If you want to look at one of the best examples of Kansas City politicos literally trying to destroy a local neighborhood then you need to know what's going on around Red Bridge. Right now Chuck Eddy (with the tacit approval of Country Club Kay) is literally trying to run people over with a huge highway development and run them right out of their homes.
In the latest installment to this drama, the grassroots opposition to the project says that city workers and City Hall are harassing Red Bridge residents into giving up their land.
It seems to me that this whole fiasco provides yet another glimpse of how KC works when politicos want something in spite of what their constituents say and yet another disappointing look at how political power is really employed in Kansas City. And yet Mayor Kay and so many Council members still show up on TV answering softball questions about how they care about neighborhoods in this town when all they've done is work with big money developers in order to destroy them.
You should have heard the City Council people at the latest Red Bridge meeting. Brooks talked about his wifes and children. Eddy said that the Railroad needed a big bridge there. Fairfield siad that the reason that he did not answer letters asking for help from the Red Bridge people is because he was being polite and letting the district councilpersons handle it. He said that is the way that City Council works. In other words the at large persons are susposed to be silent if they are not from the district affected. Nace talked about committees that she had contacted and worked with to get it changed. Only two persons talked common sense. Klein said that this should never have gotten to this point if conversation had been open, and Glazer said Get a lawyer and stop it until some compromise can be worked out. Did anyone else attend that meeting?
ReplyDeleteI have it! Bulld a big, giant overpass from Blue River Road to Grandview Road.
ReplyDeleteThe homeowners get extra shade, and the city gets its new road.
I suggest a suspension bridge so a miminum number of supports will be required.
Oooh, make the bridge out of transparent aluminum so the sunlight shines through.
No, event better, make this section a toll road, with the money going to the residents who got f****d. And let said residents man the tollbooths for, say, $100k a year.
Just when you don't think the City Council members can stun you any further with their rhetoric, talking out both sides of their mouth, waddleing and working the crowds with their phony words and big egos---they do. They raise B.S. to an artform far beyond even what I thought was possible. Chuck Eddy, Al Brooks, Nace, you name em'. Each time one of these baffoons opens their mouths they give each and every one of us an autobiographical sketch of their stupdity and how stupid they think the residents of Red Bridge are. Eddy calls the residents "whackos" says it to their faces!! You won't see that on the 6 o'clock News now will you? Al Brooks can't wait to tell you how great he is and all the connections he has in the hood. Please. But when asked how he's going to 'curb crime'? He shrugs his shoulders, and tells us he doesn't know. Hell no, he doesn't know! He has his own problems. He doesn't want to go there, does he? Not one politician has addressed the issue of the water mains under Red Bridge. They're over 80+ years old. They want to widen a street, and NEVER REPLACE THE WATER MAINS!! Unbelievable. Not one politician had the hudspa to address the speed limit on Red Bridge--oh, wait, Al said it was going to stay 35mph!! Get real. It's 35 now. And never enforced. Surely when a 5 lane highway goes in that speed will stay the same. Right. Wrong. Red Bridge Residents are chomping at the bit--waiting to take a bite out of you egotistical, greedy wind-bag politicians. Happy campaigning!
ReplyDeleteI am a liberal and, in light of things like this, now believe that the government needs to be stripped of its powers of eminent domain. Totally. Let them compete for land just like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteHarry Ingels, assistant to Councilman Chuck Eddy, has a new job. Apparently he is the self-appointed PR flak for CIMO. At a recent meeting Harry claimed (according to our source) that Barbara Cantrell’s recent visit to Cheryl Ellis’ home was misconstrued — not only by the homeowner but by all the other members of the Friends of Red Bridge as well. Cantrell, according to Harry, was quietly dispatched on a compassionate mission to soothe the Ellises and save their trees.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Harry, who effortlessly hovers between Eddy’s World and CIMOville, the Friends of Red Bridge are more experienced in knowing the difference between compassion and corruption.
We are, however, grateful for Harry’s input on the “compassion agenda” angle. We will file that one away for future reference.
sick and tired of all of these attacks on Mr. Eddy. The Bridge and the rebuild of this major artery needs to be done. I'm sick and tired of people wanting the status quo on this TWO LANE ROAD. The traffic is too great for only TWO LANES. How about the continuation of Red Bridge Shopping Center? Do you think limiting the number of people in the area is going to make it viable for its continued success? How about if Red Bridge Shopping Center closed and you had NO grocery store? How would you residents feel about that? You want winding roads why not make the road a perpendicular street and make it "Blinds Man Curve"? Then we would give the song "Bye, Bye Miss American pie..." the real meaning of the song. I have lived in the southland for over 30 years and went to church at Red Bridge Baptist for over 10 years with golfing at Minor Park (my favorite golf course) duting that entire time. If you all want to live in the country then move to Raymore or Peculiar like all of your other residents but leave the people who want to move the area into the 21st century alone. I'm really tired of the misrepresentations of the proposal and attacks on the council. You should be thankful that they even care about the southland with all of the attention to downtown. Do you think spitting in their face when they are trying to help will work to endear them to you when the situation is worse if nothing is done now? Come on all of this talk makes you all look like 90 year olds. DH (South Kansas City)
ReplyDeleteHah! The above comment is because the trucking industry knows that this post is getting a decent Google search ranking. I assure any of you looking this post up and that there is absolutely NOBODY in South KC who feels this way and the "attention" to the neighborhood the PR flack above is talking about means tearing most of the neighborhood down.
ReplyDeleteIt's truly ironic that 90% of the handful of supporters that still exist for this project are over 70 years old, yet "DH" above accuses the opposition, who are trying to bring modern planning and traffic engineering philosophy to Kansas City, of looking like 90-year-olds.
ReplyDeleteThe Friends of Red Bridge, who are leading the attack on what they call BridgeZilla, have accurately reported the shalestorm of lies and deception that the city council and staff have thrown at them. DH's sorry defense of being tired of that proves he needs to disappear along with Barnes, Eddy, Fairfield, Brooks, and the rest of the Crooks.
I think Tony is right. Putting in the big bridge is step one in the conversion of south K.C. into a wasteland of over-the-road trucks and NAFTA crap stored in a row of warehouses where our homes now stand.
Not speaking of the others but Eddy, Barnes and Fairfield are very much pro-business and as long as people continue to be against moving Kansas City beyond the "contry feel of the road" then Kansas City will continue to be one of the best cities in the nation. Otherwise, this city will revert back to the "redneck" and "country feel" of Raytown, Raymore-Peculiar before the latest development, Grandview, etc.
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