The Amazing Kansas City Library

An unusual investigative reporter's account of the transfer of the downtown Kansas City, Missouri, library collection from a decrepit building in the so-called Compassion Zone to a historic bank building owned by the Kemper family as part of the city's grand revitalization plan. That zone was so-named for its provision of food and shelter to homeless persons and the efforts to keep them within the zone, where the main jail was located as well.
The old library was a leading source of academic literature in the Midwest. Much of the collection was kept in the basement, which was flooded. Many unfortunates populated the library along with drug dealers. The transfer of the collection to the renovated bank building a few blocks away, where warehouses were being converted into expensive lofts, involved considerable weeding of the collection and regulation of the irregular patrons by a semi-private security force dubbed "the Yellow Jackets." The success was amazing given the circumstances, an example of what can be done by public-private cooperation, especially when someone like Jonathan Kemper is leading the way, as he did here with property and his love for books.