Star's McClanahan: ‘Big solutions’ hamper KC's downtown appeal

Posted on Sat, Feb. 19, 2011 10:15 PM

COMMENTARY

‘Big solutions’ hamper KC's downtown appeal

By E. THOMAS McCLANAHAN

The Kansas City Star

After Tuesday’s primary, the race for Kansas City mayor will intensify and the issues will become more clear-cut. Here’s hoping the sad state of our downtown somehow worms its way into the debate.
Many Kansas Citians may have concluded that with the opening of the Sprint Center arena and the Power & Light District, downtown is on the way back. Problem solved, right? Not exactly.
The Sprint Center has been an unqualified success, but the P&L’s public-private financing mechanism turned out to include a feeding tube from the city treasury.
What concerns me here is not the Power & Light District’s finances but the continued emptiness of so many downtown streets. The root problem is too little diversity of use — the x-factor that makes for lively spaces. For all the vacuous pieties spouted over “diversity” these days, the city has made little provision for the small shops, restaurants, bars, clubs and the like that foster urban vitality.
On the east side of downtown, you have a government sector dominated by nine-to-five uses that go dead after working hours. It’s almost as if City Hall had imposed suburban-style single-use zoning on the whole area. Small-scale enterprises are scarce and the streets are chronically lifeless.
To the west, you have the convention district, dominated by gargantuan, faceless boxes with all the charm of gigantic tombs.
Even the Power & Light District is a world unto itself. The designers may have gotten the proportions right — the district is enjoyable to walk — but the overall product (that would be the right word) has a glitzy sterility that leaves it disconnected from the city it inhabits.
“Kansas City’s biggest problem is it tries for big solutions,” said former Milwaukee mayor John Norquist, now president of the Congress for the New Urbanism. “It really needs to focus on the finer-grain detail, and less on giant roads and giant convention centers.”
As early as the 1940s, many city leaders worried that downtown was in danger of being “engulfed” by blight, as one researcher put it. That, combined with the need to deal with severe congestion on the highways that criss-crossed downtown before interstates, led to the first grand “solution”: a freeway loop, partly submerged in a trench.
The loop turned out to be one of the tightest in the nation, with insufficient space for the merging and weaving movements drivers perform when shifting from one road to another. Worse, the roads hacked up the downtown area, isolating the central business district and the River Market.
Consider what was scraped out of the Truman Road corridor to make way for the loop’s southern leg. A 1955 crisscross directory listed small hotels, restaurants, dry cleaners, furniture and antique stores, jewelry stores, small offices, used car lots, a pawn shop and a sporting goods store.
An architectural jumble perhaps, but this was the same kind of structural endowment that just to the south, in the Crossroads arts district, has given birth to a genuine arts scene — not the “cultivated” sort of institutional thing associated with symphonies and museums but a bottom-up, spontaneous, smart-alecky, whimsical kind of environment — a real place in the city.
This happened in the Crossroads not only because the area was largely ignored by the ham-handed “planners” in City Hall, but because those old light-industrial buildings are almost infinitely adaptable. A body shop can become a restaurant, a bank outlet, an office, an artist’s studio, a loft or an art gallery.
In the 1950s and ‘60s — the era of urban renewal and freeway-building — Kansas City threw much of this away.
Our city needs to shift from giganticism toward charm and intimacy. As Norquist noted, “The smaller scale — the warehouse where a farmers’ market is — that kind of thing has grown more successful over time; something where there’s a lighter touch.”
People talk frequently about our crying need for “green space” in the city. Well, yes. But we don’t need the empty lawn-swaths that characterize so many of our parks. Too often, these parks don’t really mesh with their surroundings. What’s are techniques more formal and compact.
As the urbanist James Howard Kunstler has written, what would enliven many cities are small-scale green spaces and other amenities, woven right into the city’s fabric: flower beds, small fountains, statuary, plazas, landscaped courtyards, mini-parks. A point in favor of the Power & Light District is that it does make use of these techniques.
If we’re going to subsidize development, we should dial back incentives for sterile slabs with street-level blank walls, or perhaps confront these with outright penalties. We should boost incentives for developers who offer amenities like mini-parks or office buildings that provide space for non-office uses like restaurants and shops.
Let’s hope that in the campaign to come, the candidates for mayor or council offer and debate policies that can breathe more life into our city’s heart.

To reach E. Thomas McClanahan, call 816-234-4480 or send e-mail to mcclanahan@kcstar.com.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/19/2667625/big-solutions-hamper-kc-downtown.html#ixzz1EbzyJ5hD

Mayor Funkhouser Releases Fourth "In His Own Words" Video On Rebuilding Our Neighborhoods

For Immediate Release:  19 February 2011     Mayor Funkhouser Releases Fourth "In His Own Words" Video On Rebuilding Our Neighborhoods “We have basically recreated a city where now we have a donut hole. We now have to fill in that hole. If we could do that, all of us, we would have left a vibrant city for our children” - Mayor Mark Funkhouser In a new video, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser talks about building on Kansas City's strengths to rebuild areas in the central city that have been ignored for decades. “We have 12,000 vacant lots in this town. We have a whole city that we need to repopulate,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “We have built the infrastructure, we have the police response, the ambulance response, the fire response, the sewers under the street, the street there. But the families are gone. We can bring those families back.” In the video, the Mayor talks about an area around East 44th Street and Cypress Avenue in Kansas City where he helped community members cleanup trash from the neighborhood. “I looked around, and it looked as if we were in a rural area. It was in the summertime, and there was grass and trees and it was beautiful. And you looked, though, and down the street you could see the remnant of a sidewalk and you could see steps going up to nothing, to nothing.” The Mayor said Kansas City is well positioned to make a change in that neighborhood, and dozens of others in Kansas City. “There isn't any reason why anybody wouldn't want to buy one of those beautiful lots at 44th and Cypress and build a modern, nice house,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “It all comes down to, it has to be safe.” The short video is the third in a series by Kansas City photographer/filmmaker Stephen Locke. In His Own Words offers Kansas City residents an unprecedented opportunity to hear the Mayor's thoughts on everything from making mistakes to his vision for the future of Kansas City. The Mayor has put into place several programs designed to restore neighborhoods around schools to offer middle-class families good housing at affordable prices in some of Kansas City's longest-established communities. The Mayor believes that redevelopment around schools will spill over to surrounding neighborhoods, leading to new families, new businesses and new jobs. “If we do our job in the most basic way, manage the money well, provide public safety, provide infrastructure, do the basic work, we have a wonderful city,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “We could bring people back.”  For More Information, Gloria Squitiro, Campaign Manager, 816-820-9751

Ingram's article "Let's Level the Playing Field" says The Star is biased when it comes to the Mayor

Let's Level the Political Playing Field

The only newspaper in a one-newspaper town would seem to have as much responsibility to fair playas the only electric company in a one-utility town.

Joe Sweeney, Editor-In-Chief and Publisher, IgramsOnline.com

jsweeney@ingramsonline.com

To make sure KCP&L does not abuse its monopoly power, the state monitors the utility closely.

No state agency monitors The Kansas City Star, nor should it.

It is up to Star Publisher Mark Zieman to keep an eye on the newspaper's editors, but in the case of Kansas City's municipal elections, editors and publisher both seem lost in a quagmire of abuse aimed at one particular candidate.

Nowhere has that animus been on display like it was in the recent editorial calling for voters to deny Mayor Mark Funkhouser a second term. Rather than simply endorsing its favorite candidates to advance beyond the Feb. 22 primary - which it also has done, on behalf of Sly James and Mike Burke- the paper's editorial staff unloaded on what it sees as a litany of Funkhouser sins.

And, predictably, they gave him credit for exactly zero achievements over the past four years.

At Ingram's, we endorse no candidate – we strongly believe that media should report the facts and remain neutral. While I have a healthy respect and admiration for any candidates who would subject themselves to the pre-election scrutiny and brass-knuckle aspects of Kansas City politics (that includes James and Burke, The Star's picks), I would much rather see a level playing field, and from The Star, we do not see anything remotely close.

Its "just say no" editorial about Funkhouser presents such a lopsided portrait of the past four years- especially compared to the eight years preceding-that it makes one wonder whether Funkhouser left an unpaid balance on his newspaper subscription. Lead editorialist Yael Abouhalkah has proved to be even more unhinged in his commentary. In the post-Tucson spirit of civility, he calls the mayor "a largely ineffective, unnecessarily combative, nothing's-ever-my-fault, spouse-controlled shell of a mayor." OK, Yael, now tell us what you really think! And, is he speaking on behalf of the consortium of editors at The Star - I'm absolutely certain that he is not.

Our sources tell us that the anti-Funk rage at The Star runs from the publisher down. Please understand: I consider Mark Zieman a colleague and friend, but in a newspaper where all calls from the HR office are terrifying ones, the fear of crossing cost-cutting bosses inevitably affects the staff's objectivity.

In one editorial, for instance, The Star congratulates by name candidates Deb Hermann, Jim Rowland, and Mike Burke for finally recognizing that the city had issued bonds recklessly under city February 2011 councils of which they were members. However, it fails to so much as mention Funkhouser, despite his outspoken resistance to bond abuse from the get-go. The editorial claims that the candidates' new anti-bond position reverses "what's happened the last few years" and promises "a more fiscally responsible city government."

The editorialists, however, do not really mean the "last few years." What they mean is the last few years before Funkhouser. To state this fairly would be a veritable endorsement of Funkhouser.

Those who think that leadership's biases do not affect news reporting do not know how news reporting works in an era where available journalists vastly outnumber jobs. If the mayor does anything well - as with, say, balancing a budget or with emergency snow removal – the reader needs a magnifying glass to find published credit for the same. Blame, though, makes headlines.

Say what you will about Kansas City, but we haven't had to layoff police as Camden, N.J., has done with half of its force, or turn off streetlights like

Colorado Springs, or close libraries like Phoenix. Instead, our finances are in comparatively good shape and poised to get even better.

I realize that I'm taking on more than a century of tradition by calling for the local newspaper to dispense with the practice of using its editorials to pick political favorites. But this practice should stop. Even though there are more outlets for expressed opinion in the Internet age, what's happened in the newspaper industry is exactly the opposite, and as newspapers have merged or died, the survivors are left with the largest megaphone - sometimes the only one.

It would be one thing if The Star were to open its editorial pages to the candidates they've aggrieved, but in Funkhouser's case, that ain't going to happen. Absent that, it would be nice if the paper of record were to embrace a more responsible position with respect to its role as a force for influencing public opinion.

Just play fair, that's all. 

Bottomline.com celebrates the Yael reference in "Funkomania" video

02-18-2011
FUNKHOUSER TURNS TABLES ON STAR; SLAPS ABOUHALKAH     Almost from the day he took office, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser has been attacked on virtually every decision he has made by the Kansas City Star. 
     And his chief nemesis has been editorial writer Yael T. Abouhalkah.
    Star insiders have told Bottom Line that Abouhalkah feels that he singlehandedly directed his newspaper to endorse Funkhouser in the last election. However, when the Mayor started to make decisions that did not agree with Abouhalkah and his minions, Abouhalkah took it as a personal affront.
   Since that time Abouhalkah's attacks have often been ugly and personal. Other Star staffers---worried about losing their jobs in the ongoing downsizing at the paper--- have joined the fray hoping they can keep their jobs. 
    Columnist Mike Hendricks may have taken it the farthest when he took very mean-spirited and personal shots at the Mayor in a column, calling him "horse-faced" with a "face only a mother could love." He later was forced to apologize.
    With the primary election set for next Tuesday, Funkhouser has turned the tables and produced a video where he pokes "Yael" and some of his opponents such as Sly James and Deb Hermann.
    Like him or not, at least Funkhouser has the integrity to actually to respond to the Star's repeated attacks rather than simply be directed by them as previous Mayors have done. He knows the Star will never be "fair and balanced" when it comes to him.
     Maybe the newspaper should try a little "Funkomania," which the creative video says "is a persistent impulse to tell the truth even in the face of adversity."
     It would be a pleasant change for the Kansas City Star.


See full post here.

Mayor Funkhouser Releases Third "In His Own Words" Video On Public Safety

For Immediate Release:  18 February 2011     Mayor Funkhouser Releases Third "In His Own Words" Video On Public Safety The Mayor is proud to receive the endorsement of the Public Safety Concern committee.  Since the Mayor's goal in his second term is to continue to keep a watchful eye on the city's finances, and, to make Kansas City THE safest city in America, this is a high honor. “We make it safe. Clean so that it feels safe, safe in terms of actual crime and people will flock there” - Mayor Mark Funkhouser Kansas City is not the safest city in America – yet. The city has come a long way in reducing its crime problems. Property crime in Kansas City is down about 30 percent in the last four years. Violent crime is down about 19 percent. “But it's still way too high,” says Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser. “We intend to make our city the safest city in the United States. And that is a doable thing.” Citing successful programs that have reduced crime and homicide in other cities, Mayor Funkhouser says the crime problem here is “a much more fixable problem than we ever knew.” In a new video, Mayor Funkhouser talks about crime and public safety in Kansas City. "Now that we have righted the finances, we see a clear path, with a lot of community involvement, to make this the safest city in America." The short video is the third in a series by Kansas City photographer/filmmaker Stephen Locke. In His Own Words offers Kansas City residents an unprecedented opportunity to hear the Mayor's thoughts on everything from making mistakes to his vision for the future of Kansas City. In the video, the Mayor notes that energy costs for suburban commuters will continue to rise. The key to bringing those middle-class families back to Kansas City is to take away the barriers that drove them out of central city neighborhoods in the first place. “Imagine you could live at 39th and Prospect, and be close to Downtown to work, to the Nelson-Atkins to all these kind of regional amenities,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “And wonderful old houses.” By expanding his plans for more community-based police, neighborhood improvements near schools and community involvement, the Mayor says Kansas City will be well on its way to offering residents those kinds of neighborhoods. “We make it safe. Clean so that it feels safe, safe in terms of actual crime and people will flock there,” Mayor Funkhouser said.           For More Information, Gloria Squitiro, Campaign Manager, 816-820-9751

Mayor Mark Funkhouser Releases The Second In A Series Of "In His Own Words" Videos

For Immediate Release:  17 February 2011              Mayor Mark Funkhouser Releases The Second In A Series Of  "In His Own Words" Videos On Jobs and Finance “You've got to make it clean, you've got to make it safe, you've got to make the infrastructure work” ~ Mayor Mark Funkhouser Some problems simply require good old common sense. Over a period of eight years, the former Kansas City Council pledged hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to secure financing for private developments – bars, restaurants, retail shops, high-dollar condos and the like. The result: Kansas City residents for the next generation will find that some of their tax dollars collected to pay for basic city services will go to pay instead for booze and baubles. That's the scenario that led Mark Funkhouser to run for Mayor in 2007. “Four years ago we were hurtling toward financial disaster,” Mayor Funkhouser says. In a new video, Mayor Funkhouser talks candidly about jobs and Kansas City's finances, and his plan to build on Kansas City's urban vitality by bringing middle-class families back to central city neighborhoods. The short video is the second in a series by Kansas City photographer/filmmaker Stephen Locke. In His Own Words offers Kansas City residents an opportunity to hear the Mayor's thoughts on everything from making mistakes to his vision for the future of Kansas City. Under Mayor Funkhouser's watch and using a common-sense approach advocated by the Mayor, the city has turned its finances around by curtailing the almost obsessive granting of tax breaks to dozens of real estate developers, by cutting costs and by being smart with the money. “We have done a remarkable transformation of the basic financial statements of the city, and we did it in the face of the greatest recession this nation's seen since the Great Depression,” the Mayor says in the video. “Cities (around the U.S.) are in tremendous financial trouble. Kansas City isn't.” The Mayor says the next step for Kansas City will be to continue its focus on revitalizing Kansas City neighborhoods. “If we bring middle-class people back, they bring with them their disposable income,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “They bring with them their community participation, their volunteering at the schools. And jobs are created, grocery stores are created, bowling alleys are created. Churches that are boarded up and abandoned will be reopened with vibrant congregations in them.” The Mayor says the same common-sense approach that turned the city's finances around will work in city neighborhoods. “Governments don't create jobs, markets create jobs. But the market is impacted by the things that government does. You've got to make it clean, you've got to make it safe, you've got to make the infrastructure work. If you do those things, middle-class people come back....and we're all a whole lot better off, and without raising taxes.” For More Information, Gloria Squitiro, Campaign Manager, 816-820-9751

"Funkomania" epidemic sweeps through Kansas City

For Immediate Release:  17 February 2011              Mayor Mark Funkhouser Releases "Funkomania"  A Humorous Get Out The Vote Video “You've just got a good case of the Funkomania.” It's T-minus five days and counting, and the future of Kansas City will be in the hands of voters on Tuesday the 22nd. In a new spoof video, the Campaign to Re-elect Mayor Mark Funkhouser is urging voters to get to the polls and vote yes to keep Funkomania alive in Kansas City. What's Funkomania you ask? It all started with a comment from Mayoral challenger Jim Rowland at a candidate forum. In a short video by photographer/filmmaker Stephen Locke, the Mayor's re-election campaign takes a light-hearted look at Funkomania and the affliction that could well be ailing some of the Mayor's challengers. “Rightly so, political campaigns are focused on the important issues,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “That doesn't mean we can't have some fun along the way.” The Mayor noted that the video has an underlying serious message. Every four years, voters in Kansas City have the opportunity to voice their opinion about how their city's future should be shaped. Four years ago, voters chose an auditor – a candidate with decades of experience in finding ways for city government to be more efficient – to be Mayor. In those four years, Mark Funkhouser led the City Council through a dramatic metamorphosis – turning the city's finances around, reducing government tax giveaways, cutting the cost of government, adding police officers, and assuring that Kansas City is among the most successful cities in the U.S. But what is Funkomania? “A persistent impulse to tell the truth, even in the face of adversity; a chronic case of being smart with the money.” For More Information, Gloria Squitiro, Campaign Manager, 816-820-9751

Funkomania

Mayor Mark Funkhouser Talks Finances "In His Own Words"

For Immediate Release:  17 February 2011              Mayor Mark Funkhouser Releases The Second In A Series Of  "In His Own Words" Videos On Jobs and Finance “You've got to make it clean, you've got to make it safe, you've got to make the infrastructure work” ~ Mayor Mark Funkhouser Some problems simply require good old common sense. Over a period of eight years, the former Kansas City Council pledged hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to secure financing for private developments – bars, restaurants, retail shops, high-dollar condos and the like. The result: Kansas City residents for the next generation will find that some of their tax dollars collected to pay for basic city services will go to pay instead for booze and baubles. That's the scenario that led Mark Funkhouser to run for Mayor in 2007. “Four years ago we were hurtling toward financial disaster,” Mayor Funkhouser says. In a new video, Mayor Funkhouser talks candidly about jobs and Kansas City's finances, and his plan to build on Kansas City's urban vitality by bringing middle-class families back to central city neighborhoods. The short video is the second in a series by Kansas City photographer/filmmaker Stephen Locke. In His Own Words offers Kansas City residents an opportunity to hear the Mayor's thoughts on everything from making mistakes to his vision for the future of Kansas City. Under Mayor Funkhouser's watch and using a common-sense approach advocated by the Mayor, the city has turned its finances around by curtailing the almost obsessive granting of tax breaks to dozens of real estate developers, by cutting costs and by being smart with the money. “We have done a remarkable transformation of the basic financial statements of the city, and we did it in the face of the greatest recession this nation's seen since the Great Depression,” the Mayor says in the video. “Cities (around the U.S.) are in tremendous financial trouble. Kansas City isn't.” The Mayor says the next step for Kansas City will be to continue its focus on revitalizing Kansas City neighborhoods. “If we bring middle-class people back, they bring with them their disposable income,” Mayor Funkhouser says. “They bring with them their community participation, their volunteering at the schools. And jobs are created, grocery stores are created, bowling alleys are created. Churches that are boarded up and abandoned will be reopened with vibrant congregations in them.” The Mayor says the same common-sense approach that turned the city's finances around will work in city neighborhoods. “Governments don't create jobs, markets create jobs. But the market is impacted by the things that government does. You've got to make it clean, you've got to make it safe, you've got to make the infrastructure work. If you do those things, middle-class people come back....and we're all a whole lot better off, and without raising taxes.” For More Information, Gloria Squitiro, Campaign Manager, 816-820-9751

Mayor Funkhouser Addresses the City's Successful Cleanup of the 2011 Blizzard

Baby It's Cold Outside... But Kansas City Survived

Mayor Mark Funkhouser addresses the blizzard of 2011

http://northeastnews.net/pages/?p=1196

By Leslie Collins

Northeast News
Feb. 9, 2011

Kansas City survived.

It didn’t barely escape the blizzard of 2011, but deftly adapted.

“Everybody said this was the storm of historical proportions,” Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said of the Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 blizzard during a Feb. 2 press conference. “Considering the magnitude of the storm, we came through this remarkably well.”

In two days, city crews plowed 15 million cubic feet of snow, he said.

On Feb. 1, Funkhouser declared a state of emergency for Kansas City but lifted that status during the press conference.

Although at least a dozen Kansas City ambulances succumbed to the slick snow, the city worked together to minimize the problem, he said.

When an ambulance became stuck, the crew would contact Kansas City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and EOC would immediately dispatch another ambulance, along with a four-wheel drive fire department truck and other vehicles.

Usually the first ambulance was able to maneuver out of the slick spot, but on four or five occasions the second dispatched ambulance was used.

However, all patients were transported to the hospital in a timely manner and patient care was not impacted, Funkhouser stressed.

During the blizzard, approximately 10 to 12 inches of snow fell in Kansas City, but other parts of the state received more than 20 inches of snow.

At times, the snow fell at two to three inches per hour and wind gusts of 35 to 40 miles per hour caused near zero visibility conditions.

For the first time in history, Interstate 70 was shut down statewide, due to the hazardous conditions. Officials also shut down Interstate 44 from the Oklahoma border through Springfield.

This is only the fourth time in Kansas City’s history since 1888, that the city has had three separate calendar days with six or more inches of snowfall during the winter season, according to the National Weather Service.

Mayor thanks city employees, residents

Funkhouser commended both city employees and Kansas City residents for pulling together during the storm.

Neighbors helped neighbors and residents heeded warnings to stay inside, he said.

Timely snow removal resulted from planning ahead, training, money and time, he said.

Although many called the blizzard a “non-event” for Kansas City, Funkhouser defended the city’s employees.

“It’s a non-event because of the work, because of the effort,” Funkhouser said.

Kansas City Fire Chief Richard “Smokey” Dyer added to Funkhouser’s statement.

“When you’re not prepared, that becomes a major event,” Dyer said. “When you activate, coordinate and plan ahead, that’s when it becomes a non-event.”

Interim Kansas City Manager Troy Schulte thanked Kansas City residents for staying off the roads and for parking on one side of the street to aid in better snow removal.

“The residents were partners with us,” Schulte said.

Asked how the storm impacted the city’s budget, Funkhouser said those figures are still being calculated. However, he said, there are “adequate” monies in the city’s contingency and reserves funds to cover the cost.