New restaurant for Nichols Lunch/Mama's spot

After getting a haircut, I learned that an American/Mexican restaurant is, thankfully, I think, going in to the old Nichols Lunch/Mama's location at 39th Street and Southwest Trafficway.

According to the owner, it is to have typical breakfast/lunch and dinner(?) fare along with homemade Mexican food, too.

Great news, I thought.

If your restaurant is named "Pot Pie"...

Not only should you have at least one pot pie on the menu--and they didn't, originally--but the pot pie (or pies) you have on the menu should be outstanding. And I don't just mean large.

Leave our danged airport alone

Here we go again. The front page article on the Star today is on the city's ideas of tinkering--meaning tearing down--our very functional and popular 3-terminal airport and replacing it with a one-terminal one. Ai-yi-yi. WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO KILL THIS DESTRUCTIVE, WASTEFUL, UNAPPRECIATED IDEA? Not only is it a great-looking, still contemporary airport but WE LIKE THE WAY WE CAN GET FROM OUR CARS, STRAIGHT TO THE GATES AND ON THE PLANES. Leave the damn thing alone. city aviation director Mark VanLoh said in an interview. “It’s a mess” and that "Airline mergers have resulted in one crowded terminal at KCI and two that are half-empty. Multiple security checkpoints require nearly 500 screeners, hundreds more than other airports need. Environmental contamination and antiquated heating and cooling systems can’t be fixed without new construction. When people ask whether a new terminal is the best way, VanLoh responds, 'It’s the only way. We’ve tried. We’ve remodeled.'" To which I reply "hogwash." You can't tell me replacing old heating and cooling systems--which would also be far more efficient due to far newer technology--would be more expensive than tearing down a building and starting all over again. That cannot possibly make sense financially or logically. As for the traffic at the terminals? Here's a thought--put the busiest airlines at the two end terminals--A and C--and fill all the rest of the spaces--beginning with B, of course--in the rest of the spaces. Fill B completely, with all the little airlines possible, then go out from there to the busier airlines. It's a balance. The fact is, we all know, we like our terminals and to tear them down would be wasteful and then, building yet another, new one in its place would also be wasteful. Let's spend our money on all the other things we need like, oh, I don't know, how about repairing all the sewer and pipe lines across the city? There are still 2 very significant leaks on Southwest Trafficway, just South of 31st Street that have been putting out pretty good quantities of water for months now. Here's another idea: How about somehow cleaning the water of Brush Creek so it isn't always and forever a sewer? Here's yet another: The bridges and streets are yet more infrastructure that need attention AND we've already gotten one big fine from the Federal Government because we've been slow on repairing them. What say we avoid yet another, additional, possibly bigger fine? Another, new, different airport when a) we like this one, b) it's very functional and effective, c) it's still attractive and finally, d) to bulldoze it would be grossly wasteful are clearly all reasons we should KEEP MCI AS IT IS. Leave the damn thing alone. Leave us alone. Go do other, productive and helpful work that we really need. Sheesh. Let this idea die a quick death, once and for all. Please. Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/19/3276094/like-it-or-not-kci-needs-to-change.html

Water busting out all over

I was on the East side of the city at the end of last week and noticed water pouring out of the street at 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard. At the time, I thought maybe I should call the water department and be sure they were aware of it, there was that much coming out, but I didn't. So then, yesterday, Sunday, I was there again and same thing--it was still flowing and very freely. So much so that it was pooling in the street, further down. So call I did. The result? I asked if they department was aware of it and the man on the other end said, yes, they were, he seemed to say, very aware of it. Oh, well, eh? This, along with the two breaks that are still on Southwest Trafficway (at least they're not pouring out at this fast a rate) and nothing seeming to be done. So it goes, eh, Mr. Mayor? And water department? I know they must have their hands full but aren't we wasting an awful lot of water? And doesn't that cost us?

You got a DUI? In Westport? On St. Pat's?

You gotta' be kidding me.

Westport checkpoint leads to 41 DUI arrests

Kansas City authorities arrested 41 persons suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol during a sobriety checkpoint held last night outside of Westport.

More than 800 vehicles were stopped during the checkpoint held between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. at 39th Street and Southwest Trafficway.

And you didn't maybe see that coming?

I'm sorry but you have to be some kinda' stupid to get picked up drunk driving in Westport, Kansas City, Missouri on St. Patrick's Day.

Link to original post:  http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/18/2734396/westport-checkpoint-leads-to-41.html

Update on Southwest Trafficway

As of last evening and again this morning, Southwest Trafficway is still not completely cleared and open to all 3 lanes of traffic, going into or out of the city.

It's passable by one and a half lanes to two lanes in most areas but is, in some spots, down to one and a half lanes only, which, frankly, can be a bit dangerous.

It seems we aren't really a city that completely works.

What we used to take for granted, we no longer can. At least not with the current leadership. (No surprise).

Keep warm out there, folks.

Are we a good-sized, Midwestern city that works?

Driving in to work today, I had to come in from Liberty via 152, then 435 South to 35 South, Southwest Trafficway to the Plaza and on to work out 47th Street to Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard, Van Brunt and finally I-70 to Independence.

This gives you an idea of the size of the area--the amount of the city--I covered on my way work. With this much driving experience this morning, I feel I have a pretty good deal idea of the condition of the streets and highways in the area, in spite of not traveling the Kansas side.

And the conclusion for me is that the city of Kansas City still has a lot of work to do in clearing its streets.

The State highway offices did their job, I'd say. All the lanes of 435 and 35 were clear. Naturally, it was when you got in the city that there were--are--issues.

Check this out: Southwest Trafficway was still down to, I'd say, one and a half lanes. This includes the extensions of Madison and Bellview. Naturaly one and a half lanes means, really, one.

To me, considering they are such main business thoroughfares, that's unacceptable.

They were--all of these mentioned streets--just one plow scraping away from being completely clear.

Someone in the street department, either last night or early this morning, should have cleared these for the rush hour this morning, I think, feel and believe.

I'm sure they worked their tails off, so to speak, this weekend, but we still, as a city, weren't ready for the workday and new workweek.

That's unacceptable. That's not how cities are to function and operate.

In their worst cases, the streets weren't safe.

In the best cases, it made getting to work (read: productivity, business and the lifeblood of the city, area and country) less efficient.

On Southwest Trafficway, which I noticed is a declared, official snow route, the cars had remained parked in the street so the crews couldn't clear the streets.

That, too, seems unacceptable.

Again, it's not safe and it should be clear.

47th Street, coming out of the Plaza and going over to Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard and Van Brunt, was the same way. Still not cleared.

Between this and the big metal plates left on the streets, instead of truly repairing those same streets, seem to point out consistently that our street department doesn't work really well.

We seem to work, as a city.

But not really well, like we ought.