Here's another sign that the KCPS re-purposing effort has failed as developers set upon the district and neighbors are desperate for hope in order to save their property values from further blight decline.
Kansas City Marketing Blog Starting A Local Movement: ACT NOW and REquest a REvote for the WESTPORT HIGH SALE
Deets:
"On April 4th, there will be a KCPS School Board meeting. At this meeting the emails, letters, and concerns about the decision to VOTE DOWN the sale of Westport High School will be presented to the board. I would like you to be one of the supporting voices who speaks out and REQUEST THEY RECONSIDER the sale and redevelopment of Westport High into the proposed market rate housing and a charter school. Many of you have already voiced your support over the two years in which the KCPS Repurposing Initiative has asked for your input and has now delivered it as their recommendation to the School Board. I would ask that you agree to voice a positive, but impactful plea for the School Board to RECONSIDER THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL SALE and assist the citizens who supported the Repurposing Initiative Advisors, the Superintendent, the affected neighborhoods and communities, and the public school students in need of the high school facility."
Before readers get to "rah, rah, go team" it's important to remember: Just because a developer has a scheme, doesn't mean it will work.
Moreover . . .
There's always a possibility that redeveloping a blighted and shut down school could make things worse for a surrounding neighborhood. Think Section 8.
Sadly, local politics constantly proves to us that it's easy to fool voters, play upon their fears and hopes and make locals forget that it's really a legacy of failure from people like the school board and our current crop of politicos who have helped create the current desperate real estate situation.
Developing . . .
Or don't do anything and just let the neighborhood slide an even worse situation.
ReplyDeleteYou know, in Portland the McMennamin's brothers would have already turned this historic buiding into a theatre pub with all the trappings... special event nights, live bands and such.
ReplyDeleteIn KC...some homeless will probably squat there for a bit and then it will be torn down.
Just different ways of doing things I reckon.
Thank Crispin Rea.
ReplyDelete6:46 is right, although the same can be said for many other cities in addition to Portland.
ReplyDeleteBut in those other places, what's important is actually WHAT they do.
In KCMO it's all about WHO gets what.
And most of the elected folks, including in this case those on the school board, are simply empty vessels that get jerked around by one individual or group or another and the public constantly gets stuck with the same terrible results.
And you can have all the great ideas, good intentions, and out of town programs you want, but until you elect some serious people who are actually in doing instead of being something, nothing's going to change for the better.
I have much recent personal experience with how stubborn the school district can be on these matters. It's like going to a yard sale, and then finding out that nothing is for sale.
ReplyDeleteThe district simply cannot manage these properties, and would be better off allowing the buildings to be reused to serve the surrounding communities.
I understand that KCPS dreams that one day, they will reopen Westport HS. I also recognize that having a successful charter high school is going to attract many top students away from Lincoln Prep, the premier school in Kansas City.
The best strategy for KCPS, IMO, is to downsize to something manageable, sell off their unused assets, make progress with their current students in the hopes of increasing their test scores, which hopefully leads to increased enrollment numbers, and if they ever have the need for a new school, build a new one with all of the field space and modern amenities they require.
Stop holding these communities hostage.
Crispin might want to reconsider either his vote on the Westport High sale or his run for city council. Everyone gets to vote for at-large candidates, and people held hostage to a vacant building won't be forgetting Crispin come 2015.
ReplyDeleteSo that is how it works for Crispin!
ReplyDeleteEver since Gunnar Hand got on the board the district has began to dream about making a come back. The same Gunnar hand that tried to cram streetcar down our throats. It's a shame that more neighborhoods continue to be a addled with blight in their back yards.
ReplyDeleteOh, he hasn't given up on the streetcar, 10:02. He has delusions of grandeur.
ReplyDeleteDelusions of grandeur on no less a fantastically successful body than the KCPS board.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT is delusional!
World class.
Amateur night!
Gunnar must be smoking Crystal William's hubby's weed again. I do not want the Nigger carriers to come into my neighborhood. FUCK THE NIGGERS!
ReplyDeleteTo all racists: go fuck yourselves. I don't like the mayor, I don't want the streetcar, and I wish the school district would get dissolved but none of those views have anything to do with race. Keep your bigotry away from me and from the issues I care about because you undermine what I believe in. In other words, I don't want to be associated with racists.
ReplyDeleteTo Tony's "there's always a possibility" that Academie Lafayette coming to Westport could be a bad move, well yeah, that's the real world, everything has consequences, many unintended. But leaving a building vacant has much more obvious downsides than selling the building to a well-managed, accredited school. There's always a possibility that aliens will choose Westport High as their base to begin their reign of LSD-laced gummi bears, I mean, if we're considering all the possibilities. :D
ReplyDeleteEmoticons aside, I appreciate Tony's tireless efforts to report REAL NEWS. And the way the local KC gubbmint wheels and deals always deserves an airing in the daylight, no matter how tiresome it is to see the same antics repeated over and over.
Idiots, Crispin was and has been the one trying to save this for your ungrateful and uninformed asses. Do you not understand what 3-4 vote means?
ReplyDeleteCrispins been the main one driving this silliness and watch he'll call in sick when the board finally does vote so he won't be on record. Typical empty suit move. He and Shannon Jax where are fellow Mattie Rhodes grifters, the board paid her over 200k not to sale a single building other than $1 deals for the west side housing. Turning kc into Mexico City. .. Crispin sure a leader we can count on, to screw us over
ReplyDeleteCrispin Rea couldn't lead the school board to do the right thing on Westport High. That's because the kid is 12 years old and acts like he is 2. Crispin does not have a paying job, does not have a record of accomplishing anything, and has an ego the size of his student loan debt. If we are looking for an inexperienced, arrogant, and less-than-bright representative, then we should defintely elect Crispin for city council.
ReplyDeleteLove to know exactly what Crispy's agenda has been with Westport High.
ReplyDeleteRea has also NEVER lived up to his word that he would explain what he thinks are the facts surrounding the $34 million insider no-bid contract deal that the KCPS board would have approved if it hadn't been for Ryan Kath's reporting.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that Rea and the gang were had by a consultant that they hired for advice and the advice he gave them was that they should give him the contract, even though his "company" had just been created sepcifically to get the money.
Immature; arrogant; inexperienced; easily duped.
Just the kind of council candidate to get behind.
All the above and more, but hey he's hispanic and not black so no matter how many strings are in his back and no matter how corrupt he is its ok cause "at least he anint a nigger". KC politics at its finest.
ReplyDelete2:42 you have never shown your ugly mug and giant gut at a school board meeting. The "kid" has done more than you and he is half your age. I'd be sour about that as well if I was an unsuccessful lowlife reduced to bitching about others on a blog.
ReplyDelete4:49 don't waste your time insulting the gadflys that spend every second of their free time on this blog bitching about people they will never be important enough to meet. Most of them (all 10 of them) don't even live in KCMO. They are outsiders with no power and will always be on the fringe. Otherwise they'd talk their shit face to face. Trust me it ain't worth the time!
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the TKC comment community of malcontents and wannabe insiders! Dirtier than dirty Mike and the boys. Answer me this you ditch dwellers...what are your polling locations in KCMO?
ReplyDeleteWell, shitfire... you folks sure spend a lot of time on a blog that is clearly several standard deviations beneath your mensa grey-matter.
ReplyDeleteJust can't stay away, can you? The self-loathing that causes must be immense!
Now get back to setting' the world on fire, you hard chargers!!
Hey 1:30, calm down Buckwheat, nobody is talking about race. Chill out and have some watermelon.
ReplyDelete4:49-5:26: Posting the same crap four times does not make it any more credible, Mensa boy. I live here, vote, and can walk to my polling station. It's that close.
ReplyDeleteAgree with 1:30. The racism is unnecessary. The airport, streetcar and Mensa and BNIM twins are so self-evidently stupid race doesn't need to play a part in the discussion.
ReplyDelete8:07, you have no voice and you are too chicken shit to say the things you say on here in front of actual people. You are a sadist. A malcontent. A gadfly like the rest of the lowlifes that yell at the top of their lungs on here.
ReplyDeleteTotally wrong. I have no problem stating my opinions to anyone anywhere, and I have no problem listening to other people's opinions, either. I expect my alleged representatives to be able to support their opinions with facts (verifiable, not made-up). I've even been known to change my opinions when I'm presented with rational positions by people who do not have a vested interest in a certain outcome (e.g., future employment in exchange for influence). If that makes me a sadist or a malcontent, so be it. I happily accept that I'm a gadfly. I've been that all my life. It's one of the results of not letting other people do my thinking for me, and it's worked out quite well in all aspects of my life, Mensa boy.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there's an interesting book review in the Wall Street Journal this morning. You might read it before flaunting your high IQ.
10:12 PM is telling it like it is. Even if you vote, you have no voice.
ReplyDeleteWow! I wish your guys would bring your passion over to our ReVote Westport facebook page!! I was reading all of your comments, and I want to tell you all to HAVE HOPE. Westport Middle School has sold, and there is still a good chance that Westport High will sell to the original developer that was told no on the 26th. The no vote is just as ridiculous as it sounds, but there were politics at play. We say...abide by the Repurposing Initiative policies and LEAVE THE POLITICS OUT OF IT. The other good news is that we have some great new people on the school board. Look forward in good faith and give them a chance to instill better governance on the school board. And GO LIKE THE REVOTE WESTPORT FB PAGE. We are supposed to be back on the table for reconsideration on the 23rd school board meeting. and ps. thanks for caring! Love, ReVote Westport HQ
ReplyDelete