KANSAS CITY'S DECADE OF DECLINE
Tonight, the end of the year marks a decade of decline for Kansas City.
Dimwits who praise the "Downtown Renaissance" always fail to mention that the P&L District consistently loses money while the Sprint Center is without an anchor tenant and has to play numbers games to even claim a mysterious "operating profit" that fails to take into account the contribution to high local taxes.
The Kansas City, Missouri School District remains without full accreditation.
Local attractions like Union Station and The Liberty Memorial have failed to attract a significant crowd and mostly serve to lose money.
Kansas City's budget now features a deficit worth tens of millions of dollars thanks to Mayor Kay, Mayor/City Auditor Mark Funkhouser and City Manager Wayne Cauthen and a slew of bureaucrats who have done nothing with their careers but manage their image and avoid even a modicum of responsibility.
There is little love Kansas City politicians and the upcoming Council and Mayoral elections seem like yet another house cleaning session in the endless cycle of ego-driven opportunists using City Hall as a stepping stool.
Local pro-sports have featured the same-old mediocrity without even hope of playoff level competition. Now both The Royals and the Chiefs seems further away from improvement than in years past despite Stadium Funding from the heavily taxed people of Jackson County at a rate of almost ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
Crime has worsened in recent years and the Stop Snitchin' phenomenon has been embedded in the local culture. While other American cities enjoy falling murder rates, Kansas City homicides concentrated mostly among young African-American males are trending upward.
And the worst part of it all is that the most (in)significant cultural achievement from Kansas City has been the throaty pop crooning of David Cook.
This "oh" decade has been a dismal failure for Kansas City, The United States and most of the Western World.
Still, things could change, the economy might improve, a few politicos could start keeping their promises and the people of Kansas City could work together instead of engaging in constant bickering . . . But I doubt it.
posted by Tony Permalink
Aw, sad clown.
Hey everything is up from here. Which means that anything that happens will most probably be better than what has been happening. Merry New Year. Remember that living in the worst city in the U.S. means that things can't get much worse--except if Funky gets back in.
A lack of ethical leadership in this city will seal the deal on our demise.
Kansas City is getting milked by those that manipulate the system. They will take all they can and move on.
So Tony if you think KC is such a terrible place to live, why don't you leave? Oh that's right. You just trash it to get hits on your blog. By the way David Cook is one of the best things to come from KC. At least he has talent, unlike you.
My predictions for the next decade:
1. The corrupt school board officials will be voted out this April, starting an upward trend for Kansas City public schools.
2. Taxpayers will have learned their lesson and will approve no more projects like P and L or the Sprint Center.
3. Liberty Memorial will become a national park and no longer need KC money.
4. The Chiefs will come back and be mediocre enough to get the games back on TV.
5. The glitz of downtown projects will wear off and officials will finally take notice and start improving the rest of the city.
6. KC's murder rate will drop down to average.
7. TKC will run out of material after the Star goes bankrupt.
Happy New year everyone!
You left out the extra $1.5-$2 billion dollars of new debt generated in the last decade. A debacle in waiting... and you forgot to mention the water and sewer debacle caused by an intentional underfunding and deferred maintenance scheme which has left us with an old, crumbling, out of compliance with the law system which is about to cost of $2.3 billion extra BORROWED dollars bring the total direct, recognizable debt up to $4.7 billion dollars. And last you forgot to mention when interest rates go up, how will the Government and Political Complex pay for this without doing what they do best... raising taxes!!! Already, they have prepped us for the $2.3 and counting (for certain the sewer maintenance, deferred maintenance and upgrade project will cost way more than $2.3 billion dollars [although if they steal out too much or perform so abysmally that the sewers don't even get fixed properly they will bankrupt all of us] by alerting us to expect a decade going forward of double digit rate increases.
Lucky for Lamar Hunt that he was alive to fleece the citizens out of hundreds of millions of dollars which benefitted his children and then died before having to watch what Carl Peterson and the rest of the Chiefs Organization did to the Chiefs.
Move, please. Take all of the whiners with you. There are big problems facing our city but bitching about the things that we should not have done is not going to solve the problem. We need people with positive attitudes that can look ahead and yet smart enough not to make the same mistakes of the past. It seems to me that a lot of people love to re-live the mistakes of the past only to make themselves seem smarter. Could have, should have, would have doesn't pay the bills. Move, douchebag.
5:41 Your comments are needed. Hope they will be appreciated and considered, for years to come!
Hey dirtbag. Stop using David Cook's name to get hits on your lousy blogs. If you don't like KC, get the hell out of town.
750,000 hits on this youtube...about fixing the schools:
http://radiomankc.blogspot.com/2009/12/kcsd-take-aussies-advice-youtube-school.html
enjoy, happy new year...and ta hell with KC! Move to Kansas!
Thats the thing about Tony, all he spews is negativity so he gets more hits. It gets old Tony, there is nothing new, just bitching about the same issues.
Ever thought about making an effort to help fix or make better the issues Tony correctly brings out. Seems like you are nothing more that the complaining bitch you rant that Tony is. At least Tony points out things that need improving...
10:32 (Tony), if you post your own comments, at least sign them
More Puck in 2010, please!
tony, Good job. All you whiney ass fuckers who posted the negative comments on here about the real issues Tony mentions, QUIT READING HIS BLOG! Go write your own fairyland blogs of good thoughts and how easy it is to change things by being positive. LOSERS! TKC writes of the reality of KC!
Positive thinking doesn't get you anywhere if there is no action.
It is important to know the problems before you can fix them.
No one ever expects the Star, Fox 4 or any of the other media to come up with solutions, why should TKC be held to a different standard?
There are plenty more messengers than there are doers. I don't want messengers to come up with solutions.
Well said!!! And what blows my mind is Funkinoff said he gave the city a "B" on snow removal. I've yet to see a plow yet this year in my hood in KC North.
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