Editor’s Letter

Istrongly associate the town of Grandview with its DMV. I live in Kansas City, Missouri, a city of a half-million people and one motor vehicle office (see page 24), so Grandview is where I end up any time I need to renew my tags.

It’s not a negative association—my all-time greatest experience at any DMV happened when I showed up in Grandview to get tags for a used Volvo I drove while my old Land Cruiser was in the shop. Unfortunately, the seller had omitted one letter from my last name on that title. The clerk at the DMV was someone who enjoyed her job and obviously relished detailing all of the many steps I was going to need to take to fix this situation. “Can I just use your pen to fix the letter right here?” I asked. “You can’t just write something on the title. It’s typed! This is a legal document!” I thought for a second. “OK, just make the title out to the name it says on there.” And thus Martin Cimar left the DMV with a procedural victory and new license plates, a feat any man is lucky to accomplish once in his lifetime. This month, I found a second reason to smile about Grandview. That’s the haleem soup featured in this month’s cover package (page 48), which you’ll find at a cute little cafe called Housewife a few doors down from the DMV. I didn’t know which of the twenty-two soups chef-owner Anna Sorge had on rotation when I walked in the door, but I showed up on a lucky day. “It’s to die for,” said the guy working the counter, who seemingly enjoyed his job almost as much as the state official down the street. “You’ll have to let me know what you think. It’s my favorite one.” I haven’t had the others, but it’s my favorite, too. That haleem was inspired by Sorge’s Pakistani neighbors and is a green curry with lamb, warming garam masala spices, barley and lentils. I spooned through the bowl so fast I needed to blow on each bite, and I left feeling satisfied on a level bordering the transcendental. A great bowl of soup—probably more than any other food—can do that. Especially as the air starts to chill, there’s a certain satisfaction to having a whole meal in a bowl. With this issue, we tried to tell the stories behind a few of the city’s great soups, including the iconic steak soup the Plaza III was known for, which now lives on through mail order, and two African soups eaten with fufu, a dough-like ball of cassava that became trendy last year thanks to social media. It’s been a long, hot summer, and I, for one, Martin Cizmar am very ready for soup season. Here’s hoping EDITOR IN CHIEF you are too and that one of these bowls brings MARTIN@KANSASCITYMAG.COM you the same feeling I had down in Grandview.

CONTRIBUTORS

Nina Cherry

WRITER Our jazz writer, Nina Cherry, has a fun story in this month’s issue about nontraditional spots to see ensembles perform around town, including Whole Foods.

Natalie Torres Gallagher

WRITER Natalie Torres Gallagher wrote a large portion of this month’s soup feature, including a memorable ode to the clam chowder at Earl’s Premier.

Zach Bauman

PHOTOGRAPHER Longtime contributor Zach Bauman brought this month’s Loop section to life with photos of the adorable ducks at the center of a bitter feud in Lee’s Summit.

NUMBERS FROM THIS ISSUE

1DMV office serving KCMO, a city of 491,158 people who will now need a photo ID to vote. PAGE 24 22 11

Different soups made at Housewife, a wonderful cafe in Grandview that’s featured on this month’s cover.

PAGE 48

Ingredients needed to make the tincture used in the Monarch Bar’s signature drink, the Louisiana Purchase.

PAGE 84

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KANSAS IS

HOW FENTANYL IS PUSHING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC INTO NEW, MORE DANGEROUS TERRITORY AND WHY KANSAS SAW THE NATION’S SECOND-HIGHEST INCREASE IN OVERDOSE DEATHS LAST YEAR

WORDS BY Mary Henn

DYING

INSIDE AN EPIDEMIC

The most intense feedback we got for our September issue was on the long-form feature story “Kansas Is Dying,” which took readers inside the local opioid epidemic. Last year, Kansas saw the nation’s secondhighest increase in overdose deaths. The CDC shows that overdose deaths in the state increased by fortythree percent last year alone as the nation logged a record-breaking 107,622 drug overdose deaths. Associate Editor Mary Henn spent the summer reporting this feature by talking to law enforcement and those affected.

Kansas will continue dying as long as its Republican Party thinks the state’s biggest priorities are preventing women from exercising their own bodily autonomy and banning trans children from using the school bathrooms that match their gender identity. And blocking Medicaid expansion. —Rob Montague Kansas needs to decriminalize cannabis. How many kids taking pills for stress as in the quote in your post would have avoided the pill situation entirely if they had grandpa’s backyard hash to bake into some cookies? Close to all of them, I’d wager. —John Lee So weird how you can’t just legislate away a drug epidemic. It’s almost as though users need some form of help, rehabilitation, and access to safer legal drugs where at the very least they actually know what they’re getting rather than... I don’t know, overdosing from laced batches from unreliable sources or the alternative of being thrown in prison and having their lives permanently ruined. I guess supporting the private prison system and the funeral industry is higher on this country’s list of priorities. —Heath Church

Need to vote out political electives so we can secure our borders to help prevent fentanyl & human trafficking. —Marsha Johnson Waldron

All coming through the southern border. —Tyler Gloe

BEHIND THE SCENES

Jordan Fox gives us a private tour of the new intimate venue Garden House.

SHOUT OUT

Thanks to Monarch Bar for sending us a copy of their new cocktail book hot off the presses and to owner David Manica for making time to appear on our podcast last month.

CORRECTIONS

Our August issue mislabeled the building with a bell tower in downtown Harrisonville, which is the Cass County Courthouse.

CONTACT US Kansas City

P.O. Box 26823 Overland Park, KS 66225-6823 (913) 469-6700 EMAIL: editor@kansascitymag.com

I always joke and say even when it’s a hundred degrees outside, we still sell onion soup.”

—PHILIP QUILLEC, EXECUTIVE CHEF OF CAFÉ PROVENCE

LEADING THE CONVERSATION IN KANSAS CITY

OWNED

Why Homeowners Associations have inspired bitter fights around KC, including an ongoing battle over a duck pond in Lee’s Summit.

BY MOLLY HIGGINS

A bitter fight over stormwater management and a duck pond shows what can go wrong with HOA covenants, which an expert calls “some of the strongest documents in our legal system.”

READ HEADLINES in Kansas City for a while and you’re bound to see nasty fights involving Homeowners Associations.

Last year, homeowners in Lido Villas, a condominium community in Mission, had their texts and emails blocked after they complained about damage caused by rain rot. In February, stories popped up about homeowners in Tanglewood Lakes, about sixty miles south of the city, losing gate access because of “arbitrary” rules enforcement, leaving folks unable to return to their homes and effectively houseless. In March, the HOA in Overland Park’s Brookhighland subdivision came under intense scrutiny from community members after a mismanaged Airbnb rental was the site of a deadly shooting.

Most recently, Lee’s Summit subdivision Raintree Lake—previously involved in a lawsuit over the color of a swingset— was the site of a battle over ducks swimming in a stormwater pond built by residents during the pandemic.

While the Raintree Lake incident may seem like an inconsequential suburban scuffle, it reveals a larger issue with the power dynamics and relationship between HOAs and the homeowners they’re supposed to protect.

Lance Loewenstein, a local attorney whose practice centers on HOA fights, says that the rules and covenants that form an HOA are some of the strongest documents in our legal system because they usually require a supermajority vote to amend and “huge obstacles” to eliminate. Beyond that, those rules often allow the HOA to put a lien on the property and sell it in foreclosure for any amount due.

“Usually, the HOA definitely has the leverage because, ultimately, it can take your house away from you for unpaid fines and assessments,” Loewenstein says. He cautions home buyers to look at the rules and “read with a fine-tooth comb” before buying.

HOAs exist to better neighborhoods either through rules that maintain standards for beauty and upkeep or through amenities like communal spaces and community pools. Mat McKitterick, a board member for another Lee’s Summit HOA covering the Bridlewood neighborhood, says that HOAs can get a bad rap.

“I think that the reality of it is just keeping the neighborhood looking nice, which keeps the house values up—because if you have consistency, it’s good for everybody,” McKitterick says. “It actually will increase the value of the homes.”

The Raintree Lake scuffle shows what can happen when those rules go wrong, though. The situation started in the spring of 2020, when residents Cori Hulsey and Astacia Hauck decided to use their time in quarantine to tackle the flooding problem that the HOA had unsuccessfully tried to fix. Hulsey’s backyard had flooded after heavy rainstorms since she purchased her home in 2005.

“Year after year, we were told, ‘It’s not in the budget,’” Hulsey says, saying the HOA’s budget was instead diverted to holiday parties and bingo nights.

In 2019, residents dug an eight hundred-foot ditch to the lake to divert rainwater back into the lake rather than into their homes. After seeing the improved conditions after the ditch was dug, Hulsey and others proposed an additional beautification plan to the HOA, which would have cost other residents nothing.

“Instead of paying someone to fix the drainage issues properly, the HOA neglected the problem until their own residents were forced to take action,” Hauck says.

After the trench was dug and filled, a small wooden bridge was built to let residents cross. A sitting area with mulch and party lights was built and outfitted with a patio sofa, and a small wooden shed was built to house six ducks Hauck bought to battle the bugs.

The HOA board maintains that they initially granted permission to add rock and structure to reinforce runoff water flow to the lake but that they did not approve other community-led projects to the space—especially the ducks. On July 12, the HOA gave members of the community a sixty-day warning to clear out the space.

“They’re happy to accept our free labor, our donated plants and rocks and improvements we’ve made to the ditch to alleviate flooding,” Hauck says.

Over four hundred residents of Raintree Lake signed a petition to Missouri’s attorney general to assist them in their fight against their HOA and keep their community area and duck house. But in the meantime, they had to remove the duck house.

“It looks ugly and bare in the common ground now,” Hulsey says, and the HOA has done nothing to resolve the flooding situation.

“We still have the ducks,” Hulsey says. “We had to build something new for them under our deck. It’s been a mess.”

WEATHER REPORT

A longtime local weatherman is preparing to retire in December. He’s got a bigger plan for what comes next.

BY OLIVIA AUGUSTINE

RAIN OR SHINE, something Kansas Citians have been able to count on for the last thirty years is turning to KSHB 41 News and watching chief meteorologist Gary Lezak tell them what to expect. But with Lezak’s retirement quickly approaching, we’re left wondering what’s next for Kansas City’s favorite weatherman

Lezak—who was named the best weatherman in town by our readers in August’s Best of KC issue—is regarded for his accuracy in predicting the common seven-day forecast.

He also founded Weather20/20 in 2008, a service that provides forecasts for anywhere in the world up to one hundred days ahead of time. Weather2020 was built on the Lezak

Recurring Cycle, which forecasts based on repeating weather patterns.

Many were surprised to hear of Lezak’s retirement because he’s only sixty. However, Lezak plans to spend the next year focusing on his business and hopes to see it globally recognized. He says that he’s been considering stepping back for three to four years now, and focusing on Weather/2020 is

“something he needs to do right now.”

“I was wondering when I would do it,” Lezak says. “I turned sixty years old this year and I was thinking, you know, maybe by the time I’m sixty-five. But because I have this other thing to share with the world, I thought I better do that because I don’t want to have regrets in my life.”

Although Lezak is moving on from local television, he’ll continue to be a loyal Kansas Citian. After just a few years When I first came here, I used to keep a diary. I wrote in my diary ‘I hope to be bringing weather excellence in a different way to Kansas City.’ And I think I accomplished that.”

of starting his career here, Lezak says that local sports, famous barbecue and the strong sense of community turned Kansas City into home.

Lezak says that even when he was offered positions elsewhere, he never pursued anything strongly. He has loved being a part of the KC community, and more importantly, the strong relationship he’s created with all of his viewers.

“When I look into the camera, there may be one thousand people out there,” he says. “There may be a million people out there watching. But I feel like I’m connecting with everyone one-onone. And most of the time, when I’m in my normal zone, I would say that that’s what I’m trying to do, so I really feel like I have a relationship with everyone.”

Lezak says that being so deeply rooted in the community could at times make delivering news of severe weather difficult. “Reality TV at its most intense,” he calls it, saying it isn’t always easy when his job is to tell people they may be in danger.

On top of this, predicting the weather in Kansas City can be more difficult than other cities because of its precise location. Placed North of the Gulf of Mexico and East of the Rocky Mountains, Lezak says that air clashes above Kansas City can make the weather change drastically from a sunny day to a flash flood in just hours.

Lezak’s last day is December 21, and as the time draws closer, he says he expects more emotions. He plans to keep up with the Kansas City community through social media but feels like he’s accomplished what he sought out when he started on local TV.

“When I first came here, I used to keep a diary,” he says. “I wrote in my diary, ‘I hope to be bringing weather excellence in a different way to Kansas City.’ And I think I accomplished that.”

COUNTED OUT

A new Missouri law ends the presidential primary and gives the state “some of the most restrictive provisions” in American elections.

BY LIZ SCHROEDER

IN JUNE, MISSOURI QUIETLY OVERHAULED ITS ELECTIONS—and it could dramatically impact next month’s general election. H.B. 1878, signed by Governor Mike Parson and hailed as a win for Republicans, strips the state of a presidential primary, prohibits certain voter registration activities and requires voters to have photo ID, among other things. The bill went into effect August 28 and is already the subject of two lawsuits by the League of Women Voters of Missouri and

Missouri NAACP.

Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, says Missouri now has “some of the most restrictive provisions seen in states around the country” that disproportionately affect voters of color.

The “most forward-facing effect,” according to League of Women Voters of

Kansas City President Anne Calvert, is the photo ID requirement. Previous acceptable forms of ID included student IDs, utility bills, or bank statements with a name and address attached.

Photo ID requirements are a “significant burden on people in lower-income communities,” says Luz María Henríquez, head of the Missouri ACLU.

An ACLU press release details how H.B. 1878 disenfranchises voters—including one voter with mobility issues who uses her expired non-driver license to vote but now must arrange transportation to renew her license. A mother of three with a misspelled state-issued ID will no longer be able to use her voter registration card. Replacing identification takes time, effort and resources many do not have. Henríquez notes the “discriminatory nature to this restriction.”

Even with proper transportation, there is only one DMV office serving Kansas

City proper, with a few others in surrounding suburbs like North Kansas City,

Raytown and Independence.

In the past, “the courts have generally said photo ID restrictions are unconstitutional,” says Greg Woodhams of the League of Women Voters, referencing the 2020 Missouri Supreme Court striking down a similar law.

Election authority is also changing hands from local election administrations run by bipartisan directors to a partisan elected official, the Secretary of State, which concerns many election professionals.

Around the country, similar changes have been used to partisan effect, Woodhams says. In Texas, auditors singled out voters with “Hispanic last names” and applied voter roll maintenance only to those voters. In Kansas, proposals suggested doing voter maintenance on the “most populous and least populous county,” which would disproportionately affect urban voters, according to Woodhams.

“There’s a lot of components to this law we’re still unpacking and evaluating,” says Henríquez, but the limits to voter registration are of particular concern to voters’ advocacy groups.

“There are limits to voter registration activities we can engage in, and the penalties for not following the rules or goofing up are steep,” Calvert says. Under the new law, being paid to register voters is prohibited, and anyone who assists with more than ten voter registration applications must both register with the state and be a registered voter themselves.

“Registering folks to vote is, at its core, protected under the First Amendment,” Henríquez says. “What this law really does is chill the speech of voter advocacy organizations.”

The new law also lacks clarity. “They don’t talk about registering people,” Woodhams says. “They talk about soliciting voter registration.” Without a definition, voter advocacy organizations could face criminal penalties for offering parking reimbursements or tokens of appreciation, like pizza, to volunteers.

According to many, the vagueness is the point. An ACLU press release highlights how imprecise language is weaponized: The ban on absentee ballot solicitation could be used to “criminalize a volunteer who tells a voter that will be out of town on Election Day that they can vote absentee.”

In Missouri, violating election law could mean losing the right to vote for life. Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center, says in a statement, “Our laws should protect and expand the freedom to vote, not punish democracy’s do-gooders and make it more challenging for Missourians to register to vote or vote absentee.”