Cordish stance on light rail: Allow me to retort

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Beggars can't be choosers. It's a simple lesson, spanning most cultures that is taught to us at a young age. The idea is that anyone receiving charity should be contrite. You're not carrying your weight in society so you should quietly accept others' generosity and be happy about it. Apparently this lesson does not apply in the world of business and tax subsidized development. Cordish Inc. who has been the recipient of millions of our tax dollars is convinced that not only as beggars do they get to choose, but they should be in charge. In an article in the Kansas City Star, Nick Collison reveals that Cordish has issued a letter to the mayor stating their opposition to a light rail route on Grand... Or Main... Or Walnut... Or Baltimore. Regardless of your position on light rail, it's easy to be angered by the attitude of the management of the Power & Light District. Not only are they like the annoying house guest that eats your food, drinks your beer and leaves their messes for you to clean, they interject themselves by offering unsolicited opinions about how you should run your life. I think it's safe to say most of us would grow tired of such a guest. Cordish maintains that light rail will disrupt their business by limiting pedestrian access to parking garages. To this I would respond "absolutely!" For the two whole minutes that the light rail train happens to pass by. Is that really going to kill the Power & Light District? Isn't the real issue the kind of people Cordish fears that public transit will bring to the district? I understand that business is business. But by sending a letter to the mayor, Cordish is subtly announcing their intentions that they will oppose any ballot measure that puts light rail downtown. The logical progression would be to assume they will spend huge amounts of dollars on an opposition campaign in order to "protect their interests." Considering our current business arrangement, that would mean they are going to spend huge amounts of our own tax dollars to sway public opinion. I'm all about protecting interests. Perhaps the mayor should respond that Kansas City is going to protect its interest in public safety and help Cordish out with the increased amount of police presence that they have continually requested. Perhaps every night the Power & Light District should be ringed with highly visible sobriety check points. Since Cordish is so worried about giving its patrons easy access to their parked vehicles, I'm certain they are not allowing anyone to leave their establishments in an impaired condition. All that police presence would give Power & Light patrons a sense of security. Right? We've made our deal with Cordish and it seems our chickens have come home to roost. Numerous downtown night spots have closed. Areas like Westport and the Plaza have seen a decline in business, which directly correlates to a decline in our tax revenues. We anxiously await what will surely be a shortfall in revenue from the P&L District leaving us to scramble to find funds to pay the bond interest. And now the latest big player in town is going to tell us what to do with our transit. I think maybe we should tell Cordish what they can do for once.