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Seriously, I just got an email from the mayor's office about the cancelling of a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new surface parking lot at 18th and Paseo. Really? We're doing ribbon cuttings for surface parking lots now?
I realize that the lot is an upgrade over the vacant and run down gas station that was previously there. But a ribbon cutting? Wow.
Some random stuff that I wanted to get out there. I haven't had time to post much, but I thought these links were particularly interesting to life in Kansas City.
Blog KC has a list of the local schools that made Newsweek's list of top public schools. It seems that many people flock to the suburbs in this town in search of better schools, but it was interesting that the top two local schools (Sumner Academy and Hogan Prep) are inner city schools. Shawnee Mission, Blue Springs and Lee's Summit Schools are all shut out. Even the Northland (Park Hill) is represented. I still contend that if KCMO would promote its charter school system that many more people would consider staying in KCMO instead of moving out toward our suburbs.
State of Missouri official says road money will dry up by 2010. They say that funding is going down due to higher bond paymnets, looming deficit in the federal highway Trust fund and a drop in state fuel tax revenue because people are driving less. The federal fuel tax sits at 18.4 cents per gallon, which has remained unchanged since 1993. The state of Missouri gets 17 cents per gallon, regardless of the price of gas. However, with people driving less, and driving more fuel efficient cars, both of these dollar amounds have declined. Put altogether, by 2010, Missouri will have $560 million to spend on roads annually -- down from the current $1.6 billion. In all the conversations about light rail and the cost of the rail projects, people seem to forget how much money it costs to maintain our roadways and that the constant maintanance is a huge expense to taxpayers in both the short and the long term.
Americans drove 11 Billion fewer vehicle miles in March 2008 vs March 2007.
Economist Paul Krugman points to Europe as the model for what to expect as gasoline continues to rise above $4 a gallon across most of the US. His secrets to success: Own fuel-efficient cars and don't drive them much. Krugman notes that the ideal scenerio is neighborhoods with four-five story apartment buildings, with a lot of local shopping and easy access to public transit....something that does not exist much in this country. Which means if we as a city prepare ourselves for the new demand that will follow, we'll be very well equiped to grow in the future.
Kansas City was named one of the top 10 best cities in the world for innovation. The article cites the new development downtown, the expansion of the Nelson Atkins Museum and the new Animal Health Corridor as examples of the innovation. Obviously this is a great sign for creative companies including advertising agencies, places like Hallmark that rely on graphic design and creativity, the local arts scene, and technical people that would work somewhere like Garmin or Sprint. Attracting a young, creative class is exactly what this city needs to continue to do to build to the next decade.
Last July, KCP&L announced its plan to buy some property at 32nd and Troost to build a new electrical substation. The neighborhood leaders in the surrounding areas were stunned, as they had not been a part of the process or even informed of the possibility of this plan. After a little outburst from the community, KCP&L backpedaled.
The Substation plan was going to take out almost an entire city block along Troost (along the most viable redevelopment area of Troost North of Brush Creek) and butt the substation up next to homes that are placed on the national historic register. At the time, I layed out some possible options to help out the KCP&L folks with their endeavor.
KCP&L has now assembled an advisory committee to help determine the best location for the substation. However, it looks like the Hyde Park Neighborhood President has some legitimate concerns about the makeup of the advisory group. Her letter to KCP&L is posted online in the Hyde Park Neighborhood Forums (you can scroll to the bottom to see it). According to their reports, the 'ideal' location for the substation will fall between Forest and Harrison (each one block off of Troost) and between 28th Street and 36th Street. Here's a clip from HPNA President Angie Splittgerber's letter:
However, the committee make-up does not represent the location at issue. Specifically, only five of the 16 committee members are representatives of the affected neighborhoods—where the residents will have to live with the substation day and night. Also, only five members of the business community are located on Troost within the location at issue. And those businesses are all located on Troost between 29th Street and Linwood Boulevard—merely two of the nine blocks at issue. There are no Troost business representatives/property owners from Linwood south to 36th Street. Finally, six members of the committee are from businesses or organizations outside of the location at issue.
Such a committee structure, on its face, demonstrates an unfair weight against neighborhood residents in the location at issue. It also excludes business and property owners on a majority of the Troost blocks at issue.
It looks like someone may end up with this thing in their back yard without any say in the matter.
I'm going to note a couple of things about this process that I find concerning.
1) I'm not sure of the need for the substation to be between 28th and 36th. There are several locations North of 28th Street that would have minimal (if any) affect on either businesses or residences -- which should be the goal, even if it's less "convenient" for KCP&L.
2) This story has gotten virtually no media attention.
3) The proposed substation also comes with the addition of the beautiful, huge, extremely tall grey, metal powere lines that will now define Troost -- furthering its reputation as a dividing line in the city.
4) Ther are also other plans going on along Troost -- from a BRT line that has received federal funding, to proposals for a possible Street Car line. Is there an opportunity to take advantage of these infastructure improvements to actually burry these electrical lines out of the view of the neighborhood?
5) With this happening along Troost, a corridor that most people at city hall have admitted is an essential part of of the city in terms of tearing down the mythical divide that it represents, I cannot believe this has not been given more attention at city hall.
Mayor Funkhouse was COMPLETELY UNAWARE of the issue 3 weeks ago when he held the neighborhood meeting with the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. Not only is this a miss on Funkhouser's part, it's become quite evident that the city council members that should be fighting for their neighborhood constituents and keeping this issue at the center of attention have completely dropped the ball on this issue. There are four city council members (Jan Marcason, Beth Gottstein, Melba Curls and Sharon Sanders Brooks) whose district is along this area of Troost and NONE OF THEM appear to even have an interest in the issue.
I applaud Splittgerber's hard work on getting the advisory committee formed, and for fighting to be sure that all affected parties have equal representation in this group. It's that type of community interest that is really driving this process in the absence of involvement at city hall.
Let's see if we can come up with a solution that doesn't hurt the redevelopment prospects along Troost or negatively impact neighborhoods. It seems like it should be quite doable.
Apparently the folks over at Sports Illustrated surveyed different people than David Glass did in determining what fans thought of the location of Kauffman Stadium.
In an SI poll, fans rated the 30 baseball stadiums on 10 different criteria: Affordability, Food, Team Quality, Tradition, Atmosphere, Fan IQ, Hospitality, Promotions, Trafic and the Neighborhood.
The fans rated The K as the 12th best stadium in baseball. That's pretty good. The high score comes primarily from it being rated #1 in affordability, #2 in Hospitality, #7 in promotions (LOVE T-shirt Tuesdays and Fireworks Fridays) and #8 in Food (Sheboygan!)
Fans rated the neighborhood 27th -- besting only the Mets, A's and Marlins (who have a new dowtown stadium coming soon). The Mets and A's are in really crappy neighborhoods. Kansas City was also ranked 19th in traffic getting to the game. I'll note that 7 of the top 10 stadiums for traffic are basically downtown stadiums and most of the top ones for neighborhood are also downtown stadiums.
Great stadium. Bad location. Just sayin'.
So this is what TV news is coming to? I just walked by the TV here in our office and Hulk Hogan is on CNN Headline News because his son was arrested for careless driving.
We're in the midst of two wars. Gas prices continue to rise. We have a major vote coming up in November. There is fighting in Tibet. And I have Hulk Hogan as the lead story on Headline News?
It's really sad when it's getting tough to differentiate the difference between News and VH1. I can't wait to watch the real story on Hogan Knows Best.
The media today made a big deal out of the overnight rise in gas prices. A regular gallon of gas is now $3.63 here in Kansas City. This leads to a lot of questions. One is, why does everyone seem surprised by this when the price of gas has been steadily trending upward for the past 6 years. (you may have to pick the 6 year trend data at the top of the chart).
You may alwo ask why people are so upset by this. People in general say they want to be environmentally conscious, and want to "go green" and yet people are upset when gasoline (a non-renewable resource) prices go up -- yet a gallon of gas is still less expensive than a gallon of milk (a renewable resource).
Those questions aside, there are some things that the rising gas prices mean for Kansas City -- if people are paying attention.
1) Gas prices are likely to continue to go up. If prices continue the way they have been going (and there is no reason to think they won't), we'll be looking at $5.50-$6 gasoline by 2012.
2) Even Kansas Citians, who have an afinity for their automobiles, will change their driving habits at $5.50 per gallon. These changed habits will come in several forms.
3) This means: more time shopping in their neighborhoods vs regional shopping destinations. This could change the way we look at zoning an land use as demand for shopping, retail, and restaurants actually in neighborhoods vs in major regional dining centers. It also may mean that KCMO's surplus in regional shopping destinations may already be archaic.
4) More people shopping/dining in their neighborhoods will mean more people walking. Which means less need for parking -- ie Kansas City's 1940s parking mandates for huge amounts of parking for businesses. This also means that with less parking available, parking prices will go up.
5) People are going to want alternative forms of transportation. Yes, this means better bus systems, and light rail.
6) In leui of public transit or driving, more people will turn to walking and biking to work places -- meaning companies should look at putting in shower facilities in offices and safe/convenient places to park bikes. The city also needs to put in more safe bike lanes for bicyclists.
7) People are going to want to live closer to where they work. This means that KCMO has a huge opportunity to attract more, upscale residents that want to live closer to downtown jobs. It also means that if the city doesn't improve resident satisfaction with city services, improve its schools, and create good situations for busineses to stay in downtown and the urban core, we risk losing businesses to the suburbs as companies move closer to their employee base.
8) There may also be increased demand for regional rail transportation via services like Amtrak as driving between major cities may be more cost-prohibitive. So it's good that the State of Missouri is investing in improving the Amtrak service across the state.
There are a lot of opportunities for companies and the city if we notice that this isn't a "new" trend of increased gas prices -- but the direction it's heading. It doesn't take much to look at places like Europe, which have had $5 gasoline for a long time to see the widespread use of bicycles, public transportation and eurorail -- as well as strong city centers -- to see what this would mean in the US. We can either ignore the trends, or prepare for them. It won't be going away.
Meanwhile, use the increase in gas prices to take advantage of next week's car-free challenge and see how doable it is for your lifestyle.
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