Why Is Kansas City Building More Toy Train Streetcar For Real Estate Speculators?!?!

The riverfront is mostly abandoned except for some newbie condos that were build in the middle of a soggy marsh that smell like dirty booty when high tide rolls in . . . For some odd reason that's mostly about sketchy port authority connections . . . KC is desperate to bring the streetcar to this location rather than daring to turn east in order to connect a closer and much more populated section of the urban core to downtown.

Here's the pitch:

Streetcar officials seek opinions for new riverfront expansion

There are new designs and new renderings for the Kansas City streetcar's expansion to the riverfront. Thursday evening, riders got a chance to review the plans and weigh in. "I don't drive too often but I hop on the streetcar a lot," Sig Tomeltan, who was at the meeting, said.

Comments

  1. They could have a whole fleet of modern, quiet, electric buses serving riverfront for a tiny fraction of the cost.

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  2. Morons of City Hall. May we have your attention idiots?


    Dec. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Proterra, a leading innovator in heavy-duty electric transportation, announced that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has agreed to procure 18 Proterra Catalyst® E2 vehicles for shuttle service at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA), representing one of the largest electric bus fleet commitments of any airport authority in the United States. Six of the battery-electric buses are already in service at JFK, with LGA and EWR to each deploy six more in 2019.

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  3. ^^ Totally agree on both counts and buses are more nimble for quickly changing routes.

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  4. ^^^^Do you suppose that might just be one reason our great-grandparents switched from streetcars to buses?

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  5. ^^^Auto manufacturers killed streetcars back in the day. Research it.

    The main reason street cars are being pushed in many major cities today is they drive economic development around the routes. Studies have shown this to be true.

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  6. Back in the day before cities became so spread out auto makers lobbied for buses because they made bodies for the buses they could sell; however, our great grandparents were thrilled shitless to switch to buses. My grandfather was a streetcar conductor who couldn't wait to become a bus driver.

    I (and Richard Florida) both doubt streetcars spur any meaningful unsubsidized development. Name some that have located along the streetcar route without subsidies. In other words, what return on investment have we seen?

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  7. ^^^Urban legend.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy#Counterarguments

    The main reason streetcars are being pushed in many cities today is they enable private interests to suck up public money like a giant Hoover vaccuum. "They drive economic development along the route" - doubtful, but even if partly true, it would be cheaper and more effective to just directly subsidize businesses along the route.

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  8. Why Is Kansas City Building More Toy Train Streetcar For Real Estate Speculators?!?!

    Because It's Obviously Going To Get Built, Dumbass?!?!

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  9. Downtown Denver closed off their two-mile "Mall" on 16th Street to car traffic and have free bus shuttles that are designed like streetcars with doors opening on both sides, low entry platforms and limited seating for more people hopping on and off. It also takes people from the downtown hotels and shops/restaurants to their Union Station where you can catch the high speed rail to the airport. And now they are replacing them with electric buses. Unlike fixed rail streetcars, they can also move these buses off 16th street when necessary for other downtown events. http://www.rtd-denver.com/FREEMallRide.shtml

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  10. News for everyone: There is no federal money for streetcar expansion anymore. It will not happen. Twenty other cities have found this out as they were sold on the street car fad and cannot afford expansion either. KC, along with many other metro areas, are stuck with a mile long route that serves no purpose

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  11. ...all the while the workers will march to work each day down MLK Parkway.

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  12. 8:51 comment, I'm ok with the idea of streetcar helping eco devo but my God the cost - $102million for a 2 mile route? And we have seen it cannibalizing bus service just look at routes shrinking or getting thinner e.g. 28, 47, 570

    Thanks,
    Radish

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  13. Tech invented trackless autonomous Streetcars called shuttles, that do much more for a fraction of the cost, and this is suppressed by the usual suspects who want a big serving of pork

    Expect overwhelming public proof statements coming soon to a place near you. The Chamber is going to have to answer for this, just as Sly should answer for the Airport Debacle

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