KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN STREETCAR 'SUSTAINABILITY' PRIZE PUSH BACK!!!



A recent toy train honor has earned rebuke from Kansas City streetcar critics.

Check both sides of the story . . .

Innovation in Sustainability Award-Winner Transforms Kansas City

Money line:

Sherri McIntyre, Kansas City’s assistant city manager and director of public works. “The streetcar has just changed the dynamics here tremendously.”

TKC Blog Community Reaction:

"I think there is agreement on that. The streetcar has caused River Market to become a park & ride parking lot. It has cause traffic problems because Main Street is no longer viable for automobile travel. It has increased the sales tax rate in the district to over 11% (one of the highest rates in the country) & increased property taxes. And a bunch of tax exempt apartments was added whose residents are getting government services and not paying for them.:

You decide . . .

Comments

  1. Is she referring to the fact that the trolley is an attraction for the free loading tourists that seem to be the only ones that ride it?

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  2. Do we have stats to back that statement up 8:19? I just don't think there's that many tourists coming to Kansas City.

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    1. 24 million don't forget

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  3. KC tourism breaks records with 24 million visitors. That is almost 500,000 tourists a week - http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article37195989.html

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  4. This City should focus their efforts on transportation services that serve the needs of its citizens. The trolley is only serving the needs of developers and tourist.

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  5. Everyone suspects the city and the kcata are cooking the books--they do not have this high of ridership, so either they are outright lying, or they have employees who, at the end of the day, stick their head in and out of the doorway a bunch of times to drive up the clicks on ridership. (It's free, so can't track it that way.) Also, one can cut the ridership figures in half when you realize, nobody rides the trolley ONE way. They return. So in terms of round trip ridership, cut it in half.

    But we will never know till we send spies to watch at the beginning or the end of the day. Or post volunteers with clickers on the trolley to actually COUNT.

    tHE BIG THING THIS MONTH--
    is to remind the half of the ballot holders who still have not voted, that the PLAZA AND BROOKSIDE will also become unwitting and unwilling Park and Ride neighborhoods! So VOTE NO.

    Already the River Market residents have realized, they will now be forced to PAY for parking, because the downtown mooches are parking in river Market and riding to their day jobs or concerts--FOR FREE.

    The same thing will happen on the Plaza. We've had free parking there since 1926, when the Nichols Company developed it. That will all go away the minute there is a free streetcar stopping at the Plaza. VOTE NO!

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  6. I can see virtually empty trolleys going up and down Main Street all day from my loft window. Those ridership numbers are fake news.

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  7. Tracy - the streetcar folks admit the so called counters count people twice. Once when they get on and once when they get off. So I round trip counts as four rides. It's the new math!

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  8. The City needs an independent - that means non-city - audit of their streetcar numbers. Why won't they do that? They know the real numbers of riders will show up that way.

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  9. 24 million visitors that should have gotten plenty of tax dollars extra into city hall . Maybe we should check how many extra dollars came in .

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  10. The guys that should have won the award are those big ol' tow trucks that keep pulling the street cars around.

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  11. Initially, we were told the streetcar would bring new businesses and jobs. That sure did not work out. Then they shifted all the emphasis on the number of riders. To try and justify the trolley they need to inflate the number of riders to make their case look better.

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