Here's yet another promise from City Hall aimed at quieting the growing cacophony of critics . . .
KANSAS CITY NEIGHBORHOOD DENIZENS WORRY THAT THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR IS GOING TO BE REALLY LOUD!!!
Here's the dismissive reply that's slightly nicer than simply ignoring the question:
Kansas City Transportation committee chair Russ Johnson said there has been some rumbling about the noise factor, but claims it is a non starter. "Rail vehicles like this are quiet, there's no loud noises, and it's quieter than a bus," said Johnson.
Of course, complaining would be pointless after the streetcar is already running . . . But once again it's important to see that nobody ever really listens to the concerns of Kansas City neighborhoods.
Russ Johnson is a dweeb.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should send some city staff to Spain to see how quite it really is.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a KCMO taxpayer, I wouldn't be worrying about the noise the actual train made.
ReplyDeleteI'd be worrying about the giant sucking sound of hundreds of millions of dollars and the cost overruns, operating and maintenance costs, and unanticipated expenses that will be a sucking financial chest wound on the city long long after the enthusiasm for streetcars has passed and the millenials are lving with their families on lefy streets in the suburbs.
The planners, engineers, bond salesmen, construction companies, and urban futurists who sold the council this fiasco will have banked their money and the elected folks will be gone as well.
Of course, here in KCMO, they will most likely have been elected to new positions, appointed to some make-work government job, or have grabbed some gig with a nonprofit they funded while they were in office.
Or maybe they'll evven be working for the streetcar operation!
All aboard.
While a non-believer in the street car, I can be objective when it comes to the facts.
ReplyDeleteNOISE is not an issue.
Anyone allowing themselves to be influenced by the bogus manner that Tony throws out absolute crap hoping something sticks, is a fool.
WTF is a "denizen"?
A unidentified griper who supports Tony's point of view, but has no real form save a mystical silhouette (aka, Bigfoot).
If you are going to be against the streetcar, airport, or whatever, do it on facts, or you will be simply dismissed.
"Oh boy, I was mentioned on Ruckus and now a somebody".
Wake up and stop drinking Tony's kool-aid.
The city has a positive spin on everything, but buses currently run in the street, not through people's back yards, and it's my understanding that the streetcar has a warning bell to let drivers and pedestrians know it is approaching. So imagine that every twenty minutes for the rest of your life.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that the streetcar is going to completely change the landscape for people in Brookside who invested in their homes because it was near a peaceful community trail that tied neighborhoods together. The truth is, Dave Johnson hates these people for living where they do, and for driving cars. He wants to drive these people out of their homes, and he wants everyone abandoning their cars so he can get a letter from Barack Obama thanking him for saving the planet.
Dave Johnson is promising that the streetcar and trail and co-exist one day, and then tweets a picture of an empty trail in the middle of winter the next day; seeming to suggest that no one would care if a streetcar were to replace it.
It's a travesty that the city has allowed such a horrible person to promote the streetcar. He is unprofessional and unqualified to hold any kind of official position.
Will fate kick Dave Johnson's sweet ass sometime soon? Quite possibly.
ReplyDeleteMaybe then he can focus on cleaning up his "downtown" and making it worth visiting.
The NERVE of you people. Questioning the wisdom of us hipsters. MUST we republish the Hipsters' Manifesto (now in its third draft)? And remember, you can always move!
ReplyDeleteCan move? Guess what asshole I did, so you can kiss my tax dollars and e-tax shit good-bye. I even got a job in OP as well.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else noticed that you can find NO INFORMATION about the proposed tax increases? The NextRailKC website used to have this, now it is nowhere to be found anymore. People who want to understand the tax increases proposed to pay for this streetcar expansion meet a "black hole" where all the relevant information has disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI moved to south Op as well it's great. You dial 911 over here and somebody shows up in less than ten minutes. not the next morning after donuts and coffee or a Price Chopper run. Last snow fall clean street in about 24 hours not 2-4 days if even then. You drive by a QuikTrip and don't see a FD rig or couple of cop cars sitting there or half a doz or so city trucks. Yes it is great to be in a area where blacks are pulled over and asked WTF you doing out here. Sure maybe I pay 1% more in taxes but figure in the e-tax and I am paying cheaper taxes. So fuck you Sly and Russ you can have it.
ReplyDeleteWhat baloney! Russ' assurances are meaningless since he'll be long gone from the council should it ever be built.
ReplyDeleteDat Toy T needz 2 be pimped out. Letz Pootie hang some 3 ft curb feelers onz da Toy T. My ho'z can makez da Toy T smellz realz good.
ReplyDeleteHere is what the City want to tax you: $0.70 per $100 assessed value of your home, if it is within 1/2 mile of the trolley trail. Every year for 25 years. At least. Plus a new 1% sales tax. And people who live outside the 1/2 mile area also get to vote, to make YOU pay the new tax. They also plan to tax the property of non-profit organizations and any business within 1/2 mile of the trail.
ReplyDeleteThis is a giant hoax perpetrated on taxpayers by engineering firms eager to get contracts to design and build streetcar lines. But local taxpayers must put up funds for construction and then cover operating and maintenance costs for decades.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor should be focusing on any number of the issues facing KCMO instead of forcing an antiquated fixed rail transport option that went the way of the stage coach down peoples throats.
ReplyDelete8:40 & 8:51: One more outburst from you two, and the Hipster Manifesto (now in its third draft) goes up again on TKC. And don't think JOCO is immune. As we reproduce, ensuring our hipster genes last beyond our generation of oh, so kool, we'll want to take our lifestyles with us to the 'burbs, so you can always move AGAIN!
ReplyDelete9:39am is a hoot!
ReplyDeleteOf course the GREATEST enemy of hipsters and millenials is the unalterable fact that they will get older and find that the exciting fads that seemed so forever when they were in the 20s and early 30s have become very stale and even embarrassing.
In fact, teenagers are already abandoning FaceBook for more trendy social media sites. And what if the next generation not only doesn't embrace, but actually rejects the current hipster reality? They may even decide that urban environments are "so yesterday" and decide that living on farms is the wave of the future.
And KCMO taxpayers will have only a few decades of $10-15 million/year bond payments left on the streetcar fiasco. And have to maintain it forever.
What a thoughtful, serious, and responsible decision to make with the public's money.
All aboard.
It WON'T be as quiet as a bus.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason the line should avoid Brookside and residential areas. For long sections the current trolley trail runs between people's backyards.
City Hall types can't wait to spend their kickbacks.
10:06 have you seen Sherri McIntyre lately? She's been spending those kickbacks on some haute couture. Just like the streetcar she lets other people tell her how to spend her money and doesn't care if it looks like shit.
ReplyDeleteMy bet is Davy Boy Johnson will split town when the first "big offer" somewhere else comes up. These hipsters are phony as they come.
ReplyDeleteIf we could only be so lucky. He's been a Crossroads resident nearly as long as I've been a Northeast resident, and he's committed to this cause. He's KC's new Clay Chastain and we're going to be fighting him for a long time. Hopefully after we defeat the TDD and Russ Johnson is termed out, KC can take a breath before we have to start tearing apart his next poorly planned proposal.
ReplyDeleteStreetcar supporters shouldn't be surprised that objections like these are being voiced. Joe Kansas City has never even seen a streetcar in person, let alone ridden on one or gauged its decibel level. Russ Johnson and his streetcar nerds rushed the expansion, cornering themselves into a position where their only answer to most of these questions is "trust us." That doesn't work in Kansas City. We don't trust you.
ReplyDeleteFinish building the damn thing downtown. Let people see it, let people ride it. and then let people make an informed decision on whether they really want to pay up for an expansion.
Call it the triple tax crap sandwich.
ReplyDelete1.) Part one of the triple tax- Homeowners within 1/2 mile of the tracks will get that "oh so special" assessment for 25 years that is $.70/100 assessed value or $133/100,000 market value. Businesses are assessed at $.48/100 assessed value and the assessed value of businesses is higher compared to market value versus that of homes. Non profits and churches will also pay the special assessment even though they are property tax exempt. This area includes the vast majority of properties between 51st,85th, Troost and Ward Parkway for the Brookside/Walso part of phase II.
Tax #2 is the special assessment of city property in the area that is taxed at $1.04/100 assessed value. Well if the city is paying it guess who the city taxes for it. It is just a pass through to divert more city money from infrastructure repair, the failing education system and addressing other boring basic city services like crime prevention and snow removal.
The third tax in the triple tax crap sandwich is the 1% sales tax proposed in the whole TDD (roughly river to 85th, state line to 435E.) This will be a massive deterrent to doing retail business in KC. Especially considering the county is proposing a 1% tax (light rail scam tax) and the state is proposing a 1% sales tax for roads and bridge repair. If passed, all these taxes would push our sales tax to be the highest in the country. Seems like only a few months ago we were asked to pass a research tax that thankfully failed. Do you see a pattern? Government coming to the citizens demanding payment for increasingly sketchy schemes.
Next stop South Detroit. Woo, woo, all aboard.
About the noise, the supporters are using terms like "the phantoms..." to describe the streetcars. They may not be terribly loud but they are ugly. No one knows how long those routes will be used for "phantoms" before they are transitioned to light rail. Yes kids, the city is putting in more robust track bed to be light rail ready. Light rail is not quiet so regardless of what the city claims about noise levels it is just another scam to suck money out of the citizens then run trains through their back yards. Have you ever seen a train running through a nice neighborhood that wasn't next to, say, an ocean? Neither have I.
ReplyDeleteNext stop South Detroit. All aboard....
1006. Have you lived in a town with light rail and experienced the sound?
ReplyDeleteDon't pull this stuff our of your ass.
Against the train. Notwithstanding the noise.
Anyone here know how to stay on track?
But, Russ a member of Mensa!
ReplyDelete