Swope Health announces a new edition of its podcast, One on One with Swope Health, featuring Craig Smith, who describes himself as a Kansas City storyteller.
Eric Wesson, founder and publisher of The Next Page KC, a newspaper focused on the Black community, hosts the show’s conversations with Kansas Citians about issues of importance to the community’s health and wellbeing.
Smith grew up in the Sheraton Estates neighborhood of 51st Street and Lister Avenue, near Brush Creek. Much of his current work focuses on environmental and economic injustice – including the discrepancy in the Brush Creek infrastructure between the east side and the west side, near the Country Club Plaza.
In 2015, Smith made his first video about Brush Creek and started discussions with Kansas City City Council members about the discrepancy and how to address it. Portions of a local use tax in 2017 were designated for Parks and Recreation work including Brush Creek, but little changed. The city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers developed a Brush Creek Master Plan in 2023, but the plan was never funded.
Smith was drawn back to Brush Creek when MORE2’s Environmental Justice Task Force began building a coalition to address the issues, raising awareness in the runup to the World Cup events in Kansas City.
Smith sees Brush Creek as a metaphor for a much larger justice issue. He calls out systems that prioritize spending for wealthy and powerful, rather than addressing the needs of the people affected. The city can afford a $600 million investment in a downtown stadium and tax incentives for the Country Club Plaza redevelopment, he notes, yet the East Side and the Brush Creek ecological disaster remain neglected.
“An environmental issue of this scale becomes so much more – it is a racial justice issue. It is an issue of mismanagement of funds, it is an issue of not being clear when it comes to what we’re collecting taxes for,” he said. “The water is a justice issue that affects everyone.”
Craig is a passionate advocate for change. He recalls one experience as a community canvasser, asking East Side residents about their ideas for change.
“It’s not that people don’t see the problems, they become deaf to the noise of the issues that exist. Why would I contribute to the noise … by complaining and knowing that nothing is going to happen?” He concluded: “It is a hope issue.”
His answer is to build community through conversations and storytelling, such as his videos, A State of No Return, supporting the recent Kansas City Public Schools bond issue, and Water Under the Bus, on local use tax designated for city parks and transportation.
Ongoing, his community-building starts with open conversations held 6 p.m. Sundays at the Keystone Innovation District, 800 East 18th St., Kansas City. A single question provokes deep discussions, answering what Smith sees as a hunger for stories, human connection, and hope.
Listen to more from the conversation here: https://youtu.be/4DEH_BeJBpU
