One month into it, the
Star is trying to abate the buyer's remorse that is gripping Kansas City regarding Mayor Mark Funkhouser.
Today's
front page story is nothing more than a promotional piece for a Mayor whose promises are already falling to pieces after only a month in office.
The Star publishes a point by point analysis . . . And I just want to take this space in order to retort.
The Star claims Mayor Funky is not anti-business . . . The truth is that it doesn't matter: U.S. home prices have fallen for the first time in 16 years and while real estate speculation once powered all of the cheap hype and cheerleading regarding the "Downtown Renaissance" the epoch of a downtown economy driven by loft and condo sales has now passed . . . Once again this town was a day late to jump on that bandwagon not matter how many developers scream to the hilltops to the contrary. This doesn't have anything to do with what Funkhouser has or hasn't accomplished but he is simply the man left holding the bag (nullus) of a macroeconomic trend that doesn't bode well for a city fixated on Downtown real estate development.
The Star claims that Mayor Funky is not your average politician, probably because that's the image that they sold to their readers. Decades inside City Hall and he's not an insider? That's purely a pose and just because hipsters want to believe something doesn't make it true. The second that Funkhouser rewarded the Northland vote with the appointment of Bill "WTF?" Skaggs to Mayor pro tem signaled that Mayor Funky was nothing more than a regular old politician who seemingly turned his back on every part of the City that didn't overwhelmingly vote for him . . . The mayor had a chance to pick a woman, who would have worked better with the estrogen laden council OR a Black person in order to reach out to the Eastside after a contentious election but Mayor Funky fell back on the same tired political tactics that have kept this city divided for generations.
Nobody in their right mind would defend expensive double dipping by an old Funkhouser friend. Mayor Funky couldn't even do damage control regarding his buddy's QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF COMPENSATION. The move didn't exactly speak to the "regular folks" that Funkhouser fanatics are so fond of invoking and it's yet another sign that the image so carefully crafted by The Star is now just as flimsy as their classified advertising revenue after the advent of Craigslist.
Funkhouser isn't fond of after hours (i.e. post-5:30 p.m.) meetings. Politician is not a real job, Mayor Funky is so inexperienced that he hasn't learned this yet. Say as many bad things as you want about Alvin Brooks but the guy was out on the streets of KC doing his best to serve his constituency DAY AND NIGHT. Whereas Mayor Funky wants to be home by dinner time. Even according to The Star, community leaders from across the city say that they feel slighted. The Mayor's refusal to meet "regular folks" during the hours that are convenient for people who have real jobs just reveals that 851 voters fell for the same kind of empty promises Kansas City has heard for generations.
Apparently, the Funk doesn't exactly have a fire under him in order to fix Kansas City's problems. Question: Do you think he could have made his lackadaisical approach more well-known during his campaign? This is a Mayor with a razor thin margin of victory and he's acting as if he has a mandate. Already the City Council has challenged and defeated one of the guy's campaign platforms. On this last point Kansas City's paper of record has it all wrong once again. Mayor Funky isn't taking it slow, he's paralyzed by a lack of political leverage and it seems that the only ones who are quickly moving to defend him and continue the clueless campaign of catchphrases are the folks at the Star and the last few remnants of Internet bloggers clinging to their naive notions of change at City Hall.
Frankly, I'd like to hear what Internet politicos Heidi, Dan at Gone Mild and BlogKC have to say about a month long display of one Funkhouser Administration failure after the next.
First you say Funk is just your average politician and so on.
"Mayor Funky was nothing more than a regular old politician"
"Mayor Funky fell back on the same tired political tactics"
Followed by a charge that he is an inexperienced hack who has no political leverage.
"Politician is not a real job, Mayor Funky is so inexperienced that he hasn't learned this yet"
So he is an inexperienced political figure using the same old tired political tricks? I could pick you apart all day.
Next election i'm writing Tony in cause he's got this shit figured out. Within a couple weeks crime will be a thing of the past, KC will have new sewers and only the most deserving minoritys will get jerbs.
hehe
You should probably give it up on this one for now Tony.
1) Falling house prices -- that was based on first quarter house prices, before we had even voted on the primary.
2) As for Skaggs, I don't know anything about the guy, what I do know is that the Mayor Pro-Tem is usually one of the more senior people on the city council. Given that we only have about 2 or 3 incumbents (Skaggs, Hermann, Ford has been off for 4 years), I don't see that there were a lot of options there without naming a newbie as pro tem.
If you're going to whine and complain, pick stuff that is legitimate.
wow tony! guess you got the whole world figured out. Now get back to jerking off.
Funkhouser got elected on a "fill the potholes" message where he made it really clear to everyone that we should compare ourselves with P.V. instead of Denver or STL. Kill the big dreams and fill the potholes he said, and the hipsters loved him for it.
As of noon 3/30/07 the giant welded plate-covered pothole at the corner of southwest blvd and broadway remains unfixed. In fact, it appeared to be missing one of its bolts and skipping around on 3 out of 4 this morning.
A third of the way into the hundred days and it still isn't fixed. Removing the plates was his big campaign promise, aside from cutting off funding to development.
Thanks for the skid plate cover, Funky. Now get your wife to ride her broomstick over to the city road workers and tell them to get their asses out there and deliver on your empty promises.
KThanks
Most worthless post of the year so far. Come on, you can do worse!
Great point 1:19pm! Now all of those self proclaimed hipsters (that voted for a 30 year auditor aka the guy that made all of the out of control spending possible) have to forget about how madly in love they are with him and remember what promises they were suckered into.
Not to mention the nice one at 16th & Walnut that's been covering a hole in the ground that is over a year old for six months!
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