The Hyde Park Power & Light District

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Gatekeepers. In sales, that term is used to describe the person(s) who wields enough power to make or break a deal. A gatekeeper could be someone that signs the checks and has the ultimate decision making power all the way down to the receptionist who may or may not pass along the message that you called. Find the gatekeepers, address their concerns, pay them the proper respect and the sale is yours. Skip anyone in the chain and you'll find yourself wondering how you managed to blow the deal. The Hyde Park neighborhood is finding out what it's like when there are no gatekeepers in City Hall. Kansas City Power & Light is planning on building a substation at 32nd Terrace & Troost. Not just a transformer and a few lines, the plans show an entire complex with multiple high voltage lines scattering out to feed the growing electricity demands of midtown. The map shows an entire city block consumed with a monolithic structure. The rendering, while cleverly lightening and blurring the power lines and giant metal poles, shows a stark wall running the length of the exterior. One more structure turning its back on the street. One more industrial use building further dooming Troost to be a high speed commuter corridor rather than the pleasant, mixed-used avenue it was originally intended to be. This substation is urban planning (or the lack thereof) at its worst. I understand that as the population begins to return to the urban core that power usage is growing. I appreciate that our aging electrical grid will not be able to keep up with the rapidly surging power demands of a growing populous. What I don't understand is KCP&L's short-sighted strategic planning in continuing to distribute power in the same way it's been done for a hundred years. To use an old business term from the 90's, "the paradigm is shifting." Large centralized coal burning power plants are giving way to smaller, more efficient, regionalized power sources that are cleaner, more fuel efficient and don't require the giant overhead high-voltage power lines. Most of all I'm disappointed with the cavalier attitude of our public utility that Troost and Hyde Park are worthy of being dumped on. Granted, that has been the case for the last 20-30 years, but that doesn't make it right. Even more disturbing is the lack of leadership from City Hall in protecting one of our city's most historic and vibrant neighborhoods. Where are the gatekeepers? In any council district there should not be brick put upon brick without first approaching the city councilperson. It should be standard operating procedure that before the permits are applied for, before the letters of intent are drafted, the financing put into place, and the final plans drawn and stamped the community's leadership must be consulted. Hopefully it's not too late for Hyde Park. Neighborhood leaders are working the phones trying to get their concerns heard. It shouldn't have come to this. But now that it has, let's take notice and work to assure it doesn't happen again. Update #1: Toellner Tells it has a very good post about this same subject. Check it out here. Update #2: From the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association website: Important Meeting with KCP&L—July 9th Please plan to attend HPNA’s meeting with KCP&L regarding the proposed Hyde Park Electrical Substation at 32nd Ter-33rd & Troost and high–voltage power lines along Troost from 48th Street to 27th Street. July 9, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at Central Presbyterian, 3501 Campbell. Update #3: Nancy Lewis of Fox4 News (as I predicted) aired a story reporting that KCP&L has relented on their self-imposed timetable and will now meet with neighborhood leaders to discuss alternatives. So for now it looks like the crisis has been averted. Thanks to all the readers and thank you KCP&L for exercising some diplomacy.

Let The Sun Shine

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Google announced this week that they have gone live with a massive solar power installation. The 1.6 MW project provides about 30% of Google's Mountain View, California headquarters' energy. Even more impressive is the projection that the system will pay for itself in 7.5 years. Google took advantage of its large roof area and even covered its car ports with solar panels. This got me to thinking about what structures in Kansas City would lend themselves to solar panels. First, and to me the most obvious is Science City. The angled rooftops almost look like they were designed to accommodate solar panels. They're even facing south which is the prime orientation in this part of the hemisphere for optimum solar exposure. Not to mention the exterior of the Planetarium. It also looks like it was designed to accommodate solar panels. If only we had a large public utility who could partner with Science City and make an alternative energy display... Next up. Kauffman Stadium. I read recently that the Royals actually had to go out and find projects to spend all the money we just gave them for stadium renovations. Why couldn't they have spent a little bit of that money on a solar powered scoreboard? The Colorado Rockies already have one. We lose to Denver yet again. Probably the biggest potential for a solar installation is Bartle Hall. Now there's a lot of rooftop going to waste! We might be able to attract some energy conferences to town just on the merits of our "green" convention center. Much progress is being made in "thin film" solar panel technology. This allows putting solar collectors on glass in much the same way you apply plastic tinting sheets on auto glass. In the case of thin film solar, it doubles as tinting and power collection. Seems we have a giant glass structure downtown that would lend itself nicely. And what about the roof of the Sprint Center? Months ago I suggested painting it red like the OneKC marketing logo. Since that idea went over like a lead balloon maybe we could throw some solar panels up there too. Finally, the Power and Light District. Wouldn't it be a logical marketing move to generate some "Power" from "Light?" I read recently that Ted's Montana Grill has installed a solar system at one of its restaurants. Aren't they coming to the Power and Light District? Seems like a logical choice for their second installation. Until communities like Kansas City step up to the plate and start taking a leadership role in alternative energy, we will continue to hear that clean energy is on the way or won't be ready for a few years. I say let's make it ready. Update: Regular reader 'doinkman' informs us that Missouri does not have true net metering. Everybody should check out Renew MO and tell your state representatives to vote for the Renewable Electricity Standard Act.

We'll Always Have Paris

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post I imagine some people reacted negatively to an article in the Star this weekend detailing the contingent from Kansas City traveling to France for the Paris Air Show. Sounds exotic. Who wouldn't want to travel to Paris on business? But this is no boondoggle. I used to work in the avionics industry and I can tell you the Paris Airshow is the Daytona 500, Superbowl and World Series all rolled into one. Everybody who is anybody, or wants to be somebody will be there. Entire industries can be made or broken depending on their performance at aviation's biggest trade show. Usually when we hear about council people traveling it's for some fact finding mission or conference. Rarely do you see any tangible dividends from such trips. Sure an official might come back with a "here's how they do it in Detroit" report, but rarely are any of these ideas ever implemented and even if they are, the same information can usually be found on the World Wide Web. You don't necessarily need to see first hand what another city's policy is on street maintenance or crime prevention. In contrast however, sending officials from Kansas City to the Paris Air Show are exactly the kind of trips we should be encouraging. Promoting Kansas City and literally letting the world know that our airport has limitless possibilities for business and development is a worthy mission. The local officials traveling on City expense accounts are Aviation Director Mark VanLoh, Councilman Bill Skaggs and Gary Bartek, the airport’s cargo development manager. That's not a bad deal. Three people for a week of marketing Kansas City to a world audience. The Kansas City contingent probably won't come home with some company in tow ready to set up shop. Consider this a long-term investment. We'll need to go back every year and make ourselves a fixture. But having a presence at the Paris Air Show, and indeed other major trade shows is definitely a good investment. It's time we start telling the world that the "Paris of the Plains" is open for business. Oh, and by the way... I'm clearing my schedule for next year to go help out. That's just the kind of selfless guy I am!

I'm actually happy we lost to St. Louis

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post No I'm not talking about the Cardinals coming to town to fatten their stats on our hapless Royals. St. Louis has beat Kansas City to federal court. It seems the EPA has grown tired of waiting for St. Louis to remedy its combined sewer problems that regularly discharge raw sewage into streams and lakes after a heavy rain. Sound familiar? Filed in federal court this past Monday, the suit alleges that more than 500 million gallons of raw sewage overflowed into waterways in violation of the Clean Water Act from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2005. Everyone involved seems surprised because supposedly St. Louis had an "agreement" with the EPA. St. Louis contends that it has prepared a long-range plan to deal with the combined-sewage overflows. Once again, this sounds vaguely familiar. The EPA has decided they don't like the "long" in "long-range" and are going to hasten the plan. Having just competed in the Dragon Boat races on Brush Creek last Saturday it's readily apparent that everyone knows we have a sewage problem in Kansas City. Nobody was concerned about getting wet, we were concerned about getting sick. We should not have to live like that in 2007. Heck, we shouldn't have had to live like that in 1907! The Region 7 offices for the EPA are in Kansas City, Kansas. If the EPA can see all the way down I-70 to the problems in St. Louis, is it too much of a stretch to assume they can see the short distance to Brush Creek? Previous administrations in Kansas City have not had the political will to fix this problem. Unfortunately it's beginning to look like a lawsuit from the federal government is our only hope.

Trolley By Golly!

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Way back in the 1980's the city of Galveston, Texas decided to build a trolley system to link their downtown arts district with the sea wall. The idea was that a trolley would be an additional tourist attraction and would aid in circulating visitors unfamiliar with the area. Because of the historic nature of many of the buildings and streetscapes they decided to employ a self-propelled system so as not to mar the area with overhead wires and their supporting infrastructure. The second reason was the gulf coast location. Hurricanes tend to blow down overhead wires. Ask the city of New Orleans. Their St. Charles line trolley is still not running because they haven't had the time and money to repair the overhead wires. Galveston surmised that after a major hurricane, all they would have to do is remove debris from the tracks and their transit system would be back up and running. The system cost $20 Million dollars to build. This included four custom built trolleys, the track, a maintenance facility and the necessary operational funds to begin service. $10 Million dollars came from UMTA Federal grant funds, with the remaining required local match of $10 Million coming from the State of Texas and two private foundations. Against much opposition, the trolleys began operating in 1988. Then something unexpected happened. The trolleys became much more than the "touristy frou-frou" they were designed to be. Turns out the locals started using them for lunchtime jaunts, shopping, errands and in some cases commuting. Pretty good for 2.1 mile loop. Now Galveston had a problem. Albeit a good one. They were faced with turning a tourist attraction into a legitimate transit system. In 1995 the route was expanded and the entire system turned over to the local bus system to operate. In 2005 the system was expanded once again. This time a 1.5 mile branch to the University of Texas Medical Campus. Touristy frou-frou had gone legit. Could the same success happen for Kansas City? Maybe, maybe not. We don't have a built-in attraction like an ocean. We do have venues around downtown that draw people back and forth though. The KCRTA in conjunction with the Downtown Council is looking at a trolley system for downtown. Completely separate from the light rail debacle, er I mean plan, our trolleys would be much like the Galveston system. Touristy frou-frou. If I was made "Trolley King" for a day, I think I would run a line right down 12th Street, across the bridge and into the West Bottoms. Why? The American Royal for one. Second? Up and over the second bridge and back around W 9th St. for the clubs, art and architecture galleries and haunted houses. Now I realize we don't have $20 million lying around to blow on trolleys, but if cities like Galveston can be creative with technology and financing, why can't we?

Where will all the trolleys/streetcars/LRVs go at at the end of the day?

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Much has been cussed and discussed about the light rail route in Kansas City. Will it cross the river? If so, how? Will it run down Grand? Main? Broadway? Will it go as far as the Plaza? Waldo? There are more questions than answers. I have a question that no proposed plan seems willing to address. Where will the maintenance facility be located? In all the zeal of putting a fixed guideway transit system in our urban core, it seems to me we're skipping over the nuts and bolts (literally) of the thing. Much like architect's renderings of a beautiful new building never show the ugly rooftop cooling towers, or power lines or other necessary infrastructure, our light rail dreams never show where we're going to park, store and work on our rail vehicles. The proposed routes I have seen all roughly agree on a north-south orientation through the urban core. That's all pretty pricey real estate last time I checked. It seems to me there's no logical, cost-effective location for a large maintenance facility anywhere along that route. Maybe the old Osco at the southwest corner of Westport and Main, but I doubt it has the size needed. That leaves us with having to build a maintenance spur off the main line that leads to wherever we end up building (or renovating) the facility. My suggestion? Just south of the 18th & Vine district. This accomplishes a lot of things. First, rather than just have a "spur to nowhere" we can connect the struggling Jazz District with downtown. What office worker wouldn't want to hop a streetcar over to 19th & Brooklyn for some Bryant's? Second, we already own a significant parcel of land in that neighborhood. The area outlined in blue is the KCMO Central Fleet Maintenance Facility. Even if that exact location can't be used, the land in that part of town is cheaper, and already zoned for what we want to use it for. Third, a spur down 18th Street gets us that much closer to Prospect. Many feel that Prospect would eventually be the next most logical north-south spine. And finally, we could actually bring some (real) economic development to the 3rd District instead of fake storefronts and failed call centers and restaurants. It's easy to get wrapped up in the fun parts of a project. As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Maintenance facilities for a major transit system should not be a detail. We've already learned that getting an NHL team in the Sprint Center will come with a detail of providing a million dollar practice facility. We shouldn't let our enthusiasm for light rail cause us to ignore the elephant in the room. Where will all the trolleys/streetcars/LRVs go at at the end of the day?