SHAME ON THE KANSAS CITY STAR AND MAYOR SLY FOR FAILING TO EVEN MENTION THE WORD "HOMICIDE" WHILST DISCUSSING KANSAS CITY'S PRIORITIES!!!
Let's start the day by facing the fact that Kansas City's institutions have once again FAILED the people of this cowtown.
A really disgusting article in today's Star features a question and answer session with Mayor Sly regarding priorities.
Sadly . . .
SEARCH THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AND NOTICE THAT THERE'S NOT ONE MENTION OF THE TERM HOMICIDE OR MURDER RATE!!! THIS PAINFUL OMISSION CLEARLY INDICATES NEITHER THE STAR NOR MAYOR SLY ARE TAKING KANSAS CITY'S MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM SERIOUSLY!!!
On the bright side, Mayor Sly mentioned infrastructure but only in passing. And to be fair, Mayor Sly said on thing about safety without any detail about a plan or idea for the future.
Still . . .
The talked eco-devo . . .
The upcoming KCI airport fiasco rated a brief mention.
THERE'S EVEN A SECTION DEDICATED TO THE DUMB IDEA OF A KANSAS CITY TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED DOWNTOWN HOTEL!!!
The silly scheme hatched by The Kemper Family earned some coverage as well.
Nevertheless . . .
JUDGING BY THIS ARTICLE IT'S CLEAR THAT THE STAR AND MAYOR SLY DON'T CONSIDER KANSAS CITY'S MURDER RATE A TOP PRIORITY!!!
This sin of omission sends a powerful message about the current leadership of Kansas City and speaks to the circumstances which have brought us to this point.
DEVELOPING . . .
I think Sly mentioned safety. But only once.
ReplyDeleteLOL.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Homicide problem has been going on for YEARS. The prior chief Corwin said he was going to tackle it with his weekly "Crime STAT" program.
Didn't make a dent. Now we're on the "hot spot" crime plan.
Anyone who's lived in the metro for as much as a week already knows that providing basic services to residents isn't a priority for KCMO municipal government. It views its job as funding whoever shows up at city hall and yells the loudest, and particularly loves funding big projects with taxpayer money so that councilmembers can ingratiate themselves with the swells and get to cut ribbons and invited to nice receptions.
ReplyDeleteBut water pipes, streets, public safety, or snow plowing? Boring!
In KCMO, if you're getting mugged, call a TIF bond attorney.
This years murder rate is no different then last years, or the year before that, or the year before that, ect.ect.ect.ect.
ReplyDeleteAll city leaders should be jailed!
ReplyDeleteNEWS FLASH: This city council, lead by Mayor James and Troy Schulte (Oh and let’s not forget our Mayor Pro Tem!) has been on an out of control spending spree that clearly demonstrates their lack of priorities. One needs look no further than some of their recent antics for evidence of this:
ReplyDelete1. They gave an interest free loan to political insiders for a Trolley that no one rides.
2. They gave huge unjustifiable pay raises to their union buddies in Local 42 (average of 15%),
3. They spent $5 Million on an airport study for a new terminal we don't need,
4. They spent $509,786 for renovations to the Council chambers, that didn’t need to be renovated.
5. They’ve agreed to pay $15 Million to settle the Citadel Plaza fiasco.
6. They spent $31,000 on tablets the average Joe could have for a fraction of that cost, and they don’t really need to begin with!
7. They spent $1.55 Million to purchase KCIR for another park we also don't need,
8. They spent $72,000 on a witch hunt of a municipal judge in an effort to enforce a residency requirement that is at best vague and ambiguous
There is a TOTAL LACK OF PRIORITES among the elitist political class in this city. This Mayor, City Council, and City Manager DO NOT CARE about the little people that make up the cannon fodder for the majority of the homicides in this city!!! One needs to look no further than the fact they have underfunded the police department’s budget for the past three years for evidence of this fact.
They also continue to underfund the pensions of all city employees (something I’m sure they will try to fix with increased taxes). The water mains all over the city are breaking because they refuse to take anything more than a band aid approach to fixing the ancient infrastructure. Yet they our water bills continue to go up despite no change in the amount of water consumed each billing cycle.
Now we find out the Mayor’s two biggest priorities are:
1. Building a downtown hotel (which will require millions of taxpayer dollars)
2. Building a new airport terminal (which we don’t need and no one outside of City Hall wants)
What a joke!!!
Again, ALL of these things demonstrate a TOTAL LACK OF PRIORITES among the elitist political class in this city. It is time the voters in the city start paying attention to their antics and remember TOTAL LACK OF PRIORITES when it comes time to VOTE!!! I, for one, will never vote for ANY of these jokers again!!!
"Mayor Sly 'don't' consider..." Nothing like writing for your audience.
ReplyDelete"THE STAR AND MAYOR SLY DON'T CONSIDER KANSAS CITY'S MURDER RATE A TOP PRIORITY!"
ReplyDeleteAt least get your quote correct if you are going to complain about the grammar.
"whilst" ?
ReplyDelete8:50 has got it right. As dismal as the Funky administration was, as least it got what have again become the PMPs (permanent metal plates) off the streets, and water leaks fixed.
ReplyDeleteI voted for Sly, but I'm beginning to think I may have made a mistake.
So what is the mayor and city council supposed to do? Pass an ordinance banning homicide? When en entire neighborhood has a culture that glorifies dropping out of school, solving all problems with violence, absentee dads of multiple kids with multiple women, and indifferent welfare moms with multiple kids and no idea who the daddys are, there's nothing any external force can do other than wall off the neighborhood and wait for it to extinguish itself.
ReplyDelete8:50 FTW. Sly is starting to disappoint.
ReplyDeleteA downtown hotel?
Really?
Get serious, Sly.
The plan is as long as they can contain the violence, it's viewed as a tolerable situation. An aside, PENNY MATHIS always brightens the day.
ReplyDeleteRemember that Kansas City does not have a murder problem. The east side of KC has a murder problem. As long as it is contained there and as long as the good citizens living there chose to "not snitch" and tolerate the thugs, the problem will continue.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Tony: Thanks for posting this info. I don't want to cause you another "blog frenzy" by again pointing to crime stats from my home town of DC, but however you calculate the population of DC vs. KCMO, two things are clear: DC is at least 50% larger (and possibly double the size of KCMO when all of the year-round non-residents are included) and DC used to be known as "The Murder Capital of America." Right now, DC is at 103 homicides for 2011--compared to 122 at this point last year--KCMO now stands at 106 homicides for 2011 compared to 95 at this point last year. Finally, for all of those anonymous comments on this blog blaming the black community and its supposed lack of values for the city's crime disaster please note that DC is a city that is two-thirds black. If a heavily black city like DC can conquer its crime problem so can KCMO. Take care. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans
ReplyDeleteDear Ernest,
ReplyDeleteAs always, I appreciate your thought provoking comments on this subject of crime in Kansas City. I also find your comparison of Kansas City crime statistics with those of your home town quite interesting. However, I find some of your comments a little hard to believe, so I did a little research of my own and here is what I came up with when comparing the two cities.
First, Washington, DC’s population (601, 723) is not 50% larger than that of Kansas City, Missouri (459,787). If Washington, DC’s population were 50% larger as you say, it would be 689,681. So, you aren’t exactly correct in that regard.
Second, comparing Washington, DC’s 2011 homicide total (103) to Kansas City, Missouri’s 2011 homicide total (106) is interesting, but requires a bit more information in order to insure you are comparing apples to apples. Washington, DC covers a total land mass of 61.4 square miles compared to Kansas City, Missouri’s 313.5 square miles. That means in Washington, DC there is a homicide for every .6 of a square mile of land mass while by comparison Kansas City, Missouri only has one homicide for every 3 square miles.
Third, comparing Washington, DC’s police department is much bigger than Kansas City, Missouri’s police department, which lends itself to 8:50 AM’s argument. Washington, DC police have 4050 police officers, compared to Kansas City, Missouri police department which only has 1400 police officers when they are fully staffed. So, in other words, Washington, DC has more officers for every per square mile (66) than does Kansas City, Missouri (4.5). Put another way, Washington, DC has less population per officers (148.6) compared to Kansas City, Missouri (328.4). Yet another comparison, Washington, DC has more officers per homicide (39.3) compared to Kansas City, Missouri (13.2). So, Washington, DC SHOULD have a lower homicide rate than Kansas City, Missouri.
I do, however, agree with you when you say this isn’t solely a black issue. As you say, if a heavily black city like Washington, DC can overcome their violent crime problems, so can Kansas City. I think 8:50 AM has hit the nail on the head when they are pointing out this is a matter of making violent crime a priority. Until our elected officials decide to fully fund the police department’s budget, so they can fill vacant positions, and perhaps hire more officers so this city has numbers that are more comparable with your home town (more officers per square mile, lower population per officer, etc.) I do not believe we will be able to overcome the problem.
All of those 63 extra voters that put Slick James over the top should be ashamed!
ReplyDeleteMy bad!!! It was only 28 votes that forced the wrong guy in office.
ReplyDeleteKCMO entered into a consent decree with the EPA in May of 2010 to fix the sewage discharges that happen whenever it rains. This means separating the stormwater drains from the sewer pipes. Estimated cost is $2.5 billion dollars and the city now has 23.5 years to fix the problem. I'm sure they will kick the can down the road and it will become a huge crisis 3 years before the deadline hits. Jefferson County AL went bankrupt as a result of the screwing they got from Wall Street financing on their sewer system. Could happen here as well.
ReplyDelete@736, I might add that I admittedly don't know the numbers but I bet DC has a whole lot more Federal Police within its' border than KC. This would provide a significant addition to the DC city police enforcement efforts. Which would skew the comparisons even further in the favor of DC.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can stack all the murdered bodies in the brand new downtown hotel? We might as well use it as a morgue since the hotel is more important than infrastructure, public safety, police, fire, roads, etc...
ReplyDelete