Comments on: Regional Transit or Rational Transit?

By: Joe Medley

Joe Medley — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:31:34 +0000

At a public meeting last year, I urged Mayor Funkhouser to think regional and act local. In other words, a regional system has to start somewhere. The most logical place is here, Kansas City.

That’s why anyone who supports light rail should ask (perhaps even hound) the mayor this important question: where will the regional system start?

By: PK

PK — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:43:49 +0000

As and ex-KCitian and a current Denver resident, I can not speak enough about what light rail does for the city and the outlying communities. When the communitites like those in Jo-Co start to worry about people from the City coming into their neighborhood, they are going to fight the plan. Move ahead without them. These communities will eventually see the benefits other communities reap from the light rail and they will get on the train or get left behind. Disconnected suburbs allow for a bubble like feeling centered around mega-churches. If that is how they want to stay, let them. Those who provide the most benefit to the city and the central business district will support the plan anyway.

By: Tom Christoffel

Tom Christoffel — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 04:23:16 +0000

A link to this post will be in the February 13, 2008 issue of Regional Community Development News. It will be on-line February 14 at http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ Please visit, check the tools and consider a link. Tom

By: KC Light Rail » Round-up: Summit Coverage

KC Light Rail » Round-up: Summit Coverage — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:37:47 +0000

[...] From the Star, KMBC, KSHB, Fox 4, and BlogKC. [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:45:51 +0000

Kansas sucks anyway, why involve people who probably have to get on a highway just to go to a grocery store? Does that concept sound remotely visionary? Build it in THE CITY where it will stimulate growth, not in those artificial “communities” where they don’t even have sidewalks and nobody knows what the word pedestrian means. Pretend places like Overland Park and Olathe don’t exist and we can have it all for ourselves. As far as I’m concerned they can just rot (which, ultimately, they will) and we can just focus on building our city up instead of out. We do NOT need their help, cooperation or input, they have NOTHING to offer us. DOUBLE the taxes on people who are getting the benefit of working in the city but don’t live in it. We don’t need the low-paying jobs offered in their endless strip malls, let them take those crappy jobs if they don’t want to pay extra taxes for the privilege of working in the city. Just look at which direction the rush hour traffic flows, and you tell me who’s benefitting from whom.

By: Joe Valentine

Joe Valentine — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:51:35 +0000

That’s a plan that makes sense! Enough dicking around with suburbs that don’t really want transit anyway.

By: patrick

patrick — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:43:07 +0000

Is there any real popular desire for light rail in KC now? I get the sense light rail folks have lost momentum with the City Council shenanigans and the lack of an alternative rail plan, viable or not.

Between the economy rapidly cooling down and the looming sewer system overhaul, it’s going to be hard to justify light rail as one of the city’s top priorities.