KCMO Downtown Streetcar

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DaveKCMO
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by DaveKCMO »

TheBigChuckbowski wrote:
as for expansion, the 2014 proposal also generated enough revenue to not require a fare.
Do you think not charging a fare is a good possibility for the expanded streetcar?
i would vote to continue the no-fare policy with expansion, if the money is there to cover it (which it will be).
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by FangKC »

I think the no-fare policy is good in principle for a starter line. It promotes usage. It also encourages visitors and conventioneers to explore downtown, and probably will be an incentive to luring conventions where people have to be housed at Crown Center, or further away from the convention center (like 20th and Main).

The other thing it does is encourage people who drive in to park in one place and take the streetcar to a couple of destinations instead of driving and parking again in the secondary locations. For example, someone from Overland Park visits an exhibit at Union Station and parks in that garage, then goes to the Power & LIght District for dinner.

This policy also extends to downtown employees who would work for Blue Cross-Blue Shield and park there, who would go to lunch in the River Market. As it stands now, they would probably drive to the River Market for lunch.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

Encouraging people to drive from the plaza and park closer to downtown to avoid fares on that segment would obviously defeat the purpose of adding them outside downtown.

I could see fares by day working, like Sat-Sun stay free, to help counter this.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by DaveKCMO »

special section in the star today in advance of friday's opening, including video and interview with yours truly: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/kc-streetcar/
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by grovester »

Well done sir, I'd imagine you'll be getting lots of free drinks this weekend!
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by mykn »

grovester wrote:Well done sir, I'd imagine you'll be getting lots of free drinks this weekend!
Well the streetcar is just for a bunch of drunk hipsters /sueburke
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by HalcyonKC »

mykn wrote:Well the streetcar is just for a bunch of drunk hipsters /sueburke
I enjoyed the pouting picture of Sue.

Image
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

To be fair, the city hasn't been very responsive with making sure she has alley access for trucks. One end is controlled by the ethnic market which let it deterioriate and the other was blocked a bunch with construction debris for a long time. I even opened a ticket since neither is cool no matter who is impacted and the city refused to do anything.

She hasn't exactly been positive but she would have a point if she focused on results like changes for impact business access taking so long and not the election still.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by HalcyonKC »

I don't understand why Sue has hung her hat on being the face of the opposition for this project. I know some small business owners, and they have a generally scrappy attitude, always looking to network for new connections and turn anything that happens into an opportunity. I don't get that vibe from anything I've read about Sue though. In recent interviews that she has done, she has made the point that she feels that the streetcar is only good for bars and restaurants, and that nobody is going to hop off the streetcar and buy a bulky box of air filters from her business. Perhaps she's right--yet, I happen to have a loft downtown and I have an odd-sized air filter in my HVAC unit that I can't find at Lowes, Home Depot or Westlake. So I buy a box of 4-6 air filters each year, and I buy them online. I would never have considered going to Kansas City Air Filter. Is it even open for business to the public? It doesn't exactly have an inviting store front, it has boarded up windows and a garage door facing the street. If people *really* aren't going to carry boxes of air filters away from your door, a crafty business owner might work around that with little gimmicks like discounted local delivery and volume discounts. Even if dealing with all that foot traffic is tedious, some small percentage of it will lead to new, long-term, high-volume sales relationships.

And what she's saying only makes sense if she perceives the absolute purpose of her business as selling air filters. The purpose of any business is to make money, and when you're small, you have the ability to adapt your business to opportunities that might happen--like a lot more traffic going by your front door. She doesn't have to just sell air filters, she could sell anything she wants to expand into that where thinks she might profitably do so. Personally I think Planters is sort of weird but they appear to do decent business nearby as a small gardening and hardware store. If Planters can do that, I don't see why Sue can't adapt her business into whatever the heck she wants.

Regarding alley access, I did notice that she has what looks like it could be a perfectly functional loading dock facing the lot she shares with the Hung Vuong Asian market. I can see the parking lot not being functional for delivery purposes on the weekend due to traffic, but I assume that it's wide-open on weekday mornings. I did notice it was in a dumpy state but I assumed Sue just didn't want to pay to fix up the pavement, I wasn't aware the city was holding anything up. She probably could have gotten the whole thing fixed up with the city defraying the cost if she had been a little more adept at winning friends and influence, instead of going the petulant lawsuit route.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

HalcyonKC wrote: I assumed Sue just didn't want to pay to fix up the pavement, I wasn't aware the city was holding anything up. She probably could have gotten the whole thing fixed up with the city defraying the cost if she had been a little more adept at winning friends and influence, instead of going the petulant lawsuit route.
It's not the city not doing or allowing the work, it's more they're not making who controls the alley do the work. They even refused to require the alley be accessible for this reason.

A railroad controls the alley still apparently. I don't get the logic that another entity can change the grade with their parking lot and that's ok but in this case it's not ok to make changes, but that was the reason.

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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

I wasn't a fan of them listing Matt and Dave's ages... What was the point of that?
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

KCPowercat wrote:I wasn't a fan of them listing Matt and Dave's ages... What was the point of that?
That's been done in journalism for decades. It's a classic person identifying technique.

If you find a piece about how David Johnson or Kansas City went to jail for assault you can look at the age and quickly know it's not the same person because this David four years older than the one you know.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

No its not.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by chingon »

KCPowercat wrote:I wasn't a fan of them listing Matt and Dave's ages... What was the point of that?
The point was to show they aren't dingy, starry-eyed 20-somethings who just got back from their 6-month "I'm moving to Portland" sojourn, but rather that they are old. Disgustingly old.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by chingon »

HalcyonKC wrote:
mykn wrote:Well the streetcar is just for a bunch of drunk hipsters /sueburke
I enjoyed the pouting picture of Sue.

Image
I know I personally am going to buy all my house air filters from her from now on. I don't buy that the streetcar is the cause of her business woes, but I can certainly give her my filter-related money, and sincerely wish her luck (with her business, not with her anti-transit crusading).
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by DaveKCMO »

chingon wrote:
KCPowercat wrote:I wasn't a fan of them listing Matt and Dave's ages... What was the point of that?
The point was to show they aren't dingy, starry-eyed 20-somethings who just got back from their 6-month "I'm moving to Portland" sojourn, but rather that they are old. Disgustingly old.
:lol:
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

chingon wrote:
KCPowercat wrote:I wasn't a fan of them listing Matt and Dave's ages... What was the point of that?
The point was to show they aren't dingy, starry-eyed 20-somethings who just got back from their 6-month "I'm moving to Portland" sojourn, but rather that they are old. Disgustingly old.
I took their ages being mentioned as still being in the starry eyed age....why not mention everyone's age in the article?
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

Seems dumb to even mention, sorry from taking away from a pretty cool article.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

Is there a schedule published?
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by FangKC »

HalcyonKC wrote:
mykn wrote:Well the streetcar is just for a bunch of drunk hipsters /sueburke
I enjoyed the pouting picture of Sue.

I sense that Sue is the type of person who is determined not to be pleased about anything.

Image
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