Council Updates

March 29, 2007 |

The Red Bridge vote was delayed for a week due to Chuck Eddy being hospitalized for heart problems.

The pandhandling ordinance was passed with the last minute revisions, which are now public. While the media is portraying this a good compromise, the fact is that the place and distance restrictions will effectively make most of Westport and the Country Club Plaza off-limits to street performers. KC Street Art has the full details and did the legwork of actually applying the restrictions to real-world scenarios.


Comments

16 Comments so far

  1. Bored? Let’s fix it! » Council Updates on March 29, 2007 7:40 pm

    […] post by William Rockhill Nelson and software by Elliott […]

  2. Tim on March 29, 2007 10:26 pm

    Chuck Eddy hospitalized for heart problems? And people say no news in good news.

  3. patrick on March 30, 2007 8:52 am

    It will be interesting to see whether the new panhandling ordinance survives a legal challenge. The distance requirements have been thrown out in other cities as unconstitutional. I wonder what, if anything, John Fairfield has done differently to make sure this is legal.

  4. kcmoguy on March 30, 2007 9:22 am

    Fairfield is wasting our money and time with this nonsense.

    He has not established that the status quo is costing us anything. He has not even provided an empirically based estimate of the cost for the status quo nor for the implementation of the ordinance.

    Will the cost to you and me really be less to the city than the cost to Pottery Barn or McDonald’s if someone doesn’t go in their store because someone panhandles them?

    Did Fairfield, no doubt a *very* smart man, provide a tally of the cost for arresting, charging, jailing, housing and processing of even one violator? No, Fairfield, no doubt a *very* smart man, did not.

  5. Tim on March 30, 2007 9:45 am

    As far as I’m concerned any amount is worth it to get the panhandlers under control. They all need to get a life, and a job and leave people who aren’t too lazy to work alone.

  6. stacey on March 30, 2007 10:13 am

    Do you think that with Eddy being sick they will have to put off the Red Bridge vote for awhile longer? (hopefully until a new council takes office)

    As for Fairfield, I asked him for the numbers and he declined to give them. He did however say that acoustic music will result in car accidents. He was given several cases where the distance requirements did not survive legal challenge, but insisted on them. The performers would have been happy to be 15 feet from any doorway, but Fairfield wanted the 5 feet from the street thrown in. That way we can be told we are blocking pedestrian traffic and told to move along.

  7. patrick on March 30, 2007 11:19 am

    The fact they postponed the Red Bridge vote until Eddy returns suggests there weren’t enough votes to pass the thing. Or Eddy is so vindictive he wants to personally ram this thing through.

    Either way, the quicker we get rid of Eddy and Fairfield the better.

  8. Larry T on March 30, 2007 3:39 pm

    Time to get a group and talk to Alvin Brooks and see if the New Council can make the call on the road. Also John Sharp. Keep the e-mail going and phone call to city hall Monday-Wed.

  9. mitch on March 30, 2007 6:33 pm

    When people heard the news that Eddy is having heart problems, a lot of people wanted to know what heart?

  10. teresa on March 30, 2007 6:39 pm

    Sorry, Larry. As far as the Red Bridge issue, Alvin is just as bad as Chuck. At the buisness session he was telling stories about wrecks in front of his subdivision just off Red Bridge. I completely sympathize, but that area isn’t even in the project area. He also mentioned that the spring rains will be coming, so they’re going to have to be getting the road blocks out. I guess he doesn’t remember the very wet February we just had when the Blue River didn’t come any where near going out of its banks.
    You are right about the phone calls, though. We need to keep those going. A lot of people have been sending emails, too. That’s good for most, but Alvin doesn’t do email.

  11. Tim on March 30, 2007 10:41 pm

    You’re right, Alvin doesn’t do e-mail. #1 reason he lost is because he’s too old. I will never understand why anyone would wait until they’re almost 75 to run for mayor.

  12. jeanne on March 31, 2007 10:24 am

    Eddy is certainly vindictive. He’s wanted this bridge for several years and he’s bound and determined to get it one way or another. It doesn’t matter to him that it lost him votes. Man, if your own district won’t support you, that should say something. He just doesn’t get it.

  13. Tim on March 31, 2007 2:58 pm

    Chuck Eddy is disgusting. I remember seeing his fat ass on TV the day after the light rail proposal passed, saying “We might just have to reject this altogether.” And then he has the nerve to run for mayor, thinking he might actually get votes? Delusional slimeball.

  14. Craig Morea on March 31, 2007 7:10 pm

    At one of the mayoral forums, Eddy said that when he woke up the day after the November election and saw that Chastian’s initiative had passed, he was “so excited” that light rail was coming to Kansas City.

    A contradiction, to say the least. A flat-out lie, to say the most.

  15. teresa on March 31, 2007 9:55 pm

    Maybe some of you that think Eddy is such a slimeball but don’t live in the sixth district could call or email the other council people and tell them to vote against the Red Bridge issue. He really needs to be put in his place, but we could use some help from the rest of the city. As long as the other council people don’t hear from people in their district, they don’t care. Of course, Alvin doesn’t use email so he would have to be called.

  16. Craig Morea on March 31, 2007 10:19 pm

    You can email the whole council with one click at http://www.redbridgeroad.org/action6.html

    And you can leave messages here:
    Councilman Troy Nash, 513-1605
    Councilwoman Saundra McFadden-Weaver, 513-1608
    Councilman Jim Glover, 513-1616
    Councilman Terry Riley, 513-1629
    Councilman Alvin Brooks, 513-1602
    Councilwoman Bonnie Sue Cooper, 513-1601
    Councilman George Blackwood, 513-1617

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