TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! KANSAS CITY COUNTRY CLUB PLAZA LEADERS QUICKLY ORGANIZING AGAINST STREETCAR EXPANSION EFFORT!!!
Amid a bloody Kansas City Summer 2016 where local media counts one killing after the next, the majority of this town's political debate is focused on development.
Thankfully, some of the MOST KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS shared this important tidbit with us recently . . .
SOME OF THE TOP LEADERS AND MEMBERS OF THE BIZ COMMUNITY ARE RAPIDLY ORGANIZING IN OPPOSITION TO TOY TRAIN STREETCAR EXPANSION PLANS!!!
Here's the money quote:
"The Save The Plaza crowd seem to have found a new cause. They don't want to be a part of another TDD and they don't want to be near a TDD. They view this as another fight for Kansas City's crown jewel and what's surprising here is there are former supporters of the 1st streetcar now on board with the effort to stop it."
It seems that behind the scenes, top-secret pitch meetings with some members of the group have failed to impress and don't have much assurance that biz losses during construction, parking trouble and traffic considerations won't decimate Plaza biz that has suffered one setback after the next over the years.
From our blog community perspective . . .
Let's not forget that streetcar expansion was soundly rejected by Kansas City voters in late 2014. More to the point, as hard economic times and more budget cuts await Kansas City . . . There is a repeated demand that a citywide streetcar vote is necessary since it's clear that, in the end, all of the money comes out of the same pocket and investment in streetcar transit takes cash away from other city services despite the sketchy claims of TDD gerrymandering enthusiasts.
Developing . . .
Only want to agree on one point here.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a longer streetcar line would be more useful and something that might benefit all of Kansas City.
But the TDD has to go. If they want support from all of KC, then all of KC needs to vote. The TDD is one of the worst thing ever used to push such a big project through. If it fails this time, it could be devastating for the streetcar. Better to let all of KC show their support for improving public transit.
Another piece of garbage brought to you by Team Sly.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys!
Call it what it is, the midtown kc hobo train. If it passes along main down to the plaza it will have to charge and then it will be abandoned.
ReplyDeleteIT SEEMS THAT weasal words are all the rage.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is the neanderthal mentality of the street car proponents. They speak about the future and the future is driverless electric cars in urban areas. The social drives of 1918 -1936 were to live in the same neighborhood with your family, grandmother etc. etc. you watched sand lot ball and cooled off in the fire hydrant. Going to Grandview from K.C. was a summer trip not an evening drive. Today our life style demands that we be able to go in various directions on different days to work play and live our lives. A rail line went from City Hall to the plaza and then to the end of Brookside. It is imposssible to build rail to the stadiums, IKEA, the amusement parks, airports, Cerner. Villa Ro, Liberty, Kansas Arboretum, Nascar, Furniture Mart. (now you add the twenty places that you travel to. Sorry street car dudes but the future is individual driverless electric cars not a dinosaur creeping through a couple of streets in K.C.
ReplyDeleteNow that people have seen the trolley, the reasons our great-grandparents got rid of these things the first time have become obvious, and no one's going to want one anywhere near their neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the reason the trolley boy confederation pushed for a vote before the things were up and running. They were selling a fantasy.
At least one local media outlet has the homicide count at zero.
ReplyDeleteToy Trains Last Stand
ReplyDelete9:55 better arm your streetcar neighbors and friends of the streetcar crew and advocates with the battle dildos.
At least you can say you were armed and fought heroically while trying to prevent a devastating loss.
Do you know what all of Kansas City might support? A comprehensive light rail plan, not some crappy bus on rails that shares traffic with cars, follows the speed limit, stops at all stop lights, and can't get out of the way from any accidents in front if it.
ReplyDelete9:55, do you not realize there already is public transit? The Max bus drives from City Market to the Plaza and further south. Anyone who wants public transit does NOT need a streetcar for that.
ReplyDeleteFrom the very beginning, this was nothing more than a glitzy fad foisted on clueless city electeds around the country.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do with either transportation or "development", but is just another page from the playbook of urban futurists like Richard Florida who comes up with theories like "the creative class" and all the rest to sell books and shore up his lecture fees.
It's one size and one rationale fits all and the sell-by date is expiring all across the country.
It won't be long before there's a brand new "must have" theory or idea that cities should be desperate for or risk "being left behind".
Anybody remember CB radios in cars?
How about hula hoops?
At least those didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
10:13 said it well. In the old days of the streetcars, we didn't have people shopping at Costco and coming home with 30 rolls of toilet paper and 5 gallon buckets of laundry detergent on a streetcar. Milk and bakery were delivered to your home. There weren't over-scheduled high school kids and soccer Moms in SUV's. Times are different. You can't compare the old days of streetcars with today's trends. And driverless cars are the way of the very near future, and so will be more telecommuting requiring less driving for work.
ReplyDeleteLight rail to the airport, or the stadiums, or to Johnson County where all the jobs are makes sense. Billions spent on a slow streetcar already served by a faster bus makes no sense except to bigots who don't ride a bus because they think only people of color ride buses.
ReplyDelete@10:47 - is completEly correct, let's stop screwing around piecemeal and build the whole thing out. Enough with this secretive garbage. Let's vote and let''s get this thing done.
ReplyDeleteA little town like KCMO cannot possibly afford a large rail system, and certainly not one that's FREE.
ReplyDeleteAnd the manner in which KCMO city hall operates is way more than enough to convince other surrounding jurisdictions that they want no part of entering into some kind of financial arrangements to share costs of construction and operation of such a system
The days of a bi-state tax are long long gone.
Behavior has consequences.
It's sad that the region's largest political jurisdiction is so poorly run and has such low credibility, even among its own residents, that regional cooperation and success are damaged.
Recall election. Please. Send a message or STFU.
ReplyDeleteReally great comments here on KC's overpriced rolling lawn ornament. You better believe those inner burb to semi-rural soccer moms are the economic powerhouses of this nation. Yeah, tween Tommy, college kid Katie plus cute baby Brendan cost loads to raise. Plus, where would Luis cut lawns, Pedro upkeep pools, Ramon repair roofs, Nadia nanny kiddies, and Carmen clean yuuuuge homes if middle-class families stacked tight in the concrete jungles?
ReplyDeleteSame 6 comments from the same 6 commenters for 6 year running. 2 or 3 anti-transit regurgitated arguments that are being rapidly disproven downtown.
ReplyDeleteTDDs are just local democracy in action. The people who pay for it vote on it and no one else. At least, that's the way the streetcar TDD worked...
Here's a fun fact for the foil hat "crowd": THE PLAZA ALREADY HAS A TDD that (unlike the "secret", "rigged" election that everyone knew about, even you suburban crybabies who don't even live in the district, which is quite a SCANDALOUS SECRET!OMG!) not one resident got to vote on, and none of you "tax fighters" knows about.
Another fun fact: NOT ONE BUSINESS ALONG THE STREETCAR LINE HAS CLOSED DUE TO STREETCAR CONSTRUCTION. Not even the Filter Queen herself. In fact, most of them report having record years. And what's more, there is MOR VACANCY THAN BUSINESS along Main Street south of crown center and THE STREETCAR EXPANSION PLAN DOESN'T GO INTO THE PLAZA! Literally ZERO, that's 0, Plaza businesses abut the route, meaning CONSTRUCTION WILL NOT AFFECT THEM, but increased foot traffic and better transit will.
220K riders/customers in the first month and every single business along the streetcar line knows it, even Lying Sue-'em Sue.
You guys have already lost this one. But keep trying, it's fun to watch online temper tantrums from supposedly grown men.
The reason you continually fail on messaging is that your only response to objection is histrionics and a shifty voting process. Read your boy Yael today. The future for the majority of residents is in the suburbs. Does that sting? Now click your ruby slippers and give us something from Les Miz.
Delete^^^ Overpriced rolling lawn ornament!
ReplyDeleteclipping that, now I know what to get all my friends for Christmas.
@12:42 - What about Populous? They moved away from the line almost right after it won the rigged election.
ReplyDeleteWe are past the peak of this bullshit. The suburbs continue to attract people away from the newly fucked up urban core. People are not giving up their cars, they want good schools, low crime, and efficient and fair government.
ReplyDelete@12:42 I am paying for the streetcar in the form of increased property taxes but I DID NOT get a vote on it. So your statement is totally false that "the people who pay for it vote on it". All the people paying an extra 1% sales tax also did not get a vote on it. The downtown TDD election absolutely was rigged and corrupt.
ReplyDelete220K riders? Not. Divide by 4 and maybe that's a more realistic number.
Plaza isn't interested in a bunch of streetcar jackasses coming into the area. The Plaza doesn't need their business.
ReplyDeleteLet the streetcar jackasses hangout with their rural rube leaders Johnson and Staubio downtown. Since no one else wants to.
"TDDs are just local democracy in action. The people who pay for it vote on it and no one else. At least, that's the way the streetcar TDD worked..."
ReplyDeleteActually it didn't. People who own and pay taxes on property in the TDD but who do not live there did not get a vote. But feel free to go on lying about it, trolley boy.
So glad I decided against living in KCMO. It was bad before, but now, with the near-daily killings and the trolley and airport delusionists running amok, it's nothing less than a train wreck.
ReplyDeleteEveryone can support an unfunded fantasy, 10:47.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that the voters in midtown, downtown, the Plaza and the SW Corridor are the only ones who have shown they want and are willing to pay for rail transit.
What are you smoking ?
DeleteI have to agree with J.W. on this, Sly needs to face a recall in order to stop his development agenda.
ReplyDeleteResidents vote, not absentee property owners or people who 'pay sales taxes'. I don't get to vote on the governor of Wyoming because I bought a fucking shot glass at the Grand Teton gift shop. Jesus fucking Christ, are you fucking retarded? What are they teaching you guys at Winnetonka High?
ReplyDeleteVulgar ad hominem, check. Engagement with substance...not so much.
Delete1:20 you seem to forget that everyone who lives in Jackson County and votes is a resident you fucking jackass. They are affected by your boondoggle regardless if they use it or not.
ReplyDeleteUh, the streetcar expansion PASSED along the Plaza route. It failed because of the overly ambitious inclusion of routes to the east.
ReplyDeleteAs a Save Our Plaza guy, I have to say that I have not seen a big anti- movement among that crowd. Got any names?
Here's an idea, instead of coming to this website every day complaining about the Mayor, City Council and City why don't you get off your fat inbred redneck ass and do something about it. Why don't you run for office if you can do it better? You people are miserable and pathetic with nothing better to do than complain and whine about not getting your way.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Temper, temper. Reflect on why reasonable, heartfelt dissent hurts your feelings so much. :) The fact is that your ideas and agenda are so weak and brittle that they do not survive any contact with any kind of conflict. ;)
Delete1:20: Nice way to purposefully miss the point. Trolley boy said, "TDDs are just local democracy in action. The people who pay for it vote on it and no one else. At least, that's the way the streetcar TDD worked..."
ReplyDelete"Absentee" property owners pay for the streetcar but did not get a chance to vote on it; therefore, trolley boy lied. But we all know he's ethically challenged, so no big deal. We're used to it.
Like Downtown residents are going to be able to support this thing with their streetcar tax tacked onto their specially reduced property tax rates?
ReplyDeleteThat in itself is a total fraud! It's a joke.
Let's see the numbers next year about how downtown taxpayers are "paying the bill" for their amenity!
Oh yeah Property Values are going up! Staubio says so!
Everything is hipster groovy! Until we run out of other people money!
Methinks the whining sanctimonious cunt at 2:03 doth protest too much.
ReplyDeleteSee you tomorrow, Chief.
And the developers can't even get financing from the bank unless it's absolutely taxpayer backed and guaranteed when these risky investments tumble down.
ReplyDeleteWake up people
You guys, please stop disagreement with City Hall spin. Rest assured that while Cindy was blithely spending our money on the Sunny Spain junket she did thorough fact finding and came up with a transit plan that is deep in research and characterized by intellectual rigor.
ReplyDeleteOr something. I'm sure the wine was good at least.
Suburbs are subsidized, 3:32.
ReplyDeleteCut off the taxpayer spigot and the sprawlbot stops feeding at the handout trough.
But you don't want to talk about that, do you, soft charger...?
We can talk about whatever you like, it's your session. Next time we meet why don't we address alternative coping styles? After all, you don't seem to be doing so well coping with your loss of control of the narrative.
DeleteFeeding at troughs, now what does that make me think of? Oh yes, that's right. While you're monitoring your favorite spigots, what about the one pouring out those development deals to the right folks?;)
Next week at nine all right? And do be careful with that Chardonnay....
You don't need to recklessly over subsidize places where people want to live 4:42. Like your downtown fantasy land for example.
ReplyDeleteIf you have even a small brain, you would rail against the "rail" coming to the Plaza.
ReplyDeleteThey already have the porch monkeys taking over the Plaza on weekends. White people avoid the Plaza like the plague. Now some moron wants to run the "Groid Express" to the Plaza. Sure.....cattle care the boons, free of course, to the Plaza.
The Plaza will look like Troost Plaza in 5 years. Anything and everything the Negro touches turns to shit. EVERYTHING.
Let's run the street car east on Truman Rd to Prospect then south on Prospect to Myer Blvd
ReplyDeleteAfter that is a Huge success
We will have to keep voting until we get it right. Democracy in action for sure.
ReplyDeleteHow about having bus service between River Market and the Plaza?
ReplyDeleteMain Street has empty building after empty building on the streetcar route now. Certainly did not revitalize Downtown.
ReplyDeleteLet the Street Car expansion pay its own way,unfortunately City Hall created a half mile swaths called the Trolley District.
ReplyDeleteGouging home owners with a special assessment on their homes.
The worst part ,homeowners have to compete with renters at the voting booth.
We overwhelming rejected the expansion, we will rally and reject it again