While other, smarter towns are working to improve their cost effective bus lines, Kansas City politicos and corporate drones still tout an economic development scheme disguised as transit.
To wit . . .
TODAY WE FEATURE KICK-ASS TKC READER TESTIMONY CHALLENGING TOY TRAIN STREETCAR HYPE AND TOUTING BETTER BUS TRANSIT!!!
There are plenty of examples, info and real world insight offered in this informative op/ed piece which challenges the status quo and assertions of the local political consultant class. Checkit:
Kansas City Streetcar Vs. Bus Transit Disparity
Kansas City has a really stupid and narrow minded idea of buses. This town acts like only poor people take buses and the white elite will take the toy train.
If you go to any large cities you see white collar people standing on street corners waiting for their buses. Even in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco, etc that have subways or The L, people still have to transfer to and from buses to get to the rapid transit. I grew up in Chicago taking city buses to high school and I have taken both mass transit buses and rapid transit subways in many cities.
The Max bus in Kansas City is very efficient. Yet most stupid white people that want the streetcar tell me they've never even taken a bus and "are afraid" to. Idiots. The streetcar is just a fancier version of a bus. It won't be fast like a subway.
Progressive cities are moving to BRT - Bus Rapid Transit. They do that by putting kiosks at the bus stop so people pay before they get on the bus, making the entry much faster. They have buses designed to exit at lower curb levels, like a streetcar. And like the Max, they can electronically control traffic lights making the buses move much faster. Plus buses can be re-routed any time, unlike fixed rail that is paved into the street.
I was in City Market last Sunday. As always, it's a mess to find parking on a weekend. And I saw all the streetcar rails along those crowded streets. That will reduce traffic lanes to very narrow areas once the streetcar is running, making City Market even more difficult to maneuver and find parking. Does anyone really think people will take the streetcar to City Market and then schlep their plants and produce on a streetcar instead of the trunk of their cars?
But the bus doesn't leave a "legacy" for the next office. That is the real key to its expansion. That and big contracts.
ReplyDeleteYeah, why be "afraid"? You get on a bus and NIGGERS attack, nothing to be afraid of....
ReplyDelete^^^^^^^^^^
ReplyDeleteShhhh. The adults are talking.
Agree with reader. Lines should be better established creating a real transportation grid. Our buses tend to meander a bit. A quality 21st century bus system would be a better asset to this city than a streetcar which travels a few miles, but what do I know.
ReplyDeleteAside, "Yet, stupid white people" is totally unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteYou are comparing apples to cauliflower, not even oranges.
ReplyDeleteThe streetcar is a very limited transportation system designed to get people around from the River Market to Crown Center once they are downtown, and is built in response to the fact that the permanent downtown population has increased five fold in the last 10 years and is continuing to grow.
It is NOT designed, nor was it ever promised to be, a mass transit system to bring people from home to work places.
I find it ironic that the "insider" rips the myth that buses are dangerous.
That's a myth Tony has been feeding for years, and in typical Tony fashion.
He'll take an isolated incident and tell his readers that this is the "norm" -- it happens all the time. Like a puddle in the middle of his street is the same as a flood of Biblical proportions.
And some of his readers, like 9:13 above, are dumb enough to believe it.
First, you must understand, I really don't care too much about this issue, I'm just trying to logically think it through. If what you say is correct, then 1. Why the attempt to expand? and 2. Couldn't the same function be filled by a bus, even if it's a gimmicky "fancy" bus or trolley that travels the same route? Seems like it would be far less expensive and just as effective.
DeleteIts about segregation.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Nashville, I was the only white person I ever saw riding a city bus.
I wonder how you will keep black people off the streetcar. Perhaps, a dress code, like the P&L.
Just another part of the debt bomb Sly and crew is assembling.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand riding the bus. Too many smelly niggers using the bus as their own personal bathroom.
ReplyDeleteI was on a bus Friday on my way home from work. I was half asleep with my ipod on. I felt the bus pulling to the curb at one of the many stops along the way home. Suddenly I hear a sheboon shreik "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME?". I realized this foul mouthed tirade was coming from none other than the morbidly obese (arent they all) sheboon nigger driver. Apparantly one of the city workers who stands at the bus stops checking the schedules had said something to her when she pulled to the stop. I don't know what he said to her, but boy did it send her into a monkey tirade. She got up out of the drivers seat and was ranting and raving "YOU KISS YOUR MOTHER WITH THAT MOUTH? HOW DARE YOUS SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY!! YOUS DISREPEKFUL!". So the guy threatened to take her bus out of service and she started screaming "FINE! YOU DO THAT BITCH FUCK YOU!". So everybody had to get off the bus and transfer onto another bus. Meanwhile she's screaming and cursing there are small children in the front of the bus with their mother. How terrible these little kids have to witness this. The funniest part is when I was getting off the bus this stupid ape was huffing and puffing and some elderly ape woman comes up to her is like "CHILLLLLLLD YOU WERE RIGHT!". I just rolled my eyes.
Typical huh?
The streetcar fad was sold to KCMO and many other cities by the usual urban planning gang who gave us cul de sacs, edge cities, the new urbanism, and on and on, with "must have" new ideas every so often to sell books and keep their lecture fees up. It has little to do with what Kansas City needs to grow organically or logically or much of anything to do with actual economic development or the health of the community.
ReplyDeleteAnd in KCMO's case, it will burden residents with many decades of debt and, since one of the first decisions by the appointed Streetcar Authority was to make it free, also drain the general fund for operations and maintenance as long as it runs.
Now the city is pursuing the long-time dream of a downtown hotel and the convention business.
Next there will soon be something else to have or you'll risk being "left behind".
Downtown KCMO is becoming a very large movie set and an amusement park for 20-something year-olds.
The only thing that makes it financially sustainable is the bottomless taxing authority of the city.
It was designed to push public money into private hands, 11:10.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sick of niggers too.
ReplyDeleteThe article is dwelling on the obvious. Our great-grandparents wisely shelved streetcars in favor of buses a couple of generations ago.
ReplyDeleteAs for 11:10's condescending comments (perhaps coming from a certain allegedly high-intellect and fortunately soon-to-be extinct clowncilperson), the current "starter" line duplicates several bus lines (including the Main Street MAX) that already travel from River Market to Crown Center, and the delusional streetcar fetishists are decidedly not content to allow the streetcar to remain a service to downtown dwellers, hence the thwarted attempt to expand it that was so roundly trounced last August and the oft-stated intentions to override that vote and expand the nostalgia route anyway.
As for white people not riding the bus, nonsense. I ride the bus, and I see many white folk at bus stops between Waldo and downtown.
As for Byron's experiences in Nashville, he was probably the only white person he saw in his neighborhood, and he's legally blind, anyway.
The KC streetcar is stupid. Amazingly stupid. The only way to understand how this thing got started is to follow the money. There's just no other explanation besides graft. We only have to figure out who benefited, and we can go from there.
ReplyDeleteTO 12:31 PM...
You have no credibility. You quoted an elderly black woman as saying ""Chiiillld, you WERE right!".
NOT POSSIBLE: The Correct Ebonics is either:
"Chiiiilllld, you WUZ right." OR "Chiiiilllld, you BE right."
If you claim the elderly black woman actually used PROPER ENGLISH, then your whole story falls apart.
TO BEAT A DEAD HORSE...
ReplyDeleteIn Friday's trading session, The McClatchy Company (parent to KC Star) hit a new 52-week low, shedding 7 percent on Friday alone!!!
They're now quickly approaching the aforementioned critical level of $1.00/share. Will a reverse-stock-split be announced to keep the price up?, will they risk a delisting?, is a bankruptcy/reorganization in the offing? Stay tuned!
The McClatchy Company (MNI) -NYSE
1.19 Down 0.09(7.03%) May 22, 4:04PM EDT
Prev Close: 1.28
Day's Range: 1.17 - 1.31
52wk Range: 1.17 - 5.93
Would a dress code keep Bryon off TKC ?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, riding thru Nashville on a Greyhound bus does not constitute "living there".
Shame on Sly. He sold us out.
ReplyDelete"Choice riders" are difficult to get on buses.
ReplyDeleteFacts are good.
Bigotry is stupid.
Nazi Bear, I lived there for ten years. Try again, asshole.
ReplyDelete@1231, stay with the N-Word bigotry.
ReplyDeleteYour stories are pathetic.
It's Negros !
DeleteProbably in Section Ape housing, and living on govt cheese.
ReplyDeleteNothing new here....
Byron lived there till even the niggers couldn't stand him and threw him out
ReplyDeleteI have no issues doing public transportation I have friends in other cities who use it and love it. But this shit we have around here isn't what I call public transportation. Caters to much to the inner city.
ReplyDeleteKC needs private busses. Higher fees will get rid of the dregs and leave the real transit to people who work and study.
ReplyDeleteChi town L was quicker but crowded a few years ago, compared to the midtown bus runs there. CPD have good uniformed presence there on transits, walking and bikes and marked cars along with plain-clothes in the mix. What KC needs.
ReplyDeleteSmart comment but not the typical bus rider. The typical bus rider in kc smells like poop, mad as hell and wishing to God they had a car.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile the real world leaves you 1980s relics further and further behind...
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the circle jerk, you angsty white men of little influence. We won't miss you when we can no longer hear your tears of impotent rage...
"Smart comment but not the typical bus rider. The typical bus rider in kc smells like poop, mad as hell and wishing to God they had a car."
ReplyDeleteAnd you would know that...how? Most bus riders have cars and use the bus to save wear and tear on those cars. You need to get out more.
"Meanwhile the real world leaves you 1980s relics further and further behind..."
ReplyDeleteWhich is why we're so looking forward to bringing back the 1940s.
You're so SMART, KC! There were no cars or buses in the 40s! And ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE has built fixed rail transit since then! Definitely not anywhere that's growing where people want to live! No sir! And even though a smaller percentage of people are driving than anytime in the last 40 years and more people than ever say they want to live where they don't need a car to exist, I'm sure you are right because you're so SMART, KC! We should just build idle sacs and feeder roads in cornfields! That's that brand new shit, bro! You high tech suburbanite, you!
ReplyDeleteWhew! Trolley boy is a vicious little bitch, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteBunch of brand new bus advocates here! Just like Eastside Sherry and "Harriet Tubman" Touhey!
ReplyDeleteAfter 50 years of underfunding transit and fighting every investment in the urban core, suddenly, you ALL JUST CARE SO MUUUUCH!
And you're all experts too!
We didn't steal money from real transit to build a boutique streetcar, trolley boy. That was all done by the gang of 355.
ReplyDeleteWe not only care about transit, we actually use it.
Keep trying, kiddo. No one buys your Show Me lies...
ReplyDeleteI guess when you have a hard time responding to facts, the only recourse you have is to resort to calling your opponents liars.
ReplyDeleteLast time 60% of the voters didn't buy it. What do you think your odds are next time, when the disaster in progress is a fait accompli?
Actually Houston, TX built light rail years ago and just expended a couple more lines recently. It started slow but ended up being successful. So, there are other cities that are doing this. San Antonio, TX is even considering light rail as well. But, then again the Texas economy is way better than Missouri. I am not too impressed with KC downtown. Businesses close up way too early and have limited hours. It's a ghost town and I don't see the attraction to bring business here.
ReplyDelete