Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas talks President Biden, infrastructure funding, and governing without gridlock at the local level: 'We've got to get stuff done'

• Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas strives for collaboration as he works on tough policy issues.
• "You stay dedicated on and with the issue. You've got to be straight up," Lucas told Insider.
• Since becoming mayor, Lucas has focused on public safety, housing, and boosting city services.

When Quinton Lucas entered the race for Kansas City, Missouri mayor in 2018, he had a plethora of public policy issues that he sought to shape, including housing affordability and public safety in neighborhoods across the city.

After he was elected in 2019, Lucas would have the opportunity to make his mark on how the city would approach some of its most vexing issues.

But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, which presented a raft of public-health challenges that touched virtually every aspect of society. Public officials were faced with a host of enormous challenges, but Lucas said that mayors, often on the frontlines of huge policy debates, had to push through.

And he looks at Kansas City — whose Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII earlier this month — as an example of resiliency.

"We've been pretty successful post-pandemic. We're a city that obtained the 2026 World Cup [as a host city]. We're a city that I think has continued to grow in population at a time many other major Midwestern cities have not," said Lucas, an attorney who had served as a councilman and a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Law.

"My friends in Washington and our state capitals can wallow in negativity, fighting in battles and all of that," he continued to say. "We've got to get stuff done. And I think that's what you see responsible mayors trying to do."

Lucas, who's running for reelection to a second term this year, recently spoke with Insider about the bipartisan infrastructure law, the challenges of governing during a pandemic, and his approach to tackling some of the larger social issues faced by mayors across the country.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity.

Insider's John L. Dorman: President Biden during his recent State of the Union address spoke about the bipartisan infrastructure law, which has funded many projects that had been delayed for years. What have been some of the most tangible and immediate benefits of the law for Kansas City?

Mayor Quinton Lucas: There are several things that we're working on here in Kansas City, and probably the most important long-term is our investment in 71 Highway. Like many cities, it was a highway that cut through the middle of our city. It dissected, bisected our Black community, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. It was something that was a travesty when created, and thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, we're able to actually start addressing it. It is something that is incredibly important, in my view, that we get right. We've also invested in electric buses and making sure that our fleet, which is already zero-fare, will also be zero-emissions.

JD: Kansas City's population sits at just above 500,000 people, its largest population size in history, based on the 2020 Census. With so many people attracted to living in the city core, how do you see it evolving over the next 10 to 15 years? What types of things do you think this growth will spur?

QL: I think these updates are allowing for greater sustainability, which is something that this country needs badly. I think that these updates are allowing us to actually once and for all make sure that we are better addressing the long-term density in our communities. A lot of the things that we got away from in the '50s and '60s, we're still paying the price for now. And so I'm very excited and heartened by the fact that I think we're going to take real steps to both modernize our infrastructure, but also address fundamentally where we were underinvesting for generations.

JD: What's been a big issue for your city that you've been able to raise with President Biden?

QL: I've talked to the president a lot about public safety. I think he recognizes that public safety isn't just a story of sending cops somewhere all the time. There's also an important part of what are we doing to help prevent crime. A lot of that relates to our investments in things like housing, an area that is traditionally underinvested. So I've been able to share concerns with the underinvestment in HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development] for generations. I think this administration has shown a real interest in doing better long-term and investing in HUD and transitional housing, and helping to fix homelessness issues all around our country.

JD: At the federal level, we saw talks surrounding the George Floyd Policing Act basically collapse in 2021. However, with the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis, Tenn., police officers, there are calls for members of Congress to get something passed. As a mayor and someone who deals with public safety every day, how are you able to influence the debate on such an issue?

QL: Certainly our voices are important. We have the ability, even in a city like mine, with 500,000 people, to impact millions. I think that is one important step for what it is that we can do. So for us, visiting not just with the president, which has been an absolutely amazing, tremendous honor, but the other big thing that we can do is to make sure that we're prioritizing with our senators and our congressional delegations to state how important these steps are.

It's easy here in the rest of the country, sometimes, to not know in many ways or not care what the heck is happening in Washington. Right? You can see it at the State of the Union, with [Georgia Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene shouting out and saying someone's a liar, which is the sort of thing that turns off a lot of people in our country. But the issues, the things that are done in Washington do matter to us. So that's why I think it is important for us, despite I think a lot of the rhetoric and the fact that our public has perhaps tuned some of that out, to make sure that we're actually participating in these important policy discussions in Congress.

JD: You've spoken of the need to tackle poverty, homelessness, and housing insecurity in the city. What challenges have you faced in addressing these major issues?

QL: I think, first of all, you stay dedicated on and with the issue. You've got to be straight up. We ain't gonna solve it in a decade. You may not solve it in one season. And I think a lot of the challenge in 2020 and 2021 was everybody was trying to solve homelessness like in a month. Everybody was trying to solve any questions on American policing in a month and that's not the way it works. In Kansas City, we've said: "How do we keep talking to people even if everybody's mad at each other in the room?" Make them sit there and make them work together and ultimately see what we can try to get accomplished.

JD: What has been one of the more challenging things that you've had to face as the mayor of a city during a pandemic?

QL: I think probably the hardest thing is when we were making decisions on emergency orders. Contrary to what the rhetoric was in the world, there was no mayor in the history of time who wants to shut down their city. And to do that, particularly at a time when you see the urbanization trend — a lot of our cities were rising. More people were moving downtown. They were becoming safer. There was a lot of good stuff that was happening. And to see that arrested was hard. So that remains one of the tougher things that I hope I never have the misfortune of repeating again in my life.