KANSAS CITY MAYOR SLY POLITICALLY ABANDONED BY EAST SIDE AND NOW HELLING HELPS WITH RESCUE EFFORT!!!
Here's a bit of political spin and machine politics from Dead Tree Media that's worth a click . . .
MAYOR SLY HAS BEEN COMPLETELY NEGLIGENT AND ABSENTEE ON KANSAS CITY'S EAST SIDE BUT IN THE AFTERMATH OF A BRUTAL ELECTION BEATING . . . HE'S TALKING THE SAME OLD EAST/WEST LINE THAT EVERYBODY MENTIONS DURING ELECTION TIME!!!
Here's Helling dutifully transcribing the Mayor's talking points . . .
Dave Helling: The lines that divide us can be erased
We've all heard this line before but let's hit it again . . .
“We have to go east and west,” Mayor Sly James told The Star. “There are too many things in this city that go north and south.”
He was quite right, of course. There are two great dividing lines in Kansas City, south of the Missouri River: State Line Road, which separates Missouri from Kansas, and Troost Avenue, which divides the races. Both travel north to south.
Both streets divide political power, and therefore responsibility: Kansans and Missourians argue over tax policy, jobs, transit, schools. Troost segregates housing, neighborhood improvements, education, crime."
Beautifully written, a wonderful sentiment but here are the facts:
- Mayor Sly hasn't had many high profile visits to the Kansas City east side since Derron Black scared him away.
- Mayor Sly's agenda has been totally corporate and focused on tax breaks with only a soft commitment to an east side toy train payout that nobody really believed.
- Here's the big one . . .
MAYOR SLY HAS BEEN TOUTING THE KANSAS CITY TECH "CREATIVE CLASS" THAT MOSTLY EXCLUDES PEOPLE OF COLOR!!!
Even Rev. Jesse Jackson notes the lack of tech diversity but not a peep on the topic from Mayor Sly.
Fact: The Kansas City "Creative Class" tech community is lily white and our Mayor would rather play celebrity and cheerleader than mention the problem.
If Mayor Sly wants to work on erasing Kansas City dividing lines . . . Then he should start with his own administration that has consistently delivered two different messages to these disparate communities.
Developing . . .
KC Voters Reject Streetcar Expansion
ReplyDeleteCase Closed
Reading Helling is so sad. He refuses to acknowledge that the proposed taxing district for the streetcar reinforced the concerns he so eloquently expressed in his missive. The proposed streetcar district was discriminatory, pure and simple. It would have subjected residents and small businesses in our poorest neighborhoods to the highest tax increases in our city's history, while excluding the more affluent 'white' areas of the city. It was wrong. The mayor was wrong to suggest this district under the guise of eco-devo for residents, and the Star, in it's smug 'we know what is best for you' attitude, was wrong to support it.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to City Kansas, Missouri - the Home of Fraud & Corruption, Lies & Deciept
ReplyDeleteHow much more emergency money has City Hall "washed and laundered" today?
ReplyDeleteSly James = 1 and done
ReplyDelete"KC Voters Reject Streetcar Expansion," soon to be "KC Voters Reject Sly James for another term"
ReplyDeleteHelling is a sucker for Slie's soundbites. Slie talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. You can't trust a damn thing he says. Yes, there needs to be economic development East of Troost, but the streetcar plan was a sham.
ReplyDeleteSly is dead meat, even if he gets another term.
ReplyDeleteSly is a slimebag piece of shit.
ReplyDeleteSly doesn't give one flying FUCK about the East Side because it doesn't provide any money for him and his cronies.
ReplyDeleteSly like his son....a hot head.
ReplyDeleteHe will NOT be re-elected, assuming a reasonable candidate challenges him.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to say this, but the last race was a toss-up as far as I was concerned. Sly and Mike Burke were each (separately) on a tour of Marlborough. Mike Burke didn't seem too fazed, but oh, Sly! He was gonna clean up that mess. He was gonna do wonders and shit cucumbers, or was that do cucumbers and shit wonders? At any rate I was suckered into voting for Sly. That's not gonna happen again. While Sly and his merry hipster group have worked hard on things the city doesn't want or need--a new airport, a streetcar, and 1,000 room hotel for a start--Marlborough and the rest of town are just the way they were when he took his little tour, if not worse. He has no credibility with me.
ReplyDeleteCut Brother Sly some slack. I hear he be having illness in his family. Yeah, I be hearing that he has to take care of his Uncle Tom. I don’t mean to simionize the Mayor’s good name but I think he has done forgot that his foreplayers done came here from Africa. I don’t have time to say no more, I am waiting for a call from Brother Sharpton about meeting up in St. Louis.
ReplyDeleteThe tech community is "lily white." I guess white people made black people drop out of high school thus making them unemployable. That and a myriad of other reasons. And don't give me this crap that they don't have access to it either. Go to the Plaza and notice the phones the "teens" are using. The best money can buy. Everything at Central High School is the best that money can buy. Everything bad that happens to black people is entirely their fault.
ReplyDeleteA good point except if you count all those good for nothing PR people who glom on to tech.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get rid of them black or white.
10 million dollars gone and he goes to the east side to buy their with promises of a streetcars [and a free ride], so now will he give them the bus service they should have?
ReplyDeleteHe gives what to the Northland?
ReplyDeleteLets' see $200,000 gone to study for the streetcars and $1.2 million gone on transit for improvements for North Oak. Maybe the Northland will get it back now.
As long as the levels of crime and violence continue on the east side, no one is going to invest any money there. And having the city throw money at the same old crowd and making believe it's development" is a joke. The millions disappear into thin air each and every time.
ReplyDeleteIf the city was really serious about "transit", it would develop reverse commute buses to get people from the core to the jobs around town and in the inner suburbs. In fact, more downtown commerical buildings are being converted all the time into apartments, so the tired old model of public transportation bringing people from the suburbs to jobs in the core is backwards and getting more so all the time.
The streetcar wasn't about much of anything other than bowing to out of towners with neat new ideas so that KC wouldn't "be left behind". And it ended as an orgy of payoffs, make-work projects, consultants, wild claims, and outright lies. And money, money, money.
Breathing life back into such a battered corpse is going to be mighty tough.
Sly doesn't like black people, he's one of those I got mine you get yours type of guys.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal, doing something meaningful (AKA JOBS) for the east side is hard work, takes some time and expertise, none of which James seems inclined to do, although in his defense neither has anyone else.
ReplyDeleteSLie likes the East-side plenty!!
ReplyDeleteThe few blocks just East of the State Line. Hanging out on the Plaza, drinking wine and dining with the corporate class.
Tony nails it with this post!!
I see Mr. Helling was in a utopian mood as he composed his thoughts for this article.
ReplyDeleteWhile he states:
"Yet the barriers are completely artificial. There is no inherent reason why a neighborhood east of Troost should be less desirable than one west of Troost, or that Kansans and Missourians should fight over scarce and dwindling public resources."
Yet, one wonders, why does Mr. Helling choose to reside in Kansas suburbia and not "east of Troost"?
Why does he purport to know whats best for KCMO residents?
Why do people fence their yards?
Why doesn't Mr. Helling contribute a greater share of his income to charitable causes?
There are no inherent barriers preventing him from relocating to Kansas City's East-side and donating generously to the community.
Not one single person has said anything positive about this embarrassment of a mayor. KC - we can do better than this charlatan.
ReplyDeleteHipster and burns and Mac and bnim priorities are the only thing that motivates this piss poor public servant, and we all now see through his arrogance.
We the people will vote your lying scamming ass out, Sly.
Sly... Look at map. You can't go very West, and NOBODY wants to go East.... Idiot
ReplyDeleteI just heard Sly on the radio. He said he now realizes that the citizens just don't want the streetcar and that they think the three-terminal KCI is just fine. He is now going to turn his attention to fixing the sewer system and trying to get the water department to stop letting broken mains spew water for days on end. (snicker)
ReplyDeleteIn Kansas, the schools are better.
ReplyDeleteIn Kansas, there is less crime.
In Kansas, there isn't trash and graffiti everywhere.
In Kansas, there is no earning tax.
In Kansas, the streets get cleared of snow quicker.
I personally care deeply about the Eastside of KC. It's just that I don't want to live in the dirty, crime-ridden hellhole.
ReplyDeleteNEWS RELEASE -- Sly is seeking $318.25 trillion in federal funding to build streetcar line from Troost to Paseo.
ReplyDeleteIn August 2014, a small but determined cadre of sane, working people finally raised up on their hind legs and said "no" to the ruling class of KCMO. The emperor and his minions were taken aback and secretly began angling to positions in the Obama Administration.
ReplyDelete