TKC SUNDAY SPECIAL!!! COWTOWN COST ANALYSIS: KANSAS CITY COULD BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR!!!
TKC NOTE: Right now we want to feature an INSPIRED Sunday special comment that not only weighs local priorities or lack thereof but also offers data to back up opinion.
Accordingly . . .
CHECK THIS SUNDAY KANSAS CITY COST ANALYSIS OF GOOGLE FIBER VS. THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR!!!
Special thanks to this EDUCATED AND TRUSTED TKC READER offering insight into the Internets future of this town and news that we are sadly on track to relive the past with old school rail instead of focusing on new communication tech.
Check it:
Digital Divide Solution
Regarding the work of Connecting for Good and their goal of bridging the digital divide in Kansas City, it is a good goal. The digital divide is the "Troost" of our time. Bridging it can be cycle-breaker providing access to educational, job, communication and life opportunities otherwise unavailable. But there is a faster and better way than the slow and tedious process of refurbishing old computers and setting up small wifi hotspots one small neighborhood at a time.
For less than the price of half a mile of streetcar extension, Kansas City, Missouri could provide every household below the poverty line with a brand-new new Google Chromebook and 7-years of Google Fiber service.
How am I coming up with this? Google will connect a household and provide 7 years worth of service for $300. Chromebooks are about $300 as well. So that's $600 per household. According to the 2010 US Census, there are 221,860 total housing units in KCMO and 18.8% of people live below the poverty level. That's 41,710 homes x $600 or a little over $25 million. Half a mile of streetcar extension is more than $30 million. Ask the people of the urban core which would bring them the most benefit and opportunity - half a mile of streetcar track miles away or the world brought to their home.
Now obviously the math above is not exact, but it's likely not that far off. In fact, KCMO could provide Google Fiber to every household in the city limits regardless of income for the same price as a mile of track. If we're trying to be the city that attracts innovators, which is more attractive, a city of over 300 square miles that puts in a couple of miles of century old transportation technology or a city that provides state-of-the-art internet connectivity to every citizen?
It's even better than free trash bags. Remember those?
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This is an excellent idea TKC but the problem is that it cuts out the local engineering and architectural firms who have already paid Sly to carry out their wishes.
ReplyDeleteApparently people have forgotten already the contract Google made with Sly. Which basically means taxpayers subsidize Google's free ride here.
ReplyDeleteYes and this so called state-of-the-art internet connectivity (wires on telephone poles) is creating how many well paying meaningful jobs for Americans that actually produce something of real value?
ReplyDeleteConnecting people to YouTube, Porn, and all the other Web 2.0 idiocracy that dominates the interent these days.
ReplyDeleteWow what a progressive idea.
The writer forgets how much we have already given to those that "don't have" without seeing our "investment" produce tangible results. People need to want to get off of their ass, put down the Cheetos and better themselves for these giveaway schemes to have any real effect. Promoters of such plans will claim that there is that one in one hundred that gets a free this or that that goes on to become chief of surgery or something. I say those people would have gotten there regardless because they had the gumption to do it.
ReplyDeleteNone of the above rant in any way supports the streetcar. I think all the adults in the room understand that this is just another expensive ecodev scheme foisted upon the hapless citizenry by people of ill motive.
You people have obviously forgotten the Hipster Manifesto's position on the downtrodden, so I will have to republish that part of the Manifesto again for those of you who are old and memory-challenged:
ReplyDelete"While we condemn any overt discrimination against people of color, we don’t really want to have anything to do with them (unless they happen to be hipsters, like us), hence our aversion to buses and our unwillingness to cross Troost and certainly Prospect. It’s all good and well to talk equality, but really, people! We are, of course, willing to use racism as a tool against any and all of our opponents. If you don’t like marathons, streetcars, and higher taxes for things we want, you’re a racist, in other words. See how well that works? If you don’t like it, you can always move to some Ku Klux Klan enclave in Utah or wherever."
7:52 I agree but I'd rather have these kids watching crap than bored shitless and taking their boredom to the streets.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually an interesting idea. Yes, they're be a lot of homes where it's a waste but how many desperate moms will be able to get their kids a real education online to take the place of the time waste in KCPS? Mom can probably find a better job too.
You still have to have teachers ..the teachers just don't have to be distracted by kids bouncing off walls.
ReplyDelete8:23, I feel your altruistic pain. And before I wrote what I did, I gave thought to the same concepts, i.e. better jobs, education for the kids. However, the truth is that the urban poor live in a disposable world. Honestly, I give that Chromebook six months before it's either in the trash or sold for a couple of bucks or stolen (and sold for a couple of bucks. I live east of Troost. I see it every day.
ReplyDeleteIf this blog is an example of what the Internet will bring into my home - divisiveness, racism, stupidity, opinion masquerading as fact, illegible Stalder cartoons, the egos of Alonzo Washington and Craig Glazer - build the streetcar.
ReplyDeleteGoogle's created so many high paying jobs here in Kansas City we can boast the lowest unemployment rate in America! Just look at all the happy people on TrueKC and see for yourself!!
ReplyDeleteI agree 9:00 in order to be futuristic we need to install systems from the early 1900's. We'll show the world who's boss!
ReplyDeleteI think the point is simply that the streetcar boasts that it attracts young people and helps poor people, but there are better ways to do that for less money. At the end of the day, the streetcar is just a way to satisfy the global warming/anti-car crowd, and make a handful of people rich off of public money.
ReplyDeleteBrothas be getting there blacks on blondes porn faster wit this
ReplyDeletethe google box can hear when someone is eating cheetos, and tell them to put them down. cheetos produce a very particular crunch, when the google box picks up the sound it makes a small siren noise and then sends a message to your health care provider that you are eating cheetos. so actually if you are interested in minimizing health care costs and dont give two fucks about privacy, this is an interesting deal. unfortunately the republican side is totally owned by health care profiteers, who would likely go after google if they tried to cut into their profit margins. the google box can also tell when most of a countrys wealth accumulation happened on stolen native lands with stolen african labor, and privileged people try to deny it and be patronizing shits.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, the streetcar is just a way to satisfy the grossly indisputably underserved/underfunded/underexecuted needs of modern, effective, normal, uncontroversial, accepted, proven and relatively inexpensive public transit in this city, and make a handful of curmudgeons who fear any change rich with gripes, quibble and frantic inarticulate rage.
ReplyDeleteMy computer days go back to punch cards and before the WWW I find it amazing that today as a limited income senior citizen I have to pay 39.95 to AT and T for computer service and 50.00 for Time Warner cable. Google and the satellite services are not aviable. When will we have reasonable cost television ND internet without juggling suppliers. The companies cherry pick the services they offer. I have sued Time Warner 3 times and have won every time. From conversations with others COMCAST is no batter. Is it not time to end government and let the companies truly compete
ReplyDelete10:00-2 At the end of the day, the streetcar is just a way to satisfy the grossly indisputably overserved/overfunded/overexecuted needs of the political elite and their cronies.
ReplyDeleteModern, effective, normal, uncontroversial, accepted, proven and relatively inexpensive public transit in this city is called the automobile. That's why the streetcar was rendered obsolete in the 50s.
The handful of curmudgeons are the liberal "buy cool stuff with other people's money" set who fear any pushback from those whose pockets they are raiding, while spewing false promises, BS and lies.
9:00 (#1): And yet here you are!
ReplyDelete"At the end of the day, the streetcar is just a way to satisfy the grossly indisputably underserved/underfunded/underexecuted needs of modern, effective, normal, uncontroversial, accepted, proven and relatively inexpensive public transit in this city"
ReplyDeleteWhat does the streetcar give us transportation-wise that buses don't other than very expensive fixed rails we'll have to pay to have taken up (again) in a few years? And try to be specific. That shouldn't be too much to ask of an alleged Mensa-level IQ.
"Relatively inexpensive?" Relative to what? Giving everyone a Lexus?
ReplyDelete"At the end of the day, the streetcar is just a way to satisfy the grossly indisputably underserved/underfunded/underexecuted needs of..."
ReplyDeleteLocal contractors, termed out politicians in need of a job, etc.
“The dominant goal is not to have a lot of people ride it"
ReplyDeleteThe dominant goal here at city hall and the developers we cater to is ensuring that taxpayers continue to be our own private ATM.
Uh did we get this covered yet on todays blog? The Real TrueKC
ReplyDeleteRAYTOWN, MO (KCTV) -
Authorities are investigating a convenience store shooting.
Raytown police were called to a QuikTrip in the 8700 block of East 63 Street about 1:30 a.m. Sunday after reports that a person that had been shot.
Yeah well local engineering firms wont be able to rake it in from Google Fiber so city hall wont hear of it.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get rid of "the kansas city way" and fix this city's problems.
How can you folks at city hall even talk about rationalizing what you’re doing when you don’t even know what you’re doing?
ReplyDeleteSmiling proudly on City Hall steps with their heavily 'lobbied' government officials, with fawning media photographers and writers praising the benefits of corporate-CEO welfare, as the middle class pays for yet another tax-preference item for the rich and connected.
ReplyDelete12:05. No coverage. It involves a black person committing a crime, not Whitney.
ReplyDeleteFor the price of just one if the unnecessary taxpayer funded, underused highway interchanges built in this metro ona semi annual basis we could have the nations beat transit system...but the suburban howlers sense of entitlement would be injured if they had to share the tit they've been feeding off for the last half century.
ReplyDeleteThe people who actuall pay the bills in this country are tired of exclusively subsidizing your sprawl Ponzi scheme so you can continue to pretend your 50 year old angry entitled white ass is the engine of the economy but it's not. You are leeches. You've been spending other peoples money for decades, to find your culdesac developments your adandoned strip malls in ever further concentric circles of waste your gobbling up productive agriculture land to feed your locust-like welfare state and to prop up your poor investments in last centuries development schemes and technology (cars are freedom! It said so in the commercial!).
We are tired of feeding you leeches. It's time for te actual economic center- the urban core- to get a silver of the pie you far fucks have monopolized for the last 3/4 century.
I can see why it makes you guys so scared. If I iverstewtched myself to get a mortgage on a carpooling built McMansion in the middle if nowhere, I would be just as frightened of the writing on the wall as you are. I almost feel sorry or you. But I didn't make the same poor choices you did, so you're going to have to just bite your pillow and get used to sharing. We are tired of carrying your load.
America has not problem with giving welfare to corporations, but won't do anything to help poor people, because America hates poor people.
ReplyDeleteI think the start of a real mass transit system is a positive development.
ReplyDeleteCan you think of anything more forward thinking?
Make up your own mind when you consider in city traffic will increase 44% over the next five years.
Up is the direction for gasoline prices,too.
Statistics don't lie. In fifty years - and the days of cheap oil are just about over - a mass transit system will be a godsend.
Too often we are far too shortsighted to see the future.
I want the coal and fracked natural gas powered toy choo choo train attached to wires overhead!
ReplyDeleteThat's forward thinking!
I think we should keep furiously pushing our hyper consumption throw it away system while pretending it can keep going on forever. Using up everything and valuing nothing.
ReplyDeleteThat will solve everything.
2:48, you make some good arguments, so sell them in the northland rather than disenfranchise them. If you looked at suburbanites as fellow tax paying citizens instead of unhealthy polluters who deserved to be punished, we probably could have had a better public transit plan than this lousy mixed traffic streetcar YEARS ago. And let's just stop this notion that investing $300M east of Troost on a train instead of reducing crime or improving schools is a good plan for helping poor people.
ReplyDelete3:12; I think you'll find that many who oppose the streetcar actually support a pragmatic investment in a public transit system that would actually take more cars off the road, connect more places, and for less than $500M funded largely off of the poor people we're supposedly helping.
2:48 & 3:12 do not give any--not one--reason a streetcar would be preferable to the bus system we already have. I don't live in the suburbs, so I guess 2:48's rant does not apply to me, and I actually use the bus system we already have (which, 3:12, IS a mass transit system because of the price of gas and the convenience of not having to park a car downtown. I think we'd be much better off if we continue to make the bus system we have better, and making rides free would be less expensive than replacing or augmenting it with streetcars.
ReplyDeleteKansas City voters (and I include myself in this lot--I voted for Sly and the e-tax) have proven ourselves to be gullible, but we do have limits.
Oh, and 3:12--statistics don't lie, but people using statistics do.
ReplyDeleteFor the price of the taxpayer funded sewers to the twin creeks area where no one lives and relatively few people ever will, even if the wild projections about how many suburban tract houses on enormous unused lots might get built ever come true, we could have upgraded the aging sewer infrastructure for 150 thousand residents who already live an pay taxes in the part of kc that is actually there.
ReplyDeleteIt already looks like the old USSR here in Heartlandia so as long as we have the train tracks we can say we have a rail system
ReplyDeleteMan 248 sure has a stick up his ass. Did you grow up in the suburbs? Post WW II created the suburb because the city was an old dirty cowtown. The whole east side was suburbia. Brookside was a JC Nichols suburban development for people who didn't like living like pigs in a semi truck heading to slaughter.
ReplyDeleteYour envy shows done serious issues. You'd seem like the type that would have loved Hitler's 1936 Germany
I sure hate you 2:48...bet you're sitting on you ass collecting a check!
ReplyDeleteI was at Oak Park Mall yesterday and observed a number of young blonde white girls hanging with older black thugs. Several were pregnant, wearing short skirts and Google Fiber immediately came to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe Google Bunny gives the hood rats the opportunity to put their big cocks on display for the young white girls to marvel over. Rather than fuck small cock white classmates, the young JOCO blondes choose the big cock black hood rat, then 9 months later a half breed jr hood rat pops out and the world just got even more fucked up.
Thanks a fucking lot Google Fiber. Fuck a Chromebook.
2:28 & 3:12 are either council people or employees of contractors hoping to make a killing on putting the streetcar in and then, in 20 years or so, taking it out.
ReplyDelete6:08: Relevance?
6:55 take the tin foil bunny ears off. 6:08 is making reference to the cost of supporting all the half and half kids that will be popping up and the taxpayers will have to foot the bill for them. That will cost way more than any Toy Train.
ReplyDelete8:07: So Google is to blame for the results of interracial sex? I ask this even without my tin foil bunny ears.
ReplyDelete