Kansas City doesn't care about Mayor Funky's "Orange Revolution" anymore!!!

Of all the write-ups about Mayor Funky's State of the City speech The Star's DeAnn Smith probably had the most important observation:

ONLY ABOUT 80 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE MAYOR'S ROUNDUP OF HIS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE!!! IN OTHER WORDS, ALMOST NOBODY CARES ABOUT KANSAS CITY'S MAYOR AND HIS EMPTY PROMISES!!!

From what I've read of the speech, it might have been taken right out of the Bush/Cheney Playbook and even included the dopey reference to someone in the crowd that seems to be all of the rage among politicos desperate to include "regular folks" in their propaganda.

It doesn't help that Mayor Funkhouser is the most dour, uninspiring and monotone speaker in all of Kansas City.

And to top it all off he listed 10 new priorities in light of his failure to live up to the last set (Notice that the garbage about getting along with the Council is now nothing more than a memory) . . .

Let's examine the Mayor's PR point by point and take apart his propaganda since nobody else in the metro is willing to do it:

Adequately funding basic infrastructure such as streets and sidewalks. That's kinda of funny in light of the fact that he just finished cutting funding for streets. Also, sidewalks he promised folks in Red Bridge more than a year ago are now forgotten and replaced with a plan to widen the road, subsequently decreasing home values . . . This one is nothing more than a lot of talk from the Mayor. His lack of action on this front makes that clear.

Bringing the city’s sewer system up to modern standards — a $3 billion challenge. - This is literally the first time in a month he's mentioned this fact . . . Hopefully he's serious but during the last year he DIDN'T DO ANYTHING to accomplish Water Infrastructure repair.

Building regional partnerships to fund regional amenities such as the zoo. Making JoCo people pay their fair share? Good luck.

Bringing municipal retirement systems and health care benefits in line with standard business practices. Here's where he cuts funding for KC Indigent care . . . Funkhouser hates the homeless.

Making it easier to do business in Kansas City. - Actually, that's a great idea. There are a bunch of small things the Mayor could do to advance the interests of small biz owners on this front . . . I'm actually kinda hopeful on this one but doubt he's going to mention the current Cordish bullying of small KC businesses.

Presenting voters with a regional light rail plan. - And here's where he keeps wasting time. Regional Light rail just isn't going to happen during this recession and truth be told this is his first priority from what I hear . . . Note: Politicos from surrounding cities actively avoid and lie to the Mayor when it comes to his regional light rail scheme - Sadly, he never told anybody he was going to be nothing more than a taller version of Clay Chastain, with even worse ideas, when he first ran for office.

Improving the educational system, with an education summit as a start. - A generation of failure and Funkhouser's going to fix it? Please get for real . . . However, it will be funny to see Funkhouser and his people get smacked down by the many special interests that rule the Kansas City School District when it comes time for their lovefest. Countdown till somebody (else) calls the Mayor racist.

Building allies in Jefferson City and Washington. - Over the past year Mayor Funky has made few allies. This isn't a bad idea but he has had little success on this front so far.

Creating economic incentives to promote development in economically distressed areas, starting with a May 5 symposium. - Again, Mayor Funky is coming off like some damn college professor and I thought that "incentives" that usually amount to corporate welfare are what he ran against. As always, Mayor Funky thinks he knows better than anybody else and the Super TIF that he approves (like he did for the soccer stadium - Ugh) is somehow more honorable (but just as expensive) than the same kind of deals put forth by former Mayor Kay.

Repopulating the urban core. - The first thing he could do here would be to ask Gloria Squitiro to put her shoes back on . . . And then figuring out how to make people buy condos during a recession would be a good trick as well.

The most obvious thing that sticks out in Mayor Funky's list of future failures . . . With 32 murders in Kansas City already:

MAYOR FUNKHOUSER DIDN'T MENTION A WORD ABOUT CRIME!!!

It's somewhat surprising that he didn't even really try to justify the fact that his panicky budgetary moves cut the additional police officers promised to Kansas City.

As far as TKC is concerned, the his total unwillingness to even acknowledge crime in this town is proof that Mayor Funky represents the same kind of effete, elitist and misguided leadership that Kansas City experienced under former Mayor Kay Barnes. His priorities aren't about "regular folks," they're about advancing his career and his pseudo-intellectual agenda.

The first year of his tenure marked one failure after the next for Mayor Funky and it looks like we're in for more as Kansas City's least popular politico continues to put light rail and his academic pursuits ahead of the more immediate needs of people in Kansas City.