TKC EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW!!! PREPARE FOR THE KANSAS CITY FIGHT AGAINST THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR PHASE DEUX!!!
So, the next direction of the streetcar has been under discussion for quite some time.
Here's a note on the progress:
"A meeting of the Joint Committee (Transportation & Infrastructure and Finance, Governance, & Ethics) will be held on Thursday, January 16th, at 10:00 am, to discuss Ordinance #140017, having to do with the formation of a TDD for Phase II of the Streetcar extension process. This meeting will take place in the 26th floor, Council Chamber, City Hall, 414 E. 12th Street, KCMO, 64106."
Better than all that . . .
KICK-ASS KANSAS CITY INSIDERS TELL US THAT THIS IS WHERE THE NEW FIGHT AGAINST THE TOY TRAIN STREETCAR LINE STARTS!!!
Here's the inside word from KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTER who has been following the debacle:
"This could be where the real battle against the toy train begins because the opponents will not be sitting on the sidelines when the vote is taken this time. Many businesses are privately against this but Sly the Bully makes it to risky to speak out."
The real question . . .
CAN KANSAS CITY AFFORD ANOTHER $100 MILLION TOY TRAIN STREETCAR LINE FOR ONLY A COUPLE MILES OF TRANSIT?!?!
Amid an increasingly busted budget and tragic looting of the bus system . . . Sadly, the decision once again looks to be rigged among only a handful of local voters.
Developing . . .
It's just a question of how quickly Kansas City wants to go broke.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. auto industry registered its best performance since 2007 in 2013. Sales are projected to remain robust in 2014.
ReplyDeleteHint hint
I'm hopeful that there will be an organized opposition to this, but they're planning to eliminate 1st and 2nd districts from voting, plus half of 5th and 6th districts.
ReplyDeleteThey've also been incorporating a lot of my ideas into their plans, for instance, public art and BRT lines. With an overpriced electric rail at the core, I could never support it; especially with all the corruption driving it.
Sell your vision to the Northland and let them vote for it. Stop disenfranchising voters and excluding regions of KC from participating in democracy.
The Kansas City Council is facing a serious question in how it will finance future expansions of its planned 2.2-mile, $102 million downtown streetcar line.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, Councilman Russ Johnson introduced a resolution that would direct City Manager Troy Schulte to "take steps necessary" to find a $10 million loan or "line of credit" by May 2014 in order to pay for environmental impact studies and "advanced conceptual engineering" for streetcar expansion lines.
According to resolution No. 130842, the Kansas City Council is due to hear full recommendations for which lines it will fully study and how it might pay for the construction of those lines in April 2014.
The resolution goes on to say that the city needs to obtain a $10 million loan or line of credit by May to keep the project moving forward. It also noted on Oct. 18, the Public Improvements Advisory Council approved a plan to spend $100,000 per year for the next five years to pay for interest payments on a loan that would serve as a temporary funding measure until a permanent source of funding for streetcar expansion is found.
The full council and Mayor Sly James referred the resolution to the council's Finance, Governance and Ethics committee, which is set to meet again at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
It's no secret that the city and its streetcar consultants have serious questions about how to pay for expansion lines. Suggestions so far have included a city-wide sales tax, or asking for more funding from the federal government, who already sent Kansas City a $20 million grant to support the Main Street line.
Meanwhile, the council did not act on a $17.9 million contract with Washington-based CAF USA Inc. for four streetcar vehicles and necessary replacement parts. The contract with the subsidiary of Spanish rail firm Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. will be considered again on Oct. 31.
What's the rush? Seriously. Before we vote on an extension, let's first see the downtown streetcar in action.
ReplyDeleteOn January 6, the @kclightrail Twitter account defended the junket to Spain by stating the following:
"If you were going to spend $20 million on streetcars, you'd probably want to see them first hand, too."
If taxpayers are going to be asked to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, I think we should be extended the same courtesy.
God help us
ReplyDeleteCouncilman Johnson said the early returns indicate that Kansas Citians do not want “jogs” off a main line and would prefer a straight-line system.
ReplyDeleteHe also said many have said they want the streetcar, but they won’t be taking it to work, which is in line with the city’s expectations. Besides, economic development potential, not ridership, will be the most important criteria in judging expansion lines, he said.
“The stated goal of this project is economic development. That’s the dominant goal,” Johnson said. “The dominant goal is not to have a lot of people ride it. The dominant goal is to develop the city.”
KC = Detroit.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me the dominant goal is to bankrupt the taxpayers and the city.
ReplyDeleteAll in the name of "development" of course.
A comic exercise in human gullibility.
ReplyDeleteSame old shit happening everywhere else.
ReplyDeleteQ: What message will Milwaukee send to the business community if the streetcar is built?
A: “No. 1, we’re not dealing with the serious problems impacting Milwaukee, and that we’re interested in dealing with something like this. The most serious issues that government should be involved in are safety, schools and education and infrastructure, and to me infrastructure should not include a streetcar.
May as well bring back horses since they get you to your destination faster then street cars.
ReplyDeleteChoose your leaders wisely as once they lead you down the first step into hell you will not recognize the rest.
ReplyDeleteEconomic development? There has been none along the starter line except for market rate apartment projects requiring substantial KCMO subsides. Where are the businesses with good jobs?
ReplyDeleterequiring substantial KCMO subsides
ReplyDeletethere you go just like Google Fiber the other taxpayer subsidized ripoff.
City of Kansas; Stand and fight here. City Hall is coming for your money. Tell them to fuck themselves.
ReplyDeleteCall up Rex Sinquefeld and Brad Bradshaw! Call up the Koch brothers.
This streetcar bullshit will end only when sly is back on his ass.
This is all just a new twist or approach to the same old story repeating over and over and over.
ReplyDeleteFor the last decade, the city has been caught up in a pork fest — all of it perfectly legal — the likes of which are unequaled in any American city. A small group of developers and attorneys with City Hall connections glommed on to a program for poor neighborhoods and used it to build luxury hotels and fancy shopping centers in the richest parts of town, draining $90 million per year from the city’s budget and racking up $5 billion in debt. Cash poor, the city’s bridges, sidewalks and sewers were literally crumbling, and Kansas Citians were at wits’ end.
5:36 is right only they poor don't have any money left so now they are coming for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteWhat better tactic to plunder the middle class than tin cans known as streetcars no one is going to use.
ReplyDelete@5:29 Where are the businesses with good jobs?
ReplyDeleteUh, let me think about that for the next week.
Kind of like electric companies selling you energy efficient light bulbs saying you'll save money than lobbying for rate increases the next day.
ReplyDeleteThis project is basically being built for kids who's only desire in life is an internet connection.
ReplyDeleteAnd my golly we're going to give it to them!
ReplyDeleteHey as long as the Feds are giving away free money why not? The sky's the limit!
ReplyDeleteGod have mercy on CK
ReplyDeleteThe comments in here are golden, and it makes me feel for the first time that the majority of engaged voters actually understand what a bad deal this is.
ReplyDelete4:58 nails Dave Johnson to the wall, too. What a hypocrite. That line should be plastered to every opposition mailer that goes out before the next TDD election.
Because, like the Qings at the Battle of the Salween River, the last battle went so well for the anti-progress folks.
ReplyDeleteelBryan, if you think the majority of engaged voters are posting on TKC, you sir are naive. The majority of people on this site are against everything, all the time...except maybe looking at boobs and writing hateful/racist posts!
ReplyDeleteIf actual people don't ride the streetcar and that isn't its purpose, how does it encourage and support economic development? Do customers sit in the buildings and watch it as it goes by?
ReplyDelete$10-15 million/ year bond payments as far as the eye can see to support a fad that will be yesterday's news in 3 to five years.
The adults have left the building.
How is a "technology" that fizzled out half a century ago progress big boy?
ReplyDeleteIt's called Russ Johnson progress. Driving backwards in reverse while looking ahead thinking wow it's going to be like the old days again! The way it used to be!
ReplyDeleteThat is the only explanation I can think of.
elBryan is so excited by this post he's changing his Depends.
ReplyDeleteA half cent for a streetcar but only one cent for capital improvements over the whole 317 square miles? How in the fuck is not building parks, streets with sidewalks, and doing crime not a million fucking times more important than a streetcar for drunk hipsters and hobos and whinos?
ReplyDelete6:40 + 1
ReplyDeleteFear of future
ReplyDeleteFear of facts
My subsidized suburban Ponzi sheme is shriveling as all I can do is shriek on the internet while the city rises back up
Sorry suburbadroids you couldn't hog all the resources forever. Shadings hard. Enjoy your future In the split level slumburbs
KC might equal Detroit but Detroit has more to offer than op and it always will
ReplyDeleteAbout fucking time. KC spend less on transit than any other comparable city and it shows. If you want to grow the core (and without it the whole region shrivels, ask Detroit or Cleveland or Pittsburg) you have to provide 21st century amenities and transit is one of them. We've spent money on nothing but roads for 75 years. Time has come
ReplyDeleteCrying ass suburbanites. Move to fucking topeka, you turds, go be amongst your own kind of backwards ass morons
ReplyDeleteThe downtown / streetcar crowd is so endearing, isn't it? Really makes you want to join their team.
ReplyDeleteLook, son, being mad at the Boomer generation doesn't make 1920's technology a good idea.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste. The idea that this will lead to economic development is just silly. Your efforts would be better spent on real economic development, like bringing as many factories to town as possible. They really do still exist, but you have to court the owners & fight for them. They won't care about your streetcar. They will care about the crime rate & the quality of the schools.
ReplyDeleteHow's your water, Byron? (seriously)
ReplyDeleteThanks, we're okay here. Its confined to the Kanawha Valley. The leak was in the Elk River which flows into the Kanawha from the north, eventually reaching the Mississippi. Fracking is a mixed blessing. We've had earthquakes here. Small one, but really, earthquakes in West Virginia. As wages have increased, so has rents.
ReplyDeleteRats I was hoping the blind asshole would drink the tainted shit and die
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, you're a pig.
ReplyDeleteelBryan - Dave Johnson will be moving to JoCo in a year or so leaving us to pay for the trolley forever.
ReplyDeleteI'm scared if change. It makes me feel threatened.
ReplyDelete12:34, your comment brought a smile and a chuckle this morning. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWow a whole bunch of comments disappeared. Guess Tony is covering for his spook Byron. Some chess people it appears was ripping Byron a new asshole and proving it, appeared he was a liar. Byron probably went crying to Tony. So much for free speech around this dump.
ReplyDeleteOk I was stupid and that comment at 11:29 was the result of me not being awake. Nothing was deleted I was just fucked up and not in right place. I am sorry Tony.
ReplyDeleteMs. 11:29
ReplyDeleteYou're a liar. No comments are missing. No one ripped me a new asshole. Grow up.
So if there is a city wide vote on a sales tax increase, is that on top of the sales tax increase for the initial streetcar TDD? Downtown sales tax is already 9.35% unless you are in P&L District where it is 12.35%
ReplyDeleteHow will these high sales tax rates encourage business development?
Business love taxes. That's why so many of them are leaving Texas. No one wants to keep profit and reinvest so they can grow a business
ReplyDeleteI dont work downtown, I dont seek entertainment downtown so My money isnt spent downtown, but most who live downtown are spending my tax dollars as I feed them each month...the street car or what ever you call it (toy train) should have a one way ticket for free for those that can afford it directly into the Missouri River!.
ReplyDeleteIf something like the "Toy Train were to come here, I would hope the people that voted for it will be the first ones to take that trip!
The KC trolley, operated by the Kansas City Transportation Group FAILED which is operated by Mob, and the Mob goes after money not failure...So, but hey this city government is a failure so I am sure there will be empty streetcars here in due time lol...the question is...do you want to foot that bill?
ReplyDeleteByron, you lie so much would you even recognize the truth if it hit you upside your big fat blind head? You are such a dolt. Why don't you learn the difference between you're and your, you ignorant hillbilly bitch?
ReplyDeleteFor some of you on here you think you know who is posting, I love watching your ignorance in your ignorant posts thinking that you think you know who is posting anything! LOL
ReplyDeleteByron you should start posting anonymous, as well as the rest of you morons that put up a fake name.
ReplyDeleteMs. 10:43
ReplyDeleteI don't lie. I will not post as anonymous. Its not a fake name. Why do you people all believe you are profilers or psychics. The truth is your just ignorant, stupid racists. I'm typing fast, bitch. I don't give a shit about grammar or spelling.
If you call me names, I will call you names. Duh!
You are such a fucking idiot. I'm embarrassed for you.
Tony I am so god damn tired of seeing Byron Funkhouser’s shit on these posts all the time. He is ruining your site. He is not from around here and adds nothing to this local blog. His insight is hateful as a rule and does not reflect the views of people in Kansas City.
ReplyDelete