A New Airport and Strange Bedfellows, Part II

After this morning's post on the airport and me teaming up with--gasp--a Right Wing blog, I wanted to also post this, their 2nd note on the stupidity and irresponsibility of throwing away our existing airport, only to build another.

The Emperor’s New Airport

At a recent Kansas City Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, Aviation Department Director Mark VanLoh walked the committee through a slide show featuring lots of exciting computer graphics of an airport that does not exist and likely never will. VanLoh said the images were merely “conceptual;” no architect is bound by them. Yet several news outlets have picked them up to illustrate what the proposed terminal could look like. This future airport is as real as the fabled emperor’s new clothes.

Why is fanciful airport art an issue? Kansas City officials argue that we need a shiny new terminal because we are losing market share to other airports in the region, such as Branson, Mo., and Wichita, Kan.

On KCPT’s Week in Review program (comments begin at 5:07), Scott Parks of KMBZ 98.1, in a courageous act of honesty, questions the whole concept of a city “losing flights” to another city. He says:

Maybe I struggle against this panel mentally. I don’t understand how Kansas City is losing flights. Airlines are a business. If people want to fly to Kansas City for business, for pleasure, to visit family, whatever, they’re going to fly to Kansas City. I heard the argument this week that we’re losing flights to Columbia, we’re losing flights to Branson, we’re losing flights to Wichita. Well if I live in Seattle and I have family that lives in Kansas City, I’m not flying to Wichita and then driving three hours to Kansas City. I don’t understand how flights that were supposed to be coming to Kansas City are now going to Wichita or Branson.

The conversation immediately moved to the cost of security and Kansas City International Airport (MCI); no one addressed Parks’ concern.

Just like the old ministers in Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Parks states the obvious — doing so almost apologetically. But he is exactly right. If proponents want to argue that the airport is unattractive as a hub — a place where people make connections to other flights but not itself a destination — a shiny new terminal will not address that problem. It will only exacerbate the problem if it results in higher costs to airlines who are already being lured elsewhere with cash.
Week in Review was rife with those same slick computer-generated images that were shown at the transportation committee meeting. Those images are meant to appeal to emotions. The Kansas City Star reported that the aviation department has contracted with an outside public relations firm for $117,000. Are presentations to the Kansas City Council and the public already focused on selling slick and colorful images rather than answering substantive questions? The city council’s committee hearing suggests the answer is “yes.”

Kansas City Mayor Sly James has called for an “adult discussion about the facts,” and that is good. But he and others on the City Council have yet to make their case that the Emperor is not naked.

New airport proposal making for "strange bedfellows"

Seriously.

Talk about strange bedfellows.

As I've shown here, I'm squarely against the idea of trashing the existing airport and design, only to tear it down, throw it away (in a dump) and build anew. It's monumentally expensive and irresponsible both fiscally and environmentally.

What I didn't know was that the very Right Wing Show-Me Daily blog was and is also with me, with us, on this point and issue. They sent me the following and it seems important to read, know and acknowledge:

Airport Transparency

Kansas City is in the midst of a debate about whether our airport should undergo a renovation that would cost at least $1.2 billion. There are many questions about this, and Kansas City Mayor Sly James just called on the city to have an “adult discussion about the facts,“ but the City Council has no interest in actually answering questions. In fact, City Councilman Russ Johnson, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, refused to answer questions from the public or from the media about his hearing on the matter.

At that hearing in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Kansas City Aviation Department Director Mark VanLoh walked the committee through a slide show detailing the problems with the existing Kansas City International Airport. Chief among the reasons for spending $1.2 billion on a new terminal is “poor passenger experience.” Yet none of the material available to the public gives any indication of how the Aviation Department concluded passengers have a poor experience. When I asked about the Aviation Department’s methodology, Johnson responded that my questions would not be answered (questions start at 1:13:30). This matter is important because in 2010, J.D. Power and Associates rated the same airport as “highest among medium airports,“ writing: “Kansas City International (MCI) ranks highest among medium airports, and performs particularly well in three of the six factors: airport accessibility, check-in/baggage check and security check.”

In his later remarks disparaging J.D. Power, Johnson wrongly referred to the company as a think tank. It is not. It is a customer satisfaction survey firm that McGraw-Hill owns. J.D. Power is likely known to many voters because its ratings appear in numerous television commercials. VanLoh even said that when J.D. Power rated MCI the best in 2010, his department asked if they could publicize that rating and were told it would cost $80,000 to do so. They were likely correct to demur. But if VanLoh and his colleagues are going to rate the same airport as providing a “poor passenger experience,” it is reasonable to ask how they did so when they endorsed Power’s “best in the country” rating just a few years prior.

If the Aviation Department and their chorus on the City Council want to tear down a much-loved and nationally recognized airport, the public deserves transparent processes and substantive answers to serious questions regarding the endeavor’s necessity.

So good for them. Good for us.

On this one issue, anyway, we can put aside our differences, join forces and get this bone-headed idea of throwing away an airport, itself thrown out.

The latest on the airport

Yesterday, the City Council downtown voted to go forward with a study on a new, single-terminal airport for Kansas City and the region.

That's the bad news.

Here's the good news:

Three councilmen voted against it--John Sharp, Scott Taylor and Scott Wagner. To them I say kudos and thank you.

More good news, really: "Mayor Sly James admitted he is not completely sold on the current proposal" according to KSHB 41 News.

I'm thinking that, with good information gotten to the Mayor and the will of the people to not throw away our existing facility for all the reasons available--financial, environmental, practicality on so many levels and sheer fondness for and appreciation of the existing airport--I think he can be shown this new single-terminal airport idea is a poor one that should itself be abandoned.

I think the City Council can--and will--be shown and convinced this walking away from our existing airport and building a new, single and very expensive terminal, expensive in so many ways, is a patently bad idea, effort and investment.

Here's hoping.

Link to story:  City council approves single-terminal plan at Kansas City

Plaza solution needed by Friday

I think we all know the city needs and wants a solution of whatever sort we can, as soon as possible for the Country Club Plaza so there are no more random shootings in or around the area. I think that's a given. That said, that assumed, I'd expect Mayor James to absolutely do whatever he has must in order to get a curfew in place by Friday, at latest. From what I understand, it is to cover kids under 18 and make it that they have to be out of there by 9. What I don't understand are the questions or concerns that it might not be constitutional when it's already being done in Philadelphia. Attorneys will be busy. Anyway, I feel sure it will sail through City Hall in these few days. Neither the Mayor nor City Council nor anyone else have any other quick solution available. I'd absolutely look for this to be a "done deal." Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/15/3078819/curfew-option-has-kcs-attention.html

KCMO School District and CC Plaza have the same problem: irresponsible, lazy parents.

The bad news? Sure, we all know now, and have since at least Sunday morning that there were kids roaming the Plaza again, Saturday night and that shots were fired (5 to 6, it's said). Additional bad news? Mayor James was there. But therein lies, also, the good news because now, suddenly, our mayor is invested in both recognizing and solving this problem. I--and, I think others--have been calling for the mayor and his office and City Hall and the City Council and churches and their leaders and businesses and civic leaders to get together to see what kind of solutions could be offered to solve both this problem and the problems of shootings and drive-by shootings, etc. Now, suddenly, since Mayor James was there when the shots rang out, he's saying the same thing, fortunately. According to today's Star: "Churches, schools and businesses, also, need to get involved, he said." Thanks for finally joining us, Mayor. He also pointed out in this morning's article in the Star that parents are responsible for this, too. So maybe, just maybe, if the city and School District, both, are trying to solve this same parental problem--and I think we all agree they are--maybe we can get closer to a combined solution for both. It won't be a quick fix but the curfew for teens seems like a great, fair and sensible place to begin. I think we should follow Philadelphia's example with fines of $300.00 per teen and $500.00 per parent for violating the curfew, too. That would make people pay attention rather quickly. If it's good enough for Philly, it seems good enough for us, as well. Here's wishing us all luck. Here's hoping.

Broken KC water pipes, ad inifinitum

It seems there are two things this mayor and City Hall needs to get a handle on right now. The first is the annual shoot-fest in the city with the other being the water pipes that burst all across the city, underground. Driving this morning, I saw one on 31st Street, coming up the hill (East), between Southwest Boulevard and Southwest Trafficway and then another, one block South of 31st Street, right on Southwest Trafficway. Crazy.

Did you vote?

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. 

Here's hoping you did, folks.

How about that new mayor?

Vote, I tell you!

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.

Fortunately for us, we don't have any cannibals.  Go vote, folks!

We're running out of time!

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause. 

And it takes you and I voting, folks!  Go get 'em!

How many times do I have to tell you?

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

Still, that said, you gotta' go vote today, folks.

Vote today!

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

 

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Still, we need you to vote today!

Go! Now! Vote!

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

 

Still, we need you to vote today, folks!

Go vote!

The wit, wisdom and insight of  H. L. Mencken:

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven. 

In spite of that---go vote, folks!

Is this when the city finally gives a damn about killings?

Sure, we can have over 60 minority people killed in the first half of the year and no reaction from the Mayor, their office (lol), the City Council or community or church leaders. Sure. Everyone has written about that, including me, here. But now, here's a young white woman--a new mother--who gets gunned down at a friend's house over the weekend while in the friend's very private home. Is this the event that finally wakes the city up to the fact that we need to do something about the shootings and killings and "drive-bys" in the city? Part of me hopes it is and the other part is so disgusted that nothing, to date has been said or done about it, it's hard not to be a bit jaded by the silence and acceptance of the area's "leaders" of the whole murder and murder rate situation.

Note to Ed Ford and the City Council of Kansas City, Missouri

I don't think I'm being presumptuous here by pretending to, singlehandedly, speak for the citizens of the entire city but I think I'm safe in sending you this following note:

After the City Council's Planning and Zoning Committee passed a preliminary resolution this week this week in favor of the new Tomahawke Ridge housing community, North of the city, we, the citizens of Kansas City, whom you are supposed to represent, want you to know

WE DO NOT WANT THE TOMAHAWKE RIDGE DEVELOPMENT TO GO FORWARD.

And we don't want it for the following reasons, at minimum:

--It contributes to sprawl;

--It's too far from the city;

--It weakens the city's core further;

--It is 25 miles from the city's core;

--It will be difficult, at best, to give it fire protection;

--Our own Fire Department doesn't recommend it;

--The City Planning Department doesn't recommend it;

--The City can't even clear our streets now, with what we've got, let alone if we add 300+ more homes;

--The City can't even tend to our own street maintenance now, with what we've got, let alone by adding all these more miles of streets;

--The City can't even tend to our sewage system now, with what we've got, let alone by adding all this much more sewers, drains and pipes.

And that's just for starters.

We don't want it.

It isn't prudent, to use an old phrase from Saturday Night Live.

But we're serious.

And we mean it.


Thank you,

The citizens of Kansas City, Missouri

KC Snow Removal

 

I was on the Plaza last evening, shooting pictures for my photography blog and saw these 3 snow plows. I think the whole city downtown knew they had to do a better job removing snow last evening.

But the fact is, there's still snow all over the Plaza and Southwest Trafficway is still a bit of a mess.

I'll grant you, this was a tougher storm to deal with but the fact is, cities have to be able to remove snow, period.

It's just not that much to ask or expect, especially since there are very few of these bitter cold, snowy winters.

And we sure as hell better not be annexing some new home division (up North in this case) that has 300 homes in it, for the benefit of some developer.

Yet another senseless death

If you read The Kansas City Star today, you can predict my column.

Bystander slain as bullets fly in gun battle

"A stray bullet from a rolling gun battle killed an bystander on his porch Tuesday night in Kansas City.

The man was struck about 8:10 p.m. when two groups of young men were shooting at one another while running south on Wayne Avenue between 35th and 36th streets."

Broad daylight murder, one more time.

I ask again: Where is the outrage at and from City Hall? The Mayor? The City Council? The Councilperson who represents this district? What is the Police Department's reaction? What is the Police Department doing to prevent this, if anything, now? Can the Police Department propose any solutions to prevent this kind of insanity?

However, I'm also going to ask, what is this community doing to prevent this kind of nonsense?

"Officer Darin Snapp, a police spokesman, said there were several witnesses to the shooting, but few were willing to give statements to police."

If you can't help yourself, it is much less likely anyone is going to help you.

Taking that further, if you won't help yourself, why should anyone intervene to do so?

___________________________________________________
If you know anything about who did this, please contact the Kansas City Crimestoppers TIPS Hotline at (816)474-TIPS. If you would rather not contact this source, contact Alonzo Washington at omega7toys@aol.com) or call him at(913)321-6764.

Link to full story:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1378314.html

Addendum:

I'd like to quote someone but unfortunately they left this under "Anonymous" on another blog (Tony's KC):

"When the decent inner city people (and yes, most are) decide it is time to take back the streets from the thugs, it will be ugly but that is the only way to fix it."

Someone explain to me why this isn't true.

And this quote from Tony himself:

"...I'm certain there will be a meaningless press conference on the subject from local politicos as soon as a few more bodies turn up on local streets in rapid succession. August is a horrible month for KC murders and even worse for empty promises from elected officials."

That is absolutely not what we're needing or wanting from downtown, by any means.