Happy Independence Day 2022: State Of The Blog & Kansas City

Tonight we take a moment to consider why we gather on this corner of the Internets in order to talk politics, local issues & American culture . . . 

But more than anything else, here's our main takeaway . . . 

TKC REMAINS THE MOST INDEPENDENT NEWSY BLOG IN KANSAS CITY!!

A bit of background . . .

Over the years we've faced a number of challenges but it seems that along with finding "our voice" via this online experiment. . . We've also stumbled upon something important . . . 

Whilst the Internets is flooded with all manner of sketchy content . . . Our commitment to editorial independence is probably the most important aspect of this blog. 

A quick explanation . . . 

There are plenty of places to get the news, even on local issues . . . What has kept readers coming back, other than the bawdy jokes, snark & constant typos . . . Is that we are AN INDEPENDENT KANSAS CITY NEWS, SNARK & COMMENTARY SOURCE. 

There are currently a bevy of progressive websites attempting to replace the newspaper and they haven't found any traction . . . Right-wing sites have also FAILED miserably. There's even a local Black-militant blog that earned a 25K grant for publishing sketchy allegations & racial rants . . . But none of these online outlets have branched out past their niche audiences.

Meanwhile . . . Whilst I'm still living in my mom's basement & riding the bus to the nearest strip mall in order to renew my garbage burner mobile phone . . . In terms of traffic, user participation and local policy impact . . . TKC has never been better. 

Even amid a more "relaxed" publishing schedule . . . 

This dump has never had more readers than right now. 

And all of this bloggy progress has come with greater challenges . . . (Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask for money yet . . .)

Longtime denizens know that we switched up the comments . . . Overall that has decreased the count but improved the quality . . . We want to continue to venture along that path and we aren't above another design change. 

We once called this place a "Free Speech Zone" and there's still more freedom on TKC than any other major KC publishing outlet . . . But a comment free-for-all isn't intrinsically informative or useful . . . It usually ends up in hate crimes and stalking threats. We like our "members first" model but overall strive for better ease of use.

Still . . .

The whole point of this blog is to provide a resource and share our love for the local news whilst inviting & welcoming a variety of different viewpoints as an ALTERNATIVE to mundane mainstream coverage & analysis.

To that end . . . We've been more successful than any other local publishing endeavor and we believe our blog community provides a better cross-section of Kansas City in a discussion of politics & culture than any other "place" on the Internets . . . Including rigged and sketchy social media gathering spots that ask about "the best place to live" and "where to get local kombucha" day after day after day . . . 

And that brings us to the state of Kansas City.

We're still in the midst of a historic & deadly crime wave.

Local corruption is reaching surprising levels as institutions like the police & transit system endure debilitating meddling from elected leaders.

As we approach election season . . . There is reason for hope despite activist fixation on racial & cultural divisions in the face of more pressing problems like crumbling infrastructure, rising taxes & degradation of basic city services.

Accordingly . . .

More than anything else we believe that INDEPENDENT, SILLY AND SNARKY TKC BLOG COMMUNITY COMMENTARY can help Kansas City keep our priorities in place. 

We always welcome suggestions as to how to make this blog better.

And we thank longtime commenters for coming along on our journey.

More importantly . . . 

We thank VETERANS for their service in protecting the freedom that we enjoy. 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

We hope to see you back for the next update and for however long as we can continue, enjoy & keep up this cowtown news experiment. 

As always, thank you for reading.