Take Me To Your Leader

By Durwin Rice The Kansas City Post Finally something that makes sense from a city leader regarding light rail. The KC Star reports on Bill George, Jr.'s recent advice to Clay Chastain... "support the immediate planning for a starter line that can be built from the funds that exist through the current tax". What say you Clay? That sounds reasonable to me and you told us, at least once, that you are a reasonable man. Personally, I once thought I cared if a starter line went down Broadway or Main Street. But today, in the hopes of finding some leadership out of the current morass, I can truthfully tell you that I don't think it really matters. Of course, it's a shame nobody's suggesting that the starter line involve Troost Avenue, which currently is the highest trafficked commuter route in the city. And, it's also too bad that Mr. Nutter and Mr. Patterson don't want the starter line on Broadway. Broadway needs mass transit too, whether it goes through Penn Valley Park or not. Main Street would be a great line and so would Prospect, the city's 2nd highest traveled bus route. But Chastain maintains (correctly) that he doesn't have the authority to change the voter approved route on Broadway. Well, perhaps if we would all understand that a regional plan has got to begin somewhere we might just be able to find the leadership to ask whoever has that authority which street we dig up first? Maybe instead of asking the voters to vote against what they already voted for we ask them on which street or avenue they want to take their virgin light rail ride in Kansas City. If that turns out to, again, be Broadway, welcome to democracy Mr. Nutter and Mr. Patterson. Our Mayor likes to talk about a "well-thought-out regional plan". In "A Splendid Ride: The Streetcars of Kansas City" published in 2002 by Kansas City Star Books we learn that "At its peak, the cable car system of Kansas City was the third largest in the entire country, after only San Francisco and Chicago." There's also a nice map of that obviously successful regional plan on pages 174 and 175. It's kind of simple. Kansas City voters want light rail. A regional plan begins on one block. The city needs leadership so, what say you City Council?