Wreck yourself

Patrick Dobson at EKC pens another fantastic column concerning recent proposed construction developments on the Westside. More than any other reporter in the City, this guy has a comprehensive understanding of the attitudes that prevail among the residents west of downtown.

Of a recent proposed development, Dobson writes of the developer (Screenland owner Butch Rigby):

Rather than being welcomed, he found himself on the grill — not personally but professionally. Though he has been a good businessperson in the neighborhood so far, he had mistakenly thought his redevelopment plan would be accepted with little comment. Neighbors questioned the lack of notification before getting the plan into its second and third stages, which includes a slot on the City Plan Commission docket Sept. 20. His plan included eminent domain, which is anathema here. The plan straddled Broadway, extending into the Westside to I-35; and if there is anything Westsiders don’t like, it’s being told their neighborhood is not Westside but confused with someplace else.

Ultimately Rigby is facing hard times getting his tax-abated pipe dream off the ground and Dobson masterfully explains why:

While mouths at city hall say they want strong neighborhoods, they really want neighborhoods that behave well and don’t get in the way. What the Westside has gone through and continues to go through is emblematic of the issues that all neighborhoods have to deal with in the face of development.

The city’s behind any developer that waves money under its nose; it just doesn’t want a black eye. Butch’s misfortune is that he doesn’t have the money to wave around that, say, the Muriel Kauffman Foundation or DST do, and those same processes that can help him increase his investment are the ones make him look like the rest of the bad guys.

For a long time, the rest of KC media was too busy grabbing ankles for local developers and construction projects and wouldn’t dream of writing something this honest. However, it seems that the many writers and reporters are now starting to pick up on the undercurrent of resistance that is mounting against the wave of speculative real estate ventures.