KC takes risks to get better? Believe it
Yael T. AbouhalkahRisk is a four-letter word that Kansas City’s politicians like to use when they want to spend other people’s money.
As in, let’s take a risk and build light rail.
Except that didn’t work out well for Kansas City mayors Kay Barnes and Mark Funkhouser; both backed transit plans that voters defeated at the polls in the past decade.
Yet despite the widely held view that Kansas Citians don’t like taking risks, plenty of other examples show we’re open to doing exactly that.
It gets rather tiresome beating back the story line — promoted by elected officials, some in the business sector and too many residents — that this city can’t become a world-class one because it’s too conservative.
Over 25 years and five mayoral administrations, plenty of elected officials have promoted “risky” plans. Granted, some were more successful than others.
But good things don’t just magically happen. People have to make bold decisions to try to make them happen.
The City Council in the late 1980s approved a $100-million-plus plan to rebuild the American Royal Complex, build the jazz and baseball museums at 18th and Vine, and complete the Brush Creek flood control project. The new building saved the Royal, and the wider and deeper Brush Creek has prevented damaging floods that used to occur near the Country Club Plaza and points east. Unfortunately, the public subsidies to redevelop 18th and Vine haven’t created the hoped-for investment by the private sector there.
In 1992 then-City Council member Jim Glover began promoting a plan to tear down blighted buildings near Linwood Boulevard and Main Street to make way for a shopping center. It took years of frustrating efforts to cobble together the funds and the tenants willing to take a risk that they could make money serving urban core shoppers. But that’s how Costco and Home Depot landed at the intersection almost a decade later.
Barnes in 2004 boldly decided to go forward with long-discussed plans to build a downtown arena. Voters approved funds to erect Sprint Center, which has played a big role in bringing new vitality to the core. Meanwhile, the older Kemper Arena is now a drag on taxpayers.
Other success stories involved risk-taking, such as building a new Liberty Memorial museum and expanding the Kansas City Zoo.
Beyond the light-rail failures, some other proposals haven’t paid off as hoped.
Remember all the hype about the potential construction of several million square feet of offices and rental units along the downtown riverfront? All we have to show for it now is a too-little-used Richard L. Berkley Riverfront Park.
City planners also had great hopes that construction of Bruce Watkins Drive in the 1990s would help revitalize stretches of the urban core. Hasn’t happened.
Today, Mayor Sly James and others are tapping into the “let’s take a risk” strategy.
James recently exhorted voters to take the plunge on spending more for a better parks system and on paving more roads. Despite the recession, voters overwhelmingly agreed to a half-cent sales tax increase.
City Council member Russ Johnson is one of the leaders in the fight to build a two-mile downtown streetcar line, a $100 million project many people think is not a high priority. But as Johnson and other backers argue, with merit, the city has to take a calculated risk when it comes to bolstering transit — and making downtown more attractive to new businesses and residents.
Of course, politicians with big ambitions can take on too much risk, at least in the minds of voters.
That’s when the message gets sent that they aren’t willing to go that far. It’s happened on light rail and a few other issues in recent decades.
Overall, though, Kansas Citians are bigger risk takers than often thought. That’s a good thing for this entire metropolitan area.
To reach Yael T. Abouhalkah, call 816-234-4887 or email abouhalkah@kcstar.com. He blogs at voices.kansascity.com and appears on “Ruckus” at 7 tonight on KCPT. Twitter @YaelTAbouhalkah.
Ginger Odinah
9 months agoOkay, take risks. But on whose dime? Risks take money. Where does the money come from? Let me guess: taxpayer’s pockets. Was I right? : > )
Chris Bembynista
9 months agoI am surprised to see you saying such good things about the city; I usually do not expect this from you. I happen to think that with just a little more work, this city can really move forward. I am mixed, sometimes I think that people here are really progressive and that they really want the city to move forward, other times I think that locals can be some of the most thrifty and insular people ever; it really depends. Sometimes I swear there are those people that would be perfectly content if downtown KCMO was still mostly parking lots, and some continue to make every excuse in the world about why we can’t have light rail. I increasingly see locals in the more positive light and I think this parochial attitude is changing. Our leaders just need to keep pushing us forward and we need to make sure that we remain competitive against other cities. The key though, and something that has been a problem here in the past, is making sure that we do not become fixated on what other cities do or do not have. Instead we need to recognize that we have competitive assets as well, and we must look at other cities to make our city stronger not to put ourselves down.
Mark Hastert
9 months agoThere are risks and there are risks. Jim Leedy took risks on his own and the Crossroads is a vibrant area. However, too many developers want to risk public money making them sometimes foolhardy. When yo have a skin in the game you play harder.