Kansas City Toy Train Streetcar (And MASSIVE TAXPAYER SUBSIDY) Saves Columbus Park

Politicos touting a big Northeast project make a wild boast to justify keeping the terror train on track: Streetcar helps attract financing for $70M Columbus Park project

TKC READER LAMENTS: "I have yet to see one project (along the streetcar route) that did not get KCMO subsides."

Related: Kansas City Council roundup: Streetcar keeps rolling

Comments

  1. Funny, I didn't see any politico making that statement...think it was the ACTUAL DEVELOPER, but nice try at a fake swipe, Tony. How about sticking to truth? Nah, not controversial enough, I guess

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  2. So streetcars attract reinvestment and redevelopment. It's something Charlotte, N.C. knows already, and something Portland, Ore. learned.

    Everybody got that? All together now: it will encourage private investment and make the community more liveable.

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  3. I think that's great. So lets end public subsidies.

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  4. Looks like they are turning the River Market into a free parking lot for the 900 GSA workers to ride the streetcar to work. The hell with the businesses already there.

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  5. Lol; the Independence Avenue route is only PROPOSED and there's still no funding solution in place PLUS it would have to be approved by another gerrymandered district!

    We're either giving streetcar too much credit here, or there's some under the table deals going on that the banks, the city, the real estate brokers, and the streetcar authority aren't telling us.

    Where the fuck is investigative journalism in KC? A little digging could end careers, send people to prison, and win you a Pulitzer.

    City Council literally passed two ordinances WAIVING conflicts of interest rules! People want to read hard hitting journalism on this topic, not just a paragraph that it happened in The Business Journal!!

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  6. Lol; the Independence Avenue route is only PROPOSED and there's still no funding solution in place PLUS it would have to be approved by another gerrymandered district!

    We're either giving streetcar too much credit here, or there's some under the table deals going on that the banks, the city, the real estate brokers, and the streetcar authority aren't telling us.

    Where the fuck is investigative journalism in KC? A little digging could end careers, send people to prison, and win you a Pulitzer.

    City Council literally passed two ordinances WAIVING conflicts of interest rules! People want to read hard hitting journalism on this topic, not just a paragraph that it happened in The Business Journal!!

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  7. Will need more River Market parking so these folks will have someplace to park once they drive over to get on the trolley. Pretty soon trolley folks will be claiming they are responsible for development in Alaska.

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  8. Where are the new businesses with decent jobs the trolley folks promised?

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  9. 2:11pm
    The streetcar has nothing to do with it, it is the public subsidies. We don't need continued over building of apartments in the area, we need GOOD jobs.

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  10. Downtown is becoming a loft bedroom community, but the jobs are being created in what used to be called the suburbs, but are now areas of real economic development and business activity.
    KCMO should be working on reverse commute buses instead of streetcars to subsidized buildings.
    The whole fad is turning into a huge bubble propped up by tax money and empty promises. And bond payments as far as the eye can see.
    All aboard!

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  11. 4:30pm. Nicely said.

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  12. I had a good laugh this week when I was driving across the river to pay off a debt at the Caddy Shack (damn Tigers) and saw the sign proclaiming that little spit of unusable land down there that the big shots want to make into a maintenance depot for the new street car amusement ride thing. What the hell I says. You couldn't fit a goddamned dumptruck in there let alone a train car. Do these guys even look before they buy?

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  13. It might be as simple as developers wanting to be near brand new infrastructure, versus some grand scheme to milk taxpayers and screw neighborhoods.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

    Also, if all of the developments are getting incentives -- including those outside of downtown -- isn't the playing field level now?

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  14. It could be, although there hasn't been an election funding a streetcar route through Columbus Park, so for the banks, nothing has changed (unless someone tipped them off on the gerrymandering scheme, and assured them this is a done deal, and to get in on the action early.)

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  15. Do you honestly think that people who would be living in Columbus Park and work for GSA at Union Station will walk 4-6 blocks in the cold crappy weather to ride the streetcar? No, they'll get in their cars, drive 4 blocks, park in front of a River Market business and then ride the streetcar.

    The people who work at that business will show up for work and have no place to park, nor will the customers of those business.
    So the long standing River Market businesses and their employees will move out of the River Market due to lack of parking. When they move, they won't stay downtown hence an exodus of jobs from the area.

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