Toellner Tells it

The KC Star's Light Rail Plan

They're getting roasted for it, and deservedly so. But today, the KC Star launched a piece promoting its own Light Rail plan.  People will criticize that the Star should report the news, not create it. I tend to agree.  I also get a chuckle at how the Star has presented the plan as being this great line of thinking when honestly, it's pretty much the line that is fairly universally agreed upon throughout the city.  Down Burlington, Across the Heart of America Bridge, past the River Market on Grand to the Sprint Center (close to City Hall), then cutting over to Main and going down Main past Union Station, Crown Center, near Westport, to the Plaza.  The only "new" thing is that the Star is actually proposing an East/West line connector running from Prospect down Linwood and connecting with the North/South line there. 

While the Star will get roasted for making the news, or for their lack of creativity with the plan, the reality is that most of what they propose makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.  It's the only plan that I've seen that adequately hits the central business corridor (essential if we're ever to get exapansion lines from the suburbs that connect in to the River Market and Union Station) and provides service for those on the East Side that tend to need public transit the most. And, it will be so flippin' convenient for me personally I can hardly stand it.  I'll sell my car.  Seriously.

But what's even more amazing to me is that the Star can put together a proposal in about 1/10th the time the city can spend actually talking about it and doing virtually nothing.  That's pretty sad. So if the city can make their own news outside of having 6 small-community politicians say "we support this", I have no problem with the Star creating their own route.  At least they're attempting to do something.

Question for the Week?

This one comes from my friends over at PSFK:

"If you were to rebuild your city from scratch, how would you build it differently, and what would you keep the same?"

So far, Kansas City has one person who answered here.

As for my off the top of my head list:

Things I'd keep:

Boulevard System of road travel, The Plaza, Downtown Concert Venue/sports arena, Crossroads art district, Union Station, River Market, 18th and Vine Museums,Barbeque, kansas City Shirtwaist style of houses, The Kansas Speedway, the Brookside neighborhood, 75th Street Brewery, Boulevard Brewery, The Chiefs and the Royals.

Things I wish we could do over again:

Get rid of the suburbs and create more density, diversify all neighborhoods so we had less segregation,more police to help eliminate crime, better schools, better public transit (Light Rail!), eliminate our highway system and rely on the boulevard system and public transit to move people through the city, Kauffman Stadium downtown, a new era of visionary leaders to follow in former visionaries like Ewing Kauffman, Building along our riverfront,  and no state line through the middle of the city.

Thoughts?

Sprint Center Grand Opening

An article from the Kansas City Star this morning highlights the grand opening of the Sprint Center and last night's Elton John Concert.

The story talks of the ease that people found finding parking, in spite of many other events going on inside the loop.  Some found nearby parking for as little as $5.  This comes as a surprise to many naysayers, but not to those who realize that there is enough parking around the Sprint Center for every concert-goer to drive three cars and park them.

And instead of coming for the concert, then leaving, restaurants report being packed with fans before and after the event.  A proud server lays out his tips from a better-than-usual night. 

Meanwhile, I was one of the many without tickets to the concert, but was down at the Plaza to see hoards of people milling around, an hour wait outside of Tom Fooleries at 10:00 at night and other restaurants seeming packed as many people showed for the WaterFire exhibit (that I hear was cancelled, I never made it down to check) and never left. 

After touring the Sprint Center on Wednesday, hearing of the success of opening night, and the success of UMKC's first open public practice at the College Basketball Experience it's hard not to look at everything going on and saying -- you know, Kansas City may have finally done something right here.

Obviously it was one event.  On one day.  But it sure seems like many of the concerns were completely unfounded...and that success seems eminent.

How to be Creative

I've been reading the Gaping Void for a long time...but one of the problems with not picking up blogs on day 1 is that sometimes you miss some of their really good early stuff.

This is a post from 3 years ago on how to be creative.  Great words of wisdom.  Great examples.  And applies to pretty much everyone in any industry.

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

Read the rest here...

Creating other life forms

There is a scene in Jurassic Park when Dr. Ian Malcolm says that while they were creating the dinosaurs, they always asked the question "can we do this" but never asked "should we do it?"

Craig Venter, a genetics specialist at the Venter Institute in Rockville, MD has manufactured a brand new life form in a test tube.  The new life form is a form of bacteria.  Venter invented this life form as something that could have the ability to absorb carbon monoxide...which could have the potential to reverse the affects of global warming.

I'm not one to want to stifle science or progress, but anyone who doesn't have some concern about this doesn't have a good grasp of human history.  Human tinkering with the environment, and introducing non-native species to different parts of the world have been notoriously disasterous...whether it be from planting "thirsty trees" in an attempt to dry up the Everglades or the accidental introduction of the elm bark beetle that has caused dutch elm disease in this country.

There would be huge potential for disaster if this bacteria is put out in the environment -- with no natural predators this bacteria could become terribly invasive and eat up other habitats. 

It seems like limiting our consumption is a much better way to control global warming than introducing new species into existance.  This isn't a case of can we, but I definitely think we should not in this instance.  This is definitely a situation where the law of unintended consequences is in affect.

Should KC follow the lead on Development of Grand

According to the New York Times, a seven block stretch on Ninth Avenue in New York's Chelsea district is getting a makeover. The plan calls for taking this wide street, and creating three car lanes in the middle, with parking lanes on each side of the driving lanes. 

Then, between the parking lanes and the sidewalk they will be putting bike lanes on one of the sides of the street (see graphic to the left - -and click on it if you need a larger version.)  In between the parked cars and the bike lanes would be planters for beautification that would double as barriers to prevent cars from entering the bike lane.  The idea is to build bike lanes along this route, but use the parking lane as a buffer between the bicyclists and the moving traffic (given Kansas Citian's propensity to run over bicyclists). 

There has been a lot of talk about improving Grand (or is it Grand Avenue of the Americas?) as part of the downtown revitalization.  This plan would be following New York's direct lead on building more bicycle lanes (downtown badly needs this) and ensure the safety of the growing number of bicyclers.

Hat Tip to PSFK.

Clarification on KCMO Schools Post

Yesterday, I posted a note and a link to a new study that indicated that the quality of a student's school was less of an indicator of success than the student himself (and his parent's emphasis on school).

This post was picked up and misinterpreted by a couple of other sources.

My point was to never say (or imply) that the KCMO school board is doing a great job.  Yes, the school board, and past superintendents have historically been a disaster.

But it's way too easy for us to sit back and blame the KCMO school boards and superintendents for the mess that is the KCMO public schools.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock School Crisis...and Time Magazine recently did a followup of the landmark event.  According to their numbers, American Schools are nearly as segregated now as they were 50 years ago.  Nearly 75% of Blacks currently attend schools that are predominantly Black and Latino -- while the average white student goes to a school that is over 80% white.

"White Flight" started this trend based largely an racial motivations...but even more recently "black flight" has occurred and left many inner city school districts filled with mostly minority students from financially poor families.  Many of these inner-city schools now have declining test scores and have the reputation of being "bad schools". 

However, research shows that these schools are less "bad schools" as they lack good students. Because of their reputations, most parents that have the means -- regardless of race -- take their kids out of these struggling school districts and moved hem to "better" schools.  However, there is little evidence that these schools "plus up" the students or that the schools are simply starting with better students.

The same is true in many colleges and universities - -that due to their reputations they have a great demand for students to go there, so they have very high standards to get in.  So these schools continue to graduate great students.  Is it because they continue to be great schools?  Or is it because they started with stronger students to begin with?

The point is, and the research shows, that good students can (and do) quite often get a good education from "bad" schools.  It is often way too easy to blame "bad schools" for a child's poor education -- or as a reason to move to the suburbs.  It's then easier to blame the school board for the school's lousy test scores.  It's much more difficult to look at ourselves and our own decisions that have cause the school to have lousy test scores  Be it  our racist or classist decisions to move to the suburbs.  Or our lack of desire to work with our kids and put an emphasis on learning, allowing them to succeed even if they aren't in the "best' schools.

In a society where it seems it's always someone else's fault...it's time we start looking at ourselves and our decisions and the affect they have had on our schools.  While there are a lot of factors to blame, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem.  Which are you?

Are "good" schools over-valued?

A couple of weeks ago, Airick West posted on the Kansas City Post about his decision to send his kid to KCMO public schools.  Many criticized his decision as KCMO has statistically one of the worst school districts in the state.

Interestingly, the Freakanomics Blog also did a story on school choice and the overall affect that the actual school district has on a child's performance.  The blog posting was based on a paper that studied school choice in Chicago.

Overall, based on their studies (and earlier studies by the folks at Freakanomics) they have determined that factors other than the school are involved in a child's success in learning.  In fact, as Freakanomics puts it:

"Part of the answer is likely that the definition of “better” is based on outputs, like how high the test scores are at the school or what fraction of its students attend good colleges. That sort of metric ignores the fact that “better” schools tend to attract “better” kids. These are kids with strong families and good academic backgrounds. So even if the school is not at all good at adding value, it will still have the best outputs, because it had the best inputs. If the school does not have high value added, there is no reason to expect that a child who transfers there will do better than she did at her previous school."

In other words, kids with more aptitude, and parents who invest in their children's education, improve more in school.  The unfortunate reality is that the "best schools" tend to draw more of these types of students....while poor schools tend to attract more kids who's parents don't invest in them.

This has certainly mirrored what I have witnessed in working with many inner-city kids in KCMO...the ones who's parents treat school as important do quite well.  Unfortunately, many come from families that don't put an emphasis on school.  So, more than anything, research shows that as KCMO has built a reputation of bad schools, many of KCMO school district's problems are a product of bad inputs (because good parents tend to try to get their kids out of the 'bad school'. 

If more people would do what Mr. West is doing by caring about his child AND sending them to KCMO public schools, then the schools would instantly start performing better...which would have a building affect.

It just takes a few people to step up and make a stand...because the school is more of a product of its inputs and what people make of it.  And really smart people who do real research agree with me.

Miscellanious thoughts

I haven't posted any this past week.  I've been swamped at work and this blog has had to take a back seat. It's the blessing and the curse of our agency picking up quite a bit of new business of late.  It's good for business, I'm getting a lot of cool new projects, but free time is only something I've heard rumors about.

When not working, I've been harrassing Dan at Gone Mild on his stance on Beth Gottstein's proposed smoking ban.  I think there are some very valid reasons to go with a smoking ban (considering the health of the employees), but Dan's persistance that "Majority rules" so it's fine to restrict what others do I think is dangerous trap to fall into.  We have so much more power as consumers than people give us credit for having...and too often we are excited to have government come in and do for us what free market demand could do. 

We've also been dealing with this poor woman in Grandview who left her "pit bull" on a 2nd story balcony (with a partician preventing the dog from going down the stairs) without a muzzle on it - -and someone on the neighborhood association turned her in for it. Now the city wants to take her dog because she didn't have it muzzled (although completely contained) while outside.  I get the feeling that the neighborhood association member that turned her in is more concerned about the woman's race than he is about the dog.  This is another example of people who make laws that affect a small minority  of people who are of no danger to society.  I have no idea why any community would want to jack around with harrassing a little old lady and her dog who was following the spirit of the law (even if not the letter of it) instead of dealing with aggressive dogs. 

Traffic has been steady to the blog even without my posting because people keep finding my note about the Sprint Center Parking Plan.  Seems like everyone is trying to figure out where to park.  Here's my tip:  Go to Union Station, the River Market, Plaza Library or the Home Depot on Linwood, park and take the Max -- it'll be the best $1.25 you've spent this week.

I have a couple of stories lined up...so I'll be back in the groove this week, in spite of work being really busy again this week.