White House officials arrived Tuesday in Kansas City, declaring the
city’s green approach to revitalizing the urban core should be an
example for the rest of the country.

“I’m thrilled to come to you on behalf of the president of the United States,” Adolfo Carrion, director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, told a large crowd outside 4600 the Paseo.

That’s the site of an office that will open soon to coordinate day-to-day activities in the “Green Impact Zone.”

Also Tuesday, Kansas City Power&Light announced a plan to invest $24 million in new technologies in the area.

Carrion said he and a team of federal officials were visiting Kansas City to herald its impressive coordination of federal and local dollars to create jobs, promote progressive development and revitalize the central city.

The Green Impact Zone — a 150-block area between Troost and Prospect avenues and between 39th and 51st streets — is targeted for home weatherization on a massive scale, bus rapid transit and more sustainable energy approaches.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, has teamed with the federal government, city officials, the Mid-America Regional Council and neighborhood leaders to pursue the concept.

Carrion said President Barrack Obama was determined to show that inner cities across the country need not continue to decay but that they can, with the right federal help, be restored and renewed.

That spirit of restoration and renewal was evident in a walking tour that Carrion and other dignitaries took Tuesday through the Ivanhoe neighborhood south of 3700 Woodland Ave. The tour included Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development; John Porcari, deputy secretary of transportation; and Van Jones, special adviser for green jobs with the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Ivanhoe boosters Margaret May and Ida Dockery held the visitors’ attention Tuesday as they described their dreams for the area.