Toellner Tells it

UMB CEO Mariner Kemper featured in USA Today

UMB Financial CEO J. Mariner Kemper is featured in today's issue of USA Today -- along with his cousin, David Kemper -- of Commerce Bank.

Together, the two cousins run 2 of the top 3 banks in the United States based on Forbes Magazine's 2009 rankings (Bank of Hawaii is #1).  Over the years, the two banks have made smart financial decisions that have kept them from being a part of the sub-prime mess that larger banks created over the past 3 years.

It's good PR for Kansas City -- and the strength of the financial institution has been good for Kansas City -- and the family's generous nature has been good for the city as well; helping fund a sports arena, public library improvements and a world class contemporary art museum.

It's just another example of how important strong local businesses are to the city.

Behind the Scenes at Ripple Glass

Ever wonder how the bottles you drop into the big purple Ripple Glass containers become insulation?  A great new video by the folks at Ripple Glass shows you the behind the scenes footage.

It's great to see a local company doing good work in making new products, protecting the environment and providing an opportunity for fewer bottles to end up in our landfills.

Blanc Burgers & Bottles Continues getting praise

Draft magazine just issued its list of Best Burger and Beer spots in the country -- and Blanc Burgers and Bottles is one of the 11 restaurants listed.

Kansas City, Mo.

Blanc Burgers & Bottles 

There’s a sense of whimsy about this little burger joint in Kansas City’s Westport neighborhood. It’s in the vintage architecture, originally built to house a White Castle restaurant in the 1930s. It’s in the sweets on offer, including a handful of “grown-up milkshakes” and 28 bottled sodas. And it’s certainly on the menu, with inventive burgers like Au Poivre, a pepper-crusted burger with green peppercorn sauce, or the $100 Burger, topped with foie gras butter and stuffed with red wine-braised short ribs (and which will not, in fact, cost you $100). Complementing such playful dishes is a list of 110 beers that’s heavy on old standbys like Guinness and Harp, as well as out-there picks like Boulevard Long Strange Tripel and Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout. 4710 Jefferson St. 

Their fact-checker missed a few things -- like that they're no longer in Westport (the address is correct though) and I don't think the White Castle note is right either (Westport Flea Market maybe?) but they at least were right in that it is a great burger and beer place.

It's great to see Kansas City noted for its great batch of local restaurants...and beer too for that matter.

H/T: SlowfoodKC via Twitter

People driving less

  Last week, the New York Times ran a really interesting chart that compared gas prices with the number of miles driven over time.

In 1956, the average person drover less than 4,000 miles per year and gas was abut $2.40 a gallon.

In 2005, with gas at $2.50 a gallon, the average person was driving more than 10,000 miles per year.

However, since 2005, as gas prices have remained over $2.50 a gallon, the number of miles driven has steadily declined. The number of miles driven right now is at its lowest point since 1998.

There has never been such a pro-longed cut in the number of miles driven, and the only times even short cuts in driving have occurred has have all coincided with sharp increases in gas prices.

So why bother posting this?

Well, for starters, I think it's interesting, but I also think there is something else more interesting happening here.

People are starting to drive less. Yes, gas prices are driving this to some degree -- but note how growth in driving decreased from 1998-2003, even though the economy was good for a large part of that time and gas prices were relatively low. People are moving back to cities. After an entire generation of people moving out to the suburbs, people are starting to enjoy urban living, living close to work, restaurants and cultural activities. And with high gas prices, this is sure to continue.

So what's this mean? After years of spending countless resources on roads, we need to start changing spending priorities, including bike lanes for bikers (which is more doable when people live close to work), more pedestrian friendly sidewalks and neighborhoods and better public transit. Knowing how things are changing and how people are living differently is important in determining spending priorities.

Spay/Neuter Kansas City to Canvass ahead of KCMO Animal Control

First the press release -- and then some comments:

May 13^th, 2010

Contact: Tamara Scharfenkamp, Director of Operations
Spay and Neuter Kansas City
Office 816-353-0940
Cell (for media only) 816-935-8845

Spay Neuter Kansas City Canvassing Ahead of Animal Control on City License Enforcement

Kansas City, Missouri – May 13^th, 2010 Spay & Neuter Kansas City will be canvassing a targeted area just 2 weeks ahead of animal control to promote compliance on rabies vaccinations and city licensing for pet owners in the Northend Neighborhood Association.  The Northend Area is between 13^th Street 20^th Street West Pennway and Broadway.   Rabies vaccinations and city licensing will be offered door to door in this area on May 13^th, 2010 starting around 10:00am. 

The goal is give pet owners a convenient and affordable opportunity to comply with the city ordinances. SNKC will also be offering low cost spay and neuter information for pet owners in need.   All Kansas City, Missouri Pet Owners are encouraged to get their pet’s rabies vaccination and city license and they can do so at the SNKC Clinic.   Call 816-353-0940 for more information or visit their website at www.snkc.net for dates and hours of clinic.

Clinic Location

Spay & Neuter Kansas City
1116 E 59^th     (NE Corner 59^th and Troost)
Kansas City, Missouri 64110

Fees at SNKC Location:

Rabies Vaccinations $10.00

KCMO City License – Altered Pet   $12.00
KCMO City License – Unaltered Pet   $35.00

Spay & Neuter Kansas City currently offers low-cost spay and neuter services for pet owners who qualify. 

SNKC is a nonprofit organization formed to promote spay and neutering as a primary means of decreasing pet overpopulation. Please visit www.snkc.net for more information on various programs, volunteer opportunities and how you can help.  SNKC  PO Box 410303, KCMO 64141.  816-353-0940.

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I'm really happy to see SNKC step up to help animal owners and get out in front of animal control's door-to-door sweeps. Their ability to go in, provide one-stop-shopping for licensing, rabies vaccines and altering before KCMO does their sweeps will really do a great job of helping animal owners in these targeted neighborhoods to keep their pets. With Animal Control going into these homes and issuing a variety of fines, it will make it difficult for pet owners -- particularly low-income pet owners - to keep their pets. SNKC will be working with the owners to make keeping their pets more likely.

What may be even more frustrating is that again KCMO AC has shown in its policy-making to be more-than willing to isolate themselves from the animal welfare community in this city. While these groups have the resources and desire to actually HELP solve animal welfare problems in the city, the policy-makers for the city continue to try to work against them instead of with them in making things better for the animals, and safer for the public.  The straining of these relationships by the policy-makers force the city to use even more resources than they otherwise would if they just actively worked with these groups.

And it's a wasteful shame.

Door-to-door dog licensing? Wasting resources, wasting time, & KCMO continues to make contentious relations with citizens

Last week, KCMO Animal Control made the startling announcement that on each Wednesday from now until September, Animal Control will be choosing neighborhoods in "targeted areas" and going door-to-door checking on whether people have their pets licensed.

In KCMO, all dogs, cats, and ferrets must be licensed. For each pet that is not licensed, the owner will receive a $75 fine - -so fines could total as much as $300 for someone with four pets in their home (all pets over the maximum of four allowed by the city will be taken from the owner).

KCMO is barely able to provide basic resources for their residents. The schools are suffering. Crime is still high. Our roads don't get plowed when it snows. Public transportation continues to get cut. But somehow we have the the funds to send Animal Control door-to-door to check to see if they're licensed? 

The head of animal control, Patrick Egberuare, says the move isn't about generating revenue (which is laughable) but is "pretty much about public safety."

"Pretty much?"

And "public safety"? I don't want to speak for everyone here, but I can only guess that when 40% of the people in the city said they don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods (and 88% in city parks at night and 72% in downtown KCMO) that most of them didn't answer it that way because they felt threatened by their dog not being licensed. Just a guess on my part.

No, if the city were all that concerned about public safety, there are dozens of other things that would take precedence over dog licensing checks. So why are we wasting money on this?  And why is it that when the city faced a major budget deficit this year, that Animal Control was one budget that remained intact. It appears to me that they must have a lot of excess resources that could have been cut.

Nope, it seems obvious that this is a revenue grab by the city -- and one that could prove to be really costly.

The Constitutionality of doing door-to-door checks to look for people breaking laws is definitely in question. The 4th Amendment protects us (supposedly) from being searched without reasonable cause that we have done something wrong.  We would all instantly see the 4th Amendment being violated if authorities came door-to-door looking for illegal weapons, or to check someone's legal citizenship. And while dog licensing seems innocent enough, it is still a violation of the same Constitutional Law.

The city of Louisville currently has two legal cases (one state, one federal) they are working against for similar activity there. And Two years ago, when a Lucas County, OH (Toledo) dog warden attempted the same type of license checks, and was quickly shut down by the county government because they said it was a waste of time and likely a violation of the 4th Amendment (that particular dog warden resigned under public pressure last fall).  All it's going to take is one ACO crossing the wrong person who knows a lawyer and the city will have yet another lawsuit on their hands -- especially when many of the "targeted areas"happen to be in our lower-income areas (Eastwood Hills, Blue Hills, Ivanhoe Northend, etc). Meanwhile, many of our upscale neighborhoods (Waldo, Brookside, Ward Parkway, Armour Hills, etc) have been miraculously left off the targeted list (even though if you visit these areas on a weekend it seems that everyone there owns a dog).

Not only are these searches an unnecessary money-grab from the city, but they continue to put the city in a contentious relationship with its citizens by needlessly harassing people who are not causing any problems and in many cases, heaping substantial fines on them. At a time when KCMO should be doing whatever it can to try to attract people to want to live here, they continue to make policy decisions that make the citizen's relationship with the city tenuous at best. This is one reason many people I know haven't licensed their dogs already is because they feared by doing so they would become the targets of animal control. Seems like their fears are pretty warranted.

If the city council and the mayor have any sense at all about them they will pressure the Animal Control department to quit wasting our tax dollars on these silly searches. It's a waste of time and money -- and is leaving the city open to another potential lawsuit. There are hundreds of other things we could spend money on besides this.

For those of you who's neighborhood is going to be targeted, here's some good information from Kansas City Dog Advocates on your rights as a citizen when Animal Control comes knocking.