Joining the team at kclightrail.com
| By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Obviously I'm going to be learning a lot about light rail over the next few weeks as I participate in the Citizens Task Force on Light Rail. I didn't want to turn TheKansasCityPost.com into a house organ for light rail issues, nor did I want to take away the personal aspect of My Town, My Take. Fortunately, the fine folks over at kclightrail.com have invited me to chronicle my task force experiences over there. I have decided to take them up on their extremely lucrative offer. I get an upfront signing bonus of nothing and a per-post payout of nothing. How could I pass on a deal like that? So while I'll still have light rail issues here from time to time, the bulk of my "railing" will go on over there. Maybe as the weeks go by I will be able to influence some of my fellow task force members to chime in. I'm sure we'll have some lively discussions! |
posted by Mark at 1:25 PM
Comments on "Joining the team at kclightrail.com"
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Brent said ... (3:44 PM) :
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idan said ... (9:43 PM) :
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Mark said ... (10:07 PM) :
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Craig said ... (4:20 PM) :
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Future rail rider said ... (9:40 PM) :
post a commentI was expecting you to change your blog to "Life on the Lightrail Trail".
I must admit, and this may be sour grapes on my part, I am a little surprised at the "Who's Who of Kansas City" make up of the Light Rail "Citizen" task force. I just assumed the application process would yield a more diverse make up of the citizenry.
The Citizens Association board is well represented with at least two task force members. Should this be worrisome considering what has been chronicled on this blog about the Citizens Association's power and influence?
The KC Urban Society board is well represented with at least two members. Should this be worrisome considering their well-stated, strong opinions on what should be done with light rail?
The group includes surgeons, attorneys, developers, politicos, and so on.
When internet searching the task force names, just over a handful of the task force names didn't yield some kind of hit that seemed to say "well connected".
Why an open application process when the outcome is a group of the influential and the political insiders? It just seems too coincidental that so many big names were selected for the task force, especially when the app asked for not much more than your name and address... and a single sentence on why you were applying.
Obviously, light rail cannot be trusted to the Kansas City proletariat. To call this a group of "humble Kansas Citians" would be a tough sell.
I hope this process brings credibility to the light rail debate. But you can call me a "previously-unskeptical skeptic" and disappointed.
iDan,
You noticed the short-form application too? I commented to several people that I didn't think it was much of an application.
I had the advantage of having this fairly well-known platform so people knew who I was.
I agree that you obviously either had to be known or know somebody to get on the task force. Not the way I would have done it but it is what it is.
Having Mark on the Task Force is something I was hoping for and I rest easy knowing you will be on there. Kansas City will at least know about the state-of-the art developments in transit. Now, if only the others will embrace it. Kansas City is so conservative, though.
I didn't vote for Clay's plan (gondolas????) but am in favor of finding something that works ~ we have to! Mark, keep us posted but keep an open mind.... something has to give somewhere for this to happen, so everyone at the table has to think outside the box.