KC Cholo on the subject of "Splashback"

The KC Cholo is a new feature here at TKC. He’s this guy I know who’s pretty cool and has some great insights about current events in KC.

Damn, essay it feels bad to be ignored. Mr. Dave “I’ve got so much integrity that I can bore the shit out of everyone” Helling reports that all the money spent on Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief could take away funds from future flood control projects in Kansas City.

Unfortunately, Helling fails to mention constantly flooded Southwest Boulevard in his article. The Boulevard is reg-u-lar-ly flooded whenever KC gets anything more than a light shower. It’s not that bad though Holmes. My uncle Pepé has a boat. During the last flood the vato left me at his restaurant to sandbag but it was no use. He picked us up later and we rowed on up to Summit to visit my tiá. She has a bunch of new neighbors with sharp condos that overlook the skyline. The cabrones blocked our view and they aren’t very neighborly but anything is better than dealing with crackhead Luke at the end of the block.

Speaking of a pain in the ass, I’ve got a homie that works at a local factory and Hurricane Katrina has put him out as well. His employer is getting a tax break to hire refugees from New Orleans. That’s great and all but my homie has been working there for years, he does a good job. They don’t pay him much but he’s from Mexico without any papers, so he takes what he can get.

Anyway, it turns out that all the Mexicans are going to be fired in order to hire the refugees from New Orleans. There have already been a few problems; word is that the first batch of new hires aren’t working out so well. The job is nothing but bum pay, long hours and no chance at promotion and let’s just say that the new folks are less than grateful for the opportunity to bust their hump for peanuts. In the end, the boss will probably lose whatever tax break he received to productivity slumps.

Pitting one group of poor people against another is bad news man. It seems like the biggest disaster wasn’t the hurricane but bad ideas and poor planning by the government afterward. Asi es la vida.