Over the course of a generation Kansas City has invested NEARLY ONE BILLION DOLLARS into the dream of reviving downtown and creating a regional anchor to attract office space, marquee entertainment and residents.
Taxpayers have carried this burden with constant promises of one last "missing piece" as civic pride, guilt and fear have targeted voters.
Now . . .
COVID-19 HAS FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED THE AMERICAN ECONOMY & CONCLUDED THE COSTLY KANSAS CITY DOWNTOWN RENAISSANCE DREAM!!!
A KICK-ASS TKC READER points us to this resource amid recent news of office space inside the loop now at risk . . .
The Street: Vacant Big City Offices are Here to Stay
Money line . . .
"A vaccine will help stop the spread of Covid, but the office cat is out of the bag. I have not seen any reports of lost productivity from working remotely.
"Sure, some will take advantage. But others are happy to work 9 hours instead of 8 and still come out way ahead after factoring in commute time and costs, lunches, etc.
Here's the word as we asked around about this trend today . . .
"There's a reason why the Waddell & Reed project is risky and why Cerner will not be building anymore at the old Bannister Mall site . . . People are fundamentally rethinking how office space works. The workplace has forever changed and we're not just going to jump right back to life pre-covid.
"The downtown pipe dream is predicated upon people wanting to live close to their workplace . . . That sales pitch is no longer accurate and executive level workers might want to choose a community where they can build trust, raise a family and walk through the streets at night rather than opting for an overpriced tourist attraction propped up by taxpayers. This trend is going to require some serious rethinking from our elected leaders, not just outright denials which is all that we've seen thus far."
Check the links . . .
UST: Rising vacancies, falling rents: 'The office market, it's like a slow-motion car wreck.'
FC: Everyone thinks COVID-19 destroyed the office. But that’s not the whole story
CNBC: AWS CEO Andy Jassy: Offices will become more like shared workspaces after the pandemic
You decide . . .
It was always a scam. There's no way those $3,000 a month rents were going to last for long. Expect more developers to bail and leave KC holding the bag.
ReplyDeleteHere's what you don't know Tk, there were very few clawbacks written into local deals so city hall is going to have to deal with millions in losses.
THREE THOUSAND to live Downtown? No thanks. Especially when there are so many bums squatting on the street for free.
DeleteTry this on for size dude,
DeleteA Better title: streetcar to nowhere.
Sorry but it's a fact.
^^and yet Downtown will still be thriving this time next year. Weird.
ReplyDeleteSTILL thriving? Have you seen how many businesses are closed? Have you seen the empty streetcar? Have you checked to unemployment rate for downtown? Not to mention all the business that was lost after First Friday closed in the crossroads last year.
DeleteIf that's your definition of "thriving" you'll never find work as an economist.
The "Downtown Renaissance" was always based on nothing but the latest "urban futurist" fad, hot air, endless hype, and bottomless public debt.
ReplyDeleteThe last of which will run for many decades and suck the life out of the city's general fund and make it even more difficult to address future challenges and opportunities.
Covid's just made it worse by eviscerating KCMO's revenue stream.
But don't expect any of this to change the way Lucas and the gang "manage" the show.
Just like previous electeds, they'll be spending tax money on upside-down priorities, special interest pleading, "developers", campaign contributors, and a whole new round of balmy ideas from the "urban futurists"
A perpetual motion machine of stupidity.
ReplyDeleteWhat killed Kansas City as a whole not just downtown is Sly James Quinton Lucas Jean Peters Baker and the liberal judges that let the black killers go back out on the streets with no consequences. AKA democrat run cities and low life people like the homeless ANTIFA and BLM. They revived downtown with taxpayer money but the only people who benefit is the city politicians and the developer they never meant for it to bring people in. Buildings sitting empty brings even more money to them.
2:55 and 3:04 FTW!
ReplyDelete2:48 and you’re still as dumb as the day is long. Weird.
ReplyDeleteAnd it will STILL be thriving though so....
ReplyDeleteAre you even trying anymore? At least put in some effort.
DeleteShill gotta shill. Or needs to put the meth pipe down.
DeleteLIBERAL CITIES ARE FUCKED. SHUT EM DOWN
ReplyDeleteBetter save that money liberals cause you are fucked
ReplyDeleteHEY LIBERAL SCUM THE DADDY DEMS DONT HAVE THE MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BITCH ASSES.
ReplyDelete248 ITS TIMETO SUCK GRANDMAS TIT NOW GET TO IT BITCH BOY DEPENDENT
ReplyDeleteToo many homosexuals downtown and normal people absolutely do not want to be around them. Weird.
ReplyDelete^^and yet it's still thriving. You fools have been crying about this for years on here. Wrong. Every. Single. Time. Weird.
ReplyDeleteOh okay. Really? It looks like The Walking Dead down there. Provide proof of your claims Act Blue shill.
DeleteOne homosexual is too many homosexuals
ReplyDelete^^^ and you keep trying to convince us it is when everybody knows it’s going down, it’s as plain as the dick up your ass. Weird.
ReplyDeleteCovid got a lot of people thinking about living in such tight quarters in a downtown environment which is highly dependent upon people being stacked like cord wood. People are bailing as fast as they can, it’s no longer hip, happening or cool. In a normal situation nobody lives downtown over 26 years old and for more than a year, these youngins realize pretty quick what a joke and a mistake it is to live downtown. Bye bye downtown! Hahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteExcerpted from the intro screed, "and walk through the streets at night".
ReplyDeleteThe author somehow left out "SAFELY", walk through the streets safely at night.
Of course, we all know why that is not possible, in many places, in KC, but it would be racist to include that GLARING detail in his comment.
BLM in Liberia.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete^^and yet Downtown will still be thriving this time next year. Weird.
12/3/20, 2:48 PM
This remark from the perpetually ignorant, stupid weird person, was followed by a comment telling this he/she/it would never find work as an economist.
TRUE, BUT THIS PERSON HAS NEVER FOUND A JOB, PERIOD !! THEIR ENTIRE AMBITION IS TO MAKE HOPELESSLY BANAL, INANE COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG, HOPING FOR ATTENTION, WHILE ACCUSING OTHERS OF DOING THE SAME. ABSOLUTE, LOSER.
COVID didn't kill it, years of mismanagement from the City, former mayors and Q Ball's Nazi bullcrap did. Enough with blaming COVID already. Q Ball is just making sure that downtown is dead forever.
ReplyDeleteFirst you have to have law and order to build a society.
ReplyDeleteDowntown Kansas City does not have law and order and will cease to exist until corrected.
I ran several of Boomer Hater/Geezer/Pops/Geriatric Fu*ktard/Old People/Weird/CHUD boy's comments through an online age detection app for written materials and it showed in the results that he is only 10 years old. You can tell his age by his lack of writing skills and his frequent temper tantrums. I'm guessing he dropped out of elementary school and his mother doesn't know what to do with him, especially when he continues to wet the bed and fill his diaper. For his welfare, we’ve started a GoFundMe page titled “Save the 10-Year-Old Bed-Wetting Dumbass."
ReplyDeleteWasn't funny 1st time. Not funny 300th time.
DeleteWasn't meant to be funny. Just descriptive.
ReplyDeleteOf your life.
ReplyDeletePoliticians and the globalist billionaire lackey msm killed.....
ReplyDeleteThis fake plague only killed ppl already on their way out.
And downtown is still thriving years after you people said it would be bankrupt. Totally weird.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider downtown to be "thriving", you must be from Mogadishu.
ReplyDelete^^Says the geriatric shut-in who hasn’t left Frogville in decades. Stick to Bob Evans pops, it’s all you know.
ReplyDelete7:45 Yawn
ReplyDelete^^I know pops, it’s past your bedtime. You’ve got a big day of doing this, and watching Matlock again tomorrow. You should hit the rack. Tell everybody night night grampy.
ReplyDelete^^^ fuck off gopher boy
ReplyDeleteThis is on Trump, and no one else except his cowardly ReThuglican enablers like Jerry Moran and Josh Hawley. It didn't have to be like this. It isn't like this in other countries.
ReplyDeleteBasement imbecile very excited tonight.
ReplyDeletesome misplaced priorities.
ReplyDeletewith buck o'nail bridge crumbling did it make sense to spend $102 million on 2 miles of streetcar rail?
power and light district is essentially borrowing $300 million for a drinking district, so who says that is good public policy? oh right, that is the creative class we are chasing after or something LOL
DST gone, huge subsidizes for border-jumping waddell & reed right before it is to be gutted. tax subsidized luxury dwellings but no jobs downtown.
and now if there is a penny in the bank (or not) there will be money not spent on the same ignored priorities, and money spent on next fads like complete streets.
yes I think it must not be fun to be mayor or council soon. the sly and kay barnes years are long gone.