Here's an alternate headline I thought you might enjoy as well:
Oh, glorious day . . . This is what Downtown would look like with almost no minorities!
It's worth mentioning twice . . . This vision of the city literally includes no people of color. Seriously, it looks like it's only little white drawings walking around down there . . . Except maybe for that one guy in the corner who may or may not be George Hamilton . . . It's a HUGE departure from what a Downtown street looks like today where most of the people on the ground are minorities going to and from their shitty jobs.
$800 million so you can watch the latest Adam Sandler movie. That makes sense. Certainly, a wise investment and far more important than . . . oh . . . let's say . . . sewers.
I know that most architects and artists are ghey but the depiction of the old KCP&L tower as a huge phallus in the sky is just downright blatant. No homo.
Again, I see economy cars and shopping but no people of color. It's actually worse than Star Wars or Seinfeld or a Woody Allen movie.
There are a hell of a lot of people on their cell phones in this version of the future. I imagine they're probably asking for directions home.
It's after sunset in downtown and people are still outside. This is better than a Rocky movie (white man winning the Heavyweight Championship) in terms of sheer fantasy.
Again with the ghey theme . . . This pink section seems to be hook up row where you meet the person who will give you syphilis in a convenient downtown location.
I have no idea what band is playing in the drawing below but there is a completely white audience rocking out. Awesome. It doesn't look like country music (no mullets) but if it's as lame as the rest of this mock up it's probably Coldplay.
Now this is just scary, this next pic totally looks like something out of Blade Runner. Strangely, that's appropriate because the replicants only have a 4 year life span and I figure that's about how long it will take before this whole plan turns sour and a random murder or shooting reveals that a slew of chain restaurants, a movie theater and a couple of walkways won't resurrect downtown. Additionally, it's sad that there are no images of security guards hassling unsupervised Black and Latino kids and escorting them out to the street just like they do on The Plaza and Crown Center. Yes, these are all pretty pictures but they aren't exactly a plan.
Oh, glorious day . . . This is what Downtown would look like with almost no minorities!
It's worth mentioning twice . . . This vision of the city literally includes no people of color. Seriously, it looks like it's only little white drawings walking around down there . . . Except maybe for that one guy in the corner who may or may not be George Hamilton . . . It's a HUGE departure from what a Downtown street looks like today where most of the people on the ground are minorities going to and from their shitty jobs.
$800 million so you can watch the latest Adam Sandler movie. That makes sense. Certainly, a wise investment and far more important than . . . oh . . . let's say . . . sewers.
I know that most architects and artists are ghey but the depiction of the old KCP&L tower as a huge phallus in the sky is just downright blatant. No homo.
Again, I see economy cars and shopping but no people of color. It's actually worse than Star Wars or Seinfeld or a Woody Allen movie.
There are a hell of a lot of people on their cell phones in this version of the future. I imagine they're probably asking for directions home.
It's after sunset in downtown and people are still outside. This is better than a Rocky movie (white man winning the Heavyweight Championship) in terms of sheer fantasy.
Again with the ghey theme . . . This pink section seems to be hook up row where you meet the person who will give you syphilis in a convenient downtown location.
I have no idea what band is playing in the drawing below but there is a completely white audience rocking out. Awesome. It doesn't look like country music (no mullets) but if it's as lame as the rest of this mock up it's probably Coldplay.
Now this is just scary, this next pic totally looks like something out of Blade Runner. Strangely, that's appropriate because the replicants only have a 4 year life span and I figure that's about how long it will take before this whole plan turns sour and a random murder or shooting reveals that a slew of chain restaurants, a movie theater and a couple of walkways won't resurrect downtown. Additionally, it's sad that there are no images of security guards hassling unsupervised Black and Latino kids and escorting them out to the street just like they do on The Plaza and Crown Center. Yes, these are all pretty pictures but they aren't exactly a plan.
The reason you don't see any people of color is because most of these shots are of day and early evening, so the people of color wouldn't been seen until late evening and early morning when they are cleaning the white folks mess and picking up the trash..you know just like whitey likes it.
ReplyDeleteI fucking hate white people.
Racist much?
ReplyDeleteI totally saw a little black person in the lower right hand corner of one of those first pictures.
ReplyDeleteCheck it out.
You need an electron microscope to see him, but I know you have that kind of time, Tony.
I just got back from Toronto where they brag about having 150 languages spoken with in the downtown area. Vancouver has 576,000 people about the same as KC and the downtown diversity is so extreme that I was a minority.
ReplyDeleteThe other day you lament about how the Lengends is miles away from minorities (although in my experience they seem to be finding it).
ReplyDeleteToday you whine about the racial makeup of hypothetical images of a project that is in the heart of minority land.
Who knows why they used pictures of crackers in their mockups, and who cares? Maybe that's all they had on file, maybe they took photos of employees in the office. Maybe they like Canadians...
What would you be happy with?
The Harold-Penner-KFC-Roasted-Corn-Lowrider redevelopment experienceI coming to a part of town no people with money would ever want to visit!
Developers want to build where they think the money will show up. And as 18th and Vine proves, money don't like bullets and obnoxious polka music blasting out of automobiles...
Why the hell is there a giant stick of deodorant in the middle of that first picture?
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously getting worked up over rendered drawings that were made by the architectural firm (not the city or the planning committee). They're just pictures that they have on a hard drive somewhere that they put into pictures, and I guarantee they're organized by what the person is doing or the angle you see them at, not by race. This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. How about look at all the jobs that are being created for minorities? Or like someone else said, it's in the heart of minority-land, so it's not like they don't expect any to show up.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, every neighborhood in KC that minorities have been allowed to run has been run into the ground. They're run down, trashy, and everyone kills each other so much they're too dangerous to visit. So, I say, let the crackers in to work their magic!
ReplyDeleteGawd dayum, it's crowded in the comment booth! Who farted? Ewww - I'm outta here....
ReplyDelete(There aren't any fat people either. MY minority...shafted again *snicker*)
It's a waste of money and resources if you ask me. That's all I have to say about it.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah if they think this is a hockey town they are dead wrong and as far as basketball goes I don't think that would last more than a few years before it died. Is the Brigade still here?......
How about spending 800 million on the fucking roads?
Holla!
CWTR™
charlie asks about jobs for minorities--isn't that important? well, eh, *i'd* be content if any minority contractors got hired for the short term. the heck with the long-term janitors and street sweepers . . .
ReplyDeletehow *about* sewers, eh? how *about* other infrastructure on the east side? hey, how about some streets, while we're at it. obviously money would just be wasted on the school districts, but i'll bet it could be put to better use than attracting a trickle of joco-ites for friday evening fun.
the west side, of course, is just gonna go condo.
it's a joke column, of course: it's just stock crowd footage. but the point is, what kind of a society do we live in when the stock crowd footage is 99% lily white? that's kind of telling, if you eyes to see.
Now i know this is beside the point, really, but i can't help but to mention that all three heavyweight boxing beltholders right now are white. No Philly or Jersey accents to be sure, all former Soviet block citizens, so the Rocky anthem is still a myth of types, but they do happen to be caucasian.
ReplyDelete... and people care about boxing less than ever. What sport has hurt itself more in marketing, ever, than boxing in the last three decades? But that is a different rant.
Speaking of sewers, why would Alvin Brooks' PIAC representative suggest that the Hickman Mills School District submit a request for $100,000 so they can put a fancy fence around their football field? Maybe it's true what they say about PIAC money being nothing more than a slush fund.
ReplyDeleteA black guy threatened to shoot me once in a theatre when I didn't move fast enough.
ReplyDeleteA hispanci guy threatend to cut me
I have never had a white guy in this town threaten to do either.
Am I just out of touch?