by MarketSmart | Oct 2, 2025
From the time I was a child growing up in Kansas City’s Ivanhoe neighborhood, I knew the importance of community connections. In 1998, I started buying decaying buildings near my childhood home. From urban blight I eventually created Harris Park (HP), a four-acre park...
by MarketSmart | Sep 9, 2025
Kind of like Janie in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, I lived my life a bit backwards. I was married at 18, had a child the next year, worked full-time and was going to school. My life-long goal was to be a college graduate. Marriage, work,...
by MarketSmart | Sep 6, 2025
I was and still am the first and only member of my immediate family to graduate with a college degree, actually three degrees. My college began at Central Missouri State University, actually a college when I started but re-named. I wanted to be a Teacher. I had worked...
by MarketSmart | Sep 6, 2025
I grew up on Kansas City’s West Side. We were poor, but rich in spirit. I’m a Mexican American and was the first in my family to go to college. I finished my last two years of my Bachelor’s program at UMKC (1970). It was for me, an achievement that...
by MarketSmart | Sep 6, 2025
I began my career in Economics at Sacramento State University. My unofficial advisor there was Dr. John Henry; after several frustrating experiences in introductory Economics courses, I decided to attend Sac State, and when I walked into Dr. Henry’s classroom...
