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.

Light Rail: Let's stop following and start leading

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Only once in a generation do we get a chance to do something truly significant. The thing is, it's difficult to determine what that "something" is until history has had its opportunity to pass judgment. That is why in my opinion we have to make best efforts at everything. You never know what your most significant accomplishment will be. I believe progressive Kansas Citians will rally this November and pass the light rail plan put forth by Councilman Russ Johnson. It's not perfect. Far from it. But it exists. It's a start with which we can work, refine and craft into something truly special. So what will run on the rails? I chronicled some of the current and future technology available in rail transit a few months back. What I held back at the time was an option being developed by Kawasaki Heavy Industry in Japan. The wireless streetcar known as SWIMO. Using the same battery technology that powers vehicles like the Tesla Roadster and the upcoming 2010 Chevy Volt, the trend in light rail is moving towards losing all the cost and limitations of overhead wire infrastructure and putting the technology in the vehicle itself. Nickel metal hydride battery driven electric vehicles are maintainable, swappable and scalable. An ultra light rail electric vehicle (ULREV) charges its batteries by raising its pantograph when overhead wires are available, and runs on battery power when they're not. Kawasaki's ULREV can even recharge in 3 minutes using special charging station/transit stops. I'm sure there are many competitors with similar technology in development, or at least on the drawing boards. Kawasaki's option is real, and running on the streets of Sapporo right now. The poorly conceived light rail plan that was passed in 2006 mentioned no overhead wires "where possible." The problem with Clay Chastain's idea of using Alstom's underground power system is that it was for pure aesthetics. All Alstom did was took the overhead wires and moved them underground, making the system even more complicated, costly, unreliable and difficult to maintain. By putting the drive system in the vehicle itself, you instantly give yourself the ability to upgrade. All you have to do is swap out the vehicles. The ability to take advantage of new technology is only limited by the infrastructure you have in place. The best analogy I can think of is computer networking. Commercial office buildings all over the world are strung with CAT5 Ethernet cable. That's the blue or yellow cable that plugs in to the back of your desktop computer to connect it to your network. Think of all the miles of cable, that took millions of dollars to purchase, millions of man-hours to install and more millions to maintain that now lie dormant inside walls because of the advent of WiFi. On an even grander scale, think of our nation's telephony network. All that copper, all those telephone poles and what has happened? An entire generation is graduating college and starting new lives without a "home phone." Why pay for a telephone that is wired and restricted to your house? I'm an old guy and I don't even have a home phone any more. Why would we do the transit equivalent of stringing telephone wire in an increasingly wireless society? Any major public works project starts with an Request For Proposals (RFP). Kansas City can lead the way by being aggressive in our RFP. Our RFP should have stipulations like self-propelled capable vehicles, renewable and sustainable power systems, and carbon neutral rail stops and maintenance facilities. It shouldn't be up to us to nail down the specifications. We're the ones writing the giant checks. Let's put our desires out there and let the free market decide what suppliers can and cannot do. The technology is out there in bits and pieces. We can be the first city to bring it all together. It costs nothing to ask.

Curbside Recycling: We can do better

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Yesterday I threw away a glass bottle. I'm sure a large percentage of Kansas Citians do this every day without a second thought but to an ardent recycler like myself it borders on the sacrilegious. The combination of $4/gallon gasoline and the loss of the midtown recycling center has made it a losing proposition to haul a few pounds of glass all the way out to 95th and Hillcrest. I'm reasonably certain it's a net carbon loss to burn that much fuel and emit that much pollution from my tailpipe to recycle a couple of pounds of glass. It seems we've come a long way only to fall back a few steps. Years ago a KC resident could contract individually with Deffenbaugh to have their recycling picked up curbside. They accepted paper, plastic and glass. Soon city leaders decided this should be a free service to all residents. Admirable in intent, but poor in implementation. Citing "hazard" and "insurance purposes" glass was excluded from the City's curbside pickup. Of course nobody seemed to notice that it was still Deffenbaugh doing the pickups. One day, glass was acceptable, the next it was a hazard too dangerous to handle by the very same employees? What about the hazard of that glass now lying broken and hidden within a trash bag ready to puncture the bag and an unfortunate sanitation worker's skin? I have some personal experience with this just hauling trash bags to the curb. Fortunately I decided not to sue myself for negligence. With everybody piling on the green bandwagon, now would seem a good time to revisit our recycling policies. Attempting to ban plastic water bottles City Hall is a nice gesture, but it falls far short of any meaningful progress. Having a councilperson come to my homes association board meeting and tell us about the evils of plastic bottles while she drank from a plastic bottle she had just purchased didn't do much in the way of inspiring people to a good cause. Something needs to be done to let those of us concerned with the environment to recycle our glass easily. Be it through City Hall, or a private contractor that I would pay for on my own. It seems the prevailing attitude regarding new ideas is "we can't." Frankly I've grown tired of the "we can't" crowd. Unfortunately that crowd still runs this town. I think it's time we stop reinforcing everything "we can't" do and start concentrating on what we "can" do.

Plan for the future because it's already here

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Coming soon to a yard or rooftop near you. Solar panels. A windmill perhaps? Even a stationary hydrogen fuel cell generator. While the fossil fuel-based world continues blindly down the path they've followed for over a century, academia and free-market entrepreneurs are quietly making incremental advances in alternative energy technologies. Just a few short years ago photo-voltaic cells were a curiosity relegated to giveaway calculators and childrens' science projects. Today, not a week goes by that an announcement isn't made about the newest, biggest, most efficient solar power installation somewhere in the world. Companies like Google, Ford, and even Wal-Mart are making substantial investments in massive solar arrays. Wind power? Public utilities like PG&E have made wind a significant portion of their power portfolio. The new interest in harnessing the wind is even trickling down to the individual consumer level with companies like Mariah Power marketing quiet and stylish windmills that promise to become ubiquitous on tops of buildings and backyards. This brings to mind the issue of what constitutes a valuable addition to your home or business, and what constitutes and eyesore and nuisance to your neighbors? Is a rotating or spinning windmill a pleasant sound like wind chimes, or is it more like fingernails on a chalkboard? Are solar panels attractive additions to your home's roofline or are they eyesores that threaten to lower your neighbors' property values? These are conversations we need to be having now while we can plan ahead, instead of going into reactionary mode after an installation has generated the ire of surrounding neighbors. The usual manner of doing business is to wait for something that has never occurred, let it happen with little if any oversight and then wait for public fallout to react. We cannot continue to talk about giving our neighborhoods the tools to thrive while simultaneously ignoring new trends, technologies and lifestyles. We certainly won't have self-sustained off-grid communities in Kansas City tomorrow, but we will. It's not a matter of if, but when. Planning for that will make the transition smoother for everyone.

Commercial Handbills: Communication or Irritation?

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Recently I found a flyer taped to my front door. It had a very formal looking header "Neighborhood Enhancement Program." Since the flyer was stark and formal looking I read further. Perhaps it was from my homes association or even the City. As I read further I recognized a new version of the same tired old pitch our neighborhoods get every year; address numbers painted on your curb. This particular flyer offered the added incentive of an American flag painted next to your address. Only, of course if you support our troops. If you don't support our troops you can have just your address painted. Manipulate much? This year's pitch was pretty benign but in the past I have seen very aggressive flyers that imply that the police or fire department will not be able to find your house without curb numbers. I've even seen implications that curb numbers are required by law or your homes association. When I was in sales we used to call this "pitching FUD." (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). It's a technique used by less then reputable salespeople to play on a potential client's insecurities. "It's probably not going to happen but why take the chance?" Most seasoned neighborhood leaders have seen these flyers and know to alert their neighbors, especially seniors, that they are in no danger and the police and fire departments are more than capable of finding their homes. But every year enough people fall for this seemingly harmless entrepreneurial venture to keep the stencil makers in business for one more year. I don't begrudge anyone trying to earn an honest dollar, but manipulating people to do so is crossing the line. In a faltering economy the incidences of door to door scams begin to rise. It's now more important than ever to protect those who are easily preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals looking to make a quick buck. We already have an ordinance in Kansas City that makes it illegal to pass out commercial flyers without a permit. Chapter 4 - Article II of the KC Muncipal Code. Unfortunately the ordinance offers little in the way of protection through fines and penalties for the perpetrators. Some quick changes to the text could include the requirement that a business license number be printed on any commercial flyer. Flyers should have genuine contact information on them. Most of all, flyers should not have misleading or fraudulent information on them. It seems like such a small thing. Compared to a billion dollar sewer problem and some of the country's most degraded infrastructure the concept of controlling commercial flyers seems inconsequential. But it's the accumulation of the little things that can add up to an overall larger problem. A scam here, an intimidated resident there. Little things need attention too. It's not trendy and it won't generate any press, but it's a way to make some Kansas Citians' lives a little bit better. If one fixed-income resident is protected from being duped out of forty bucks to have some spray paint put on their curb isn't that a good thing?