Toellner Tells it

Chatham Hotel gets KCMO Council Approval?

According to an email from the Broadway/WestportCouncil, the old Chatham Hotel received the recommendation from the Kansas City Council for 4% MHDC Tax Credits. The money would help the developers turn the old, historic hotel into apartments for Seniors (I'm assuming some type of government assisted housing).

There will be a news conference on the front porch/lawn of the Chatham Hotel next Monday morning at 10 AM. The MDHC will vote on the tax credits on Friday May 21st.

The Chatham has been a blight on the this stretch of Broadway in Midtwon, near Westport, for years. And not only has it been an eye-sore, but it has provided housing for vagrants and other crime as well, causing safety issues in the neighborhood.

I don't know all of the specifics of the deal -- nor can I find anywhere in the media where the KCMO Council has approved the recommendation, but I do know that generally, fixing old, abandoned, historic buildings and making them into housing so we can improve the population density of our core is the type of project I generally support.

12th & Main originally brought up this story earlier this week -- but for some reason has taken the post down. I'm hopeful that some of the real media in this town will take it upon themselves to at least report what is going on with some potential redevelopment in town.

Denver begins public bicycle sharing program

This isn't a new concept -- but it does appear, finally, to be catching on.

Three years ago I noted on this blog that Paris, France had begun a new bike-sharing program. The idea is that people can "check out" bikes from public bike stands across the city -- and then ride them to other points in the city, where they can "drop off" the bike at another bikestand location. The idea is to encourage people to move around the city via bicycle instead of cars -- making their residents more fit, and cutting down on the need for automobiles for short trips across town that may be too far to walk).

Last week, on Earth Day, Denver became the first large city in the United States to launch a bike-sharing system -- called B-Cycle. The system is being funded with a 3 year, $450,000 sponsorship by Kaiser Permanente -- the state's largest nonprofit health plan.  As the program develops, the plan is to have roughly 500 B-cycles and 45-50 B-Stations.  Cost to users is $5 for a 24 hour pass, $20 for 7-days, $30 for 30 days, or $65 for annual memberships.

The bikes will have RFID chips inserted in them so computers can track mileage, calories burned, and carbon offsets -- while riders can monitor personal fitness and their contributions to the city's green efforts. Oh, and it just might help them find the bikes too just in case they don't make it back to the official drop points. You can even check online to see how many bikes are currently available at each B-Station.

City officials think B-Cycle will be a valuable part of their overall multi-modal transport system including buses and light rail.

What one group is doing about pot holes

A Toronto area group went around the city and spray painted the words "thunk" and "oof" around area pot holes. The project is beng caled Pothole Onomatopoeia and has the goal educating the city on the dangers pot holes like this make for urban cyclists.

I'm not implying that the cycling community in Kansas City should do something like this (I'm pretty sure it's technically illegal) -- but if they did, they would need a lot of spray paint.

Hat Tip: Good

More gunfire, one dead, in Armour Section 8 Apartments

Yesterday afternoon, 2 men were shot, one fatally, in the Georgian Court Apartments on Armour Blvd.

The man who was still alive was a resident of the building and said that the other man tried to break into his apartment, so he shot him in self defense. The dead man was found in the doorway to the apartment.

This marks yet another shooting in one of four major project-based Section 8 buildings along Armour. While this is the first murder in any of the apartments this year, there were 5 that were within a block of these apartments last yaer.

Many officials are starting to see the problems with project-based Section 8 -- isloating people with low incomes to live only among others with low incomes. Authorities from the state have gotten involved, and a new management company with the apartments has also helped. But the idea of vertically segregating low-income people into a high-rise building creates an unsafe situation for them, and a situation that does not set them up for the best opportunities to removing themselves from assisted housing.

We must find a way to deconsolidate low-income housing in this city and move to a more voucher-based system so that we can have the best results for everyone -- especially those who live in these apartments. This has been going on far too long. We must show an ability to learn from 30 years of mistakes.

H/T: Crime Scene KC

Related: Crime, Armour Boulevard and Redefining an Urban Struggle

Opposing Project Based Section 8 is opposing bad policy

Another Shooting in Sectoin 8 Housing Along Armour BLVD

Even random shootings are somewhat predictable when bad public policy is at play

Creating modern day ghettos?

Rethinking High School

The past 12 months have involved a LOT of conversation about public schools in Kansas City, MO.

That's a good thing. Because our public schools are broken, and we can't fix them if no one is talking about solutions on how to do it.

I plan to spend more time on this topic in the coming weeks, but I thought this was an inspiring video of what can be done.  This is a 3 minute video about Locke High School in Los Angeles that was a dropout factory over run by gangs. In 10 years, Green Dot Public Schools took over and reopened it as a charter school. The school has gone from a 40% graduation rate to 80% -- with 76% of their graduates heading off to college.

H/T: Good

Local Artists get a little support

 The KC Arts Council has gotten a little support. In a new Billboard campaign that initially started a month ago, but was revealed last week, supports the Arts Council with a simple billboard that says:

"If we don't support artists, there is no art."

The billboards were originally posted as stark white billboards bearing the same message, but were then taken down and hand-painted by local artists and reposted with the same message -- but this time with art on them.

UMB -- who is a corporate partner of the Arts Council - supplied the billboard space. And Barkley, who is the agency for UMB supplied the creative concept. One of the boards is at I-70 and Van Brunt, the other at I-35 and SW Boulevard.

Kansas City is very fortunate to have such a great local arts scene -- not just with local artists, but also hosting the annual KC Film Fest (which is this weekend!), and having a couple of World Class Art Museums with the Nelson and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Plus, with a new performing arts building construction in progress, we'll have world-class facilities for our performing arts as well.  And without the artists, there would be no art to enjoy.

Note: In the essence of full disclosure, I do work at Barkley -- but personally had no involvment at all in the campaign.  

Many Winners in Yesterday's School Board Elections - unanswered question remain

Yesterday, Kansas City, MO held their elections for school board. It was a pivotal election for a lot of reasons. And coming out of it, there were some very obvious winners and losers. Once that is sorted out, the remaining questions of "what does this mean" will be sorted out.

Winners: Crispn Rea Jr., Kyleen Carroll and Joseph Jackson

They got the most votes (Rea and Carroll as at-large representatives, Jackson in his subdistrict). All three received approximately 73% of the votes (the Star's percent votes are a little misleading because there were only 11,350 voters yesterday, with each being able to vote for 2 candidates).

Winner: Superintendent Covington - Let's face it, KCMO hasn't been kind to school superintendents, churning out a new one about every 18 months for literally the past 50 years. That's part of our problem...no consistent leadership. Last month, Covington announced his plan to "right size" the school district in a move that would close nearly half of the public schools. It's a bold move -- and likely the best one for the students -- but very controversial. The three candidates that won in the election represent the three strongest supporters of the move. With 73% of the voter turnout being in favor of these candidates, it appears as if Covington has a large amount of support from the voting public -- and now of the school board. This should create some much need stability in the school adminstration, which is also a good thing.

Winner: Diversity and perceived racial divide in the school district. The three winners are a white female, a black male and an hispanic male. It's tough to get more diverse than that. Also, Joseph Jackson's election was a sub-district seat in a predominently low-income/black area. The fact that he got nearly an identical percentage of the votes as the At-Large candidates that also supported Covington, helps show that support for the Superintendent, and for the "right-sizing" of the schools is consistent across people of all neighborhoods and races. And that's a good thing.

Winner: Apathy in KC Politics - It could easily be argued that the single biggest factor that is negatively impacting Kansas City, MO South of the River is the schools. Poor education leads to higher crime. It leads to middle income families (who can't afford private schools, but can afford to move) to relocate -- often to the Kansas side of the line -- which hurts housing prices and the tax base for the city. The lower tax revenue impacts virtually all other services like police, roads, snow removal, parks and other things people complain about with the city. There is little that is more important than fixing our schools. And for that -- we got 11,350 voters out to the polls. That's it?  Ouch.

Winner: Kansas City Developers - Many of whom intend to redevelop some of the now-empty school buildings into lofts and office space.

It looks like there is now plenty of support for the Superintendent and for his "right-sizing" plan. But a lot of questions remain -- many of which can now get sorted out over the next 6 months.

1) Are we closing too many schools?  I get the need to close down quite a few schools as the district has lost half of its students over the past decade. But closing down nearly half the schools seems like a lot. Are we choking off too many schools and then not having room to grow if we are successful and the district starts growing again?

2) Will closing so many schools cause us to lose more students as families choose charter schools in their own neighborhoods...thus causing even more problems?

3) Will closing neighborhood schools decrease neighborhood/parent involvement as they feel like they are moving kids to someone else's neighborhood schools?

4) Will the developers who are redeveloping the old school buildings hold the city hostage for TIF money or other incentives in order to finish off the developments -- or will they sit on the buildings and let them blight neighborhoods?

Overall, I'm supportive of closing down a significant number of the schools. I think it is something that must be done. And over the next few months, the school board, including three new members elected yesterday, are going to get to work through these issues.

I wish them luck. There is little that is more important to the city than getting this right.

Note: Looks like 12th and Main posted some similar comments prior to me doing so.

KC back in the running for a NHL Team?

The KC Business Journal is reporting that Kansas City is again a part of potential talks surrounding an NHL franchise coming to town.

It's still a bit of a long-shot at this point, but there's a bit of a chance.

The Phoenix Coyotes is a team currently being run by the National Hockey League -- who took over the franchisse when it went bankrupt during the 2008-2009 season. The NHL has no desire to continue to own the team and is seeking to find a new owner by the end of June.

Ice Edge Holdings is one company mentioned in the negotions and Jerry Reinsdorf -- owner of the Chicago Bulls and the White Sox.  Ice Edge holdings is a group that was formed with the intent of buying the Coyotes and keeping them in the Phoenix area - -however, has admitted that it would play some games in different areas of Canada in order to boost revenue (a couple of the owners of Ice Edge Holdings have ties to Canada).

However, also mentioned in the mix is Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is a part of the NHL's backup plan. AEG runs the Sprint Center -- and would have a vested interest in actually filling the arena with an anchor tenent which they said they would try to do when the funding for the Sprint Center was approved.

Meanwhile, the city of Phoenix -- and specifically the arena in Glendale - is a horrible fit for the NHL. The warm climate, lack of overall interest in Hockey, and a suburban Hockey arena far from the majority of the population base of the city makes all of it an odd fit -- and difficult for people to get to weekday games in crazy Phoenix traffic. Because of this, the Coyotes have the lowest attendance of all the NHL teams at only 11,725 fans per game -- for a team that is currently 47-25. Nothing like not supporting a winner. This marks the three years in a row that the team has been in the bottom 3 of overall league attendence.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg has also been mentioned as a possible site for relocation -- as the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoneix in 1996 to become the Coyotes and has never drawn a profit there.

Now, it's still unlikely that a Coyote's move to KC is likely -- but it seems probable that they could move from Arizona. And it would be great for AEG to step up to the plate and deliver on an anchor tennent for the glossy new Sprint Center.