Andrew Bracker, the Brownfields project coordinator for Kansas City, Mo., has worked for the city for 19 years. When it comes to distressed properties, he’s working hard to clean them up so they can be utilized.
The Downtown Council of Kansas City is naming Bracker a 2016 Urban Hero for his transformative environmental cleanup efforts.
Through a $2 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Kansas City Brownfield Revolving Loan funds businesses and individuals looking to redevelop brownfield zones.
Bracker credited the vision of others in Kansas City, along with federal funding partners, for changing contaminated pieces of the urban landscape.
The impact of the Brownfields Program in transforming blight and contamination into jobs and healthy neighborhoods is possible only because we get to work with so many other unsung heroes who have the vision and determination to help redevelop Kansas City’s distressed and legacy properties, and because of the very significant and continuing financial support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” he said.