20,500,000 dollars we don't have

Here's another outrageous situation, straight from the halls of city government in Kansas City, Missouri. Another conversation I can't believe we have to have at all.

Our Mayor and some on the City Council want to give--up front--$20.5 million dollars to one developer (the Block Company) in hopes they will develop 30 acres of land on 63rd Street, the becoming-infamous "Citadel Project."

Think about this.

If someone you knew came up to your door and said they would fix your roof for $8,000.00 and would do a bang-up job and you both agreed to it but then they threw in the caveat that you had to give them all the money up front, would you do it?

And the answer, of course, is "Hell, no!"

Right. Exactly.

So here we have this sweetheart deal to give 20 and one half million dollars to this developer in hopes they'll fix up this dysfunctional eyesore.

That's all crazy enough but then it's also not been competitively bid.

I would have thought that non-competed boondoggles would have gone out with "W", Dick Cheney and that whole administration.

This is insane, people, and no way to run a government or a city.

Put all that lunacy on top of the fact that this is the worst real estate market in the last 70 years that has left loads of commercial and retail space open all over the area and it goes to further prove this is exactly the wrong, bone-headed, giveaway deal at the worst possible time since the Great Depression, no exaggeration.

And then there's the fact that Kansas City doesn't even have 20 and one-half million dollars to hand out for this project, anyway. (Banging head against wall).

And the people of Kansas City aren't raising hell.