Kansas City Mayor Sly James has enjoyed quite a bit of success and public admiration throughout his tenure but there's one issue that has the potential to bring his re-election hopes crumbling down.
To wit . . .
KANSAS CITY INSIDERS WARN THAT AN EXPECTED SPIKE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN YOUTH VIOLENCE THIS SPRING/SUMMER COULD DAMAGE MAYOR SLY'S NICE GUY PUBLIC IMAGE!!!
Here's why:
1. Economic Development Doesn't Work In A City Too Violent For People To Visit Or Reside.
Just another basic services reminder that politicos hate . . . Also, there's no debating that Mayor Sly's Legislative record suggests that he's more concerned with eco-devo work and not anything related to neighborhoods.
2. Top Ranking African-American Leaders Don't Have A Lot Of Love For Mayor Sly.
The East Side isn't inspired by Mayor Sly and none of the political groups in that area count him as one of their own. Sure, demographically speaking . . . African-American voters will most likely choose Sly over anybody else . . . But by that same token, there's a likelihood that many East Of Troost voters might not find their way to the polls at all to assist a politico who many believe has neglected the 3rd District. Example: 3rd and 5th District failed to show up and give former Councilman Alvin Brooks what should have been an easy victory over a lanky, awkward and uninspiring City Auditor named Mark Funkhouser.
3. Mayor Sly James Hates Tough Questions
The Mayor might be a great orator but he isn't skilled at community discourse. He communicates by way of charisma at cocktail parties, the Internets and highly-scripted press events among friendly crowds. Before his political life, Mayor Sly James built an ULTRA-successful law practice where there was no doubt he was in charge. Accordingly, pesky newsies, activists, competing elected officials and errant members of a crowd can easily throw the Mayor off his game with just a few words. The Mayor and his people seem to be accepting this fact and that's why this year he's giving his state of the city to a bunch of high school students rather than face critics regarding an upcoming violence spike that he has failed to manage.
4. Mayor Sly James Doesn't Have A Plan To Address Increasing Kansas City Youth Violence
There have been years of prelude leading up the current crisis and both the Mayor and his people seem to think that the virtue of their mere presence would control increasingly hostile groups of African-American youth turning nearly every public gathering into a disaster area. And NO, putting this all on the Mayor's Youth Commission doesn't count as a plan.
5. Mayor Sly James Has More Street Cred Among Hipsters Than In The Urban Core
During the last election Mayor Sly James touted his Montgall Ave. roots but didn't mention that he hasn't really been back there in 30 years. Even worse, the Mayor has surrounded himself with hipsters and middle-managers who have very few community connections. What's worse is that Sly and his people are known for being out of touch, aloof and mostly driven by self-interest . . . Couple this perception with the Mayor's "win at all costs" style of bully politics and it's easy to see why it's mainly corporate types who comprise the Mayor's main base of support in order to earn more tax breaks and favors - Strictly a biz relationship.
Therefore . . .
KANSAS CITY'S GROWING INABILITY TO CONFRONT YOUTH VIOLENCE ON THE PLAZA, AT THE ZOO AND IN THE STREETS SEEMS TO BE MAYOR SLY'S ACHILLES' HEEL AND REVEALS HE DOESN'T HAVE AS MUCH COMMUNITY SUPPORT!!!
For the sake of Kansas City's safety, let's hope the Mayor and his crew can change their style and fix some of these perceptions. Meanwhile, there's no doubt that a pattern of urban core/African-American/Black youth violence confronts Kansas City and neither the Mayor nor most of the mainstream media seem willing to discuss the topic openly.
Developing . . .
Mayor's nights might help! Maybe if they give away free tablets and xbox 360
ReplyDeleteJames and crew have increased this city's debt to pay for every known boondoggle in the book.
ReplyDeleteLet's hear from the hipster apologists now.
With a face like that? Really? Not enough bananas to fill those nostrils!
ReplyDeletelolz
ReplyDeleteWho cares about Sly James' popularity?
ReplyDeleteAnybody who gives a hoot about KCMO south of the river and particularly all the millions of tax dollars that have been poured and continue to be thrown at downtown, had better get off their butts, have some serious sit-downs with the "leadership" in the black community, and take a public position that, just as Chief Forte' said about the Plaza, this kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated and the police are going to roll up the thugs, bangers, and wannabees who have been getting away with this for far too long.
No excuses; no rationales; no marches about profiling and all the rest.
Society maintains police departments to protect law-abiding citizens from anti-social, destructive, and illegal behaviors.
Sly, the council, the BOPC, the business community, the faith community, and anyone else who as a stake in the city needs to say that we've passed the "enough" point.
Your move, Sly. That's what leadership's about.
The only this administration does well is carpet bombing the public with a barrage of worthless idiotic twitter marketing crap day after day.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to stealing our money of course which comes first.
The kids just want an Internet connection. So we're building this city for them!!
ReplyDeleteI will actively campaign against the reelection of Sly! He and the police chief have set the city police free on Black youths. They are both token blacks for the white elite who attempt to further indoctrinate the masses.
ReplyDeleteA city afraid of its own youth. What a pity. I guess it would just be too fucking inhuman to bring back a good old fashioned spanking and ass kicking for the real smart asses. What a hoot that the adults in this city are running from these rug rat chicken shits.
ReplyDeleteFuck sly James. Vote that fat piece of criminal shit out!!!
ReplyDeleteI voted for Sly. I made a mistake.
ReplyDeleteCome on, Tony. "Misbehaving youth" ain't gonna bring anybody down.
ReplyDeleteSorry, man.
ReplyDeleteAlso who the hell uses "youth" except headline writers? "Tom is an interesting youth, eh what old bean?"
ReplyDeleteMayor James says:
ReplyDelete"I'm Black, but I associate with people (civic elite) that can keep me advancing forward. I figured out a long time ago how to play this game, and you don't win by hanging out with disgruntled neighborhood activists, as they have no power."
Fine dining on the Plaza while rubbing shoulders with business leaders is a lot more fun than eating hotdogs with the little people.
St. Louis - KMOV-TV reports that the fight early Thursday spilled onto the streets and involved dozens of participants.
ReplyDeletePolice say the brawl broke out around 1 a.m. and involved groups of teenagers. An officer confirmed that two groups were part of an increasingly common organized fight mob.
What would Sly say?
He'd say. Well haha yeah them kids need something to do don't they. Let's get the taxpayers to invest in some expensive groovy youth center where they'll be able to entertain themselves with wholesome activities. Some hoops, some music.
ReplyDeleteHey, niggers will be niggers and there is nothing more effective than counter violence to stop their animal ways. If humans quit pampering these throwbacks, the entire situation might just start to look up.
ReplyDeletea little more jack johnson, and a little less lil wayne would make the world a better place
ReplyDeletejust blame it all on "White Privilege"
ReplyDeleteNot all whites are included in whit privilege
ReplyDeleteDavid Irving March 25th!
ReplyDeleteyou know whats anti-social, 118?
ReplyDeletecapitalism
so you can try to keep attention on the kids all you want, and treat them like second class citizens, or you could realize that the whole problem is actually about the greed of a few white people, and the community suffers for their greed.
Sly will not be destroyed. The companies and individuals that profited during his reign have jobs waiting for him.
ReplyDeleteThe solution will be for the police to continue to babysit for the absentee parents who failed to raise their children to act in a civilized manner. The Plaza and the KC Zoo will eventually suffer the same fate as Bannister Mall because most civilized people are afraid of being labeled racists if they dare point out the race of those responsible and suggest directing corrective measures solely at the perpetrators. Even Mayor Sly jumped on the "race blinders" bandwagon when he claimed the disruptive crowd at the zoo was different than the one at the Plaza. Totally false. As someone who dealt directly with both groups, it's exactly the same people. Not just a few, hundreds and hundreds of them with the sole purpose of intimidation and acting like thugs. Why, because the response is usually someone at city hall throwing tax money at them for more free things. Free food, free phones, free college, and free healthcare isn't enough. Now we have to provide free entertainment just so civilized people can enjoy their weekend. Sad.
ReplyDeleteHe'll move to cozy a Sunset Hills pad so he can drive his new car given to him by Aristocrat to his new director gig at Polsinelli there at West Edge regardless if he's a one or two termer.
ReplyDeleteShow up at the state of the city speech at Park Hill HS next Monday we need to voice our disgust at the crime in this city, Sly needs to hear from the citizens of this community before it gets worse.
ReplyDeleteWait! JPB and Mayor Sly are the two that gave us the "No Violence Alliance". Currently, NOVA is a huge success! If the current murder rate continues, the city can surely expect between 115 to 150 homicides this year.
ReplyDeleteHis tweets say "working on it". At least on the zoo thing.
ReplyDeleteSly limits what he has to say to twitter, because as little as he knows or cares about city government or his responsiblities as mayor easily fits into 140 characters.
ReplyDeleteYou saw that in the Channel 5 interview and questioning.
And now on to the Republican Convention. And byt eh way, the Repubs are planning a site visit soon, so will the city be tearing down hoses, fixing streets, painting buildings, and planting trees and schrubs like they did along designated routes for the All Star Game?
Take more money out of police, street repair, and other services, but don't touch that streetcar money!
4:33 That all you have?
ReplyDeleteSly James is a fraud! His son is a crook. Wait, Sly... have you seen your child lately??? I think you are embarrassed of him.
Things are getting out of hand. Innocent people are getting hurt. I support the police in KCMO.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for the police because they have to play games with city hall about dumb stuff like this.
I know they have the equipment and the power to curtail the problem. They cannot do anything till the policies and laws change to fix the issues with unsupervised minors.
I wish things were better for the police. They have been fighting an uphill battle for a long time with sly and his group. No one has the courage to change the way the laws are written, design new policies, and develop new procedures. The police can only do so much.
I hate to be mean, but in my heart I think that city hall has a deep hatred for the inner-city. In my opinion the inner city is causing many problems for the politicos and they cannot declare victory in anything because of the inner-city issues. I think city hall's idea is perhaps if they just ignore the inner-city problem it will go away.
I don't understand why it takes courage to state the obvious and change laws and policies. I don't understand why doing the bare minimum is too hard for Sly and his crew. People should not get credit for doing things they should do anyway.
Nothing wrong with a little stop and frisk.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with a warrant check.
Nothing wrong with setting up ID checks in areas prone to violence.
Take a few guns, get a few stolen tags, scare people away. Works for me.
Make it so the troublemakers have to stay home, because they all like to call each other and warn each other.
When all else fails in KCK they stop for noise ordinances with the car stereos. They also pull over for seat belts. They also are big on cell phones. It works. It keeps the hood rats out of areas at certain times. Just a suggestion.
Choices come with responsibility.
Everybody is afraid of the being called the R word.
ReplyDeleteStand up! If you have children better stop this crap now.
What black youth problem? Just kids having fun. Lol
ReplyDelete9:13 has a good start. But take it farther. When there is a big nigger chimp-out like there was at the Zoo or the Plaza, go Las Vegas on them. Bust some fucking heads. Put a few in the hospital. Put a few in the morgue. Put their fucking worthless 'parents' in jail, and not just for a few nights. The only thing they understand is violence, so FUCKING BRING IT.
ReplyDeleteI'll second that 9:37
ReplyDeleteRetired cop
Worst Mayor ever!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for Alonzo Washington et al. who claimed they saw it coming: why did they not call the cops?
ReplyDeleteLike anyone gives a flying fuck about ANY hipster "cred". (yawn)
ReplyDeleteSly is a thug nigger whose days are numbered here in KC
ReplyDeleteBut he is your "thug" nigger. Bought and paid for.
ReplyDelete