TKC MUST READ!!! KANSAS CITY LIGHT RAIL ACTIVIST CLAY CHASTAIN BATTLES STREETCAR DUDE DAVID JOHNSON OVER COMPETING RAIL TRANSIT EFFORTS!!!



After a controversial interview, Kansas City's longtime light rail activist fires back at the champion of the streetcar in a contest betwixt to completely different but competing KCMO rail transit initiatives. Here's the word . . .

Elite's David Johnson calls activist Clay Chastain's light rail plan a 'Fantasy." Is it?

Last Friday David Johnson, RTA honcho, elitist, and streetcar advocate, told public radio listeners on "Up to Date" with Steve Kraske that Light Rail Ballot Question #3 is a "Fantasy." Is it?

Establishment player and non-engineer Johnson said the proposed 40-mile citywide light rail system would cost $100 million per mile, not the $45 million per mile I claim.

Now we are all ignorant, just on different subjects. Johnson proved transit design is one of his.

Fact check: There are light rail systems around the country that are costing even more than $100 million per mile due to extreme design requirements like having to... tunnel, tear down buildings, construct new bridges to cross rivers, elevate large sections of track, tear up and then have to reconstruct too many miles of city streets and underground utilities, and designing in too many expensive and unnecessary rail stations.

Light Rail Question # 3 avoids all of those money pits. The light rail route's innovative design takes advantage of Kansas City's inherent assets...existing right-of ways, park land, and the grassy medians of city boulevards...to enable the construction cost per mile to be kept within reason. What's more, this cost-cutting design saves tons more by limiting the number of expensive rail stations required.

And there is proof it can be done: (1) Charlotte's 2008 Light Rail Blue Line was constructed for $47 million per mile. (2) Norfolk's 2012 light rail system, called "The Tide," came in at $43 million per mile!

Kansas City's elite, who have opposed every light rail measure that has ever been on the ballot, are trying to scare and mislead the public by citing to the worst case light rail systems.

And by the way, the only "Fantasy" going on in Kansas City is the elite's notion that their downtown streetcar line for tourists is improving Kansas City's pathetic public transportation system and helping the working man get to a job!

Please support a more green, prosperous and transit-oriented future for Kansas City by voting
'Yes' for Light Rail Ballot Question #3 November 8.

Kansas City Community Activist Clay Chastain...Degree electrical engineer, designer and leader of the people's light rail ballot initiative, and the only leader to ever win a citywide light rail election.
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You decide . . .

Comments

  1. Clay probably wins this round but only because more than a few hundred people have signed his petitions.

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  2. Where did Clay get his "degree" from? Any proof he is actually an engineer? Has he ever worked as an engineer? Is he registered with the state as a professional engineer? Or is he just into watermelons?

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  3. Must be nice to be gay, white and male. With that combination you can create any fantasy, lie or illusion you want... Like self-identifying as a female. Lol. David Johnson is a grade A asshole.

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  4. Clay is actually good for the city because he takes resources from those who are out to suck the life from the city. Of course if his schemes ever succeeded then he too would do much harm. But it's kind of fun to watch the crooks have to spend money to stop him.

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  5. Elite's David Johnson calls activist Clay Chastain's light rail plan a 'Fantasy." Is it?

    Yup.

    Glad that's settled.

    Next question, Clay?

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  6. I suspect there could be a lot of no's where the ballots asks people to raise taxes on themselves this year.

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  7. There's no p[lace like Coffeyville! There's no place like Coffeyville!

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  8. Well Mr Johnson so were did you get your engineering degree from the back of box fruit loops.

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  9. Yeah Clay is having a fantasy and Sly and his posse of cronies is just fucking derelict.

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  10. It's been said before many times, but here goes. Bus and light-rail make much more sense in multiple ways than the too costly streetcar, especially while the touristy trinket is giving FREE rides.

    I know, let's have FREE rides all around. Go ahead, hollow out the auto industry so most cannot afford their own cars. No Fairfax and Claycomo filled with humans, just robots to make limos and richy rich rides while the working-class shrinks further. We can soon have very few regular folks: buying new and used vehicles, buying insurance, paying taxes and registrations, filling-up, buying tires and parts, keeping mechanics working, patronizing carwashes, and buying airfresheners and bumper stickers!!!

    Yep, climate cuddlers say 'BURBS, BIG HIGHWAYS AND PRIVATE PASSENGER CARZ IZ EEEEEEEVIL.....but not for Hollywood elites and such.

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  11. That two clowns like these guys can become the spokesmen for transit policy and get elected officials to both propose and spend hundreds of million of dollars just shows what a cow town and hick place KCMO really is.
    Neither of them have any responsibility for anything and the taxpayers are left with the bad ideas and the bills.
    Adult supervision needed.

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  12. How many millions per mile do police departments charge?

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  13. Note the cities with advanced autonomous efforts got substantial money, same the cities that made major commitments to electric vehicles.

    Before streetcar is extended to Plaza or Brookside, autonomous will be operating all over. Streetcars without rails, actually faster, and more flexible and cheaper to deploy in every way.

    Says who, Elon Musk and the tech industry, of course you can pretend
    our "leadership" knows more than him. That is worth a chuckle.

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