Second Opinion: COVID-19 Kills Kansas City Downtown Renaissance

It was only a matter of time until the speculative development bubble burst . . . This missive offers more proof that taxpayer giveaways and sweetheart deals were never going to create enough "momentum" to fund so many ponzi schemes inside the loop . . . Take a look:

The Pandemic Sparks an Overdue Reckoning with Kansas City's Growth Obsession - Strong Towns

The economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic has already begun to wreak havoc on city budgets. And Kansas City, Missouri might end up being one of the worst hit, according to a recent Brookings Institution study. KCUR, the city's NPR affiliate, has the details in a recent story that has prompted a lot of conversation among Kansas Citians.

Comments

  1. Fun while it lasted?

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  2. Stretching already thin resources is the path I'd use - as long as you're doing something constructive would be better than doing nothing at all.

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  3. this is interesting, urban zones have strong headwinds just as kansas city was getting to critical mass.

    if there's a vaccine soon, the movement downtown will likely be ok.

    otherwise, well......

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  4. Anybody for a streetcar ride?

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  5. Cities with New York envy need to re-examine their objectives.

    New York is going back to the pre-Giuliani dystopia.

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  6. LOL fake renaissance killed by fake plague so you will vote for more fake leaders.

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  7. Maybe at the very least this will kill the crazy idea of moving the baseball stadium downtown once and for all.

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  8. "Build In Order To Borrow" has been the Real Estate Developer's basic toolkit since at least the 1970s. Finance much more (2 or 3 times) than necessary, pay yourself hefty "Management Fees", build as cheaply as possible, then shift the entire debt load to a "Management Corporation" that you wholly control, and also, if possible, to the Municipality unsophisticated enough and dazzled enough by your "concept", then WALK AWAY WITH FULL POCKETS!

    Heck, if done properly, there are no limits on how far you can go, this Con Game could conceivably lead to an exclusive address on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D. C.

    Of course, this scam also ignores a basic concept of Economics, which would indicate that development will inevitably happen IF there is enough Economic Justification for it to happen!

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  9. There was never a renaissance downtown.
    It was always a Potemkin Village based on hype and supported by massive taxpayer subsidies.
    And when you view a Potemkin Village from the side, just like a movie set, there's nothing there.
    Thanks for playing.
    And now, anybody for a downtown baseball stadium?
    You really can't make this stuff up.

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  10. ^^and yet you've obviously never set foot downtown a day in your rapidly dwindling life. Weird.

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  11. ^^and yet you don't give a sh*t that your life as dwindled rapidly to nothing. Unweird.

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  12. ^^and yet I matter and you don't. Super weird.

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  13. ^^and yet you only matter in your own mind as an ultraweirdo.

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  14. 1:14. Only to you. Only to you.

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