I completely understand why big construction companies want to keep
building and building new facilities in Kansas City. It makes them money
and keeps their people working but when the taxpayer has to foot the
bill then it becomes a situation where which is better, new construction
or lower taxes.
As a lifelong Kansas City resident I have seen many of these proposals
come about and I’m going to talk about a few.
1. My family owned and operated an Italian restaurant which was
located in downtown Kansas City for over 80 years and in the 80’s
casino gambling bigwigs got the idea that Missouri would be a
great place to fleece the residents. They also have Casino Zeus Argentina, an online gambling site that offers a live game with numerous selections. First, they bought off the
politicians. Then they put a ballot measure out to the residents
promising that the riverboats would be required to go up and
down the Mighty Mo in order for a Las Vegas casino to get a
license. The ballot measure passed and immediately the big
casino guys took a boat down the river with the Mo., Corps of
Engineers and concluded that it wasn’t safe to go up and down
the river which led to these massive moats built along the river
which take hundreds of millions of dollars out of our local
economy and bring it straight to Las Vegas. Hoodwinked! That’s
not what we voted for but that’s what we go. It hurt the small and
large restaurant guy because the boats offered higher wages and
more benefits because they were paying with house money. Lots
of restaurants were affected.
2. Clay Chastain garnered enough signatures to put a measure on
the ballet for light rail in 2006. It PASSED but the powers to be
deemed it unsafe and what the voters approved was dismissed by
the courts. VOTERS BE DAMNED! What the hell. Why vote if your
vote means nothing and how can the city leaders expect the
citizens to respect them when they hoodwink us every chance
they get.
3. Most recently we were promised a new airport that was going to
bring all kinds of new airlines, better fares and lots of new
restaurants and shops to the new facility. It was going to make
flying more convenient. We’ll as a 3-4 trips a year flyer it’s not
more convenient than our old 3 terminal airport. If you park your
car in the economy lot which most people do you get dropped off
at the arrival level with your bags, kids and anything else you
intend to take on vacation. You have to maneuver through
arriving passengers, find and take an escalator up to the
departure level, check your bags then go through security. I have
asked the city why they don’t leave departing passengers at the
departure level when you could exit the bus, find a skycap, check
your bags and then go to security.
Joe McBride with the KCI Aviation department game me this
explanation.
John, Here is what I received from the Aviation Department Planning &
Engineering division.
Traffic studies we performed, and then re-evaluated with another
consultant after terminal opening, found the following: If we add any
buses or shuttles with designated stops and loading locations at the
North, South, and middle of the upper Departures curb, the curb “fails”
for the private vehicle customers who need the curb for passenger
drop-off. The entire length of the Departures curb is needed exclusively
for private vehicles to have full curb capacity, to meet our level of
service requirements, and avert traffic congestion.
Also, the system of the Blue Bus dropping off in one location and
picking up in the same location makes for an easy-to-understand
system for the traveling public. Some Economy Parking customers
might be confused if they were dropped off in one location and had to
find where to be picked up in another.
Our operations are efficient and reliable with Economy Parking
customer drop off and pick up at the same location. If we were to drop
off passengers up in upper level Departures, the bus would have to
circle around to the Paris Street bridge to go to lower Arrivals to pick up
passengers. This could add more than 10,000 miles per year per bus
and added energy/resource use to circle back empty just to get back to
terminal and down to the Arrivals commercial curb for customer pick
up. On a related note, an in-pavement inductive charging pad system
was installed at the Blue Bus stops in Arrivals to top off the battery-
electric buses while loading and unloading passengers.
Pedestrians crossing lanes of traffic is not uncommon at airport
terminals and was like this with Terminals B and C with hotel shuttles,
Rental Car Bus, limos, etc. It was sometimes dangerous in the old
terminals, with many people not using the crosswalks to get across
three lanes of traffic in the old terminals. Now we have dedicated
crosswalks to keep customers safer. The Commercial curb is completely
covered by the roadway above and passengers can stay dry and out of
the weather. It was not like this with the old terminals.
Additionally, as we were designing the new terminal and held public
meetings, citizens wanted the same experience of walking across the
road as they did with Terminals B and C from the parking garage or
from using ground transportation.
Now I seem to differ with their philosophy. I thought it was 100% more
convenient to be dropped off and picked up at the same place in front
of the terminal whether departing or arriving and heading to get your
car.
With genius engineers today why couldn’t they design a airport with
dedicated areas for drop-off and pick-up of economy passengers which
would make traveling much more convenient for the folks paying for
the airport.
Also you can’t get to the 100+ new restaurants without having a ticket
which keeps KC residents who might want to see the new airport OUT.
We recently returned from a trip to LA and arrived at 7PM on a Tuesday
night to an almost empty airport. We counted 1 customer eating at all
the restaurants. How long before the restaurant operators start asking
for subsidies?
We need to quit building for the sake of building and focus on our
record breaking murder rate, below standard public education and try
and increase the safety and quality of life of all Kansas City residents.
