The Star Gives Republican Ryan Silvey A Free Pass to Lie

Jason Noble of the Kansas City Star proved today that he is a stenographer, not a journalist.

Back in the day, journalists had a higher duty than simply copying down whatever lies a favored politician offered up. Instead, they would ask follow-up questions to expose the lie, or even put a sentence in their article explaining that what the politician said was false.

But, at the Kansas City Star, if the lie you are spouting is an attack on our Mayor, you face no such hostility or defense of the truth.

Today, Republican Ryan Silvey pulled a shallow publicity stunt, threatening to harm Kansas City because he wants our city to take tax dollars from basic services and donate it to the County for the stadiums. So far, so good - I understand that Ryan Silvey is part of a minority of people who think that we should not fully fund our police department but we should fully fund stadiums for suburbanites. We disagree, but he's entitled to his own positions.

Ryan Silvey is not entitled to make up his own facts, though. In defending his publicity stunt, Silvey claimed, "Pulling the money breaches the city's contract with the Chiefs and Royals . . .".

Folks, that's a lie. A big, fat whopper of a lie that no serious observer of the stadium drama could fail to recognize. There is no contract between the city and the teams.

Did Jason Noble challenge the falsehood? Did Jason Noble point out in his article that there is no contract between the city and the teams? Did Jason Noble ask a follow-up question to clarify the point?

No.

(Update: A commenter below points out that the Kansas City Business Journal has the journalistic integrity and tenacity to look at the contracts and acknowledge that there is no legal agreement binding the city to any payment.)

Guinness Master Brewer Coming to Kansas City - Browne's Market Hosting

Guinness stout is one of the classic beers of the world. Browne's Market is one of the classic stores in the city. On March 14, these two classics will be combined, as Fergal Murray, the master brewer of the most esteemed Irish beer will be visiting the most esteemed Irish market in Midwest.

More details will follow in the coming month, but mark your calendar for an Irish beer experience you'll never forget.

Hyde Park - Making Kansas City Just a Little More Dangerous?

Just north of 38th Street, between the north and southbound lanes of Gillham Road, is one of Kansas City's prettiest little parks. It consists of a small valley or a large ravine, with stairs leading down into it from the north end, while the south end is open and inviting. There are few improvements - a couple picnic tables, a swingset, some tennis courts, and street lights.

I've walked down there, and it's a quiet, open, slightly cooler place to escape road noise and surround yourself with pretty stone formations. You can imagine what it was like when it was a golf course, and cows would graze on the greens.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking on this little gem. Over the years, it will be transforming into a heavily wooded sinkhole choked with leaves and littered with crime. In recent months, some insane arborist has planted dozens of trees throughout the park, transforming its future into a dark forest where crime can flourish and its bucolic past will be obliterated.

Right now, the impact is minimal, but the 30+ trees are sprinkled throughout the small park, spaced as if intended to block sight-lines and create a claustrophobic forest from a secluded open space. They are merely saplings now, but, if allowed to grow, they will change forever the look and feel of what our ancestors saw on the wagon trail between Independence and Westport, perhaps on their way to Santa Fe.

I'm sure that whoever decided that this small patch of historical ground could somehow be improved by jamming as many trees as possible into its open spaces was well-intentioned. Trees are beautiful and they help the environment.

But when trees become a dense, dark forest and crowd out an historic, beautiful space, they lose some of their beauty. If you want to enjoy Hyde Park, you'd better do so in the next couple years.

Do You Like Guitars? You Ought to See this Guy Tonight.

Will Matthews is Kansas City's best jazz guitarist. As far as I know, he's the world's best jazz guitarist, but I can't be as dead certain of that claim. Either way, you can sit a few yards away from him this evening at the Blue Room for $15, and be blown away.

A few years ago, I was flipping through a cut-out bin and found an album entitled "Will Matthews Solo" and it was only a couple dollars. I saw he was a Kansas City native so I gave it a try, with no expectations or preconceptions. That album wound up at the top of my top 50 albums 2000-2009 because I've listened to it more than any other album in my collection.

I lack the vocabulary of a true jazz critic, so I'll quote one: "Those who know me have always heard me say that Will's tone and phrasing is a perfect blend of George Benson, Grant Green, and Wes Montgomery, supported by his strong chordal concept, which, unavoidably, is pure Kenny Burrell (and why would anyone want to go around that?)." I'll just add that the music sounds like rubbed brass looks.

It won't only be Will Matthews tonight, though. Your $15 dollars gets his whole quartet. He's just released a CD with Mel Rhyne on the Hammond B3 organ, Bobby Watson on the alto saxophone and Kenny Phelps on the drums. I'll happily pay full price for this one . . .

Sunday Poetry: Birds on the Family Tree, by R. May Evans

Birds on the Family Tree

The women in my family are birds,
chirping crisply to communicate,
flitting here and there on a constant quest
for what catches only our shining eyes.

Ever alert, we may startle at any hint of danger
unless you mean to molest our nest - then we peck
with a fury that deters even the noblest birds of prey.

We grind down our problems to a palpable size,
worrying them in our stomach like stones.
(When we think no one’s watching,
you should hear the music we pour from our throats.)

- By R. May Evans
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Imagery carries this poem, jumping from metaphor to simile and back, finally, to metaphor. The author, R. May Evans, is a local "artist, writer, activist, feminist, and all-round complex person with Asperger’s syndrome," so it should come as no surprise that her poetry manages to be challenging yet seemingly naive, deeply personal yet approachable, and accessible but somehow distant.

In "Birds on the Family Tree", Evans takes a fairly mundane image of ancestral women as birds and pushes it a little further. The first stanza presents introduces the central theme that the women in her family are bird-like, and communicate like birds on a tree. Nothing particularly novel about the presentation or the concept; women as birds is a common, almost universal image in literature and in common language (cute chicks, etc.).

In the second stanza, she introduces danger and strength. Easily startled suggests that they are nervous, while their willingness to take on birds of prey demonstrates that they have the courage to face the challenges of life, particularly when they threaten that which they hold dear. But why are the birds of prey, threatening nests, "noble"? Evans' work choice indicates a distance from societal norms - the women in her family are willing to fiercely attack what the rest of society deems "noble", as women throughout history have forced change.

The third stanza is particularly tricky. Her metaphor of women as birds encompasses a simile within it. They are birds, and their problems are "like" stones, grinding in a bird's gizzard. The metaphor has achieved sufficient reality in the voice of the speaker that it is capable of including its own artifice.

The final two lines return to metaphor - the "music" should not be read to mean only literal music. But why is it only when they think others are not listening that they produce their "music"? The irony is that the poet is producing her own form of music, and publishing it for others to listen to. To be enjoyed, music and poetry must be heard.

You may purchase Truth, Love, Blood and Bones, the volume which includes this poem, from Qoop in either a saddle stitched hard copy for $17.38 or as an ebook to be downloaded in .pdf format for $7.00. It's raw, emotional stuff - I probably chose the "safest" poem in the collection to write about. You should definitely venture into the world of R. May Evans if you care about helping young artists keep producing challenging work.

Around the BLOCK Puts Food Review in Context

Not long ago, I stumbled upon Around the BLOCK, a nicely done local food blog. The author presents thoughtful reviews of well-chosen restaurants, and excels at providing vivid descriptions without lapsing into strident superlatives of praise or denunciation. Intelligence and grace abound.

In the temptingly positive review she posted yesterday about 1924 Main, one paragraph stands out as a must-read for those of us who believe that a thriving restaurant culture is an important and reliable sign of a city's vibrancy:

At 2 courses for $20 or 3 for $25 (all dishes are also offered a la carte), it’s hard to beat the price for an upscale, quality experience. All restaurants are struggling to survive in the sluggish economy, and owner Rob Dalzell has responded by making dinner more affordable without taking away the glamour of dining out. And, he is one of Kansas City’s independent restaurateurs, all of whom should be supported. If we don’t patronize these local treasures, they will not survive and we will be forced to spend our money in chain operations, which typically are less creative, more cookie-cutter, and don’t utilize local farmers. And what fun would that be?

Where will you spend your restaurant dollars in 2010?

Has the Plaza Lost its Charm?

I remember my first visits to the Plaza, back in the early 80s. My wife and I would drive up from Columbia and stay with my brother and sister-in-law in an apartment near the Plaza, and we would walk down Main to the most glamorous shopping district I had yet visited.

It was different then.

You couldn't help but be impressed that Kansas City hosted a Saks - one of the snootiest retailers in the world - and that locally-owned Halls seemed just as elegant but twice as friendly. Saks has disappeared, with luxury-priced lawyers now serving as inventory in its former space. At the time, the retail felt like a piece of New York or London, right on the concrete shores of a trickle-sized Brush Creek.

Dining was different, too. Before Starbucks infiltrated the universe, Emile's was a German deli serving perfectly crafted sandwiches with a pickle wedge. Ubiquity overcame uniqueness.

Downstairs in Seville Square was The Longbranch Saloon. (Can you even go downstairs in Seville Square anymore, except in Urban Outfitters?) Longbranch was a classic bar partially owned by Lou Piniella that was a landmark for celebrity sighting and ice-cold American beer. They had handwritten signs all over the walls with wry humor.

Upstairs in Seville Square was a group of small shops pushing trinkets, imports and jewelry. Not very high-class, but a lot of personality.

And that's what's changed more than anything. The Plaza has lost its Kansas City personality, and become a typical suburban mall without a roof. Even the tennis courts on the East side of the Plaza have become a "tennis complex", and the Winsteads a block further East has drive-though instead of carhop service.

I miss the old Function Junction, and the chipwich cart at Seville Plaza. I miss Anne's Santa Fe. Heck, I even miss the old traffic layout, when Main Street went straight through as a street, instead of part of that monstrous parking lot with traffic lights. I miss Fred P. Ott's, even though I know it's still there, serving great burgers all by itself on the lonely south eastern corner of the Plaza. I miss the adventure of intersections without stop signs or stop lights.

There was a time when the Plaza was the crown jewel of Kansas City spending. If you wanted to buy something or eat a fancy meal, you headed to the Plaza. If you wanted to show an out-of-town visitor something wonderful about Kansas City, you would drive them down Ward Parkway and wind up on the Plaza, and they were always impressed.

By all means, it's still a great place to go. Some things are better - Classic Cup is an upgrade over the coffee house that preceded it, and sitting on the roof deck at O'Dowd's is a joy unrivaled in Cupcake Land. Next week, the lights will come on and it will be a sparkly gem at night. It will be beautiful, and I look forward to going down there for at least one "Oh my gosh, Christmas is next week" visit. I still love the Plaza, but the charm has faded since it was at its peak.

Missing Meals - What Kansas City has Lost

Kansas City is a great restaurant town, and I think it's even getting better. We are blessed with more creative chefs than I can count, and they keep moving us forward. But, every now and then, my thoughts will trip back to restaurants that have disappeared, and I'd like to step back in time for a couple hours. Here are a few places I would visit, in no particular order:

1. Leonard's, for biscuits and gravy. Leonard's was a previous occupant of what is now Governor Stumpy's, and they put out the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had. The gravy was peppery, with lots of tasty sausage, and the biscuits were soft with a crisp crust.

2. La Mediterranee for lunch. On the east side of the Plaza, a quiet, elegant French restaurant used to serve top-notch fare on fine china with white tablecloths for around $5.

3. Al Roubaie's (sp?) for lobster. Up the hill on Main from the Plaza, back when Main went straight over the creek, was a spotty little restaurant with a great lobster special. If I recall correctly, you got lobster and sides for $15, and it was a feast.

4. Thirsty's Cantina for lunch. I don't know how they packed so much flavor into a simple chicken sandwich, but it was wonderful. There used to be a great bar in the space now occupied by Panerra in Westport. They also served a burrito thing I can't remember the name of (chicken cantina?), but it was filled with chicken in a creamy, cheesy sauce with just enough jalapeno to make it shine. All that, plus chips and salsa.

5. TJ Cinnamon's. I know that the name lives on as a corporate asset of the Arby's chain, but, if you weren't around to experience it, you have no idea how mouth-watering a walk through Ward Parkway mall could be back in the mid-80s. The aromas of butter and cinnamon wafted through the then-active halls of commerce. The rolls were warm and soft - the size of softballs - and they were individual treasures, not boxed products.
_____________________________________________

This trip down memory lane has not truly been a lament. I think we have more, better restaurants today than we did 20 years ago. I wouldn't even trade the dependable neighborhood friendliness of Governor Stumpy's for the breakfast of Leonard's. Things change and they sometimes get better. But these are some fond food memories I have of Kansas City . . .

Free Beer Tonight! And You Can Judge Me . . .

Tonight is the first round of the 75th Street Homebrew Contest; they'll be narrowing the field to 5 choices tonight. Customers will get the opportunity to taste the submissions and cast their votes. I have 5 submissions, so get out and vote for one of them (or whichever beer you think is best, even if it's not one of mine).

Here's what I submitted:

"'Round Midnight" - a schwarzbier. It's dark but smooth and easy-drinking. Just a touch of roasted malts and german hops in a smooth German lager. It's my favorite of the beers I submitted.

"Jim's Milk Stout" - a sweet stout based on Left Hand Brewery's version. No real milk is put into the beer, but it gets a dose of lactose, the natural dairy sugar. The lactose adds body and just a touch of sweetness. This one is very easy to drink.

"Not my Brother" - a Hefewezen. Get it? The name is a play on "he's not heavy (hefe), he's my brother"? Oh, never mind . . . This is the beer I wrote about brewing in this post, and that proved more popular than the milk stout in this post. Hefeweizens are funky beers, but people love them.

"Power Porter" - a Robust Porter. It's pretty tasty, but there's probably not enough left to make it through the contest, so don't waste a vote on it. But take a sample, anyhow, and let me know what you think.

"NOLA Voodoo" - a Dark American Lager. I brewed this beer more for the challenge than for enjoyment. It's based upon normal American mega-beer, with added darkness and just a touch of added flavor. It's the only beer I've ever brewed that included corn and rice, just like the big breweries do. The beer itself is pretty flavorless, which is a virtue for this style, and a bit of a challenge to accomplish as a brewer. Obviously, I'm not a huge fan of the beer, but it might appeal to some people, and, by submitting it to the contest, I hope I get rid of enough that I can use the keg for something I enjoy more!

I don't know what else got submitted, or how many other beers will be available for tasting. But I'm certain there will be some great beers there for the free sampling, so come out and vote for your favorites.

Hamburger Helper

I want your advice.

What kind of burger should be the special at Blanc Burgers + Bottles? In the relatively near future, I get to meet with Chef Josh Eans to design a new burger which will then be put on special for the weekend.

The pressure is on to come up with something amazing. After all, the Inside Out Burger (bleu cheese stuffed burger, applewood smoked bacon, onion ring, home-made catsup, mustard, butter lettuce on an onion brioche bun) is thought by many to be the best burger in the world. My personal favorite is the Au Poivre (pepper-crusted burger, creamy green peppercorn sauce, grilled onions, watercress, salt and pepper brioche bun).

If my name is going to be attached to something that I want people to choose over those two platters of heaven, I need to come up with something world-changing.

Right now, I'm thinking maybe a variation on the Aspen Burger, a regional favorite from upstate New York featuring sour cream and sauteed mushrooms. Perhaps if we jazzed it up a little by using creme fraiche and some gourmet mushrooms, we could bring a bit of Schenectady to Kansas City.

Or we could go to the opposite corner of the United States for some inspiration. How about a green chile and sharp cheddar burger? Maybe serve it with some sort of mole sauce?

I LOVE Blanc Burgers + Bottles. The first time I went there, I returned 5 times over the next two weeks. Their Au Poivre burger may be tied for "Best Sandwich in Kansas City" with "#1 (spicy)" ordered at the counter from Bella Napoli.

I need to bring my "A game" to this assignment. Any advice?

Princess Garden: BEST Chinese Restaurant in Kansas City

The presumption encompassed in that title is staggering. Here I am, a middle-aged guy who's lived most of his life in Kansas City, has never set foot in Asia, much less China, and never studied Chinese cuisine.

The absurdity is heightened by the very title I want to award. Best Chinese Restaurant?? Is there a best American restaurant? Is it a cajun seafood steakhouse with Philly cheese-steaks and funnel cakes? We can't even agree on a best Kansas City-style barbecue restaurant, but I'm blithely going to choose one restaurant to represent the cuisine of a billion-plus people in 8 Great Traditions?

You betcha! The significance of a writer's proclamations lies in the eyes of the beholder. It's not whether you agree or disagree with me - it's whether you read it and give it a second thought.

All that philosophizing aside, the indisputable winner (even though I've only visited probably a dozen or so of the options here in KC) is Princess Garden on Wornall.

Princess Garden is a classic of the genre. Carved Chinese marble lions greet you from the parking lot at 8906 Wornall, and the decor of red and gold looks exactly like a typical restaurant in Beijing, Shanghai or Xi'an - at least to me it does. The carpet, the paintings, even the darkened, empty bar off to the right of the pay stand all scream real China, at least as imagined by Kansas Citians.


The drink menu is a hoot. Fresh from the early 70s, it features My Tais, Fog Cutters and a wide range of elaborate concoctions, with a page titled "Strong, for those who enjoy drinking." The alcoholic fantasyland is heightened by descriptions like "Shark's Tooth - the bite of this drink is so sharp and quick that you won't feel a thing" and "Princess Garden Express - You will feel the hit by this extraordinary drink - try it and experience yourself." Alas, I'm a beer drinker, so I haven't experienced myself yet.

But the food is the attraction, and the food is great. In our most recent trip (when the kids were in town - this is a nostalgic favorite for them, even though Sam gets to eat in NYC's Chinatown), we had the crab rangoon and the steamed dumplings. Both are exactly what you would expect from a good Chinese restaurant - nothing super fancy, nothing to elevate the genre to a whole new level with challenging and intriguing tastes and textures - simply solid, competent examples of what you would expect.

As always, we got the Crunchy Beef as an entree. I haven't seen this on other menus, but it is pieces of beef the size of shoe-string potatoes, fried to a crispy exterior and served with mu shu pancakes in a sticky sauce. Rich, decadent and wonderful.

We also had a dish with an impossibly long title, including words such as "sizzling", "yellow noodles" and "double faced" - it was spectacular. The noodles are both tender and crispy, depending on how soaked they are in the light sauce, and covered with chicken, shrimp and vegetables.

As I hope I made clear in the first paragraphs, I have no business offering superlatives about Chinese restaurants. And I can say with legitimacy and integrity is that Princess Garden is a family favorite, with food that satisfies and always meets or exceeds our midwestern expectations. The staff is friendly, and the service is good. I don't know if it is authentic or not. I just know that our family has had many, many happy meals there, and I recommend it to anyone who is wants food that is as far from chic as it is from Beijing.

Strangers on the Internet - Let's Be Careful Out There

I talked with a few people involved in politics recently, and confirmed what I had personally noticed. There seems to be an uptick in the number of new "acquaintances" on the internet eager to share dirt and rumors, or to seek information or opinions about local figures. I had one stranger recently share some outlandish lies about a few women involved in state and local politics.

We're a year away from elections, and the lying and elaborate deceptions are already starting up.

Personally, I'm glad to be on the sidelines these days. If you're in the thick of it, though, please be aware and don't take candy from strangers. Or give it, either.

Like Twitter, Only Less Irksome, and for a Good Cause

I don't understand the fundamentals of the local Twestival currently going on in Kansas City, like where the money comes from or why they want your (or my) input, but it's an easy way to help direct some money to a local charity. I just cast my 3 free votes at the local Twestival and it was easy as pie - no registering or entering information about myself. Two of my votes went to Wayside Waifs, since they have done a great job of spreading the word, and one went to one of the other 4 great charities represented.

Out of the Kitchen

It's been a month now since I've done a political post. Friends have wondered what the heck is going on. In a nutshell, the kitchen got hot enough that I couldn't stand the heat. More importantly, I don't want to keep adding to the heat.

I'm focusing on things less hateful.

Kansas City Mystery - "The Dead Man", by Joel Goldman

Last time I read a Joel Goldman mystery, I was more than mildly negative - "Really, this book is awful - execrable dialog with an implausible plot, and minority characters who are so shallow I would accuse the author of racism if he had demonstrated he could write believable characters of any ethnicity." So I was surprised to receive a free review copy of his newest effort, "The Dead Man", starring the same main character and also set in Kansas City.

Deja vu? Thank goodness, deja nope.

"The Dead Man" is a striking success. An alert reader stays one step ahead of Jack Davis most of the way through the book, and an alert Kansas Citian recognizes a few local characters along with the landmarks. I saw through the mystery early in the book, but the novel's pleasure was watching the whole thing play out.

Without spilling any spoilers, the novel focuses on a string of deaths connected to The Harper Institute of the Mind, a fictional and repurposed version of the Stowers Insitute, with a CEO focused on Alzheimer's instead of cancer. Jack Davis, a former FBI agent who retired under suspicious circumstances after his daughter escaped with $5 million and who suffers from a mysterious neurological disorder, gets hired to look into the deaths before the Institute gets sued.

This book excels in its use of flawed characters. Jack Davis is spastic, and his sidekick is a former cop who went crooked. It seems everyone connected to by the Institute carries more baggage than an overhead bin on a weekend flight to Vegas, and the FBI agents are single-minded dimwits. At the end, we have an octogenarian, a crooked cop and an incapacitated hero going to confront the villain. Sherlock Holmes and Miss Jane Marple would be appalled, but it's a likable and believable outcome.

The problems I had with the first book are largely avoided in this one. He mostly sticks with educated, majority characters, so he (thank goodness) avoids presenting a suburbanite's understanding of what a poor black kid must feel. His dialogue is still clipped and terse, but Goldman has either learned to control his tendency toward ludicrous quips, or a wise editor out there spared us from some of the cringe-worthy exchanges that deflated "Shake Down". One last quibble - toward the end of the novel, a journalist claims she will be doing follow-up stories in 5 years, and asserts, "I'm not going anywhere." Mr. Goldman obviously failed to check on the career confidence of print journalists.

That said, this is simply a darned fun read. It's exciting, engaging, and well-crafted. The Kansas City references enliven the book for a local reader, but the book is not dependent on them. I came to this book expecting to find material to mock, but I wound up staying up late last night, turning pages and promising myself to quit after just one more chapter. When I turned the last page, I knew that Joel Goldman had written a fine example of the genre.

Happy Birthday, Libraries

Ben Franklin started up the first lending library on this date back in 1731. The concept, initially based on subscriptions, caught on, and now we are blessed with an amazing network of knowledge that can bring all kinds of intellectual property to your door.

Most of us just use the library as a quiet place to go browse and pick up a book or CD that we don't feel like purchasing. That's a huge enough service, but if you look around even a typical branch, you'll notice a lot more going on. Computers are waiting to help bridge the digital divide. Meeting rooms are hosting community organizations. Posters are advertising a series of free lectures on all kinds of topics. One local library is a nationally known center for genealogy. You can get audiobooks for your iPod. If you talk to a librarian, you'll see that their profession is obsessed with coming up with new ways to help meet informational needs you never knew you had.

Have you ever tried inter-library loan? It's incredible - if a book exists out there, but it's too obscure to find a home in the local libraries, the library will hunt it down and get it to you, still for free. I recently wanted a couple books on a topic I was researching, and within a couple weeks, they were waiting for me at my neighborhood branch.

When I was a kid, I used to haunt the stacks at the Natural Bridge branch of the St. Louis County Library (which I learned moments ago has relocated). Throughout my life, libraries have always been a welcoming place to hang out, read, study, or just browse. We're all fortunate that Benjamin Franklin, nearly 300 years ago, had a brainstorm about how he and a group of his friends could get access to the books they wanted to settle their arguments.

Downtown Indianapolis

Just got back from a few work days in Indianapolis. Their downtown was impressive - lots of people and night life, without the phony, dress-coded corporate feel of a Cordish strip mall. There was a great blend of local restaurants and bars along side the expected chains, and most were located in genuine old buildings. It was great.

I started to ask around about how it all happened - what kind of tax breaks were given to whom to spark such a vibrant downtown? Unfortunately, I don't have the answers yet, and, even more unfortunately, I realized I don't really care that much. Kansas City's ship has sailed. We have what we have, and we're never going to have what Indianapolis has.

Indianapolis has downtown Indianapolis. We have Kansas City/Daytona/4th Street/Philly/Power Plant/Woodbine Live!, thanks to the "leadership" of our prior Mayor and council.

Most of Us "Just Don't Understand"

Of course this is the way it goes, every single time. I've read about DJ Jazzy Jeff getting kicked off the stage at the P&L District, and I'm concluding from the competing stories that truth favors the District's side, and the DJ side is spin, misunderstanding, or a gambit for some publicity. It just doesn't make sense to me that the District would hire him for a Saturday night and then shut him down in front of all his fans for performing his music unless he was in danger of damaging the sound equipment.

And with that simple analysis I can ignore everything important I could learn from this snafu. Instead of gaining any understanding, I manage to retrench myself into the "us" position in an "us vs. them" world.

My ability (?) to coolly analyze the facts presented shields and protects me from having to face more challenging truths. How shocking is it that the conclusion I'm reaching favors the power structure?

First off, I wasn't there. I stayed home Saturday night and watched a movie on TV. I like to think it's cool that I live in the city, but the truth is that Saturday night I lived the life of someone living in the furthest reaches of suburbia. I may live a few blocks from Troost, but my geographical proximity means little in comparison to a lifestyle that more closely resembles Blue Springs.

Second, I wasn't there. I'm relying on statements from others who were, and I am internally making judgments on credibility based on my prejudices. Even though the leaders of the P&L District have lied to us at every step of this tax-advantaged boondoggle, from opening dates to free parking, I continue to give them credibility. Why? Because the people on the ground are the corporate and middle-management types I live among. I need to believe that the spokespeople for the P&L District are trying to be truthful, because if I don't, I'm undermining the aura of trust and respectability that I need to feel comfortable in my zone.

Third, I wasn't there. I have no idea what the decibels were. The decibel level is a fact - an important part of objective information that could help determine who is at fault for the situation. The P&L people say it was too high, and the Jazzy Jeff people say it wasn't. Here in my living room on a quiet Monday morning, how am I to know? Was the decibel level actually measured by the P&L people? Wouldn't a taxpayer-financed sound system have dampers built into it to protect it from getting loud enough to hurt itself? Isn't it possible that somehow the hip hop of Saturday night seemed a little louder than music more in the comfort zone of the decision-makers.

Fourth, I wasn't there. I don't know who said what to whom, and neither do you. Like a game of "pass the secret", it's entirely possible that somebody said "Shut it down because of the volume" and, by the time the word got to the stage, the message had morphed into "Stop the hip-hop". Both sides may be telling the truth here, but it makes it easier for me to choose one side or the other to believe. "Us vs. them", and I'm on the "Us" team again. Huh.

Fifth, finally, and in a deeper sense, I wasn't there. I've never been there as a black man. I've never seen the second level of scrutiny directed my way when I walk toward the entrance of the P&L District. I've never had the officials at the P&L District target a dress code at the things I like to wear. I walk in there, and I feel all kinds of welcome. So, if the District shut down a concert by a group preferred by people like me, I would have no real reason to suspect there was an ulterior motive. But if they made it known to me that I wasn't really welcome, and this was not really my turf, I might feel like there was more to the story than decibel levels.

It's easy to sit here on Monday morning, read conflicting spins, and decide to believe the P&L District's version of things. That version has the irresistible virtue of NOT including racism as a factor in what happens in our society every day. And, frankly, that's the version I prefer, because racism is ugly and disturbing, so I'd prefer to pretend that it's rare, okay? Okay?

Fencing Liberty Memorial? Is the Civic Irony Meter on the Fritz?

You need to be a hyped-up brand of clueless to propose a fence surrounding something named for Liberty, but the private Liberty Memorial Association wants to spend $1.4 million to do exactly that. (Yes, these are the same people who reacted to a minor spending cut by threatening to "douse the flame" on the Liberty Memorial.)

To justify their ironic request, they cite a fear that "undesirable activity" could take place at the park. They also claim that "the memorial, as a national historic landmark and home to the National World War I Museum, deserves the protection of a fence." If anything "deserves" fencing, I doubt that Liberty leads the list.

The open approach to Liberty Memorial, when viewed from the North or the South, is one of the visual splendors of our city. For a private group of elites to rob Kansas City of that vista just so they can keep out "undesirables" is an affront to common sense, good judgment and liberty itself.

Kraske Loses Chance at Redemption

(Kraske's latest effort inspired me to offer a similar analysis.)

Steve Kraske, a writer for the Kansas City Star, has survived the rounds of lay-offs that have claimed better, more useful writers in those hallowed halls.

Steve Kraske, there went your best chance.

One final shot to start all over again and give this writing thing a fresh start.

It's an enormous irony. You've held onto a job at a paper with dwindling circulation and influence approaching zero. A significant victory, this is not.

This coup was staged by a rag-tag group of bloggers with little money, toiling away on folding chairs, in basements, living rooms and kitchens throughout the region. And they've bested you. When you've made off-base predictions, they've been correct. When you've asked foolish questions, they've asked insightful ones. When he has failed to produce any news worthy of publications, they have scooped him time and time again. When they have predicted a rising Democratic Party, he saw the Democrats as "doomed in November".

So, you survived, but in a strange way, you still lose.

Because getting fired from the Star offered you that last chance.

Here's my thinking: If the Star fired you, you had an opportunity to start up your own blog, and have one more time to face the naysayers and beat them into the ground. You could have tried to form an audience based on merit, rather than proximity to the sports page or comics.

You could have showed 'em, Missouri-style. You could have built traffic and been a real part of the thriving part of the media world. You could have rubbed the bloggers' noses in it when you were right. You could have built a monumental readership that would have demonstrated that you're a worthy commentator.

Now?

Now we have more of the same. The Big Muddle, I call it.

That is, just more of the same at the Star: More turmoil. More uncertainty. More off-base analysis and more discord. More aimless drift out of your column, just as things have been since virtually the day you took over.

Don't breathe too easy yet. The newspaper industry continues to suffer, and a columnist who continually produces analysis that is weaker than that produced by at least a half-dozen local bloggers is not in a safe position. Day after day, week after week, smart, informed analysts are publishing better stuff than you. Meanwhile, McClatchy continues to look at ways to cut costs.

Maybe you'll get that shot at redemption after all.

Why The Recall Recount Will Probably Fail

In an earlier email exchange concerning the statement of reasons for the recall of Funkhouser, I was assured by one of the organizers that "the petition and affidavit document are on the same page of paper in a large portion of the petitions printed later in the recall effort." He further explained, in a comment to this blog, "Did you examine the document, maybe even flip it over to see the affidavit is printed on the other side of the petition to save paper?"

Uh-oh.

From the City Code:

Sec. 730. Signatures to petitions.
The signatures to an initiative, referendum, or recall petition need not all be appended to one paper, but to each separate petition paper there shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof as provided by this section. Each such petition paper shall consist of sheets of uniform size, printed and signed on only one side.

If the organizer was accurate in his claim that a large portion of the petition printed later in the recall effort were printed on both sides, then it seems that all those petitions should be rejected for violating the clear provisions of Section 730.

I don't know - maybe there are sufficient signatures on one-sided petitions to carry the day, and I'm not certain whether the double-sided petitions were rejected in the initial count. Judging from what the recall organizers have publicly stated, though, it appears the recall recount ought to fail.

Playing Games with "Cops on the Street"

After hacking $15 million dollars from the budget of the Kansas City police department, the Kansas City Council wants to act like it didn't do anything wrong. Incredibly, two City Councilwomen have sought to breeze in and wallpaper over their budgetary attack by encouraging the Police Department to eliminate support positions and change the working conditions for 200 cops - all so that they can claim that their budgetary attack didn't reduce "cops on the street".

These are the same people who voted to donate almost $2,000,000 to the stadiums, instead of using it to reduce the cuts to cops.

Frankly, avoiding a reduction in the number of "cops on the street" is political showmanship, not effective public safety. "Cops on the street" need support off the street, and $15 million in cuts to the back office is going to have an impact on the ability of the cops on the street to do their jobs. Those cops on the street need supplies, they need well-maintained vehicles, and they need supervision. Like any business, they need support services, and cutting those support services while artificially maintaining the number of cops on the street is likely to do more harm than good.

Sure enough, after the Police Board passed the budget without a single negative vote, one of the City Council members took the low road and preemptively slimed the Police Chief. "If officers are pulled off the street that will be Corwin's decision, not the council's." Folks, I've seen some pretty vile attempts at denying responsibility for one's own behavior before, but that one ranks way up there.

Of course, in the anti-Funk hysteria this town is currently suffering through, nobody wants to talk about the irresponsibility of the council. Instead, people are aiming their guns at the one person who has worked hardest to preserve the police force. The same Council member mentioned above had the unmitigated gall to complain that "Funkhouser hadn't helped the city officials dicker with the police staff during task force meetings about the budget."

I believe that the Council "dickered" the police department quite well without Mark's help.

Showing an amazing ability to focus on the irrelevant, Yael "Funk is a Big Poopyhead" Abouhalkah even took a cheap shot at Funkhouser for not attending the meeting at which the budget passed without a single negative vote. Again, showmanship gets valued over substance in Yael's mind. Instead of even mentioning the vote tally, Yael wrote two columns attacking Mark for the same missed meeting, and implied that pre-meeting participation in the budgetary process doesn't matter if none of the voters mentions it during the vote. Amateurish, petty hack job.

If we want to talk about failure in Kansas City, we ought to be talking about the attempts of certain City Council members to paper over the impact of their disastrous police cuts, and the Star's biased refusal to call them on it.

Keeping my Word

I told Deb Hermann that I would not join in the line-by-line criticism of the Council budget, and I'll stick to my promise.

That said, I will point out, however, that Yael Abouhalkah has been uncharacteristically insightful here, here, and here. If I weren't a man of my word, I'd be writing something very similar.

We don't owe $2,000,000

Mark Funkhouser has taken a lot of heat for his proposal that the City should stop paying $2,000,000 out of its general funds to support the Truman Sports Complex. He's absolutely right. We have no contract or law obligating us to make such a staggering gift, and it is insulting to the poor citizens of Kansas City that we would reduce basic services while subsidizing suburban entertainment.

According to news reports, Mike Sanders and others are claiming that if the City of Kansas City does not bail out the stadiums, it will be violating the leases, freeing the Royals and Chiefs to leave the area. That is an absolute lie, and I have the proof.

I have read the lease agreements, and found something amazing. The City of Kansas City did not sign the leases. In fact the agreements (page 13, section 14.a.ii, of the Royals contract and page 21, section 10.5.2(ii)(a) of the Chiefs contract) to be precise) refer to payments by the City as "currently" $2,000,000, which clearly anticipates that the amount could change in the future. Mike Sanders is playing with other people's money.

Kansas City cannot violate a lease it never signed.

I have spent a lot of time looking at the City's budget, and this is not a good year for us to be giving money away when we are under no obligation to do so. In a time when we are looking at cutting the police, closing community centers and jacking up the property tax, it's impossible to justify spending such a huge amount of money for stadiums. We are in the process of firing people - city employees are losing their jobs - and Mike Sanders wants us to spend $2,000,000 to cover an obligation owed by the County??

Will Mike Sanders be willing to walk into the offices of $2,000,000 worth of those City employees and tell them that he'll be thinking of them when he's watching a Chiefs game from the fat-cat suite after parking like a rock star? (Check out page 16, Section 7.4.)

The simple fact is that the City of Kansas City owes no money whatsoever under the leases. If anybody wants to claim that we are so obligated, I would ask that they show us the legal documents that back up their claim.

If, on the other hand, they resort to bogus claims like "Kay Barnes promised . . .", ask them if they really, truly believe that is how government works. Did "Credit Card" Kay Barnes really have the ability to obligate the city with a speech? If you believe that, you really have no idea how the process of government works. If Mark Funkhouser announces in a speech that the City will, without any sort of ordinance or documentation, or signing any contract, give $2,000,000 to me every year forever, because he likes my writing, is the City on the hook?

And don't let them trot out the old "economic engine" argument, either. Of course there are tangential benefits to having the Chiefs and Royals in town, but that's true of any employer or tourist attraction. And a lot of those benefits go to Lee's Summit, Independence, Blue Springs, Liberty and Overland Park. How about if the City of Kansas City matches the tax dollars chipped in by those municipal governments?

Sadly, this is a very difficult budget year. I would love to see the City in a position where it could make a $2,000,000 charitable contribution to help the County live up to its contractual obligations. Especially if we could do that AFTER helping the truly needy in our community, with things like better police protection and codes enforcement. But, really, we cannot do that this year.

Those two millions dollars to not come out of thin air. They represent choices. If we put $2,000,000 into the stadiums, when we are not obligated to do so, we need to take $2,000,000 from somewhere else.

Why should we pay what we do not owe?

PIMBY?

Yael Abouhalkah had a funny observation in his blog post about the proposal to stop siphoning money away from taxpayers to support the Costco TIF Plan.

Jan Marcason, a sharp and well-intentioned City Council member, also questioned what happened last week.

Marcason lives in the Southmoreland neighborhood in the 4th District and supports its housing repair program.

While everyone has heard the term "Not In My Back Yard", this presents an unusual case of "Please In My Back Yard". The elegant Southmoreland neighborhood has enjoyed access to free money, and nobody can really blame them for enjoying the opportunity.

But if you spend a little time driving around the old Northeast, or the East side, it's hard to understand why tax dollars should be funding housing repair in such a posh area. The Southmoreland website is a cheery, welcoming place, offering "Up to $10,000 or more matching grants to fix up your house."

Meanwhile, other neighborhoods can't get their weeds cut or their illegal tire dumps cleared.

Southmoreland is fortunate to be on the PIMBY side of the financial seesaw, while others struggle for basic services. Southmoreland doesn't want to share, and they have a brave and articulate councilmember to stand up and fight for the privileges they have enjoyed for over a decade.

Is it a fair fight?

Siettmann, Roe, Cashill - Stuck in the Middle with Funk

In the comments to my posting of the Funkhouser budget letter, I've been questioned about our Mayor's recent hiring of Mark Siettmann, a man who formerly worked for Jeff Roe's company, Axiom Strategies, as well as Jack Cashill's attempts to portray himself as an influential member of Funkhouser's inner circle. One of the joys of blogging is that I always get to pick and choose what I write about, and it's easy to avoid issues I don't want to talk about. But the questions raised are fair questions with (I think) interesting answers, so here goes.

First off, I don't think Cashill has any influence on the Mayor outside of his own mind. If Mark let the guy look at some of his speeches and make suggestions that he didn't accept, well, that's just an example of Mark's kindness to a guy who not many people will give the time of day to. Cashill is loudly irrelevant and has been for years, and I admire Mark for treating him gently.

Jeff Roe is a different matter, though. It bothers me that Mark talks to the guy. (The advocate in me wants to point out some of the other Dems who have done the same thing, but that's advocacy, not logic.) While I understand that it's smart to get a diverse set of perspectives on issues, I have a problem with a lot of Jeff Roe's tactics. I've conveyed my displeasure at the idea, but I'm not the one who got elected Mayor, so that's not really my decision.

So, honestly, no, I don't like the whole consultant deal, but I'm not naive enough to be shocked. There's a limited pool of high-level talent out there, and most of them are entrenched to the same pro-developer, chattering class crowd that Mark ran against, and defeated. He kind of had to go outside the usual crowd, and he did.

Now, moving forward, here's where I stand. If Siettmann is shown to have written homophobic material, just get rid of him right away. I was wrong when I argued that Semler's appointment could be justified, and I learned from it. This case would be even easier - Mark should tell him to clean out his desk the day he gets the proof.

Assuming that doesn't happen, then I hope the guy does a super job. Remember, his job is to do communications, not policy. Those of us who know Mark know that the public persona of Mark Funkhouser is nothing like the real man. If someone can help the real man appear more clearly to Kansas Citians, that would be a fantastic thing. If someone can help show how foolish the City Council is when it makes outrageous mistakes in defiance of Mark (like when they gave Wayne "Lie on the Resume" Cauthen a fat 3 year contract), that would be a fantastic thing, too. Mark needs to shake up his public image if he is going to accomplish what is best for the city, so good luck, Mr. Seittmann.

Why Does the Star Ignore the County? - Day 52 of the Jackson County Ethics Crisis

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a savvy former politician who told me that when he was being interviewed by TV people, and he said something he didn't want broadcast, he would drop an F-bomb into the sentence. Video editing capabilities of the day and pressing deadlines kept him out of the news when he didn't want to be there.

I have discovered a similar trick that works to keep the KC Star from putting something in the paper. Just mention "Jackson County". The Star will lose interest and flee from the story.

I attended an introductory meeting for an unofficial committee focused on city business last week, and I was not at all surprised to see two, count 'em two, Star writers there. I asked one of them afterward why they double-teamed a city issue, but nobody was writing about the fact that the Jackson County Ethics Commission was NOT meeting, because nobody had been timely named to it.

Similarly, there is nobody writing about the fact that this is Day 52 of the Jackson County Ethics Crisis, with the Legislators continuing in their refusal to be governed by a local ethics commission.

It's even reached the point that the Star downplays Jackson County issues on the Prime Buzz. Recently, I did two posts in one morning - one was about a minor argument I had with another local blogger, and the other was an analysis of whether anyone would agree to serve on the Jackson County Ethics Commission, and raising the question of whether it was even ethical to serve on it while it was barred from taking on the tasks assigned to it in the Jackson County Charter. The Prime Buzz's Blog Watch column ignored the post about an important issue for Jackson County governance and wrote about the other.

Who, at the Star, covers the City? Lynn Horsley, Deanne Smith (who I understand has a vested interest in keeping County coverage positive), Yael Abouhalkah, and anyone else with a spare moment and a scrap of paper. Who, at the Star, covers the County? Well, let's see - Mike Mansur does a decent job when he has the chance, but it's only one of his many assignments.

The result is that you have the Star double-teaming a committee meeting, but ignoring the Jackson County Ethics Crisis. The result is that the Star didn't even mention that the Jackson County Ethics Commission had resigned until weeks after it had happened. The result is that the Star STILL has not reported that the time has lapsed for the ethics committee selection board to appoint replacements, with the result that Mike Sanders now has that duty.

For some reason, the Star has decided that it should not flip over the rocks in Jackson County government. It's kind of sad, because the more I look, the more I find. I'd love to see what a real journalist could do with these stories.

Good Jobs Here in KC

Need a flexible, well-paying job? Do you know anyone who might want to pick up some extra money over the next couple years? Do you want to get paid to do important community work that will have a major impact on the people of Kansas City?

The 2010 Census needs around a thousand people here in Kansas City, and the hiring process has begun. Go to this site to learn more, or call toll-free at 866-861-2010.

I attended the kick-off event for the Census yesterday, and it sounds like they are dead serious about counting everyone in the area, including the urban core. Helping them do that will help Kansas City in everything from Congressional representation to planning for FEMA relief.

It's important work, and I believe it will pay pretty well. True, the vast majority of jobs are short-term and will end in 2010, but, if things go right, the Obama recovery from the Bush recession will be underway by that time.

My Way for the Highway

MoDoT: Tell me what you think about my plans.
Public: What plans?
MoDoT: I'll tell you when I think you should know, but I want to get your opinions first.
Public: How can I have informed opinions until I know what your plans are?

The Missouri Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are launching a study process for changes on I-70 from State Line to 470. In what appears to be a classic example of cynically controlling input while appearing to be transparent, they are hosting a "listening post" a "public" meeting - at the St. Paul School of Theology, Holter Center on Truman Road between 4 and 7 tomorrow evening.

Nowhere in the invitation, though, do they talk about what sort of changes they are considering, so if you, like most people, have things other than highways on your mind, you have no reason to attend the meeting. Then, when they do something colossally stupid to the highway, they will blame you for not attending the meeting and being heard.

This is not public input - it is insider control. If you control affected land, or plan to sell asphalt to the State, or are one of the insiders who has moved the plan to this stage, you know what is in it and you can make sure the meeting and comments go your way. If you're an average citizen, you don't know what is in it, so you won't know whether your ox is getting gored until it's buried in asphalt.

Frankly, I have better things to do on Tuesday night than watch the charade of public input. In my absence, I have a few thoughts I would like to share with the planners:

1. Do NOT change that view of the city through the overpass when you're headed west between the stadiums and 435. If you mess with that, I will come at you like a spider monkey.

2. Do NOT smooth out the Van Brunt curve, or take away the flashing lights that congratulate drivers for going through it fast. It might be cool, though, if you could post a high score or a special light for the people that manage to double the recommended speed. Give us something more challenging to shoot for.

3. DO create an interchange between I-70 and 71, so that I can get to eastbound 70 from northbound 71 without cruising down Truman.

4. DO create "blinds" for motorcycle cops to run radar. It's undignified the way they hide behind the pillars around the 435 interchange - just give them little shelters so they can stalk their prey in comfort, just like duck hunters do.

5. DO install wireless access along the length of the highway, so that commuters from the western suburbs can check their email on their laptops on their way to work. It's a shame that right now they can only shave, put on make-up, read the paper and eat Egg McMuffins.

6. DO NOT fill in the potholes on the Manchester Trafficway overpass. That would destroy the tire and hubcap businesses in the vicinity.

7. DO NOT eliminate any of the "Exit Only" lanes - those are the best places to box in BMWs with Johnson County plates.

8. DO move the highway closer to the outfield of Royals Stadium, so that opposing batters can have something to aim for when our relief pitchers serve them hanging curves.

9. DO put up some kind of high-tech filter for the sun so that it doesn't shine in our eyes when we're headed east at sunrise or west at sunset. It's a freaking nuisance.

10. DO NOT tell us how much you are going to be spending on all these changes, because that might make us think again about regional light rail, and, apparently, we're just not ready for that kind of thinking.

Beer in the Bottoms? Let's Bulldoze the Power & Light District!

Last night, while researching my next homebrew recipe, I came upon a spot of amazingly cool news. In 2009, Kansas City will have another brewery opening up, this time in the West Bottoms. Dead Canary Brewing is a woman-owned and run new brewery, setting up in the West Bottoms down off 12th Street, among the haunted houses and great old brick buildings.

Folks, this could be amazing.

They are setting up Beer Pong and Dodgeball Leagues. They are creating a taproom. They are committed to brewing practices that are green and sustainable. They got started on this journey by brewing naked.

Most importantly, they are creating "high content, high flavor, knock you on yo ass beers." Beers like Cat House Stout - (Dry hopped mint chocolate imperial stout), Local No. 12 - (lemongrass maple strong ale), Speakeasy IPA - (honeysuckle grapefruit IPA), Bathtub Barleywine - (copiously hopped barleywine), and Chickory Rhubarb Imperial Porter.

This could do more for the West Bottoms than any TIF Project ever brewed up in a closed-door meeting between Kay Barnes and Mephistopheles. Really - the West Bottoms could become the new Crossroads X 20, with lots of inexpensive great old buildings around, acres of parking, and reasonable access to the highways.

But, since Wayne Cauthen and the prior City Council have gambled our city's future on the Power & Light District, which is already turning out to be a bit of a flop, I have a radical idea. Let's bulldoze the Power & Light District, and refuse to give any more of our tax dollars to Cordish and their cronies. (Yes, of course they will sue, but it will take years for them to recover anything, and a sensible jury might just rule in our favor if we can introduce evidence of all their broken promises and their racist dress codes.)

Now that we have freed ourselves of the millions upon millions of obligations to out-of-state developers, we can bring in some topsoil and put in the world's most awesome beer garden in all the paved expanse that currently exists down there. Let's be ambitious - let's create something that will make Munich's Oktoberfest seem like an unpopular fraternity's weekend kegger. (We can even, as a nod to our prior mayor, put in a rain garden, just to show we're not angry anymore.)

Then, we take a few million dollars and give them to our local brewers to create the micro-breweries of their dreams on the periphery of our new beer garden. Relocate Boulevard's and its emblematic smokestack downtown. Get 75th Street Brewery to open up a 12th Street Brewery. In a cross-state gesture of goodwill to make up for our outright theft of the 1985 World Series, offer Schlafly a space.

But don't forget the beginners, either! The Kauffman Foundation wants to support entrepreneurship - let them funnel a few million dollars to help ambitious homebrewers make the leap into micro-brewing. And, because cans are so much more recyclable and cheaper to ship than bottles, let the city open up a municipal cannery, offering access to its canning lines for each of the breweries on a cooperative basis - a green infrastructure project that ought to attract funding from every level of government.

As I think we demonstrated at 75th Street Brewery on Monday night, real beer is a big draw. People will come out for something unusual, and they appreciate a good party. Imagine if Kansas City was the undisputed Home of Great Beer. We would have to hire thugs to control the hoards of convention planners! Vacationers would come in year round, just to try the seasonal brews! Hotels chains would pony up their own money to get access to the crowds of tipsy beer-lovers walking around downtown.

Most importantly, it would be awesome.

My point in this flight of fancy is that for the millions of dollars we have blown on a cookie-cutter assemblage of national chain restaurants, we could have had something unique and truly attractive to Kansas Citians and conventions if only we had focused on local businesses and local flavor. This is the sort of impulse that Mayor Funkhouser has pushed with his New Tools initiative. Economic Development does not have to mean sending massive amounts of money to out-of-state developers for massive projects. Let's hope that the Council gets behind the concept and that we see some real Kansas City economic development.

In the meantime, let's raise a toast to Dead Canary Brewing. They might accomplish with beer what politicians have failed to accomplish with hot air and taxpayer dollars.

Mayor's Forum on Financial Preparedness

Yesterday morning, concerned Kansas Citians gathered at the auditorium of the Liberty Memorial Museum for a conversation just as bleak as the weather outside. The structural imbalance of Kansas City's budget and the crazed tax-giveaways of the Barnes years have left us facing a $84.9 million dollar shortfall which will grow to a $111.5 million shortfall if current trends continue. The short answer, brought home by Deb Hermann, Mayor Funkhouser and the consultants who spoke, is that current trends cannot continue. So what are we going to do about it?

In a nutshell, we failed to come up with workable solutions. The ideas that seemed to have the most support all placed the misery squarely on the average city worker or average citizen, and involved little or no sacrifice for the ultra-wealthy Kansas Citians who spoke out at the meeting. "Charge for trash" and "cut back on city workers" were the strongest suggestions offered up by the multi-multi-multi-millionaires who grabbed the microphones before going back to their taxpayer financed enclaves. Funny how nobody even suggested graduating the earnings tax, or even delaying Payments in Lieu of Taxes so we get a year's worth of interest on the money we are paying to finance their castles. Indeed, one of the wealthiest men in the state openly scoffed at any thought that some of the problem could be solved on the revenue side of the equation. The suffering, it was clear, belongs to the peasants.

That said, I'm glad I showed up and participated. Almost all the smart councilmembers attended, and it was wildly impressive to see 60 of Kansas City's heaviest hitters show up on a frigid Monday morning in Christmas week. Notably absent were Wayne Cauthen, Kay Barnes or Steve Glorioso. Also, no Federal, State or County politicians attended - we're in this on our own, Kansas City.

While we didn't solve the massive budgetary problems we're facing, the morning was time well-spent. We all learned a little more about the issues, received a briefing on the consultants' report (available for download here), and we got to think a little and brainstorm on ways out.

Perhaps most valuably, we got a flavor of the political realities faced by our elective representatives. On the one hand, we had the uber-wealthy loudly and jealously guarding their advantages, while we also faced fantasy-land fossils grumbling about free trash promises from generations ago, and calling for repeal of the earnings tax. We heard ill-informed, reckless suggestions tossed out by those without a clue on implementation, and we heard earnest, factual statements about the financial unsupportability of doing nothing.

Walking out after 3 hours of financial bad news, it was hard not to feel a strange sort of optimism. We have some great people in this city, and the City officials who showed up are focused and smart. Deb Hermann did a great job of presenting, and Funkhouser did a great job of getting everyone's attention focused on the problems we're facing.

Chiefs Trail Bourbon Barrel Quad

This would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but yesterday I completely forgot about the Chiefs game. Owen from the Pitch invited a few people to his family's restaurant (Adrian's Cafe, near Corporate Woods) to taste the latest release from Boulevard, and nobody even mentioned the game. Nobody had a radio on, and nobody asked if a TV was available. The Chiefs have achieved complete irrelevance in a town that once bled Chiefs red.

The good news is Boulevard Brewery is giving Kansas Citians something to bolster civic pride. Bourbon Barrel Quad is the latest in the Smokestack series, and it was worth the wait. Rich, chewy, raisiny, bourbon-noted, cherry, complex and overwhelming are the adjectives that came to this writer's mind, but I'd recommend checking out the write-ups by Owen Morris (I assume he'll post something today at Fat City), Wes Port of KC Beer Blog, and Chimpotle (nothing posted yet).

Good Job, Powers That Be

I tend to complain about the Powers That Be, and justifiably so. But this morning, I have to take my hat off to the most visible group of PTB, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, because last night they celebrated Beth Smith as the Kansas Citian of the Year.

I'm sure they provided a long list of her accomplishments when they gave her the award, and I won't try to repeat the list of boards, commissions and task forces she has led or swelled. Yeah, she's all that and more.

One could do far worse than choosing her as a role model.

Jan Marcason Keeps Her Focus, Delivers Good Work on Sewers

One of the things I admire about Jan Marcason is her seriousness of purpose. She understands that she was elected to perform public service, and she sets out to accomplish her tasks, even when they're not particularly glamorous or even pleasant.

Mayor Funkhouser could not have chosen more wisely when he picked her to lead the task force studying our long-festering sewer problems.

Sure enough, she has delivered a plan to address the city's needs with increased fees and seeking state and federal support. Nobody wants to see their sewer and water bills increase significantly, but Marcason's plan helps right the balance after generations of underpayment for those services, and the resulting underfunding of infrastructure maintenance and improvements. The plan covers all the details I would hope for or expect, including incentives for environmentalism, assistance for the poor and plans to make new developments cover their own costs.

Back when we were differing strongly over the "Volunteer" Ordinance, Marcason stressed to me in a conversation that all the hullabaloo was, for her at least, in addition to the normal workload. The time she spent on that ordinance, she assured me, was not taking away from the time she should be spending on areas we agreed were legitimate and necessary areas for Council involvement.

It borders on humorous that somebody with Marcason's clean image and generally sunny disposition would tackle the grimy, dirty topic of sewers. But she has done it, with the level of detail and attentiveness to city needs I would expect.

It's great to see that both 4th District Council Representatives are paying attention to real city council business and city needs.

Delaware Cafe - Extra Touches

Last night, my wife and I trekked through a downtown crowded with Coldplay enthusiasts and went to the Delaware Cafe, a little west of River Market on a cozy one-way street. I didn't know what to expect - several foodies had told me the place is good, but that was about it. Owen Morris of Fat City had complimented the place, and Owen knows food, so I was enthusiastic but uninformed. Kind of typical for me.

When we arrived, we parked right out front - the best parking a non-disabled person could ask for. So much for downtown parking concerns on an event night - downtown is big enough that a crowd at the Sprint Center doesn't mean that you should avoid restaurants on the other side of downtown.

A sparse crowd clustered around the bar, and we took a place at a table near the bar. It's a pretty space - artwork by local artists on the wall (including our waitress' work), black tables and a good-sized bar. We didn't make it into the larger dining room. The large colorful paintings were a great extra touch - local but sophisticated.

From the Bar Snacks menu, I ordered a serving of the crispy-fired shatto cheese curds with maple, apple butter and chili flakes. I know that's not healthy eating, but when you see something like that on the menu, you have to give it a shot, and they were absolutely worth it. Lightly breaded oozy cheese curds were just as awesome as you might expect, and the sauce on the plate added another dimension to the pleasure.

For my entree, I chose the Red Eye Prime Ribeye. It's a bit unusual for me to order a steak in a good restaurant, because I make damned good steaks at home. This one was unusual enough on the menu, though, promising smoked pepper hash, and over-easy farm egg and a coffee jus, that I had to give it a try. It came out as large, thick slices (chunks) of tasty beef covered with the egg on top of the hash. I was expecting a ribeye steak, or a thick slab of prime rib, and the perfectly prepared medium-rare pieces of beef came as enough of a surprise that I asked if I had really gotten rib-eye - though making certain that she understood it was not a complaint, just a question. Our charming artist/waitress went back and asked, and returned to say that yes, indeed, it was ribeye, but trimmed into thick slices. I still have my doubts, in that the meat, while tender, had a "tighter" texture than I associate with any part of the ribeye, but the food was great, and the tradition of tossing a fried egg on top of things is one that ought to be spread more widely. Yum. The coffee jus was a tiny pitcher of strong coffee with perhaps some balsamic vinegar added. Excellent, and interesting!

My wife got the tawny port braised short ribs, with mac & cheese, rapini, brioche bread crumbs, and natural jus. Damn. Braised short ribs may be the best food ever invented - with just enough structural integrity to hold together until they melt under fork pressure into a web of beef string. These were superb examples, served atop a bed of fusilli mac cheese. The richness of the beef with the gourmeted (new word alert) comfort food of the mac cheese was just perfect.

The only mediocre note of the evening was dessert. We split a graham cracker crusted gooey chocolate cake, with Vietnamese cinnamon marshmallows, smoked vanilla ice cream, and chocolate nibs. The cake itself was a good but not great chocolate cake, the marshmallows were more rubbery than springy, and the ice cream tasted like homemade vanilla ice cream with a few drops of liquid smoke added. It was not bad, but it was a big let-down after a fantastic meal.

The bill, with drinks, came to $100, so this is a special occasion meal. We could have gotten off a lot lighter if we were scrimping, by sticking to the impressive bar food menu and appetizers. I got to taste the chicken wings, which were charred and sticky with a sweet/hot Asian-influenced sauce - tasty and fun. A server gave me the wing after bringing out an extra order for another table - yet another extra touch in a restaurant that makes its customers feel special.

With its cozy and friendly atmosphere, Delaware Cafe deserves to be ranked in the highest echelon of Kansas City restaurants.

Furious at the Former Council & Mayor

News is starting to leak out that Kansas City taxpayers are going to get stuck with a $4 million bill to cover bond payments on the Power and Light District. That is $4 million dollars getting diverted to bankers instead of to snow removal or street repair. That's $4 million dollars that ought to be spent on Kansas Citians, instead of institutional bondholders. That is $4 million this year - who knows how much we'll get stuck with in future years, as the economy slows and we realize we're throwing good money to prop up a bad investment?

It's all because of the former City Council and especially the former Mayor, who blew our tax dollars for projections based on sparkles and unicorns.

Do you really want light rail? Do you want a downtown stadium someday? Do you want snow-free streets on the morning after a storm? Do you want sewers that don't flow into Brush Creek and cause fines from the EPA?

Well, too bad. We're spending that money on the Power and Light District, instead. Instead of all those things, we're investing in tax-favored, out-of-town bars and restaurants.

Kansas City Sports Team in the Running

With the Chiefs crumbling and the Royals at home watching their superiors enjoy the playoffs, it sometimes slips the mind that Kansas City does have one of the best soccer teams in the United States. The Wizards are playing the San Jose Earthquake on Saturday evening at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, starting at 7, in a game with HUGE (but confusing) playoff implications.

To sweeten the deal, it's also fan appreciation night. That means fireworks, baby!

You have to appreciate a team which has its own blog, especially when the blog is so earnest and straightforward that it eschews "Touch My Monkey" humor while posting this picture. Such high levels of dignity are refreshing here on the internet.

All Things Considered - Council's the Source of the Embarrassment, and Yael Expects No Gatekeeper

I winced when I heard that NPR's All Things Considered was going to be doing a story on the saga of the Volunteer Ordinance. I feared that they, like the local media, would mischaracterize the story as being about something other than the a power grab by the City Council in a misguided attempt to decide how the Mayor should run his office.

NPR got it right, but I'm still wincing. Our City Council was shown to be the source of the problem, interfering with a Mayor's decision to work with his spouse. NPR even went further and gave Yael Abouhalkah enough rope to hang himself, quoting him as "a columnist with The Kansas City Star, [who] says city residents don't need a gatekeeper in the mayor's office."

Really, Yael? You, in your infinite wisdom, have decided that Mark doesn't need a gatekeeper? Even though every Mayor since Henry Kumpf has had a gatekeeper of some sort? (Confession - I really don't know if Henry Kumpf had a gatekeeper - I just looked back at some historical KC Mayors and picked one with a funny name.) It takes guts for a columnist at the Star to issue such an opinion, sitting in an office shielded by more plexiglass and paranoid guards than a payday loan shop at two in the morning.

In the big picture, though, NPR saw that the City Council is at fault here. Mark clearly states that he just wants to be left alone to run his office and focus on the real city issues. The City Council, though, wants to play around with staffing decisions that aren't theirs to make. The KC Star is annoyed that Mark doesn't maintain an open-door policy that they themselves don't emulate.

Meanwhile, we had 21 murders in August, and the City Council wants to play games.

Last Thursday, I saw Alvin Brooks talk about a local murder, and he challenged each of us to think about how the blood of a hopeless young man is on our own hands. 5 or 6 Council members were there, fresh from their override of the Mayor's veto. Sadly, I doubt that any of them even thought about how their silly, unconstitutional game-playing was a part of the problem.

Instead of being on the national media for innovative crime solutions, we're on NPR because our City Council doesn't like the Mayor's wife. Our Council has chosen to focus its attention on the feisty Italian in a cubicle rather than the poor kids shooting each other, and that's what NPR found worthy of broadcasting.

How embarrassing.

any man's death diminishes me

21 deaths in the month of August. 21 living, breathing human beings turned into insensate lumps of cooling flesh through the violence of others. On Sunday, the Star took the time to write about them as a group, and try to draw statistics together with portraits of the victims.

I wasn't one of them. Nobody who looks much like me was in the group.

21 bodies, and not one of them was a middle-aged Caucasian. Sure, lots of middle-aged Caucasians died during the month of August, but we died from stuff like heart attacks and car wrecks. Hot lead doesn't go ripping through our bodies.

Does that lessen the impact of crime on our community? Would we be handling things differently if half the victims were middle-aged whites? What would we do?

Mayor Funkhouser, You MUST do your Duty

Mark, when you started out on this effort, you knew this time was going to come. You knew that the forces that have controlled the city to their own advantage were going to attempt to seize control of the Mayor's office. The time has come - not a time of your choosing, not the issue of your choosing, not even the opponents of your choosing. But you knew that it would come about like this - fighting an awkward fight on a tilted battlefield.

You must fight.

The City Council has quite literally sought to dictate who may speak to the mayor, and under what terms. The ordinance they passed has specifically included giving advice as a forbidden activity. They did so even though it had been pointed out to them that forbidding unapproved contact with government officials is not only undemocratic, but unconstitutional.

Sadly, the City Council seems to think this was simply about your wife. Indeed, they sought to hide that fact when they started on the twisted, secretive journey to passage of this ordinance. They claimed to be imposing a volunteer ordinance that applied to all volunteers, but were forced to strip away provisions that applied to the Parks Department, then to other departments, and finally passed an ordinance that was, as you wisely pointed out all along, drafted to apply only to your wife. It was sad to see how they stabbed Beth Gottstein in the back, leaving her hanging out to dry when she made the unfortunately false claim that the city council would not be so small as to draft an ordinance aimed at your wife. Even as she uttered her hopeful words, her fellow 4th District Councilperson was in a backroom boiling the ordinance down to its poisonous essence. They are ruthless, even to each other.

But, even though the ordinance was aimed at your wife, it was never about her. With all due respect for Kansas City's first lady, she was merely a cruelly chosen target for serious people with a deeper agenda. Gloria is a tool they are using to cause you pain, but, if it weren't her, it would be something else entirely. This is about power. This is about who controls the Mayor's office. More centrally, this is about money.

Dirt and concrete - not bare feet and most definitely not words between former friends - are the reasons the council has acted as it has. As you knew when you started this whole effort, Mark, there are people who make money, huge money, staggering money, based upon the decisions of the Mayor's office. For decades, those people have controlled the Mayor's office. Mayors Cleaver and Barnes, in particular, saw that things went smoother when they made sure the very powerful were kept happy. And smooth sailing for the powerful meant smooth sailing for the politicians who kept them happy. To be fair, they accomplished much that was good while they were appeasing the powerful. They were talented politicians.

Dirt and concrete - real estate holdings and construction dollars - are very, very serious matters, as you well know. Those persons who control the valuable real estate (and their lawyer hired hands and other servants of power) in our city expect to see money spent on them, and taxes abated for them. Where many of us view political involvement as a civic interest or even a hobby, these people are in it for the deadly serious money. If they dream up a new project that enhances their holdings, the Mayor is supposed to be enthusiastically behind it, even if it means taking tax dollars away from our schools, and resources away from our poorer citizens on the East side, the West side, and the Northeast. Those cops patrolling the Cordish properties are not patrolling the areas that are seeing drive-by shootings and drug dealing. Why? Because the high dollar dirt and concrete are focused on Return on Investment, not returning hope to the urban core.

The citizens of Kansas City have very few opportunities to sit at the tables of power. In fact, they have none. Nobody is going to genuinely seek citizen input on whether we should gold plate the doorknobs on the latest Cordish fantasy. Nobody expects the public to have a voice when the powers that built the fantastically expensive convention center now say it is incomplete without a fantastically expensive hotel to go with it. Nobody was supposed to discuss development tools for the East side, or pledge to pursue TIF projects that benefit the areas that are genuinely blighted.

You are that nobody, Mark, and you have the chattering and monied classes in an uproar. So those people have manufactured an issue to knock you down a notch. They want to reach into your office, indeed, into your very marriage, and tell you how and when and where your wife can give you advice. The city council is willing to do that because, in the eyes of the real estate developers and the insiders, family values evaporate in the face of real estate values.

You are at a crossroads, Mark. You can allow the city council to wildly overstep its boundaries as set forth in the Charter and attempt to tell the Mayor how to do his job. You can ignore the unconstitutionality of their sloppy, treasonous little ordinance. You can go along and get along. You can act as though this ordinance is just a little bump in the road for your relationship with the council. You can even use this as a fresh starting point, and begin a rebuilding process to become the ribbon-cutting, cheer-leading, credit-claiming Mayor that this city chose to eschew when it voted Orange. In short, you can join in the reindeer games with the council and be one of them, all to your personal benefit. If you do that, you may retire after 8 years with a solid gold watch and a send-off party sponsored by the bluest of Kansas City's blue bloods.

But I don't think you can do that. Certainly not if you are the man I hope you are.

As I said above, this is most definitely not about cross words between former friends. This is not about one of hundreds of lawsuits pending with the city. It's not about Gloria, or volunteers.

It is about power. The powers that be want to control the power that wants to be. They have convinced members of the City Council to pass an unconstitutional power grab, and even gotten them to lie about their motivation along the way. The fact that many of the majority are fundamentally good people who are acting in this manner shows just how deeply the control of dirt and concrete runs in this town.

I leave it to you and your legal team to figure out exactly how to challenge the ordinance. But I call on you, as my Mayor, as my representative at the tables of power in this city, to stand up and carry on the fight. I can't be certain whether you will win, though I firmly believe that our judicial system stands as our most steady bulwark against the corrosive effects of money, power and influence.

The powers that be, acting through their influence on a too-easily-swayed council, want to dictate who may speak to the Mayor, when, and where. It is, of course, an outrage, and it was accomplished in a back room while committee members shamelessly ignored the public speaking against it.

If you fight and win, you will have struck a serious blow in favor of Democracy.

If you fight and lose, you will have provided an example of integrity that may inspire others to continue to fight.

If you do not fight, you will gain the peace and quiet and respite of the morally dead.

CCO and the Tom & Pat Sweeny Family

Last night, I attended a fundraiser for the CCO at the breathtaking Scottish Rite Temple on Linwood. The CCO (now "Communities Creating Opportunity", formerly the "Church Community Organization") is an inspiring organization, formed by faith communities in an era of white flight. Since that time, it has become the go-to community organization in Kansas City for grass-roots involvement. Chances are, you've never heard of them, but chances are even better that, if you live in Kansas City, your life has been improved because of their work.

This year, though, the event had a particularly memorable and touching moment. The plan was to honor longtime civic activist and dedicated attorney Tom Sweeny with the Phyllis Bahner Legacy of Leadership Award - a well-deserved recognition for a man who has been at the heart of Kansas City's most important social issues since the 1960s, when he marched for civil rights, through this decade, when he addressed voter suppression. I, like many in the crowd, was looking forward to applauding this lion of a man.

But Tom Sweeny was unable to attend. He's battling with the aftermath of a 2007 stroke, and simply could not make it to the event.

What happened, though, was hauntingly inspiring. When it came time to give the award, they asked one of his sons to accept it. Symbolically, the award could not have been handed to Tom Sweeny any better had he himself been able to tap dance up to the podium and accept it. Tom Sweeny, for all the good he has accomplished in his life, is most proud of his next generation, and many of his 9 children were there for the celebration. They include some of Kansas City's most dedicated and determined volunteers - and they will continue to impact our community for decades. If you've ever gotten involved with a project that has lofty goals and solid practicality, you've probably worked with a Sweeny.

The Sweeny clan's patriarch was at home resting last night, but his involvement was very much present, multiplied by the children he raised and the lives he's touched.

Well done, Mr. Sweeny. Kansas City took a moment to applaud you last night, though the good you've accomplished is just beginning.

Another Serving of Humble Pie

Yesterday morning, I admitted I was wrong in failing to recognize Margaret Donnelly's strength as a candidate for Attorney General. I'm almost never mistaken on political matters, so it represented a kick to the self-esteem. The kick turned into a full-fledged stomping, though, at the Record Bar's weekly trivia contest last night.

I had no idea who the back-up quarterback for Tampa Bay is.

I forgot that Rosalind Shays fell to her death down an elevator shaft.

I was completely worthless in the "Director Cameos" category.

And, sadly, my team wasn't much better than I was. By midway through the first round, the other teams realized it was sound strategy to shift any reasonably challenging question to us, and garner the points when we failed to answer.

Despite the humiliating exposure of gaping holes in my intellectual data bank, I got to sit around with friends, drinking good beer (it was my first sighting of Bob's 47 this year!), and laughing a lot.

I never realized that the trivia world has its own circuit, but I ran into a friend there who says he plays several times a week at different bars.

Yet another thing I didn't know . . .

Despite the blows to my self-esteem, though, at least I get to feel a lot smarter than a dozen other Kansas Citians who voted yesterday for an unconstitutional ban on regularly giving advice to elected officials. That was really dumb.

Bad Legal Advice, or Decent Political Advice?

I've been genuinely puzzling over the Marcason meltdown and the weirdness surrounding the volunteer ordinance being pushed by the Kansas City Council. Something has been "off" about the whole affair. Most of the potential explanations go part-way toward explaining the situation, but come up short or presenting a satisfactory picture.

I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Jan Marcason. She's not a rude person, in normal circumstances, but the video shows her turning her back on good citizens and ignoring them in favor of a back room. (Update: The video didn't catch the walkouts, as the camera stays focused on the speaker.) She's not someone who would, in normal circumstances, threaten a fellow council member, but Sharon Sanders Brooks blew the whistle on a hasty, whispered threat. She's not a sneaky person, in normal circumstances, but suddenly we see her sneaking a hidden ordinance into the committee so that she could ramrod it through without giving the public an opportunity to comment. She's not a metaphorical backroom politician, in normal circumstances, but the video shows her, quite literally, resorting to the literal backroom for a place to play politics outside the public eye.

Clearly, these are not normal times. I have way too much respect for Jan Marcason and most of those who supported her to believe that I am seeing the complete picture. Something made Marcason melt down, and I refuse to believe that it was simply an ego-driven, petulant reaction to people refusing to accept her ordinance on her schedule. Something else is going on. For Jan Marcason to threaten Sanders Brooks with a refusal to support projects in the urban core, it had to be something pretty major.

It could be something related to the Bates lawsuit. Clearly, the ordinance does not directly impact the Bates litigation, so the arguments about "protecting the city from liability" don't really add up. That argument also fails in view of the fact that Marcason's last backroom draft of the ordinance excludes 99.9% of the volunteers used by the city.

Furthermore, the lawsuit simply does justify such extraordinary reaction. Even it it went to trial, and a jury found that every claim of the plaintiff was true and unmitigated by other factors, financial damages in this case are difficult to demonstrate, and punitive damages are an unlikely prospect. Certainly, the case was unlikely to ever cost the city anything near the millions of dollars that Marcason had been willing to spend on consultants to provide countless hours of expensive training for thousands of volunteers.

One alternative method for the ordinance to become very much related to the Bates litigation, though, would be if it was somehow tied to a proposed settlement agreement. This does make a modicum of sense. Ms. Bates and Ms. Squitiro were, all agree, former friends, and it is not hard to imagine that a settlement of a case arising from a broken friendship would include an attempt to "settle the score" beyond mere money. This explanation also would encompass the near panic level of urgency that Marcason brought to the ordinance - most settlement proposals include an expiration date.

It's speculation on my part, but it's the only thing that explains the meltdown, the urgency and the willingness of Marcason to toss out every detail of the ordinance until it focuses exclusively on one person. All that other nonsense about trying to create broad volunteer guidelines in line with other organizations - methinks someone was making that up, and regrets spinning that line of malarkey in hindsight.

But, still, even if it is a part of a settlement agreement, it doesn't make a whole lot of legal sense. As described above, the Bates case, even on its best day, wouldn't justify the expense that Marcason was proposing to spend on consultants and criminal records checks. A quick look on Casenet shows that there are almost 800 cases of various types pending in Jackson County with "City of Kansas City" included in the parties. It would be bad legal advice, indeed, to agree to pass ordinances every time someone sues the city.

But legal advice is different from political advice. It would be a mistake to confuse good political advice with bad legal advice.

Kicking Gloria out of City Hall makes political sense for certain members of the council. It would be a way of undermining the Mayor, reaching into his office and making staff decisions for him. It would deprive him of his most trusted and important advisor. It would even be a bit of an embarrassment for him, and perhaps even be something that a councilmember with Mayoral ambitions would like to use during the next race. A settlement of the suit would also prevent a public airing of any defenses or explanations by Ms. Squitiro, such that only one side of the story would ever gain the public's attention - again, weakening a Mayor who is out to change the way things are done in our City.

It's even possible that the councilmembers believe they would gain the appreciation of a certain blogger, and get favorable treatment in the next election cycle.

Clearly, the Kansas City public does not know what is going on with this ordinance. Clearly, there is more afoot than simply trying to come up with a good volunteer policy, and we are being kept in the dark.

What happened in that back room? Until someone comes forward and explains it, concerned Kansas Citians are forced to speculate.