Acknowledging that its dress code was a public-relations debacle, Power & Light District officials announced their intention to form an oversight board.
Standing in front of the predominantly African-American workers who enforce the dress code in the district's Kansas City Live! block, Zed Smith, the district's managing partner, invited the NAACP, the Urban League, the Kansas City Police Department, elected officials and others to serve on the board. Smith said the board would meet in public and have authority over an independent contractor hired to enforce the dress code.
Smith said the "unprecedented" step was being taken in spite of the district's confidence that its dress code is color-blind. "Our objective here is transparency," Smith said. "We want to assure the community of Kansas City that the dress code is being implemented without bias, without regard to race."
Last year, city leaders complained that the Cordish Company, the district's developer, was using the dress code to exclude African-Americans. Denying the policy was racist, Cordish officials unsuccessfully resisted the city's attempt to rewrite the standards of acceptable dress.
Cordish continues to feel pressure. Two weeks ago, an extended African-American family and their lawyer drummed up support for a class-action lawsuit. On Saturday, a group of clergy protested the policy.
Finally sensing that the "We're experienced business operators, and we know best" position was not going to cut it, Cordish officials said the oversight board is an attempt to be more responsive. "We hear the community," Smith said. "We know there's a concern, and we want to respond to that concern."
Cordish officials also seem to sense that the dress code was creating opportunities for plaintiff's' lawyers and people looking for headlines. Smith said that the Power & Light District has worked to improve the design and implentation of the dress code.
"Quite frankly," he said, "there are people here who don't want to hear it."
Photo by Peter Rugg.
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