart city technology and physical development.
Promoting access to technology and innovation for everyone improves outcomes in governance and education. Technology can also greatly improve how the city provides services and guides physical development.
KC Uniqueness: We will preserve and enhance those things that make Kansas City unique – the small town feel with big city amenities and the wide range of diverse environments and neighborhoods.
Increasing opportunity throughout the city will enhance the diverse neighborhoods that contribute to Kansas City’s individuality.
Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing: Our neighborhoods will be strong, livable, and authentic while ensuring diverse housing opportunities.
To develop and maintain livable neighborhoods, the city must support affordable communities with equitable access to work, supportive services, and educational opportunities.
Mobility Options: Our well-connected and accessible neighborhoods and districts will be walkable and served by reliable, safe, and convenient mobility options.
Communities that foster equitable opportunity, sustainable development and growth, and strong social ties have diverse mobility options and safe, walkable places.
Physical Beauty: Our city will be renowned for the physical beauty of its streets, buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure.
Improving the physical beauty and quality of development in all neighborhoods is important to removing disparities between neighborhoods.
Regional Collaboration: Our city will continue to be the heart of the region. We will remain collaborative with our regional partners with a renewed focus on building partnerships to achieve the aspirations of this plan.
There must be a regional approach to reducing health and economic inequalities among localities. With regional collaboration, the city can improve outcomes for low-income communities while also building healthy metropolitan regions. 
Sustainable Growth and Resilient City: Our community will grow in a sustainable manner and be resilient and adaptable to future changes.
Improving the city’s resiliency will help protect vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change.
Thriving Economy: Our economy will be resilient, inclusive, diverse, and thriving and will position our city competitively against our national peers.
Diversity in Kansas City’s workforce and businesses will promote economic growth and job creation, resulting in a growth-oriented, resilient, competitive economy. Diversity helps mitigate risk during economic downturns because with it, the city isn’t reliant on a single industry or demographic group.
Walkable, Clean, and Safe: Our community will promote the health of our residents and visitors through being walkable, clean, and safe.
A safe, walkable environment that’s well-connected to other parts of the city supports public health and well-being by providing access to essential services, physical activity, community and social ties, and accessible infrastructure for everyone.


RELATIONSHIP TO EQUITY STATEMENTS

The Playbook also has a series of statements focused on equity. Those that are directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Addressing Disinvestment: Direct investment to communities that have been abandoned or have experienced long-term disinvestment.
Citywide Accessibility: Ensure services, utilities, and transportation options are provided to everyone.
Community Collaboration: Empower people from different parts of the KC community in working together to solve problems.
Community Engagement: Empower people to shape their communities and recognize that communities value things differently.
Complete Communities: Ensure that people can meet their needs in their own neighborhood without having to travel long distances.
Housing Affordability: Ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.
Inclusive Design: Ensure that development incorporates design features that consider people of all abilities.
Providing Services: Commit to taking care of the built environment and providing the same quality of maintenance and services citywide.
Welcoming Spaces: Ensure that public spaces and amenities are designed to support diverse, culturally authentic, and family-friendly activities, no matter how much money a person is able to spend.


RELATIONSHIP TO BIG IDEAS

The Playbook identifies five Big Ideas for Kansas City. The Big Ideas are the essential themes of the plan. They underpin all that the plan aims to do. Those directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted below:

Fostering neighborhoods that accommodate all ages, lifestyles, and incomes by diversifying and densifying housing choices and creating complete communities that facilitate a high quality-of-life
Kansas City’s diverse communities require people-focused and place-based policies that are tailored to support their diverse needs. This means creating a diverse housing stock, providing a wide-range of economic opportunities, and targeting investments and services to meet a community’s needs.
Creating a physically beautiful city by promoting high-quality design in public spaces, parks, private development, and capital improvements
Policies and improvements to beautify Kansas City should benefit all communities.
Respecting land as a limited resource by balancing outward growth with infill development, preserving natural resources, and developing in an equitable and sustainable manner
Equitable and fiscally sustainable development directs investment to areas where it’s most needed and ensures the city can provide high-quality maintenance and services. The result will be more livable neighborhoods citywide that are attractive to people of all ages.
Maximizing connections and mobility options by bridging or eliminating barriers and creating new physical connections and a robust multimodal transportation system
The city must ensure residents in all communities, especially in economically distressed and disinvested areas, have safe and convenient access to daily needs.
Creating a future-proofed city by better anticipating and reacting to new technologies and evolving conditions
The city must ensure vulnerable populations are not disproportionately disadvantaged by future trends and events such as climate change. The city must ensure everyone benefits equitably from new technology, by promoting inclusivity and equal access to technology and innovation.


RELATIONSHIP TO TOPICS

The Playbook is also structured around five Topics that organize the plan’s recommendations around specific subjects. Those topics directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted grey below:







RELATIONSHIP TO OBJECTIVES

The Playbook identifies twenty-one Objectives for Kansas City. The Objectives are the nuts and bolts of the Playbook. Each one contains detailed recommendations, strategies, and initiatives for a specific topic, framed by the overall direction the plan sets for that topic. The Objectives also set priorities and metrics for their implementation and provide supporting context, including relevant data and public input. A single Objective often supports multiple Goals and Topics.

Objectives primarily related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal:




Objectives secondarily related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal:



Ensure the built environment strives to eliminate disparities, embrace diversity, and create economic opportunity


A city’s physical form and built environment can lessen disparities across diverse communities, or it can make them worse. To eliminate disparities, Kansas City must use an “equity in all policies” approach to guide its planning efforts and policy development stemming from the Playbook.

Equitable development draws on both environmental justice and smart growth and describes how to create communities and regions where residents of all incomes, races, and ethnicities participate in and benefit from decisions that shape the places where they live. Equitable development is a way to meet the needs of underserved communities, with policies and programs that reduce disparities and foster places that are healthy and vibrant. This approach aims to provide residents of all incomes, races and ethnicities with access to their economic, social, and health needs in a safe and healthy environment. Equitable development also requires that residents are engaged and empowered in decisions that shape their neighborhood.

Where a person lives in Kansas City can have a big impact on the level of inequity they experience. (See the Equity Mapping tool for more information on disparities between different communities in Kansas City.) Disparities are greater in underserved communities, predominantly populated by people with low incomes, people of color, and immigrants. Disparities result in limited access to the essentials for economic, social, and personal well-being, such as:

  • Daily needs (shopping, services, recreation, etc.)
  • Jobs and economic opportunities
  • Education
  • Amenities (parks, public gathering spaces, etc.)
  • Affordable housing
  • Healthy food
  • Healthcare
  • Transportation
  • High-speed Internet
  • Strong social networks and opportunities for social interaction

Economic disinvestment and the resulting disparities also lead to more exposure to things that negatively impact personal health, safety, and quality of life, such as:

  • Blight and abandonment
  • Dangerous buildings
  • Crime
  • Predatory lending and other predatory financial practices
  • Poor health outcomes and shorter life expectancy
  • Major physical barriers such as highways that divide communities and bring noise and pollution
  • Traffic deaths and injuries
  • Environmental contamination and pollution
  • Incompatible land uses
  • Natural hazards, such as flooding

Eliminating disparities will ensure all communities – regardless of where they are or who lives there – can thrive to their fullest potential.

Playbook Equity Statements

How can the KC Spirit Playbook address these disparities? Through public engagement and discussions with the Empowerment Committee, a list of “Supporting Equity Statements” were crafted (below) that describe how an equitable Kansas City would look in the built environment.

Equitable development touches all Goals and Objectives in the Playbook, and strategies related to equity issues are embedded throughout. To achieve the goal of eliminating disparities, the city will work to:

To measure the city’s progress toward becoming more equitable, it must create metrics that can assess policies, both existing and future ones, on how they affect social, gender, cultural, ethnic, racial, economic and religious equity.


RELATIONSHIP TO VISION STATEMENTS

The Playbook has fifteen Vision statements for Kansas City. The Playbook’s Vision describes what we want to be and outlines how we want our city to develop in the future, in line with community values and priorities. Those that are closely related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Affordable Community: We will create and nurture an affordable community and strive for abundant opportunity and employment at a livable wage for our residents.
Supporting affordable communities will create diversity and opportunity through access to housing and economic mobility, which will strengthen communities and improve the quality of life for all residents.
Cultural Amenities: Our diverse cultural amenities, parks, and open spaces will provide a rich variety of experiences and vibrant environments.
Cultural amenities provide a platform for community members to come together around their unique cultures, histories, and traditions. This builds community pride, promotes cultural understanding and engagement, and supports local arts.
Desirable Place: Our community will attract people and employers through being a desirable place to earn, learn, live, and thrive.
An economically thriving community has employment opportunities and is rooted in a diversity of people, viewpoints, and workforces. Facilitating access to this pool of talent is key to attract and maintain employers. And developing desirable places to live is key to attract employees for these businesses.
Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable: Our capital investments and growth will be equitable while maintaining the fiscal sustainability of the city.
Community engagement is the foundation of equitable growth. It reveals which reinvestments are needed in distressed and abandoned areas. Fiscally sustainable growth will ensure the city has adequate resources to provide maintenance and services equitably to all areas.
Healthy Environmental Systems: We will promote and value the health of our environmental and natural systems and protect them from degradation.
A healthy environment provides mental and physical health benefits to all Kansas Citians.
History and Heritage: We will preserve places that celebrate all facets of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage.
Preserving and enhancing a community's culture and history is essential to equitable development.
Innovation and Creativity: We will cultivate innovation and creativity in our governance, business, and educational practices related to smart city technology and physical development.
Promoting access to technology and innovation for everyone improves outcomes in governance and education. Technology can also greatly improve how the city provides services and guides physical development.
KC Uniqueness: We will preserve and enhance those things that make Kansas City unique – the small town feel with big city amenities and the wide range of diverse environments and neighborhoods.
Increasing opportunity throughout the city will enhance the diverse neighborhoods that contribute to Kansas City’s individuality.
Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing: Our neighborhoods will be strong, livable, and authentic while ensuring diverse housing opportunities.
To develop and maintain livable neighborhoods, the city must support affordable communities with equitable access to work, supportive services, and educational opportunities.
Mobility Options: Our well-connected and accessible neighborhoods and districts will be walkable and served by reliable, safe, and convenient mobility options.
Communities that foster equitable opportunity, sustainable development and growth, and strong social ties have diverse mobility options and safe, walkable places.
Physical Beauty: Our city will be renowned for the physical beauty of its streets, buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure.
Improving the physical beauty and quality of development in all neighborhoods is important to removing disparities between neighborhoods.
Regional Collaboration: Our city will continue to be the heart of the region. We will remain collaborative with our regional partners with a renewed focus on building partnerships to achieve the aspirations of this plan.
There must be a regional approach to reducing health and economic inequalities among localities. With regional collaboration, the city can improve outcomes for low-income communities while also building healthy metropolitan regions. 
Sustainable Growth and Resilient City: Our community will grow in a sustainable manner and be resilient and adaptable to future changes.
Improving the city’s resiliency will help protect vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change.
Thriving Economy: Our economy will be resilient, inclusive, diverse, and thriving and will position our city competitively against our national peers.
Diversity in Kansas City’s workforce and businesses will promote economic growth and job creation, resulting in a growth-oriented, resilient, competitive economy. Diversity helps mitigate risk during economic downturns because with it, the city isn’t reliant on a single industry or demographic group.
Walkable, Clean, and Safe: Our community will promote the health of our residents and visitors through being walkable, clean, and safe.
A safe, walkable environment that’s well-connected to other parts of the city supports public health and well-being by providing access to essential services, physical activity, community and social ties, and accessible infrastructure for everyone.


RELATIONSHIP TO EQUITY STATEMENTS

The Playbook also has a series of statements focused on equity. Those that are directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Addressing Disinvestment: Direct investment to communities that have been abandoned or have experienced long-term disinvestment.
Citywide Accessibility: Ensure services, utilities, and transportation options are provided to everyone.
Community Collaboration: Empower people from different parts of the KC community in working together to solve problems.
Community Engagement: Empower people to shape their communities and recognize that communities value things differently.
Complete Communities: Ensure that people can meet their needs in their own neighborhood without having to travel long distances.
Housing Affordability: Ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.
Inclusive Design: Ensure that development incorporates design features that consider people of all abilities.
Providing Services: Commit to taking care of the built environment and providing the same quality of maintenance and services citywide.
Welcoming Spaces: Ensure that public spaces and amenities are designed to support diverse, culturally authentic, and family-friendly activities, no matter how much money a person is able to spend.


RELATIONSHIP TO BIG IDEAS

The Playbook identifies five Big Ideas for Kansas City. The Big Ideas are the essential themes of the plan. They underpin all that the plan aims to do. Those directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted below:

Fostering neighborhoods that accommodate all ages, lifestyles, and incomes by diversifying and densifying housing choices and creating complete communities that facilitate a high quality-of-life
Kansas City’s diverse communities require people-focused and place-based policies that are tailored to support their diverse needs. This means creating a diverse housing stock, providing a wide-range of economic opportunities, and targeting investments and services to meet a community’s needs.
Creating a physically beautiful city by promoting high-quality design in public spaces, parks, private development, and capital improvements
Policies and improvements to beautify Kansas City should benefit all communities.
Respecting land as a limited resource by balancing outward growth with infill development, preserving natural resources, and developing in an equitable and sustainable manner
Equitable and fiscally sustainable development directs investment to areas where it’s most needed and ensures the city can provide high-quality maintenance and services. The result will be more livable neighborhoods citywide that are attractive to people of all ages.
Maximizing connections and mobility options by bridging or eliminating barriers and creating new physical connections and a robust multimodal transportation system
The city must ensure residents in all communities, especially in economically distressed and disinvested areas, have safe and convenient access to daily needs.
Creating a future-proofed city by better anticipating and reacting to new technologies and evolving conditions
The city must ensure vulnerable populations are not disproportionately disadvantaged by future trends and events such as climate change. The city must ensure everyone benefits equitably from new technology, by promoting inclusivity and equal access to technology and innovation.


RELATIONSHIP TO TOPICS

The Playbook is also structured around five Topics that organize the plan’s recommendations around specific subjects. Those topics directly related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal are highlighted grey below:







RELATIONSHIP TO OBJECTIVES

The Playbook identifies twenty-one Objectives for Kansas City. The Objectives are the nuts and bolts of the Playbook. Each one contains detailed recommendations, strategies, and initiatives for a specific topic, framed by the overall direction the plan sets for that topic. The Objectives also set priorities and metrics for their implementation and provide supporting context, including relevant data and public input. A single Objective often supports multiple Goals and Topics.

Objectives primarily related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal:




Objectives secondarily related to the Diversity and Opportunity Goal:



Page last updated: 12 Apr 2023, 07:55 PM