Thanks to a reader who suggested a rather lame series of urban planning posts regarding Kansas City streets and some tourist with an advanced degree and series of bad ideas.
The D-Bag raised a bit of a ruckus among the vast community of amateur urban planners by noticing Kansas City's empty downtown streets: Streets with no cars
Of course he assigns fault with urban planning and not fear, crime, schools, white-flight and a complex array cultural logics at work that have basically made our Downtown into sort of a DMZ where only angry hobos rule and break expensive windows at will.
Still . . . In defense of his thesis he makes a good point about Downtown Kansas City perceptions.
"There are obviously people who believe strongly that downtown Kansas City has a congestion problem. This is mind blowing to me and all I can suggest is that, if you are one of those people, you need to travel to a place that actually has congestion."
Finally, the d-bag urban planner concludes his Kansas City polemic with a horrible idea about turning off all the stop signs in Downtown and making the intersections "shared space" so that some unlucky urban core pedestrian can inevitably have their head taken off as they get hit by a car at around 40mph.
Of course this stuff interests other amateur urban planners who pretend that they aren't failed or low rent architects.
However . . .
I'M ALWAYS AMAZED THAT KANSAS CITY GIVES THE TIME OF DAY TO "URBAN PLANNING" PSEUDOSCIENCE THAT'S BASED MOSTLY ON FAILED THEORIES AND FAULTY SEMINAR LOGIC!!!
In Kansas City, urban planners are like gurus for people who still haven't filled the void in their life with khaki pants, trendy eye-wear and the latest products from Apple.
Of course, in the final analysis The Downtown Toy Train Streetcar is the solution to all this City's problems and might also cure cancer.