TKC BREAKING NEWS!!! KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN STREETCAR OPPOSITION MUST SEE!!! SAVE THE TROLLEY TRAIL SITE DEBUTS!!!
Many thanks to BAD-ASS TKC TIPSTERS who sent this link our way . . .
CHECK OUT THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN THE EFFORT TO STOP THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR IN ITS TRACKS BEFORE IT TAKES OUT THE TROLLEY TRACK TRAIL!!!
Check the website the just debuted recently . . .
SAVE THE TROLLEY TRAIL
The group seems committed and this online gathering place isn't as easily duplicated as their facebook rival fan page . . . Notice that the advocates of Phase II are spoofing the "Save The Trolley Trail" theme in a despicable attempt to create confusion . . .
Developing . . .
Any of youz Waldo/Brookside wives need some extra $$$$$ call Pootie. I'z got opening on the Trolly Track. Choice locations available. Work close to home.
ReplyDeleteCall Pootie Tang @ 1-800-PUSSY-MAN.
Pootie be hiring ho's every day.
This is a classic example of how KCMO really works. No vision; no plan; and no leadership.
ReplyDeleteJust one little group defending its "unique" project or issue and fighting with another little narrowly-focused group over theirs.
If you want to be a transit groupie, fine, but it would be refreshing to hear some actualy fact-based reasons to commit a city like KCMO to hundreds of millions of dollars to long-term debt.
And if you want to oppose the streetcar, fine, but you might consider spending enough time educating yourself about the issue to base your opposition on something more than what takes place in your own back yard.
In this case it's hard not to ignore the "debate" as the two sides scratch and claw and call each other names.
Pootie is funny.
ReplyDelete6;51 any port in a storm
ReplyDeleteIt's more than just the trail. It's just as much about the horrendous cost of this monstrosity while the important issues like schools, crime, infrstructure, etc, etc continue to be neglected and underfunded.
ReplyDelete9:37 for the point!
ReplyDelete9:37 +1
ReplyDeleteI personally couldn't care less about the use of the trolley trail, but those actually affected in the neighborhood should have a legitimate say in it's use.
My issue is, and has always been, that while we spend millions planning how big our new "toy" will be, we have BILLIONS in unfunded but required infrastructure upgrades that must be done, most under requirement of the feds. While our city literally rots beneath our feet, and continues to contribute to serious environmental issues (combined sewers, anyone?), we stick our heads in the sand and pretend it will go away if we ignore it long enough. The EPA will eventually bring the hammer down, and when they do, we'll face an even bigger threat of bankruptcy due to the BILLIONS that will finally be coming do.
Our roof is leaking, our foundation is cracked, and our windows are rattling, yet all we seem to care about is taking a trip to Vegas.
6:51, A recurring theme brought out at this groups public meeting by several who stood up and spoke emphasized, to the mayors face no less, the sheer lunacy of committing vast taxpayer resources to rail while the city school system and attempts to control violent crime were an abject failure. The point was made that if one were to desire economic development solving these major issues would do a lot more than building a streetcar line that even the proponents admit will have very limited ridership. We got trouble right here in river city folks. 9:37 and 10:34 nailed it and I assure you this group knows it. If only the trip were to Vegas.....it's to Spain.
ReplyDeleteNot just the trail for these neighborhoods. Any property within a half mile either side of the tracks will face a 25 year special assessment property tax of 8.7% on top of county property taxes. The special assessment includes commercial, residential, non-profit, government and church owned property in the special assessment corridor. The geniuses behind this justify this theft by a specious study that claims property values are increased within a half mile of such tracks and that people within that zone are the most likely to use this "amenity". Many local real estate pros are saying property values will go down, not up. Who do you think Jackson County is going to believe next time they assess these properties? My guess is that when all is said and done these people are going to see their property taxes go up over 10% for a nuisance they don't want. If Stowers, Cerner and Oxford on the Blue want this so bad at least make them pay for it.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Tang,
ReplyDeleteI've never responded to anything like your offer before, but having found myself newly divorced I'm currently in a budgetary bind.
While I live just across the state line in Kansas now, when we were first married we did live in the Brookside neighborhood so as to be close to UMKC where we both were finishing grad school. I am an educated woman, mid-30's, height and weight proportionate, long dark hair, and still routinely catch eyes when wearing my yoga pants or jogging on the Trolley Trail.
While I would not be interested in soliciting outdoors, as I find that to be beneath my station in life, if you schedule rendezvous by appointment, then I would be open to negotiating a deal with you. Please respond in this space with further details, before I call your number @ 1-800-PUSSY-MAN.
sign me,
Come Blow Your Horn
Why doesn't the mayor solve the Afghanistan war before he focusses on silly toys like new sewers for a northland "neighborhood" where no one lives?
ReplyDeleteWhat about immigration? Why don't we solve that before we repave our toy streets?
Why won't the mayor stop what goin on in Ciudad Juarez before he pisses away money on maintaining low density unsustainable development at 152 and flintlock?
Does the Trolley Track trail pay for itself?
ReplyDelete8.7% special assessment is a lie, just like the lie that a streetcar will remove the walking/jogging/sadmomfliritng trail.
ReplyDeleteAnti side has lies for days.
"JoCo realty specialists" say property values will go down, even though every empirical study of actual facts-based data shows otherwise? Ha.
You guys are silly. Your also in the minority. Keep shrieking though. No one in the real world cares.
Bout fucking time the city invested in the core. As the core goes, so goes the city. There's a reason the only place in StL to gain population in the last decade is along the light rail spine.
What you nimbys and antis really fear is that the "toy train" is no longer a toy when it becomes a system, and your strongest argument fails.
12:51 PM Where did you get the idea Brookside residents or residents of any single family zoned neighborhoods want population growth and density? If they wanted that kind of lifestyle they would move downtown or to New York City or Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteThey decided to invest in and live in a neighborhood not a dense overcrowded urban center for a reason. Because thats the lifestyle they want not what you think they want.
The Mayor and the Streetcar people are telling people what they want to hear.
ReplyDeleteNot what they really seriously need to know.
Once people fall for and buy all the hype, bread and circus, and hoopla, and the politicians sign off on it and go to collect their checks and the bulldozers take over it's going to be too late.
ReplyDeleteLET THE BUYER BEWARE
OF course, there's a difference between wanting a healthy, sustainable population density, like KC and indeed BKS used to have and living in "downtown NYC", but when you want to ignore facts and trot out red herrings and argue every point with reductio ad absurdum hyberbole, one wonders if its worth the time.
ReplyDeleteThe 55 and over set is just sad its 1987 world didn't last forever...
Boo hoo, sue.
I live in BKS and I support the streetcar on the streetcar trail.
ReplyDeleteBest thing KC has done in the 25 years I've lived here.
If the streetcars run through Brookside, there would be a significant, permanent effect on traffic, taxes, neighborhood atmosphere,and property values. It is every resident’s responsibility to become better informed by asking questions and listening to the answers – then decide how to proceed with your vote or other activities.
ReplyDeleteThe only red herrings I see 4:58 is the astounding wishful thinking and the city is putting into it's reports to try to convince the feds to give us a little "free money".
ReplyDeleteWhat I find funny is all the pro toy train 20 somethings many of who can't even afford their own apartment or a basic car, let alone feed themselves properly saying things like - Hey it's only $103 Million!!!
ReplyDeleteMost of them will be long gone to some other part of the country when they see another hipster treadmill that appeals to their instant gratification, peer group, and ignorance anyway. And taxpayers will end up holding the bag.
6:58 is right.
ReplyDeleteBefore the decades of $10-15 million/year bonds have barely started, the millenials and hipsters will be moving on to the next phase of an actual life, getting mariied, having families, and moving out of downtown to neighborhoods that are safe, with good schools and yards for the kids to play in.
And the next generation, like others before it, will roundly reject all the excitement and hype of the current 20-something crowd, just like teenagers are bailing out of FaceBook for something even newer. Instead of "density" and "urban environments", maybe the next big thing will be living on a farm.
And KCMO adults and business and property owners will still have decades of bonds to pay for yesterday's fad.
All aboard.
"You guys are silly. Your also in the minority. Keep shrieking though. No one in the real world cares."
ReplyDelete12:51: First, please go back to basic English and learn the difference between "your" and "you're."
Second, once the facts are out, and if they include an added 8.7% tax on everyone within a half mile of the streetcar, people who pay taxes in the real world will question the streetcar and will not be in the minority.
but you're not interested in facts susie q. you're interested in sue-ing to stop elections because you know what the polls say...
ReplyDeleteif you were interested in facts, you'd look at the overwhelming empirical evidence about the value and effcts of fixed rail transit, everything that doesn't come out of idealogically driven propaganda machines like cato and show me.
or you'd take a trip to Salt Lake City, Seattle, Tucson, Charlotte, St Louis, etc. and see how it works.
IF you don't like cities or how they work, there are plenty of non-ubran options for you, even within this metro, even within this city's limits. by all means, move to one. Leave Brookside, Waldo, Midtown and the urban core to people who like pleasant walkable urban or streetcar suburban (there's even a name for places like BKS, and shockingly, they're named after the thing that built them) to the people who care for them and about the city.
Densify or die.
ReplyDeleteTransit is to the future of this town what interstates were in the middle of the las century.
Dear old people and suburban proselytizers, catch up or get left behind.
10:23 & 10:26: Keep repeating your mantra. Maybe it will work. I'll wait for the election returns, and I'm one of the people who live within a half mile of the route.
ReplyDeleteOmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Wonder why the City chose to spend the extra money to go down an additional 3 feet over that required for streetcar lines? Could it be that there are already plans afoot to make a future switch to light rail which does require the additional three feet? And I also have to wonder why we spent three times more for the actual streetcars than was necessary?
ReplyDeleteFor less than the cost of installing a streetcar route, the city could create a business improvement district, incentivize small-business development through tax breaks, or, better yet, vastly improve service on existing bus systems.
ReplyDeleteThat last point—the fact that streetcar investment will surely come at the expense of real transit improvements—is perhaps the greatest problem with the streetcar trend.
"Leave Brookside, Waldo, Midtown and the urban core to people who like pleasant walkable urban or streetcar suburban (there's even a name for places like BKS, and shockingly, they're named after the thing that built them) to the people who care for them and about the city."
ReplyDelete"Dear old people and suburban proselytizers, catch up or get left behind."
It seems to me that what Gunnar and his cohorts are saying here is that the current residents of these neighborhoods should move out if they don't like what the hipsters have in store for them. An additional annual property tax of 8.7% would be an incentive to move. I guess these people want our homes and aren't willing to wait for us to sell. 8.7% would mean an additional $200 a year for me, and I have little use for a streetcar. Brookside and Waldo have many bus options (which I use), but I guess Gunnar doesn't like the bus. Not hip enough.
What is wrong with these guys. We can be a first class city and have economic development. I think we should make sure that we have plenty of land (take the whole green area) so we can build some neat places to stop and eat or have a few drinks. Those guys that own the fancy houses don't want us to even visit their area.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to visit our "fancy homes." Just don't expect us to pay you to get here. Drive, ride, or take the bus. (There are plenty of them.)
ReplyDeleteKC has plenty of other problems that need funding.
ReplyDeleteKC has a chronically high per-capita murder rate, along with an unaccredited public-school system and sewer lines downtown that date back to the 1800s. It’s not the first place you’d think to put a $100 million streetcar line.
So great will be the success of the Downtown Streetcar that we are already aggressively moving forward with other public-spirited projects, including a study of the effectiveness of tanning salons, for which team members will test out the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, to establish a benchmark against which we can measure the authenticity of store-bought tans, either from a tanning bed or a spray-on bottle. If that works out, we will journey to Greece and hike up to the Acropolis, to get a first-hand sensory experience of using leg muscles so we can do a feasibility study of the degree to which shopping-mall escalators minimize muscle fatigue.
ReplyDelete4:51: Great post, but you're only slightly less enthusiastic than the Gunnars. And they're serious!
ReplyDelete