The roots for the hostilities that exploded recently between the two Kansas Citys — the Northland and that part of the city south of the Missouri river — were planted 75 years ago.
The teeth-grinding by the Northlanders started with a 1946 pitched battle between KCMO and North Kansas City to annex part of the Northland.
The story of how the battle played out was the subject of a “KCQ” (Kansas City question) article in The Star on May 5.
It is a fascinating story that revolves around a brilliant city manager, L.P. Cookingham, and it helps explain the persistent tension between north and south.
Before 1946, Kansas City was entirely south of the Missouri River. Cookingham, who had been hired in 1940 to bring the city out of the corruption of the Pendergast regime, understood that with suburban expansion, Kansas City would be left behind if it could not expand to the north, with downtown the central hub.
After learning in 1946 of North Kansas City’s intention to annex part of Clay County, he quickly initiated a similar process in KCMO. North Kansas City got its proposal to the ballot box first, on Sept. 10, 1946, when North Kansas City residents voted 801 to 33 to annex part of the unincorporated area.
Kansas Citians voted on Nov. 5, 1946, and the measure squeaked by on a vote of 39,978 to 37,920. (In both elections, the residents of the area subject to annexation could not vote, and Northland residents, who favored North Kansas City, didn’t like it one bit.) Because almost everyone at City Hall was under the impression that a three-fifths majority was needed for passage, it was assumed the proposal had gone down to defeat.
One person, Cookingham, did not believe that was the case. The morning after the election, he went to Mayor William Kemp and said: “I’m not satisfied with this. Let’s go down to the law books and take another look.”
All morning Cookingham pored over law books and finally concluded the three-fifths provision was not there. When a city attorney challenged him Cookingham said, “Show it to me.”
The KCQ article then says: “Upon deeper examination, it was learned that the three-fifths rule for annexation had been changed to a simple majority requirement in 1920 and not been reenacted when the state Constitution was amended in 1945.”
So Cookingham was vindicated…But there remained the matter of NKC having voted first.
Again, Cookingham had the hole card: He apparently knew from his legal research that the determining factor was not when the vote was held but which city’s annexation proposal had been introduced first.
Kansas City had introduced its proposal on Aug. 19. NKC had introduced its proposal a few days later.
After three years of litigation, the Missouri Supreme Court sided with KCMO, and, as the KCQ article said, “Kansas City had officially moved into Clay County.”
Had KCMO not won that battle, who knows what would have ensued? More annexations followed, but maybe North Kansas City, emboldened and empowered by an initial success, would have been more aggressive and would have grown rapidly.
But now it’s KCMO that is one of the largest cities in the country, encompassing 320 square miles, while landlocked North Kansas City consists of just 4.5 square miles.
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I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and cover Cookingham, who was affectionately known as “Cookie.”
When I was assigned to cover City Hall for The Star in 1985, Cookingham, then 88 or 89, was president of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners. Also on the board were Anita Gorman and Ollie Gates.
Gorman succeeded Cookingham as board president in 1986, and Gates succeeded Gorman in 1991.
Cookingham spent his last years at Kingswood Manor, 100th and Wornall. He died July 22, 1992, at age 95. He may well have been the best city manager Kansas City ever had, certainly the most visionary.
We can live with the tensions between north and south; the most important thing is there is a north and south. “Cookie” made sure of that.
The struggle to combat corrupt and incompetent urban regimes is not a new phenomenon. In recent decades, efforts were made to water down the voting power of urban machines by incorporating suburban areas in projects like Unigov in the Indianapolis area and the Unified Government here in Wyandotte County.
Now we’re beginning to see a reverse to that trend with the Buckhead area of Atlanta working to separate itself from Atlanta and the movement in Oregon by rural areas to separate completely from the urban areas and join with Idaho. I would also anticipate a growing trend from Bonner Springs and Edwardsville to try and escape from their relationship with KCK as it becomes more exploitive and incompetent.
That’s very interesting. I grew up in Kansas City North and went to North Kansas City HS. Probably the most common discussion mistake when talking to someone will be ‘so you’re from North Kansas City?’. I always said ‘Nope, I’m from Kansas City (north)’. Now I always say ‘I am from Kansas City (south)’.
Also, I worked at City Hall 15th Floor City Development when that photo was taken. Merriam Pepper was the Kansas City Star contact back then, I think. The City Manager with the longest tenure at City Hall was hired a couple months after I started working there, Bob Collins. We had a great group of City Planners back in the day. I was just out of college.
One of the sayings that I still remember from my days in the planning office is something that one of my favorite planners told me was ‘In Kansas City, the south is north and the north is south’.
I’m proud to be from all of Kansas City.
Are you sure about Bob Collins having the longest run? Dave Olson was there a long time, and so were Cookingham and Bob Kipp.
Bob’s the only one who started there and continued into the City Managers office. He started in 1979 in City Development and left in 2002. So 23 years.