black and white and white all over

But still, he has a point.

The recent article in the Star about my neighborhood was ridiculously white. They missed a truer, far more interesting story about how immigration is the best hope for our dying city. For all dying American cities, frankly.

During the second half of the last century, all cities suffered from white flight. Most, like KC, are still suffering, with miles and miles of virtually abandoned urban core. But some -- New York, LA, Chicago, for example -- are comparatively robust. That's because they have huge immigrant populations and local governments that embrace them.

It makes sense. It's immigrants who made the cities in the first place. They all grew exponentially in the late 19th and early 20th century, when millions of Europeans fled to America in search of opportunity.

Not coincidentally, that's when the United States emerged as the world's super power.