Still Hoping Mayor Sly's Demolition Publicity Stunt Will Help To Solve Kansas City's Ongoing Housing Hot Mess
KC Star Newsie Dave Helling discusses the implications of Mayor Sly's new housing policy in the aftermath of a rather effective publicity stunt that inadvertently turned out to be an inadvertent slap in the face to local Union workers.
Hoping Mayor Sly's Demolition Publicity Stunt Will Help To Solve Kansas City's Ongoing Housing Hot Mess
Hoping Mayor Sly's Demolition Publicity Stunt Will Help To Solve Kansas City's Ongoing Housing Hot Mess
Probably most of the dilapidated structures these idiots are going to tear down are more structurally sound than those stick and particle board structures being built in the suburbs.
ReplyDeleteKCMO doesn't follow up on much of anything they start becasue the electeds don't care or pay any attention to what actually happens that might affect residents. If you went back and looked at all the programs that were announced with such great excitement, you'd see that within about six months or less, each of them has disappeared and there's nothing to show for all the hype but some folks spending the money without any supervision or results. And the media tend to rush to the next big thing, so the public doesn't know how it really (doesn't) work either.
ReplyDeleteTo get real results it takes command attention, supervision, careful oversight, tight timelines, management to results, specific objectives, and accountability, none of which is present in KCMO city government.
It's way easier and much more fun to let the Chamber swells fly you to Austin, Tx to learn how that city is "successful", or attend dinners, or issue resolutions, or get all excited about streetcars and hotels than it is to actually make govenment work in such a way that is really important to the people who live here.
For all the excitement of Google fiberhoods, and land banks, and demolition of a couple buildings, and Chamber Big 5 grocery stores on Troost, none of that is going to have much impact on the east side without effectively confronting the fact that there are at least two homicides every week.
In fact, what are the results of the big programs that are regularly rolled out by the KCPD?
I usually think of Dave Helling as a bloated windbag, but he actually had some good points--namely, give people tax breaks like those given to developers for building on these vacant lots, repairing these buildings, etc.
ReplyDeleteA couple bucks in tax breaks is not likely to induce anyone to invest their money in a neighborhood where there are at least two homicides every week of the year.
ReplyDeleteFirst things first.
There are some very decent neighborhoods with vacant lots and bad properties. Heck, I was at an "estate" sale on the mayor's old block last weekend in one of them.
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