Clay Chastain Champions Monorail Amid Upcoming KCMO Bus Tax Spike

A worthwhile update from the only person to ever win a citywide light rail vote . . .

Clay Chastain press release: The City's *Modified* Ordinance #230446 (to extend the bus tax 10-years) is like kissing your sister - nothing to get excited about because it fails to fix transit & lacks a transit-catalyst (Airport Monorail ) to move transit & Kansas City forward.

Over 30-years ago, the City's FOCUS Report recommended rapid rail be the mode of choice to connect KCI to Downtown & that Union Station be a Regional Transportation Center. Neither of those two exist, nor are either included in Ordinance # 230446 headed to voters.

Just extending tax money to keep an anemic bus system breathing (without investing in a complimentary Modern Airport Monorail System), is not a winning transit formula because:

(1) A Monorail (interconnecting with a good bus system) is the "transit-catalyst" needed to make the bus system GO (high ridership).
(2) A Monorail is going to make KCI far more accessible and attractive to residents & visitors alike than having to take several buses & too much time.
(3) A Monorail (operating in a Greenway), will generate far more affordable housing & mixed-use development (healthy density) along its permanent route than buses operating along (changeable) routes.
(4) A Monorail (500 + passenger capacity) is cost-effective & far more desirable to accommodate World Cup visitors than a train of boring buses going back and forth to KCI.
(5) A Monorail (from KCI to northland, to Downtown, to Union Station Hub, to Eastside and to SKC) will electrify KC, revitalize the Eastside and attract... new jobs, residents, tourists and transit riders.
(6) A Monorail will enable Northlanders and Southland residents a more convenient and affordable option to access Downtown jobs & Central City destinations.
(7) A Monorail will qualify for federal funding since it is Green, Citywide and will serve and help redevelop the inner City of our Community.

We cannot prosper KC, revitalize the Eastside, secure federal funding, nor fix transit & Union Station around a stigmatized, one-dimensional and ho hum bus system. It will take a whole lot more vision than just an extension of the bus tax. The answer is coming.

*Aside: I am abandoning the current *Landmark Initiative* since it is now moot and in conflict with City Ordinance # 230446 (they both seek the same taxing mechanism).

KC Activist, Clay Chastain 

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Developing . . .