Toellner Tells it

Know who you are

If you're ever going to fix something, you have to first admit there is a problem.

One of Walmart's former advertising agencies, GSD&M, just released a study and provided insights to what Walmart needs to do to improve its image and brand value.

Findings from the study:

Walmart is a''bad corporate citizen who doesn't treat employees well and isn't acting as a good citizen of the planet.''

Suffering corporate reputation from burying its head in the sand from negative headlines

Suffering reputation as a betterment to the communities it serves.

Walmart's response, from spokesman Nick Agarwal: ''I'm afraid this particular piece of work is not very useful, not least because it's now completely out of date and in some areas just plain wrong,''

This is a company that has a website about how evil it is called wakeupwalmart.com, the image that I pulled was the 4th picture that pulled on google images under a search for "Walmart" (#2 is particularly disturbing), and has a movie made out of it called "WalMart, the High Cost of Low Price". 

When people tell you there is something wrong, you need to listen. Burying your head in the sand doesn't work for ostriches, nor anyone else: brand, person or city.

A Solution for Mayor Funkhouser

Yesterday, KMBC TV ran an article about how Mayor Funkhouser is concerned that citizens don't feel safe in the city's parks. 

I won't get into the complete absurdity that the "news" station focused its story on Loose Park -- easily among the city's safest parks -- as opposed to focusing on the parks that have even bigger issues.

But I do want to propose a solution...that actually improves two problems in one.

One of the reasons that people don't necessarily feel safe in many of the city's parks is because most of the parks have relatively few people in them. If there are other people around, they feel safe, because if "something happened" there would be someone there to help them.  So as people quit going to parks, parks become less populated, which makes them feel less safe, and the cycle continues.  There is nothing that makes someone feel unsafe like being the only person in an empty area with a lot of trees/wooded areas around for unsavories to hide and stash their bodies.

So let's create something that will instantly draw people to the parks -- getting bodies in the parks will perpetuate itself.

An easy way to do this is to build a lot of smaller-sized dog parks (small in size, but not necessarily for small dogs -- although some should be for that too).   Roughly 45% of Kansas Citians own dogs...most would love a close, convenient dog park for their dogs to run, play and socialize with other dogs.

The City of Calgary, Ontario has 83 total dog parks in the city -- a community that's roughly double the population of Kansas City, MO -- which has 1 dog park and is working on a 2nd. 

Calgary's rush to build a lot of dog parks has happened over the past 15 years to solve a completely different problem.  In 1985, Calgary had a peak in dog-related incidents -- at approximately 2,000 incidences.  Since then, they've adopted other policies and built over 4,500 acres of dog parks (totalling approximately 25% of their total park space).  In 2006, they had only 400 dog-related incidents in spite of doubling the human and dog population in that time.  Even with that much dog-park land, Bill Bruce, the head of animal control in Calgary, says that their off-leash areas are almost maxed out. (Editor's Note: I would like to note that Mr. Bruce is going to be coming to Kansas City on September 15 for the Canine Legislation Conference to talk about the success of Calgary's dog ordinance -- in a talk that we do intend to open up to local civic leaders who would be interested in finding out about how a real affective ordinance works -- so put it on your calendar if you're interested).

So let's see, if we use a larger portion of Kansas City's 9,776 acres of park space to dog parks, not only would they increase attendence at parks (that everyone benefits from, because with some of the park space in use, the rest of it becomes "safer" because there are other people around), we can increase the usage of public parks, AND help increase the socialization of the city's dogs and make the city's citizens safer from non-socialized dogs.

If money is the problem, let's use Mark Forsythe's idea (damn you Mark for beating me to this as I SHOULD be both a better dog person and advertising person than you) presented here (see Nov 10 entry) and sell advertising on the fencing to companies looking to reach dog people (there are a lot of them). 

Problems solved.  More used parks.  Safer parks.  More dog-friendly areas and thus fewer dog attacks.  Mostly paid for by advertisers. 

Just a thought. 

Revitalizing Old Neighborhoods

The wife and I attended the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Homes Tour Yesterday.  It was a fabulous day, and we were warmly greeted by neighbors, residents, and other tour guests. 

For those unfamiliar, Scarritt Neighborhood is one of the the first "suburbs" in KC, built in the late 1800s, early 1900s.  Most of the homes in the neighborhood were turned into multi-unit housing during the 1940s and 1950s following WWII and many bear some of the "scars" from that conversion.  Most have over the past decade, undergone renovations to convert them back to single-family, beautiful homes.

As we toured through the homes, I was struck by the attention-to-detail that so many took, replacing lost architectural details over time with period pieces.  The homes were beautiful, and the people fabulous, and justifiably proud of their neighborhood.

It made me wonder though about the priorities of the city.  Many of these "urban pioneers" work tirelessly to return these homes to their original glory.  And they do-so out of their own pockets.

If a developer were to remodel a loft "downtown", they would get millions of dollars in TIF, and the residents would be tax-abated for 10 years.  These urban pioneers in these neighborhoods put hundreds of thousands of dollars, and hours of blood, sweat and tears, into revitalizing these old homes....with no help from the city.  It'd be nice if we could do something to make this type of revitalization more appealing to people....although maybe it's better for the homes if it's just done out of love/respect for the architectural integrity. 

Either way, a pat on the back goes out to the residents of Scaritt Neighborhood, and other urban neighborhoods like it (including Hyde Park, Union Hill, etc).  Well done, and thanks for sharing.

The Success of Union Station

Yesterday, Union Station announced that it had record attendence during the 90-day run of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.  During the 90 Days, Union Station averaged just under 2,000 visitors a day, besting the previously most successful exhibit, the Titanic.

For most of the last decade, Union Station has been a proverbial whipping boy of the city.  After spending $250 million of a bi-state tax on the renovation of the station, it has undergone several bits of mis-management that have caused it to be labeled as a failure by many in this city.

Union Station is anything but a failure. Even though many of the management criticisms are warrented, labeling the renovation project a failure is far from the truth.

In 1996, when I first moved to Kansas City, Union Station sat in a blighted part of our city.  I passed by it a couple of times, on my way to Crown Center, which sat as the lone oasis in a sea of blight.

Since Union Station's renovation, the area that surrounds it has become an economic boom for the city.  The rail house across the tracks was renovated and now houses three fine KC restaurants.  The neighboring Crossroads is now filled with fabulous art galeries and restaurants, the TWA headquarters that sat abandoned and in disrepair for decades, now houses the city's largest advertising agency. One abandoned warehouses now contain $800,000 lofts and condos.

To the South, the Liberty Memorial, the only memorial built for World War I prior to World War II, has been renovated into a world-class museum.  The Federal Reserve Bank is nearing completion on its new headquarters, and the post office has moved inside the museum, leaving the old Post Office building to become part of the new IRS Headquarters building (the new part has won many awards for green design) and brought over 5,000 jobs to the area.

Meanwhile, in spite of the struggles of the Station itself to get into the black, it remains a showpiece for tourists and residents, a place that houses major events and weddings, has a beautiful fountain separating it from the Liberty Memorial.  It also contains two fabulous restaurants.  And Science City is still a great place for kids, even if it is less than it could be. It has also become a routine stop for some outstanding Smithsonian exhibits including the Titanic Exhibit, the 9/11 Exhibit, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Exhibits that previously would have bypassed KC for other areas.

For this, Union Station often gets labeled as a failure.  Sure, some of the downtown renaissance may have happened anyway, but the Union Station remodel signified a dedication by the people in the city toward downtown, created a centerpiece for the revitalization, and opened the door for the IRS HQs move.  Regardless of whether the station ever gets in the black, the remodel was well worth the metro's cost.  The picture to the left shows Union Station Circa 1983...hardly an upbeat sight.

Here's to hoping that the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit is a new start to showing off the city's showpiece.

Kansas City has to "Get it" with public transit

Kansas City sometimes balks at improving public transit - -claiming that it is not efficient to pay for improved public transit when few use it.  However, in order to get more people to use public transit, they actually have to "Get it". 

There was an editorial written in today's Kansas City Star.  Turns out several people utilized the MAX bus route to avoid traffic/parking/DWI's/whatever to attend the Killer's Concert at the City Market Friday night.  This is a good thing - -and it sounds like EXACTLY the type of riders we should be trying to encourage to use public transit, give them good experiences with public transit, and then get them to use it more.

Unfortunately, after the concert, the police diverted all traffic from entering the Market Area so traffic could get out -- INCLUDING THE MAX BUSES!!!  So these people were basically stranded at the City Market without a way to get home.  What a missed opportunity!  A huge statement could have been made if they had diverted all traffic out of the market with the exception of one road, Grand, and just allow the MAX to drive in, pick people up, and leave without being affected by traffic.  How many people would look at that and say "wow, I'll take that next time, that's a great idea"? 

Unfortunately, it's just another missed opportunity for the city to actually encourage people to take public transit.  Several of my friends had a similar experience on St. Patrick's Day, when they took the buses everywhere during the day, but then got stranded at Boulevard Brewery when the buses shut down early (normal time for a Saturday, but not late enough for St. Patrick's Day) and then waited for 2 hours for one of the free cabs to come get them (that never came).

It's these types of experiences that discourage people from using public transit the next time around.  They're missed opportunities to make mass transit viable in this city...and the city needs to do better at delivering... and yet another reason that I strongly (and probably annoyingly) advocate a dedicated rail line for transit that would not be affected by things like traffic and over-zealous police officers.

We have to get this right...or the city will continue its trend toward reliance on the auto, massive sprawl, and poor air quality.  It shouldn't be this hard...

Thought for the day

In the most recent issue of Sierra Magazine, there is an excerpt from Al  Gore's presenetation at Sierra's Climate Forum.  Regardless of what you may or may not think about Al Gore, and Global Warming, I thought this quote was a pretty interesting statement on our current political system, and consistent with what I've experienced with the system.

"With regard to our political system, it now devalues knowledge and facts.  It didn't used to....we grew up in a world where the truth mattered and...the merit of ideas was judged against the rule of reason.  Our political system, never perfect, nevertheless paid more attention to such things.

"The political system doesn't act that way anymore. As in the feudal era, wealth and power now regularly trump knowledge, facts and reason.  The diminished role of reason in the public marketplace of ideas has an impact -- from the auto industry to the upcoming presidential campaigns.  The joke about the auto industry is that after the Clean Air Act was ammended in 1970, every Japanese auto company hired 100 new engineers, and every US company hired 100 new lawyers.  It's not too far from the truth unfortunately."

New Train of Thought

Yesterday, the Kansas City Star had an article about the "congestion" along 69 Highway in Johnson County.  I was struck by two things in the article.

#1) The traffic numbers on this highway are currently at the same level as they were projected to be in 2020 -- which means sprawl in this area has been at a pace significanly higher than expert projections.

#2) It costs a lot of money to widen roads.

The current estimation for the widening of the highway from 4 lanes to 6 to handle the increase traffic (as well as improving a few interchanges) is $450 million. This highway is currently under construction as a new interchange connecting it to I-435 is being done (again, to improve traffic flow) at a cost to taxpayers of $165 million.  This is $615 million that is being projected to improve traffic flow on this corridor.  This, in a metropolitan area that has more highway miles per capita than any other metro in the country.  And it's getting worse.

What I don't understand is why at no point has putting a commuter rail service in been discussed.  At a cost of about $30 millon per mile (which is a conservative #, but probably pretty doable on this treck because of public access to a commercial rail right-of way along the I-35 corridor), $615 million would more than cover the cost of running a light rail line from Union Station in downtown KCMO, all the way to Corporate Woods -- this 17.1 mile stretch would get people from this area to downtown, and covers nearly the entire length of the proposed highway widening. Union Station would then be easily accessible to KCMO's MAX bus line that goes to most major points of the city.  And when the timing was right, an East/West line that ran along College Boulevard could connect this line to major corporations like Sprint/Nextel, Embarq, and Yellow Freight -- as well as the Overland Park Convention Center Complex -- at minimal incremental expense. 

At some point, we're going to have to look at rail transportation as a legitimate option for our city and our suburbs.  We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on widening highways that is leading to more and more suburban sprawl.  A rail line, once in place, is inexpensively expandible to handle more traffic by increasing the number of trains and cars. 

The general opinion is that people in Johnson County won't ride public transit. This is true -- as long as we continue to widen roads every time there is a little congestion.  But let's face it, if a light rail line can get them to their destination in 40 minutes, and it takes 60 for their commute, they're going to consider it a viable option.  Especially with gas prices over $3 a gallon.

Maybe it's not feasilbe.  But they should at least LOOK at it as an option.  JOCO could become the leader in the metro in providing commuter rail for its residents, and a leader in the metro for environmentally friendly transportation.

It's forward thinking.  It takes a bit of a leap of faith, but at $450 million, people need to think about exploring more efficient growth in JOCO to handle the sprawl in this city.

Improving our schools - Part 4 of 4

Over the past month, I've talked a lot about some of the different things that need to be done to improve the KCMO School district long term. Most are long-term solutions, improving accessibility to jobs for people in the urban core, strengthening neighborhoods, and improving the culture are very long-term goals.

There is something I think can be done in the short term, and I think the new Superintendent is maybe taking steps in that direction. Two weeks ago, the superintendent of KCMO schools announced that they would be closing down several junior high schools and merging 6th, 7th and 8th graders into elementary schools.  The goal is to focus on creating neighborhood schools.  While this decision hasn't been popular, I think it's a step in the right direction.

I think in the short term, the school district needs to put more power to improve schools in the hands of the neighborhoods -- creating truly neighborhood schools will help that. 

I also think the KCMO School district should break down the school district into smaller districts, with each High School representing its own mini-district. The KCMO School district has MANY problems, and they're overwhelming to a school board trying to fix all of the problems. Dividing the district into smaller districts will allow for a school board to just focus on the needs of a smaller group of people. What may be good for people in the Northeast School District would be completely different than what would work for the Southeast School District.  Having a school board focus on a much smaller group of problems will create more instant results for a smaller district.

Most of the KCMO Schools have about 40-45% of their students that are below basic on test scores (the state average is about 11%).  If one of the mini-school districts can get closer to an acceptable range of test scores, then people will be attracted to that area as a place to live instead of moving to other cities once they have kids in school.  As people are attracted to that area, the overall tax base will go up, providing more money that can be shared with the other school districts, so that hopefully they can eventually reach the same success.

It's important that while they are separate districts from a school board and test scores perspective, that the money is shared between districts because we don't want to further isolate poor parts of the city.  But allowing for school boards to focus on smaller problems, instead of such large, overarching problems, will benefit everyone in the short term.  This will give neighborhoods more ability to affect change quickly, than the massive problem that faces the entire district as-is.  This is why the consolidation into neighborhood schools is a decent first step.

It's not sexy, or earthshattering, but I think it's a really solid first step -- that along with other long-term changes, can get KCMO out of the horrible tailspin it currently is in.