Peak oil brings a bit of suburban bigotry to an end!!! We're in the last days of long commutes to Kansas City!!!
Believe it or not, there are some people who are still so scared of minorities that they live in the hinterland outskirts of Kansas City and drive more than to 100 miles everyday in order to work within the city limits and often downtown.
Whether these people like it or not, the days of driving more than 50 miles back and forth are at an end for middle-class workers. Like the rest of the American transportation scheme, highways and roads in Kansas City were built around the idea of cheap gas. That is no longer the case and smart cars aren't going to cut it.
On the bright side, this means that we might get some new (if unwilling) Kansas City residents. However, I have no idea where they're going to live if they're not the kind of people who can afford 500k condos . . . Which is all that's for sale around this basement dweller.
A recent post by the insufferable blog "Let's Go KC" relays some frightening news about the economic impact of housing choices. In a nutshell it reveals that it just costs too much to live out in the sticks when fuel costs could reach the equivalent of another mortgage payment for folks who are coming in from the outskirts of this town.
We all know these folks, and I'm sure there is a lot to be said for small town living but it's not hard to imagine that the lack of minorities in their hometowns was most likely a factor in their home buying choices. And it's not like I'm revealing any new facts here given that home prices in places like Olathe, Liberty, Leavenworth and Atchison are tumbling. Even worse, can you believe there are quite a few people who commute in from St. Joseph, Warrensburg and Belton and beyond?!?!?!?!
The word is out, the lifestyle is over and we're all going to have to get a lot more comfortable with our new neighbors who didn't really want to be in Kansas City in the first place.
It's true, this is going to be a wonderful benefit of running out of oil.
ReplyDeleteWhen the other shoe drops and all the carnage settles, we finally have a chance to undo all of the hideous landscapes and suburban nightmares that the "greatest generation" created for us.
In the meantime however, I would stock up on guns and ammo and learn a little about farming... because things are going to get very ugly indeed.
Good riddance SUVs.
ReplyDeleteUmm, I hate to break it to you... but it ain't just going to be SUVs that are permanently parked in the future. It's going to be your self-congratulatory 30+ mpg vehicles as well as the big rigs who bring the food to your grocery store. See how it's your problem as well?
ReplyDeleteGood point. We're all going to have to deal with the decline of cheap oil. It's not doomsday but it's closer then you think.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that blacks are violent in KC during the summer, just wait until they can't afford to cruise on their 24s bumping teh ghey Tech N9ne.
ReplyDeleteOh how the bullets are gonna fly then!
There it is...the trifecta.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone has sampled all three delights in one evening?
Did anyone ever think that instead of people moving downtown to work downtown will continue to move to the suburbs - just as it has been for 40 years. People can live close to work in the burbs - and not have their cars stolen, homes broken into and pay 1% for the privelidge.
ReplyDeleteThat sentence structure is all kinds of fucked up.
ReplyDeleteThe logic isn't a whole lot better.
I don't about the rest you guys but I'm gonna try to move in with Tony
ReplyDeleteTony,
ReplyDeleteGood post. As a native Kansas Citian who hasn't lived in the city for over 30 years, rest assured that the white surburban flight issue-which started in the 1950's and reached warp speed in the 1960's-is a nation wide condition.
You hit the nail on the head. But it's not just whites. Many racial/ethnic groups (depending on where in the country you live) moved to the suburbs or exurbs, often because housing was cheaper.
Well, the rising cost of energy has just erased that advantage.
What will they do? Let's face it, all of us are going to suffer. Some more than others. In other words, all of us are stuck where we are. The way our post WW II communities have been designed guarantees that most of us will be great distances from things we need. Most American communities lack extensive mass transit. And it is too late to build it now. At least as a local initiative.
If this upward spiral in gas prices continues, and I think it will zigzag but in an upward trend, then we will see our international food supply chain contract in a way that is going to be very painful.
That's what most people don't understand. In terms of transportation, we missed the boat on doing things that would help large numbers of people get around rather cheaply (passenger & commuter rail, extensive light rail and trolley cars operating on electric grids for metro areas).
Most people are clueless. Those that think about this at all believe we will make a relatively painless transition to alternative energies. "They" will come up with something! If you read what scientists are saying, there are NO immediate replacements for cheap oil. NONE!
We burn oil like there is no tomorrow, and now tomorrow is here.
Hang in there.
Consultant nailed it.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when he says that most people see this as a temporary bump in the road, just until technology saves us and lets us keep driving like we always have.
The party is over people.
Life has generally been pretty easy for the last 50 years or so, at least in terms of being able to feed oneself and afford a decent car to get around in.
Expect people to be very angry indeed, and they'll be looking for someone to blame.
Whether you like it or not Tony these kinds of posts are exactly the reason that people will support regional light rail.
ReplyDeleteOh, Tony steals a good point and then wraps it up in racism and gets congratulations for his 'foresight'. Tony is a poser just like his hero, Alonzo Washington. All hot air and no real action just to push an agenda having little to do with the subject matter at hand.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but once you get past that there's plenty of Kardashian bikini shots.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the sky isn't falling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, maybe the earth has just a nougaty center of crude oil, waiting to be tapped like so many big bootied blondes Tony wanks to... but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteI think most of you are pretty much fucked.
Yep, read this crap in the Star yesterday. So folks drive 100 miles each way to work? Then want to complain about it. This is just plain stupid, even if gas cost $1.00/gal. Driving 1.5 hrs each way is stoopid.
ReplyDeleteCourse it helps my opinion when the pages show people driving ther Excursion's & filling up their F-250's.
It's not the lack of minorities that made me leave the city. I have plenty of wonderful minority neighbors.
ReplyDeleteIt's the shitty school district that I couldn't wait to get far away from.
As usual, Tony sees everything in only one dimension.
ReplyDeletethe school district! thank you , i couldn't agree more! we wouldn't mind living in midtown or downtown if there was actually a decent grocery store, general goods store (target, walmart, kmart, kohls) and the kc school district wasn't what it was. sorry tony, but i'm not willing to send my children, that i love, to that district. i'll just pay as much as i can to stay up here in liberty where the schools actually teach my children. but i guess caring about my children and their education is what makes me the suburuban white guy that you so hate!
ReplyDeleteTrying to figure out what I need to move to Kansas City for...
ReplyDeleteJob - no, plenty in the burbs. Never worked in KC and never will.
Safety - no thank you, Keep the gangs and the drugs that go with them.
Schools...hahaha
Entertainment - Naaa .. you can pay for the Sprint Center and Power & Light District and all that stuff all by yourself, along with your sewer system.
What have I missed?
The higher gas prices would have been a saving grace had it come before the housing slump. Since property values collapsed I have seen an increase in minorities moving into brand new developments that should have been minority free. Now I'm faced with moving once again. What started out as a quiet neighborhood has turned into one where minority kids have no respect for neighbors or their property. Which proves my point why I did not want to live around them to begin with. It's not being a bigot wanting to live in a pieceful neighborhood where everyone looks at for one another. But when you have to look out AT one another because the nappy headed hoes or little Jose cannot stay the hell out of your property and act CIVIL that's not enjoying life. I want to enjoy my life with neighbors that respect one another and the things they worked hard to earn. Which goes to show you, you can take the minorities out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the minorities.
ReplyDelete1) People will not move back into the city, there is nowhere for a family to live. Like the development of Overland Park's Corporate Woods---the jobs will come to them.
ReplyDelete2) All the self-righteous doomsdayers still don't know how to run a calculator. If you drive 15,000 miles a year (3000 above average) in a car that makes ONLY 20mpg then you are spending $3000 a year in gasoline costs. That is $250 a month in gas to commute. As far as that being 'as much as a mortgage' you must either have great credit or live in a 40k James B Nutter house.
3) There are costs of living in the city as well. If you don't want your kids to get an afrocentric education it will be at least $6000 or so for Meige or Sion or Hogan and $18,000 for Pembroke.
Work with a guy who commutes from St. Joseph each day. Figure he goes through three gallons of gas a day, minimum; probably closer to four counting the traffic. That's $16 without blinking. After taxes, that's an hour of his pay, every workday, just for gas.
ReplyDeleteAnd then I hear people bitch and moan because they live a whopping 10 miles from work. They don't know how good they've got it.
Keep wishing people. Your gas is going up faster than your ability to make excuses.
ReplyDelete$7.00 a gal. gas............
ReplyDeletecountry comes to a screeching halt!
parties over,
just work to fill the tank!
it's doomsday! doomsday i tell you! doesn't matter, we're all gonna die in the year 2012 anyways! better party it up!
ReplyDeletewe actually moved to a first-ring suburb because it was cheaper than living in the city proper and for damn sure cheaper than living in a real suburb. we were thinking we'd have all the amenities we'd need, being smack dab in the middle. stupid us, though, essentially all it means is that while we got our gorgeous historic home for a song, we have to drive everywhere for shopping and resources for our kids (activities, camps, schools, daycare). bcz sadly, no one puts a brand new Target in the ghetto. oh it also means that I have to wait twice as long for my cheddr peppers at Sonic. Damn, fast food is slow in the ghett.
ReplyDelete