Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant – “KCAP” – employs nearly 10,000 auto workers and sprawls over 1,200 acres in Claycomo, Missouri.
Ford builds their F-Series pickup trucks in Kansas City. Since 1948, Ford has built over 40 million F-Series pickups in Kansas City.
During the latter part of the 19th Century, the Homestead Act enabled settlers to become landowners. The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862.
Through the Homestead Act, after living on and improving their homestead for five years, a homesteader would then receive their deed by paying a $18 filing fee.
Prior to the Homestead Act, the Preemption Act of 1841 was used by settlers – those age 21 or older, and head of a household – to acquire up to 160 acres. The price? $1.25 per acre.
Through the Preemption Act, a homesteader was required to make improvements to their homestead and to live on their homestead for a minimum of five years.
In 1687 Bray’s Meeting House – a congregation for Baptists – was established by John Bray at the corner of what today would be Main Street and Holmdel Road in Holmdel.
As the local Baptist population grew, in 1709 Bray donated a portion of his land to the Baptist Church. Through Bray’s donation, The Upper Meeting House was formed, becoming New Jersey’s first Baptist Church.
At that time, Bray’s Meeting House was located in Middletown. There was not yet a Holmdel.
Early in the Eighteenth Century Middletown consisted of territory to the north of the Navesink River and east of Freehold.
For 150 years The Upper Meeting House was located in Middletown. In 1848 Middletown was broken up.
Raritan Township was spun off from Middletown. Raritan Township consisted of what later would become Hazlet, Aberdeen, Union Beach, Keansburg, Keyport, Matawan and Holmdel.
Nine years after Middletown was restructured Holmdel Township was formed through an act of the New Jersey Legislature. The year was 1857.
Manhattan, Kansas, nestled alongside the Kansas River and the Big Blue River, was once known as Boston.
The name Manhattan would come not long after the settlement’s founding.
After the New England Emigrant Aid Company arrived at the Poleska-Canton settlements in the Kansas Territory, another group – this group, with their origin being, Cincinnati, Ohio – became their neighbor.
It was this second group – The Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company – from which our Manhattan name came to be.
Rumson is a seven square mile New York City bedroom community. Two of those seven square miles are made up of water.
Home to just over 7,000, long before Rumson was Rumson, Rumson was Navarumsunk.
Rumson was Navarumsunk when English settlers purchased Navarumsunk from Lenape Indians.
Negotiations for the sale of Navarumsunk began in 1663. Two years later, Governor Richard Nicholls confirmed the purchase through of Monmouth Patent.
The Lenape name of Navarumsunk was then shortened to Ramson’s Neck.
Navarumsunk consisted of a tract of land between the Navesink River and the Shrewsbury River.
The Ramson’s Neck purchase was made possible by a conveyance of land from King Charles II to his brother James, the Duke of York.
The King gave his brother a region which extended from what today would be Connecticut, due south, to today what would be Delaware.
The Duke of York then authorized Governor Richard Nicholls to commence settlements.
The first settlements took hold in Shrewsbury village. The settlers were Patentees.
Through the Revolutionary War, Ramson’s Neck included today’s Rumson, Fair Haven, Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury.
Rumson was part of Shrewsbury until 1907.
Question: Why should we focus on reducing the number of vacant homes in cities?
One answer: Vacant homes become a financial drain on that city’s resources.
For example, the cost to demolish one vacant home could reach up to $20,000. Sometimes more.
There are social costs as well…
Neighborhoods with high concentrations of vacant homes become breeding grounds for crime: social costs.
Yet social costs are not always correlated to dollars and cents. Social costs are sometimes deemed to be someone else’s problem.
But are social costs really someone else’s problem?
Social costs attributed to vacant homes lead to financial costs incurred by a city, by that city’s stakeholders and by that city’s taxpayers.
Social costs do affect those who may (at first) believe one vacant home in another part of town is not their problem.
A New Yorker living in Tribeca or on the Upper East Side is part of the New York City family. As such, they pay New York City taxes.
So, while there may be no vacant homes in Tribeca or the Upper East Side, Tribeca and the Upper East Side are still linked to the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. To the Morrisania neighborhood or the Crotona neighborhood in the Bronx, where just about 4-out-of-10 live below the poverty line.
Be it Morrisania or be it Tribeca. Be it Crotona or be it the Upper East Side. Each neighborhood – all four of them – is still part of the New York City family.
Let’s say there is a foreclosure in Crotona. And let’s say that foreclosure in Crotona becomes a vacant home.
Increased police patrolling in Crotona might be enacted. So as to avert utilization of that vacant home for illegal purposes.
More police cars driving through Crotona becomes a financial cost which addresses the social cost. That financial cost is a New York City cost: a cost bourne by Crotona, a cost bourne by the Upper East Side, a cost bourne by Tribeca.
The cost of the vacant home to Crotona is obvious: Lower home values. An overgrown yard. Broken windows. Possible break-ins. More police cars driving by.
The cost of that vacant home to the Upper East Side or to Tribeca? Less obvious. Yet real, nonetheless.
Homeowners on the Upper East Side and Tribeca contribute to New York City police officer salaries too.
In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author Lyman Frank Baum shares with us his beliefs about how a monetary system based upon the gold standard is the wrong way to go.
According to Baum, the gold standard would subject Americans to the greed of East Coast and West Coast banks.
The Wicked Witch of the East is the East Coast banker.
The Wicked Witch of the West represented hardships incurred by Midwest farmers.
Droughts and poor planting seasons –the Wicked Witch of the West – coupled to financiers – the Wicked Witch of the East – who were not accommodative to challenges incurred by the common man on the plains.
In the book Dorothy would only be safe on the Yellow Brick Road if Dorothy wears her Silver Slippers.
The Yellow Brick Road is representative of the gold standard. Gold, not safe.
Dorothy’s Silver Slippers are representative of the Free Silver Movement. Silver, safe.
Silver was good. Gold was bad. According to Baum.
Baum’s book was inspired by the Free Silver Movement.
The Free Silver Movement was a political movement which gained populist traction in the latter part of the 19th Century. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written in 1900.
Behind the Free Silver Movement was a hope that by increasing the amount of silver in circulation – I.e.: by increasing the money supply – indebted farmers could get off of the restrictive gold standard.
Furthermore, with the circulation of silver expanded, subsequent inflation brought on by increasing the money supply would ease farmers’ debt burden.
In Baum’s story, The Emerald City is Washington D.C.
Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion are off to The Emerald City. Off to Washington D.C. Off to find The Wizard.
The Scarecrow? The Scarecrow is the Midwest farmer. The Midwest farmer who is struggling under his heavy debt burden.
The Tin Man? In Baum’s book The Tin Man is the Midwest factory worker. Toiling in difficult conditions.
The Wizard? The Wizard is the Washington D.C. politician. Hiding behind a grand illusion; a facade.
The Lion? The Lion is populist Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.
William Jennings Bryan supported the Free Silver Movement. William Jennings Bryan was the Democrats’ nominee for President three times – 1896, 1900 and 1808. Bryan was critical of the country limiting the backing of currency to gold solely.
Why is Dorothy from Kansas?
Kansas is representative of what can be deemed to be the opposite of The Emerald City; the opposite of Washington D.C.
Baum contrasts a magical and mystifying wonderland – The Emerald City (Washington D.C.) – with a lack of glamour out on the prairie – Kansas.
Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion are off to Washington D.C. Hoping those they find in Washington D.C. can solve their problems.
When they arrive in Washington, The Wizard turns out to be short. Not grand at all. Not nearly as powerful as he leads others on to believe he is.
A monetary policy in the United Stares that would be based upon silver – not upon gold – was the author’s preference.
Monetary policy, as taught to us by Dorothy, according to author Lyman Frank Baum.
In 1844 a steamboat captain by the name of John Borden made a new home for himself in Little Silver, relocating to Little Silver from Red Bank. Upon arriving in Little Silver, it turned out to be John Borden’s career choice which contributed to the development of Little Silver Point.
Little Silver Point is a peninsula found on Little Silver’s northeast corner. When John Borden first stepped ashore, what he found was not much more than soggy saltwater marshes.
So John Borden enacted a makeover for his new marshland home. A wetland makeover would come to be. A makeover touched off with fancy hotels.
John Borden’s lot in life was steamboats. John Borden incorporated this maritime tool into his plan: bring New Yorkers to Little Silver Point atop steamboat decks.
Little Silver Point became a resort.
John Borden passed his steamboat acumen on to his son, Richard Borden.
The younger Borden went on to establish Silver Bay House. In Little Silver.
Silver Bay House would go on to become the place to go for Manhattanites.
In Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore a segment of the city’s homes located near Deal Lake speak to the Victorian Age – Asbury Park’s Queen Anne homes.
Three floors were the standard in a 19th Century Queen Anne home. Distinct brickwork. Corner towers. Wide porches. Asymmetrical fronts. With red-brick walls, offset by pale stone.
White-painted woodwork. And bay windows.
Each, a characteristic of this British-inspired architecture. Architecture one can still observe and admire, to this day, in Asbury Park.
In 1872 “old” Kansas City, Kansas was incorporated.
Fourteen years later Kansas City added the independent settlements of Wyandotte City, Armstrong, Riverview and Armordale to the city’s footprint. Combining these settlements to create a “new” Kansas City.
Twenty-four years later, Kansas City annexed Argentine.
Quindaro – originally a free state port and an Underground Railroad station alongside the Missouri River – was annexed by Kansas City in 1923.
One of the coolest neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas is Strawberry Hill.
Located at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Missouri River, Strawberry Hill’s history is intertwined with the West Bottoms.
Established in the late-1800’s, at the height of Kansas City’s cattle industry early in the 20th Century, most of Strawberry Hill’s residents were employed by the meat-packing industry.
Kansas City’s meat packers were located in the nearby West Bottoms.
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