Clay Chastain Responds To Northeast News Editorial: 'Hark Sir Ignorance..."

A debate over rail transit and the petition process continues in Kansas City. Checkit . . .

Northeast news story ripping Chastain

What's new, another media light weight (this time The Northeast News) trying to use Clay Chastain as its whipping boy because the writer is not only mean spirited and biased, but also "drunk" on ignorance.

Once again, this erudite editor focused his rant on Clay Chastain and not the light rail plan itself. The who, not the what.

He did complain though, about the route not serving commuters. Here is how his ignorance shined...

(1) The light rail spine connects to where people want to go including Kansas City's 3 biggest employment centers...Downtown, Kansas City International Airport, and the new Cerner Campus at Bannister where 15-20K people will be employed in the future. It also connects to where people live including a stop at the Northland's new Twin Creeks neighborhood development where 75K people are expected to reside in the coming decade.

Hark Sir Ignorance... don't you realize that commuters go from where they live to where the jobs are?

(2) The eastwest light rail line from Union Station to Arrowhead Stadium (connecting to the light rail spine at Union Station) would enable eastern Jackson County Commuters to use a built in Park & Ride lot at the Truman Sports Complex to get on light rail and travel to downtown and the airport. Not only that, this light rail line puts light rail on the Rock Island Rail right-of-way (and the doorstep of Missouri suburbs) so that it can be extended in a future phase to Raytown and Lee's Summit and help those residents with their commute to the stadiums, downtown, the Plaza, and KCI without it taking 3 hours and 5 buses to get there.

Ignorance coupled with nastiness, is a bad thing.

Clay Chastain...Degreed electrical engineer and leader of the light rail ballot question
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