Toellner Tells it

Chalk art promotes streetcar line

On my way to lunch today, I passed this new piece of chalk art on Main, just North of 18th Street. The art is an almost obvious set of rail tracks directing people to ourstreetcar.com. Instead of being a website with information about the downtown street car plan, the url takes you to a neighbor.ly url that is going to, eventually, try to crowd-source some of the funding necessary to build the street-car line.  

Personally I'm not sure how viable crowdsourcing this type of $$ is, but I do applaud their efforts. While the idea of a streetcar line in Kansas City has been very controversial, it seems very obvious to me that Kansas City NEEDS to develop a fixed transit line.

I realize that the initial cost of rail always seems to be more expensive than bus transit -- which, short term, is always a more efficient way to move people about in a city.

But the long-term impact of rail is much different than bus.

1) Fixed rail lines build density -- and have proven over and over again to do so. With the density comes increased tax revenue per square mile, more people, a more vibrant urban environment -- and yes, more people to ride public transit.

2) Once established, rail lines are less expensive to operate than buses -- meaning less need/opportunities to cut existing services every time the budget gets tight (which is currently happening now with our bus lines).

2) There has also been talk about adding commuter rail lines into the city. While commute times in Kansas City are relatively low, it's in part because our state and federal highway departments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually in rebuilding major highway interchanges -- such as at I-435 and I-70 near the sports complex, and the Grandview Triangle - -in recent years. Without commuter rail, major, and costly highway infastructure improvements will remain necessary.  However, commuter rail lines need to feed into something once they reach the central business district -- and that something needs to be permanent to justify the expense of the commuter rail lines.

3) While the initial streetcar proposal is very small - -we must start somewhere - -and this is a good, viable place for the streetcar line to begin. I would imagine additional lines would be in the works even before the starter line gets completed.

4) Good pulbictransit is too important for cities to ignore. It is excellent at building density, but also important at moving people from place to place, alleviating congestion on roads, and allowing low-income individuals without cars to move to and from jobs easily. Without viable transit (which now is very limiting), people without cars or very restricted on where they can find jobs - -which means the poor stay poor. There are exactly zero good case studies that I am aware of (even after looking) of cities with good public transit that are relying solely on buses. It just doesn't happen. There is no reason to believe Kansas City can succeed at it when others haven't.

So, go check out ourstreetcar.com -- and see how you can help.

Kansas City Commuting Heat Map

I've been a little MIA from this blog over the past few months -- at some point I'll probably get into why but I've been off working on other projects. I'm hoping to be back here consistently soon. Meanwhile, I stumbled across this visual heat map that highlights commute times from various parts of Kansas City.

The tool itself is pretty interesting - -as you can actually change it based on your actual destination, or on whether or not you're using public transit (which will show you visually why transit hasn't taken off in the metro -- it's because it pretty much takes longer to get anywhere on a bus than it does in a car).

It also has crime heat maps and amentiy maps. It is actually a really handy little tool for anyone who is looking to move to Kansas City to take a look at where various hot spots are. Other cities are available as well.

Check it out here.

1940 Census Data Available

I didn't know this -- but when you fill out the US Census (which all of us did in 2010), the census information is kept confidential for 72 years (roughly the average person's lifespan). So earlier this week, the information from the 1940 census became public information for the first time.

Kansas City has a lot of history  and a lot of old homes. I looked up our house, and was amazed to find out that our 1908 home had already been divided up into apartments as of the 1940 census. We had known it was divided into apartments, but had always assumed it was after WWII - but apparently it happened prior to the 1940 census. Based on the the census information, 11 people (including a couple of young married couples and 3 sisters all in their 60s) lived in 5 tiny apartments in what is now my home.

It is also interesting that our now very racially diverse neighborhood had not a single non-white person in 1940.

I'll warn you, it may take a fair amount of looking to find the information on here as the forms are a little clunky -- but it is interesting if you're interested in taking the time to do it.

h/t: Freakanomics

TIF for new Aldi location at 39th and Prospect

Today, Kansas City, Mo announced that it was going to TIF $5 million worth of spending on a new 16,500 square foot building that will house an Aldi store at 39th and Prospect.

Let me start with the good news.

1) I'm completely supportive of TIF money being used in the Urban core of Kansas City to help bring jobs, development, and resources to our badly-in-need urban core.

2) The new Aldi store will bring an estimated 13 jobs to this area of town.

3) Aldi is a great (and growing) brand, that serves low-cost goods. These types of low-cost food are in desperate need in this neighborhood that is in the middle of one of Kansas City's many Food Deserts.

So on many fronts, I applaud the city for funding this much-needed development in one of the city's high-need areas.

On the flip side, the building pictured above is an old Grocery Store that is in a strip mall at Linwood and Prospect -- a mere 7 blocks away. Could we not, less expensively, get a new grocery store to move into an old grocery store space just a couple of blocks away?  This would have helped end the blight of an abandoned building, helped the store get open sooner, and been less expensive for the city to help fund since it was an existing buidling.  Seems like it could have been an easier solution that could have left more available TIF funds for other projects instead of just throwing money at the situation for money's sake.  Not that this is a bad idea, just that it seems like there is a better, cheaper option.

Kansas City makes owning chickens easier - and why this is good for the Urban Core

Earlier today, the Kansas City City Council changed the rules regarding back yard chickens. They changed the provision that didn't allow chickens within 100 feet of neighbors (which, frankly, made owning them in many neighborhoods impossible) to allowing them within 100 feet of neighbors, as long as the neighbors consented.

To protect some concerns, they put in provisions to allow for inspections, mandate proper disposal of manure, and (unfortunately) prohibits the onsite sale of eggs. (Last year, the city allowed for the on-premise sale of garden vegetibles. I have no idea why selling tomatoes at my house is ok, but eggs is not).

The move by the council is another step forward for urban agriculture in the city - and I applaud the city for taking positive steps forward in this regard. It is no secret that Kansas City's urban core has a lot of abandoned lots that can be put to good use -- and much of the urban core is in what the USDA has termed "Food Deserts" -- where there is limited access to fresh food.  Allowing for alterantive uses for these empty lots, as well as providing another urban food sources, is a solid way of solving both problems.

Meanwhile, some cities, such as Birmingham, are combining the urban gardening, the problem with food deserts, the abundance of empty lots, and children who have become increasingly far removed from their food supply, and started teaching urban gardening in schools -- with very good early success. 

KCUR's Jabulani Lefall on his morning radio program Central Standard has also been tackling this subject this week -- where yesterday he interviewed local youth that were also doing local, urban food production.

So here's to Kansas City's City Council, at least the majority of them, seeing the positive side of urban farming and again relaxing rules and making it easier for these small, urban farmers.  

 

KCMO issues downtown parking survey (& why the results likely won't highlight the solution)

Yesterday, the City of Kansas City issued an online survey to get people's opinions on parking downtown.

The questions are typical:

Do you live downtown?

Work downtown?

Is parking hard to find?

Do you have a dedicated parking space?

Do you look for on-street parking or park in a garage?

How far from your destination is too far away to park? 

Etc.

No matter how the survey comes back, I can't think of a single way that the city will recognize from the survey what one of the biggest problems with downtown parking is in this city.

First of all, I don't think there is a major problem with parking downtown for 90% of people, uses and destinations -- unless you're used to pulling up to a strip mall and parking right out front of your destination for free. But compared to most cities, Kansas City Parking is cake.  And cheap.

But if there is a problem, the problem isn't lack of parking spaces.

It's lack of access to those spaces.

Because of the city policy for the past 5 decades that has mandated a certain number of parking spots for downtown businesses, far too many parking spots have become single use lots. A business owns and maintains the lot, but those spaces can only be used by those businesses -- even if the business is not open.

Let's take the surface lot at 19th and McGee that encompasses the entire city block for an example. The lot is, I believe, owned by Children's Mercy Hospital.  They then drive shuttle buses from the lot to the hospital and back every day. At night, when the majority of their staff goes home, the entire city block of parking is chained off and not accessible. On a typical First Friday, there is a struggle for people to find parking spaces at the Crossroads -- and yet, this entire block of open parking spaces sits completely empty.

This same scenario plays out with various lots throughout downtown -- where a restaurant that relies almost solely on foot traffic during the day has empty spots, but then has a shortage of parking in the evening when people drive to their location -- and yet, the empty business lots around them are sitting empty. The Star has several lots exactly like this.

In many ways, Kansas City's parking space mandates have CREATED a parking shortage downtown. In other cities, it has become financially viable for a private person to own parking garages that cater to business workers during the day, but are easily accessible for events/restaurants/night life at night. They're mixed use garages.  We have very few of those in Kansas City (there is one on the 1700 block of Main between the old TWA building and the old Retro Inferno building - -so there are some) because of the city's parking laws. 

It's my hope that the city actualy takes a deep dive into the city's downtown parking situation -- and doesn't just look at a survey to conclude that "Parking is fine" or "We need more parking". 

The answer isn't that cut and dried. We need more mixed use parking spaces -- that have uses both in the day and then different uses in the evening. We don't necessarily need MORE parking -- just more and better access on more occassions.

KCMO School District needs to exercise nimbleness in reuse of schools

Earlier today, the Star ran an article discussing some options for a couple of the now-abandoned KCMO area schools. One of the options is a proposal by Academie Lafayette (a very successful French immersion charter school in the city, now with over 600 students) to take over Longan School at 3421 Cherry St.

According to the article, Academie Lafayette is seeking an answer on their proposal to take over the school this week because they need time to upgrade the facility (which has been abandoned now for more than a year) and accept increased enrollment -- or seek other options.

Now, make no mistake, this isn't a rushed decision by Academie Lafayette. Discussion about taking over Longan School has been going on for at least 3 months now.  Academie Lafette wants to take over the abandoned school.  The neighborhood is as close to unanimously in support of them taking over the abandoned school as could possibly ever happen.  And the KCMO school board is supposedly eager to not let their 30 newly abandoned schools got to good use and not sit and rot like other abandoned schools have.

So, what's the hold up?

While I respect that the school distric wants to make the best use of their school buildings, there seems to be little that could be a better fit for a school building, in a neighborhood, than a successful school.

Apparently other schools are also up for re-use proposals as Alta Vista has a proposal in for Douglass School (2640 Bellview) and Academy of Integrated Arts has a proposal in for Franklin School at 3400 Highland. 

If the school district is to repurpose these schools, they must use a respectable amount of nimbleness in doing so. They cannot make the red tape of using the schools be too big of a barrier to reusing these schools and not only preventing them from blighting neighborhoods, but actually making them USEFUL for the neighborhoods.

This is a can't lose. Make it happen. Because blocking progress is everything the school board said they wouldn't do when they shut down the schools a year ago.

 

Fixed rail public transit systems take a step forward in KC Metro

Yesterday, the Kansas City metro took two more steps foward in another attempt to make some type of fixed rail system in the metro.

Last night, many people gathered down at the Kansas City Library to hear a presentation about plans for a new starter rail line that would run down the central business corridor from the River Market to Crown Center/Union Station. 

The routes would be on one of four roads:  Grand, Walnut, Main or Baltimore -- and could either feature two lanes on one road, or a north route on one road, and a south route on the other.  Since the lines would be for Modern Street Cars, they would share lanes with automobile traffic so they wouldn't have to have dedicated lanes like former light rail proposals required.

There were two presentations at the Library -- the 5:30 presentation that I attended had just fewer than 50 people in attendence who were not part of the presentation.  Also, council members Jim Glover, John Sharp, Russ Johnson and Jan Marcason were all on hand). 

You can get a lot more information on the planning proces at kcsmartmoves.org, but they are trying to weigh the pros and cons of the different routes -- including store frontage, redevelopment possibilities, road closures for parades and events, and even catwalks that would have to be navigated over/under. 

While I prefer the Walnut route because I think it creates the most central access to a number of points, and the best of eastern access to the River Market and then to Union Station (Grand creates some problems getting to Union Station, and Main enters the River Market on the wrong side IMO), I think any move to get a starter line started to improve the overall public transit structure in this city is to be rewarded.  They are also looking at different funding options including federal and state funding, and possibly a localized property and/or sales tax for residents/businesses near the route that will most be impacted (these would be the people who would get to vote on this as well).

Meanwhile, last Friday, Mike Sanders was out talking to the Lee's Summit Chamber of Commerce about his hopes for regional rail in Jackson County. The idea would be for whatever commuter line that comes into the city would eventually connect (either via Truman Road, the River Market or possibly Union Station) with the streetcar route.

These steps are all necessary for the metro. Permanent rail will bring development in a way that changable bus routes never can -- and continue to add density to our urban core. And improved transit will certainly help lower-income families in the metro who require it because they do not have automobiles.

Some good news -- although we're a long way from any of it happening...but with good support from the council and many strong groups downtown, an affordable option like a modern streetcar option has a decent chance of getting built.

Two more historic apartment buildings being demolished at Taxpayer Expense

Two more old buildings in an historic neighborhood in Kansas City are coming down -- and KC Tax Payers are paying for it.

In the Union Hill neighborhood, there are two old homes (that are, honestly, in horrific shape) that are coming down, along with several apartment buildings. A couple of the apartment buildings are 1950s-ish style apartments whose style is not a fit for the neighborhood and probably never should have been built there in the first place.

However, the two pictured here, are original to the neighborhood and actually don't appear to be in terrible shape. But they're coming down -- to be replaced by single-family homes (which I'm told will be designed to match the neighborhood, but we'll see).

These two buildings have been run down for awhile and been a haven for a host of nefarious activities. However, it seems like such a shame to use tax money to a) destroy historic buildings and b) to remove density from our downtown area (and Union Hill is officially in the "downtown" via the Downtown Council's definition).

 

P&L seeking to evict Raglan Road?

Well, here we go again.

Looks like now Cordish is seeking to run out one of the more popular entertainment venues in the Power and Light - Raglan Road. According to Joyce Smith's report, Raglan Road owes over $600,000 in back rent and other charges and is now in violation of their lease.

Smith also did the math, and figured that the upscale Irish Restaurant's lease was set up to be more than $49,000 a month in rent and other payments.

Um, wow. That's a lot of $6 beers.

This news follows the closing of Famous Dave's Barbeque only a few months ago.

This leads me to ask the question:  At what point is the P&L obligated to lower rent to allow these businesses to stay open? 

Each year, the city's tax payer's have to pay out several million dollars to pay off the bonds that are not covered by tax revenue from the P&L District. However, while the P&L isn't meeting tax revenue projections, it shouldn't be lost on a lot of folks that a fair number of the buildings in the P&L remain unused (incluing a prime piece of real estate directly across from the Sprint Center and other great locations on the same block where Dave's BBQ and Ted's Montana Grill were once located).  So while the city's taxpayers pick up the tab for the bonds, tax revenue is left on the table because the district is not full and the city is not seeing revenue from these empty business sites -- and they sit empty because the businesses aren't able to meet the extremely high rents.

So what about proposing a tax on empty businesses in downtown?  If a building is sitting empty for, say, 3 months (or six, this is negotiable), can the city tax these buildings based on unrecognized tax potential for the city?

This would help encourage building owners from being content to let buildings sit empty (not earning tax revenue) and to lower rents to realistic rates for what the demand really is for these locations.

I've written about this idea before -- mostly in relation to old buildings that are allowed to sit empty for decades and then end up destroyed due to lack of upkeep -- but I think it certainly should apply to viable entertainment districts as well.  It's past time for the city to start holding the P&L owners accountable for the tax revenue their not generating through their empty store-fronts....at taxpayer expense.

h/t: Tony