Toellner Tells it

Kansas City Citizen Satisfaction Survey

The Star announced today that the city has just released its 2008 Citizen Satisfaction Survey. It certainly is interesting timing -- a) right after the election, not before. I'm assuming that this was an effort to not remind everyone how disgruntled they are in hopes of passing the light rail vote and b) right after the election of the first non-white as President in the history o fthis country and the survey could more easily get buried in headlines a bit because there is other stuff going on.

There aren't a ton of surprises in the survey, however the city saw pretty significant drops in satisfaction in 32 areas of city services.  Ouch. 

Sixteen areas got below a 20% approval rating.

Six of those are directly related to programs and availability of programs that are the responsibility of the parks department (swimming pools, city sponsored athletic programs, ease of registering for programs, etc).

Five are directly related to basic infastructure issues (building, road, sidewalk maintenance and cleanliness).   

Two are directly related to codes enforcement including abandoned buildings and overgrown weeds.

Certainly I think the mayor's declarationg of war on weeds and metal plates has raised public awareness of how bad these situations are in the city...but suffice it to say, they have not seemed to show improvement at this point. I certainly think the codes enforcement issues seem to have gotten worse over the past couple of years, and not better.

Two are particularly disturbing as they show a concern for the lack of effectiveness of city boads and commissions and the amount of public involvement in local decision-making.  Three other areas just barely made the 20% cutoff with "how ethically the city conducts business", "overall quality of leadership by the city's elected officals" and "effectivenesss of the city manager" all scoring at 23% or below.

I would certainly say that the lack of satisfaction with the administration and the council as a whole certainly came out in the disapproval of the city council and the mayor's Light Rail plan yesterday.

Overall, the city was graded fairly well as a place to live and a place to work -- but horribly as a place to raise children. Concerns over the amount of crime -- particularly in eastern neighborhoods and in public parks at night -- and no doubt the schools (even though they are measured in the study) are playing a role in that.

There's a lot of data in here -- and I'm sure I'll be pulling out nuggets for awhile, but thought it was worth sharing.

What's the hurry?

Tomorrow, a local judge will declare a ruling about whether or not the smoking ban (which would make smoking in all bars, restaurants and non-casinos illegal) that was voted on by the public back in April will go into effect. It's most likely that the judge will rule in favor of the ban...but I have to ask the question, what's the rush?

The ordinance was slated to take effect 60 days after the election.  It is now a couple weeks after that.  My hope is that they will at the very least make the decision to have the ban not go into effect until after the end of the year.

Many of the downtown bars and restaurants are already feeling the impact of the city-funded Power and Light district downtown.  The Mango Room, Fred P. Otts and Paddy O'Quigleys have all already closed. Tacking an all-out ban on smoking on top of the hit of the P&L District will undoubtedly mean that several other locally owned bars and restaurants will shut their doors.  Emptybuildings are bad for Kansas City.  Locally owned bars and restaurants going out of business is bad for Kansas City. 

Let's give these local business owners until the end of the year to make some necessary changes to their businesses in order to compete under the new rules. The P&L District was designed to be non-smoking -- but in each case, the buildings all have outdoor seating that allow for smokers to enjoy their beer while they dine. Most of the local restaurants, which have to fight city ordinances in order to create sidewalk seating, don't have the same option.  Giving these restaurants time to build outdoor/sidewalk seating options (while easing the red tape for them to do so) would be majorly beneficial in helping them put measures into place to compete with the P&L without the smokers. 

Not doing so, will undoubtedly cause major hardships on locally owned bars and restaurants.

Providing incentives for Kansas City Residents

I was pretty devastated to hear the news today that two locally owned restaurant establishments have, or are soon, going to close their doors.  Apparently the Mango Room has already closed. If I'd gone there as often as I intended to I would have known that already. Meanwhile, Magazines and Coffee looks like it is closing its doors on Friday.  Sad.

It can't really be a surprise that some of the local businesses are struggling. I noted a couple of months ago that I had noticed a decline in business at some of my Midtown haunts following the opening of the Kansas City Power & Light District.  This, combined with the recent smoking ordinance (and the new one that will take affect in June) are definitely having an impact on locally owned businesses. (I will note that both Mags and Coffee and Mango Room were already non-smoking).  That's it, tax incentives for the big guys, restrictions on the little guys.

The results can already be felt in other areas -- especially in the 18th & Vine District where the Peach Tree Restaurant is moving to their new downtown location.

Could we at least look at helping small restaurants provide better outside seating options to help them still retain smokers?

The truth is that Kansas City doesn't have the downtown density yet to support everything that's there. It's coming, but it's not there yet. Mayor Funkhouser addressed the density issue at his most recent neighborhood community meeting in the Hyde Park neighborhood.  The question came up about light rail -- and the mayor of course was more than happy to talk about the subject.

He noted, and agreed with the questioner, that KC doesn't currently have the density to justify light rail. However, he also noted that KC as a city cannot thrive unless it builds that density.  The city cannot continue to survive with people continuing to flock to the suburbs and only driving in to work.  The city infrastructure cannot deal with a model that is nearly 100% driven by the automobile and people living in other cities/states.

I happen to agree with him on that, so it got my mind spinning on ideas to encourage people to live in KCMO vs one of the other suburbs...along with some thoughts on encouraging the use of public transit.  Here are a few ideas:

1) How about incentivizing businesses to go to four day work-weeks or providing more opportunities for employees to work from home one day a week. This could lighting traffic load on our highways by 20% instantly and well as reducing emissions, gas consumption and wear and tear on roads.  We also have to spend less public money on things like parking garages and surface parking lots with fewer cars on the road (thanks Shayne for that idea).

2) What if we provided tax credits for money spent on public transportation?  We already are providing credits for people who buy Hybrid cars, why not do so to encourage public transit.  And it should be done in the form of credits, not deductions, as many low-income and young professionals who rely heavily on public transit don't itemize their taxes because they don't own homes.  Maybe this wouldn't make sense on a federal level (because there are some areas where transit is already well established), but certainly would make sense for the state of Missouri and Kansas to offer this.

3) What if we waived the KCMO earnings tax on people who live in KCMO?  The main point of the earnings tax is to get revenue from people who use the roads/infrastructure but aren't paying property taxes that help pay for them.  If we waived the tax for people who lived in KCMO we may encourage more people who work in KCMO to live in KCMO, which would increase overall tax revenue for the city having more people living here...which would help downtown businesses and improve our use of public transit.

I'm not sure of the practicality of all these ideas - or of the unintended consequences that come from all incentives. But I think they at least bear some consideration.  We need to give people more attractive reasons to choose KCMO over our other suburbs in order for the city to thrive - and reward the types of behavior that we want them to take part in.  Plus, I'd love that 4-day work week.

The Power & Light District

Even though I'm not a fan of winter, one thing that I love is the early signs of spring when people are out enjoying 40 degree weather like its summer and there is a certain buzz that has been missing for several months.

Friday, to me, marked the first day of Spring...regardless of what calendar said.

So to enjoy the weather I took a short walk down to the Power & Light District for lunch. Apparently everyone had the same idea.  People were buzzing through the Power & Light District, some obviously checking it out for the first time, some checking out the changes that had occured since the last time they walked through.  Restaurants were buzzing.  People spilled out the door at Famous Daves BBQ and Ted's Montana Grill.  Chipotle had a line out the door.   Not the front door by the register mind you.  But a line all the way through the restaurant and out the back door. 

People were sitting on patios munching on their BBQ and their burritos.  The inside of the Bristol looked busy with people on business lunches.

If the first day of spring (for me) is any indication, the Power and Light District will do just fine.  They will do quite nicely with lunch business from the downtown businesses.  They will draw a lot of traffic on event nights.  They'll do well from the convention traffic in the evenings.

Within the next two weeks nearly a dozen more restaurants are going to open -- including two that I'm looking forward to, Golden Beirch Brewery and Chef Burger.  The Big 12 Tournament crowds will be funneling in and enjoying the area.  They're going to be in for quite a treat.  Nothing against the Golden Ox and Sutera (which both have great traditions and character for Kansas City), but this will be a way better environment for the Big 12 Tournament crowds.

My little prediction?  I think the P&L District will be just fine off of the current traffic.  I think having the clubing area near by will increase some demand for housing on the Southeastern Side of the loop -- so I can see more housing going up.  I also have a feeling that by the time the stadium renovations are completed at Kauffman that people are going to be wondering why Jackson County didn't give more consideration to building the baseball stadium downtown.  Tourists and locals alike will wonder when we can finally get to ride a direct route light rail line between this area, Westport and the Plaza. 

It's going to be pretty fun. I know I'm going to enjoy it...and from the looks of the crowds on Friday, I don't think I'm going to be the only one.