Toellner Tells it

Walkable Neighborhoods

Last night, I talked with a couple of my neighbors that were walking by my house.  These neighbors live a couple of blocks from us, and we seldom see them except for at neighborhood events. And while they're neighbors we don't know all that well, they're people we generally like to talk with when we see them.

But it was weird to see them walking down our street.

As I was talking to them, they mentioned that they were headed to grab an early dinner at Exquisite Cuisine at 34th ant Troost...one of two new restaurants that have opened up this past month on that corner. These two places opened up just one block from where KCP&L wanted to put its new electrical substation. 

It was great to see people walking to dinner along our street.  For too long Hyde Park has sat relatively isolated from walkable eating establishments...this has made Hyde Park an oft-times less desireable neighborhood than other urban neighborhoods like Brookside, Roanoke, Westport, West Plaza and Union Hill. 

That appears to be changing.  As people get out and walk around more in the neighborhood, their mere presence will make the streets safer from crime (people don't like to be watched committing crimes), creates more neighborhood conversations and friends, and overall increases the joy of living in these neighborhoods....which raises property values, etc.

My wife and I walked down to the other restaurant (Shanghai Express) for dinner Friday night -- and spoke with the owner of Exquisite Cuisine and one of his friends outslde of the restaurant.  It was fun to meet them and hang out there for a few minutes.

My hope is that the residents of Hyde Park, Center City and Squire Park, that live near these new restaurants will visit them and keep them in business. It's important to the neighborhoods to support their local restauranteurs.  And it's building viability in the neighborhood.  And I hope you waive hi to me on my front porch as you walk by.  And yes, I still hope KCP&L continues to move toward not putting their substation on this block and killing this growth.

Public transportation use at a 50-year high

I'm a little behind on this, but just stumbled across this article.  In 2006, Americans made over 10 billion public transportation trips -- the highest overall total since 1957.

Meanwhile, people are driving less than they used to.  While the number of drivers increased by about 1% year over year, the total number of car miles traveled increased at only .3% in 2006....meaning fewer miles per driver.  This is the first time that total miles traveled has decreased since 1985.

There are a lot of reasons for the change: higher gas prices, people moving back to urban to the cities after decades of suburban flight, more (and better) options for public transportation, etc. 

The bottom line is that the demand for public transportation is increasing nationwide...and Kansas City is continuing to fall behind in offering better transit options to its citizens.  Noticing the trends is important in order to know where we'll be in 8-10 years...and hopefully we aren't still funding studies to determine if we should be doing light rail or not.

Johnson County to kill rail hopes in short term

As I type this, people are gathering at Sylvester Powell Community Center to discuss Johnson County's plan to not proceed with light or commuter rail in the short term.  Instead, they are recommending a BRT line that would run along the Highway shoulders (so as to avoid traffic) and provide rapid transit to downtown.

I can't say I necessarily blame JOCO for the decision. It'd be hard to justify building a commuter rail to Union Station when KCMO seems to be dragging it's feet when it comes to light rail.  Who wants a commuter line that connects to nothing?  It's another reason that KCMO needs to get off the dime and DO SOMETHING.  We don't need another 5 year study.

Meanwhile, JOCO likes to pretend that it is a leader in the metropolitan area, but has missed another opportunity to lead in urban design and instead, is promoting urban sprawl. I'm less concerned about this (in the short term) than I am about the hundreds of millions of dollars being proposed for widening highways in Southern Johnson County.

Ways to encourage biking in KC

Paris France just placed 10,000 bikes in its city for public use. Placed at over 750 bike pickup locations, bikes can be rented by the hour, with increased costs for time used (encouraging fast turnover of bikes so they're mostly used for short trips). 

Bikes can then be returned to any service point so one-way trips are no problem...and locations will be close to major public transportation routes.

Paris officials think it will help their citizens navigate around the city (as bikes are better than public transit for shorter trips) and will help keep their citizens fit.

This is an interesting idea for Kansas City -- especially in leu of having a well-developed public transit system.  Granted, a lot of work needs to be done to improve the bike-friendliness of our city and I have no idea how they plan to prevent the bikes from being stolen...

You know the blogosphere is real when...

There was a great piece this morning on the Freakonomics blog by author Stephen Dunbar about the power of blogs. His final quote is this: "The biggest takeaway for me was this: the blogosphere is real in a way that none of us, journalists or economists or parents or cops, could have imagined a few years ago."

The power of the blogosphere became very evident for me last week.  It didn't take long for a little opinion piece about destroying a retail block of Troost to build an electrical substation before there were a lot of folks from KCP&L paying attention.  I know Mark Forsythe has been contacted many times on topics that he's discussed over at his blog...and Mark and I even jokingly had an "off the record" conversation just yesterday.  And I know my traffic pales in comparison to Dunbar's (after all, I haven't written a fabulous book).

As newspapers continue to cut staffing, and work harder at rushing to print press releases faster than the bloggers vs actually researching and reporting on subjects, will further enhance blogs as an important way that people get information...and in some cases, the only way people can find out about certain subject.

I discussed this some last month, but am further and further amazed by the difference some well-educated and written people can have -- and that power is likely to become greater in influencing political and public opinion.

You don't build neighborhoods for the lowest cost

I promised a story about what the city council could do to protect the city from what many Troost Corridor residents are dealing with right now with KCP&L...but I am going to delay that for a bit following last night's festivities.

Last night, and tonight, KCP&L held a meeting for area residents to talk about (sell them on) the idea of a substation and 40 foot power lines along Troost.  Complete with charts, graphs, renderings, clowns, baloon artists and fake tatoo stickers.

Until actually looking at the data, I didn't even question the need for more power along Troost...but one chart has me really befuddled. This chart isn't the exact same chart that they showed at the meeting last night.  Last nights was broader, focusing on the entire "Troost Corridor" (20th - 47th, State Line to Main according to KCPL).  Both show pretty much the same line trending upward at a sharper, and more sustained incline than any other 5 or 10 year period on the chart.  When I pressed their people about it, they stated that the future increases were based on projected increases in the population in the midtown area.

That didn't sound terribly right to me, because the midtown housing stock pretty much is what it is at this point.  While I don't think that energy consumption is going down, I don't think the midtown population is going up much either.  So I pressed again.  Then they said one of the Substations that serves my area (at 18th and Cherry) is getting overloaded due to all the Crossroads/Downtown development.  The other, at 47th and Troost, is getting heavily used by the Plaza and Stowers expansion.

A quick search on the MARC Website showed some interesting numbers. If you look at the MARC site, the map of the Census Tracts (basically, smaller census sub areas that are smaller than zip codes) show the area that is considered the "Troost Corridor".  For easy viewing, I'll tell you that the following tracts fall in this area: 41-53, and 63-71.

Another handy chart (go to the workbook "population by tract") tells me the population changes over time for these tracts, and the projections for them through 2030.  What's interesting, is if you add the Troost Corridor tracts together, you'll find that these areas had a population of 3,877 in 1970.  The number was down to 2,857 in 2000.  And projected to be 2,670 in 2010, and a whopping 2,726 in 2030.  That's right, in 2030, MARC projects my "growing population" to be over 25% less that it was in 1970, and a net decline of 131 people from 2000 to 2030.

Now I don't argue that our energy needs are probably growing, but they're growing at a MUCH slower rate than the rest of the metro. 

Meanwhile, I quizzed them several times on the 32nd Terrace Location vs moving it either North or South along Troost to more industrial areas.  The answer I kept getting was that it would be cheaper for them to put it in the middle of the line between the 18th and Cherry Substation and the 47th Street Substation. 

"Cheaper" seems like a common theme here.  It appears that it is cheaper to put the new substation next to residential, and on one of the two blocks along Troost that is most likely to become a retail destination in the immediate future.  Midtown land cost is less than Crossroads or Plaza land cost.  And we wouldn't want to muck up those areas with ugly substations anyway - even though those areas are really the ones sucking up all the power.

Revitalizing neighborhoods and Kansas City can't be done for "cheaper".  If I wanted cheaper, I wouldn't have bought a 100 year old home that suffered wear and tear by being used as apartments for 1/2 of its life.  While I respect that KCP&L wants to do things for "cheaper', in order to keep costs down for its customers, it shouldn't do so at the expense of destroying revitalization in the heart of the city.

Pay a little more.  Be a little inconvenient.  And put this substation in an abandoned or industrial part of the city (I outlined several locations yesterday).  Cheaper for KCP&L would prove very costly to the people who living, working and revitalizing this area.

Criteria and Options

Yesterday I wrote about KCP&L's agreement to create a task force that would consider solutions to the growing power needs of the city. This is going to be a tough task, as they have a fairly narrow window of where they can put substation, and not too many neighborhoods are going to be any more willing than Hyde Park/Center City/Squire Park to take it.  So what are the options? 

First, let's look at the criteria set forth by KCP&L:

1) Does site provide efficient and reliable service to customers to meet increasing demand?

2) Is the site adequately sized to fit a substation?

3) Is the property near Troost to reduce the impact of the substation and transmission on residential areas?

4) Does the site provide access to the Transmission line (that runs along Troost) and access to city roads?

5) Does the property provide an adequate buffer zone for neighbors?

6) Is the property owner willing to sell the site?

Along with that, I'd like to offer two more criteria they should be considering:

7) Is the property far enough away from Children's organizations (Operation Breakthrough) in case there are health concerns?

8) Does the site have a negative affect on pedestrian routes that would connect residents to retail (or future retail) areas?

The 32nd Terrace and Troost site fails at #5, but fails miserably at #8.  My biggest complaint about the current location choice is that it basically creates a huge dead zone between Hyde Park (the most developed neighborhood along this area of Troost) and the 31st and Troost area, which is the most likley major retail area in the short term along Troost.  Separating the two with a substation will likely kill the chance of retail opening along that stretch in the short term.

So given these criteria, I offer 5 options for KCP&L:

20th and Cherry St -- this is approximately two blocks from their current substation, so close to where the main transmission lines. This area is bordered by the railroad tracks to the South, and the Holmes and McGee Viaducts to the East and West.  There is no residential, no retail, and no foot traffic in this area (or will be in the forseeable future)  This area has almost 4 whole blocks of surface parking -- much of which I believe serves Children's Mercy Hospital.  Working with Children's Mercy to use a good portion of their surface parking for a substation, while building a parking garage over another part of it, would actually be an improvement to this area. 

19th St and 71 Highway -- There is a large patch of empty ground that has some parking and some empty lawn space that is north of 19th Street, and between Goodwill Industries and 71 Highway.  Across the Street is Crescent Electrical Supply Co...so a lot of manufacturing, no residential, no retail, 1 block off Troost.

East side of Troost, North of 24th Street --  When 71 Highway was built between the Plaza and downtown, there was a lot of space that was leveled to make room for it. Since the highway has been completed, these areas have yet to infill up next to the highway.  The entire East side of Troost, North of 24th Street, is completely abandoned, is bordered by 71 Highway to the North and East.  The 2400 block of Troost is also pretty much abandoned at this point.  There is no pedestrian at this point because the highway serves as a complete dividing line in this area.  The only business that would be affected would be Bogdon Candy, which I believe is a factory as best I can tell.

47th and Troost - -This is right next to their current Southern Substation that serves the area, but the KCMO recycling center borders the current substation to the North.  Building on the current Recycling center lot would allow them to expand the needs from this location -- that again has no retail, no residential, and no foot traffic.  The recylcing center could then be moved to another location and would be more welcomed because it is neither as big or as permanent, as a substation would be.

Even if none of these locations work, there are several others along Troost (Particularly North of 27th Street) that match these criteria better than the 32nd Terrace Location.  If one of these areas that is closer to residential/retail has to be used, KCP&L could make this more palatable for the those that are affected.  KCP&L gives a lot of money that benefits the community, and one thing they could do is help dedicate some money to help with the revitalization (much of it already taking place) along Troost near their new substation.  This would go a long way in helping the affected neighborhoods (whichever those end up being) see some benefit to them of having the substation in their area.

KCP&L has no doubt handled this poorly to this point....by having an offer out on buying land before the neighborhood was even notified.  They have a good opportunity to rethink the location, and make it right with the existing neighborhoods...which is what I hope they intend to do.

Tomorrow, what the city can do to help KCP&L, and us.

Razzle Dazzle

If you've ever watched the movie or the stage play Chicago, and remember the scene where Richard Gere is singing Razzle Dazzle, you may have a good feel for how last night's neighborhood meeting between KCP&L and the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association went.

A week ago, the folks from KCP&L appeared on Fox 4 with a little backpeddling saying that they would not build a substation in a way that wasn't favorable to the neighborhood and not welcomed by the neighborhood.  Last night's meeting, without the cameras running, had fewer promises, and avoided answering a lot of questions.

They have agreed that they will no longer build an "outdoor" substation, but have not committed to changing the location at 32nd Terraces and Troost...and many of their comments indicate to me that their goal is to still build on that location, but to somehow try to make the neighborhood feel good about it by the time it happens (which I don't think is impossible). While they have agreed to set up a "task force", I am suspicious that there will be no other alternatives brought forward -- or that they will create a reason that they won't work.  My cynicism is enhanced when they said they mailed out 540 invitations to another discussion tomorrow night on the topic of all "stakeholders" -- and yet, I live 1 1/2 blocks from the proposed site and I've received nothing, nor have either of our next door neighbors, inviting us...so I"m not sure who is getting the invite.

The meeting was pretty helpful.  They talked about how there are two substations serving the "Troost Corridor" (which is broadly defined as 20th Street to 47th Street, State Line to Paseo).   One substation is at roughly 47th and Troost, the other is at 18th and Charlotte.  Redevelopment downtown and in the Crossroads has but added pressure on the 18th and Charlotte substation, while redevelopment on the Plaza, and the Stowers Institute expansion has put more pressure on the 47th street location....(along with increased needs along the immediate corridor) thus creating a need for a new substation. 

They also explained that it is infinitely less expensive for them to build along Troost between these locations where a station would connect with an underground line that runs along Troost and connects these locations.

The impacts on the area will be large...potentially up to an entire city block being used to house the substation (creating a complete dead area at the location, for redevelopment and foot-traffic), huge new powerlines that will run along the historic corridor, and a potential decline in property values for homes nearby.

It's pretty amazing that it has gotten to this point, and no one with the City Council or Mayor's office had heard about this up until 2 weeks ago...and not until the Stowers Institute announced delaying its expansion did KCP&L back off it's opening date of 2008 for the new substation. 

I'll also note, that for you folks that live in other neighborhoods, there are two additional substations that have already been plotted on a map to be built for future needs, and I'm assuming that your neighborhood will have the same amount of warning that Hyde Park, Squire Park and Center City got with this one.

Tomorrow I'm going to talk about some alternatives that KCP&L needs to strongly consider before they reach their development (and an alternative if they choose to move forward with the same location).  Thursday I'm going to throw out an idea that City Council needs to address (from my wife's comments at the meeting last night) that will help slow the need for future substations as downtown moves forward with its redevelopment.

Sobriety Check Points

I'm not sure what to think of sobriety check points. I obviously think that drinking and driving is a horrible idea (and yet another reason I support better public transportation), but the KC Star is reporting that last night's check point at 34th and Broadway caught 7 people for driving under the influence.  To get those 7 people, 660 people had to be pulled over and checked (without a warrant I might add).   That's a whopping 1.5% rate of busts.  I just think there has to be a better way, a better use of not stopping people who aren't doing anything wrong, and a better use officer's time.

How big of a home is too big?

Boulder Colorado is considering an ordinance that would say that 4,000 square feet is the biggest house you can build (or 2600 square feet in the mountains)-- unless you have a special provision that you would spend money to preserve agricultural or rural land elsewhere in the area.

I suppose if pressures to downsize are affecting big-box retailers, why not homes?