TKC SATURDAY NIGHT PLAYLIST!!! FEAR THE SECRET PUSH TO 'PRIVATIZE' THE TRAGIC KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN STREETCAR!!!
Councilman Russ Johnson has been saying some weird and confusing stuff on the nice side of the bridge as of late.
To wit . . .
TALK OF KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN STREETCAR PRIVATIZATION SCARES VOTERS WHO FEAR ANOTHER CLANDESTINE CITY HALL SCHEME TO PUSH THE DOOMED PLAN FORWARD!!!
Already there's the argument that the toy train is a "public/private partnership" in as much as mostly JoCo residents have been making a lot of KCMO taxpayer cash "private" in their bank accounts.
Here's just one perspective out of many reporting the strange language of Council Dude Russ . . . And since Council Dude Johnson doesn't talk to the media, it's hard getting a straight answer out of him.
Here's the note:
"Heard Russ Johnson say that the next push would be "letting a private firm" put in the (next phase of the) toy train.
"I am personally bothered about that perspective because in the last push it was noted that "public and private" funds would be used.
"That means that with leases and franchises the city can "sell" the toy train to some private company that doesn't have to get a YES VOTE to continue."
Nowadays, it seems that Mayor and Council will stoop to the lowest level to work around voters so this suspicion is justified. We all know that allocating cash under the $250K mark doesn't even need council approval and $15K can disappear without any real consequences.
Still, this talk goes deeper: The "private" facade gives streetcar advocates a somewhat fiscally conservative talking point which makes for convincing arguments but still requires HEAVY SUBSIDY from locals.
The deets on this are still developing but demonstrate that paid consultants disingenuously calling themselves "transit advocates" haven't stopped their work to force this sketchy rail effort down the throat of locals despite an overwhelming rejection from voters time and time again.
And all of this has inspired tonight's playlist:
As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe and fun Saturday night . . .
I wish Russ would pay for it!
ReplyDeleteBut i guess this is a hint for his next job.
ReplyDeleteOnly mayors, governors and presidents should be the ones too ever talk to the media, that way when after a political move is made and it blows up like it always does, we only have 3 different people to blame, and possibly they might work harder so that when its their time to be in the media they have made sure that after they might have some dignity!!!
ReplyDeleteoops I meant accountability!
ReplyDeleteNo private company is going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in something that will be terribly underutilized and, in any case, is free, so that no revenue will be generated to pay the debt, operating expenses, or maintenance.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a philanthropy.
At the end of the day regardless of how clever these folks think they are, the money has to come from somewhere and that somewhere is YOU.
Fuck this Russ Johnson guy.
ReplyDeletepeople are going to like the streetcar no matter what negativity you dream up about it so, get over it.
ReplyDeleteit's just weird.
Oh, a private company will invest all kinds of money as long as it can get enough of a subsidy. Think P&L.
ReplyDeleteMensa boy needs a job, and it seems he'll stop at nothing to make sure we keep paying for him.
Maybe we should just give him $50K a year to go away.
They will call it "private" in order to move it past voters who will still be forced to pick up the tab. Typical Russ, Typical Sly.
ReplyDeleteSo watch Kansas City sit there and let them get away with it. Oh God I am so glad I moved to the burbs.
ReplyDeleteSubrube-an obsession with the mother city continues.
DeleteSuburbs = leech colony
Who is Larry Thrasher?
ReplyDelete6:22 seems to think that when something is FREE, you can make up the lack of revenue with greater volume.
ReplyDeleteMust have taken his economics courses with Caleb at UMKC.
This fiasco will be a financial sucking chest wound for KCMO for many decades.
well i haven't seen anyone jack off to streetcar construction photos.
ReplyDeleteuntil now.
KC = Detroit
ReplyDelete2 Dozen Denizens hating on f-ing everything.
ReplyDeleteThe earnings tax on your $28,000K is only $280, so lighten up.
The third paragraph of this note has some convoluted logic. How the author got from point A to point B is strange. Leasing anything, which I doubt will happen, does not mean anything would necessarily get built without a public vote.
ReplyDeleteTrash pickup is a leasing agreement. The airport concessions are leased but the costs associated with the area leased are well below the actual expense to heat and cool, sweep and maintain.
ReplyDeleteYou hit on it Tony. They gonna start a company that employs Mensa man and Sly and the stoned family will have stock in.
Get with the plan the old streetcars were run under a franchise agreement with the city. They charge the city for services rendered not each person who gets on the train.
ReplyDelete9:01, sure those leases exist, but neither is expanded without approval by council. And neither is running an entity which requires public vote to expand. You are comparing apples to oranges,
ReplyDeleteMensa Man may not be so smart after tall.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mensa boy, resident of the north boonies, greets another day.
ReplyDeleteCould the explanation for the wording in the FAILED TOY TRAIN PLAN that funding would be also from "private funds" perhaps mean that the city was going to sell sections of the Toy Train route to a wealthy Brookside Land Lord?
ReplyDeleteDoes no one understand this is how the original streetcar system was built? The city gives franchises and a private company does the actual work and pays a franchise fee to the city.
ReplyDeleteIt works so well the state of Texas build an entire freeway using the same basic model.