By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Mayor Mark Funkhouser won't give up on funding regional light rail this fall. He recently enlisted the help of county leaders Mike Sanders, Betty Knight and Ed Quick. Here's where the mayor's last-ditch plan stands now:
-- In Jackson County, Sanders frankly doesn't sound like he can get the mayors of major cities to embrace regional rail by July or August, when a decision has to be made to place something on the November ballot.
But Sanders said he'll try, cognizant of the fact that people want to know where the light-rail lines might go in their cities and when they would be built -- two major questions he can't answer yet.
For local governments to have credibility with voters, Sanders said, "we need to know what the service" will be from light rail.
Another Jackson County official issued a warning: "We can't win an election if it doesn't touch Independence."
For what it's worth, no light-rail plan yet unveiled has come close to touching Independence -- or Lee's Summit or Blue Springs, for that matter.
-- In Platte County, Knight said she too is committed to asking mayors and other civic leaders their thoughts on regional rail.
Again, she's not out front leading the charge.
"I just think there's a lot of work to be done," Knight said, agreeing with Sanders that people want to know where the light-rail light would be built.
"You don't just throw this on the wall and hope it sticks," Knight said.
-- In Clay County, Quick may have the most difficult selling job of all.
Most light-rail proposals unveiled over the years have shown a spur going into the Northland, all the way to Kansas City International Airport. That's in Platte County.
But no lines have extended, as yet, into the growing parts of Clay County. That especially includes the Shoal Creek Valley area in Kansas City in the eastern part of the county, next door to quick-growing Liberty.
Sanders, Knight and Quick ought to find out what support exists in their counties for regional light rail.
Sure, as Funkhouser continues to note, elected officials have to have vision to see the wisdom of building regional light rail.
But they also have to be practical. They know that other communities with light rail have first built starter lines -- as the City Council is now studying -- before moving on to larger systems.
At this point in the game, it still appears that funding only for a starter line in Kansas City is headed for November's ballot.
Ok, it only makes sense for us to build light rail if we are going to use it as more than a gimmick. Granted I would love to have a train carry my inebriated self home from Westport or Power & Light, into cozy North Kansas City across the river; but for this plan to make any sense at all, it needs to be used daily by a lot of people. The only way to do that is for it to serve as a commuting alternative for the major suburbs into and out of the city. Everything that comes after that (the ability for tourists to reach all the great parts of our city with ease, the cutting down on an waiting for a cab after drinking when you're north of the river (I don't see too many cabs at Zona Rosa, but I know there's a lot of drinking to do, which is alarming); and also the day trips that save you gas money) -- all those extra perks come with a successful every day commuting system that caters to more than the urban core -- because, let's face it, as great as the urban core is becoming, the vast majority of the metro still lives in the suburbs. There are great inner-city communities that could really be helped by a starter line, but I just don't feel like that's a big enough cross section of the metro to make light rail anything other than novelty. Why not help the inner AND outer city, and not half-@ss it. If the costs are astronomical, that isn't a good enough reason. We can figure out a way to pay for it -- creative ways that spread the cost over the whole metro and not just Jackson County. I don't comment much on these boards, but I feel like this needs to be said.