Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Kansas City needs vs Kansas City wants

Anyone that has been following Kansas City politics for the past few years has to be scratching their heads about the prioritization of projects.  The lack of recognition of the basic needs and wants of the citizens of Kansas City is a clear sign of blatant disregard and political elitism by elected and unelected leaders.  Is there anyone in City Hall or the KC Country club that gives a crap?

It would seem to me that the biggest needs for the city are the following 
  • Sewers
  • Tearing down of Abandoned Houses
  • Increased Policing
  • Sidewalks
  • Vacant lot cleanup 
  • Blight (half destroyed buildings, overgrown lawns, gang signs spray painted)
  • Something done with old schools
  • Getting rid of Kemper Arena
  • Improved roadways
  • Better trash pickup and snow removal
  • Lower Taxes
  • More equipment for first responders.

Instead the great minds in Kansas City have spent all their time and effort on the following
  • A light rail system that does absolutely nothing 
  • Redoing the one thing that people in the city thinks works, the airport.
  • A downtown hotel
  • Removing homeless from camps
  • Fact finding trips vacations for government employees 
  • Government control of Union Station (private ownership would have that thing making money hand over fist)
  • Low level drug arrests instead of high level players
  • Gun buyback programs that do NOT reduce crime
  • Retrofitting Kauffman instead of building downtown. 
  • Funkhouser legal fees
  • MAST
  • 1000 other wastes of money

Here are some questions that I have
  • Can you imagine what the city would look and feel like if the leaders actually listened to the people instead of worrying about legacy projects or elitist paybacks for political support?  
  • Wouldn't you like to see the Kemper family invest in cleaning up the city instead of crappy art that only 1% of the residents of this city will see?  
  • Don't the elitist in this city owe the residents something for all of the crap that the taxpayers have funded for them?  
  • Isn't anyone holding the politicians accountable for the lack of progress in addressing the basic needs of the city?
  • Does the city budget contain a breakdown of money spent per region in the city?  I think it would be interesting to see how much tax dollar money went to the Plaza, Downtown, Crown Center, East Side, West Side and NKC.