KCRag Forum

The guy says he is looking at downtown traffic at 4:30 on a Friday. Well, at just past the 3:00 mark the bank clock says its just after 3:30. This guy has no credibility.

beautyfromashes wrote:The guy says he is looking at downtown traffic at 4:30 on a Friday. Well, at just past the 3:00 mark the bank clock says its just after 3:30. This guy has no credibility.

That's funny, because I wondered the same thing when I saw him go past that clock. Do you have a screen cap?

.

So, why is he talking to us? Please tell me that someone isn't paying him to come here and I'd really be mad if my tax dollars were being spent to pay for his drinks and strippers. Best to ignore this gnat. Done.

beautyfromashes wrote:So, why is he talking to us? Please tell me that someone isn't paying him to come here and I'd really be mad if my tax dollars were being spent to pay for his drinks and strippers. Best to ignore this gnat. Done.

I figured he was at the smart growth conference last week and took the opportunity to bag on us some more.

interesting related piece about road use in Boston, which of course has a good transit system

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... ams-start/

98 percent of roads in the Boston area were in fact below traffic capacity, while just 2 percent of roads had more cars on them than they could handle,

sounds like having empty roads is quite the norm for any city, even at the busiest time of the day

flyingember wrote:interesting related piece about road use in Boston, which of course has a good transit system

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... ams-start/

98 percent of roads in the Boston area were in fact below traffic capacity, while just 2 percent of roads had more cars on them than they could handle,

sounds like having empty roads is quite the norm for any city, even at the busiest time of the day

Thanks for posting that. During this whole discussion I was thinking that there are huge swaths of the Financial District on Boston that have comparable traffic to DT KC. Nice that I wasn't imagining that.

Forum favorite Chuck is speaking at K-State next week.

http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleas ... 10913.html

I wish he'd properly come through KC so we could show him around a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCJpQ9uNPLY

Haha fuckin Chuck.

Demosthenes wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCJpQ9uNPLY

Haha fuckin Chuck.

He fell before he made his point! I'm assuming he was going to say, "Look, two out of three lanes are shut down and the street functions just fine. Get rid of all these through lanes!"

Seriously though, it is frustrating when the Midland has vehicles parked all over. Especially if that street is ever converted to two-way. This is why we (used to) have alleys, no?

Here is your chance to give praise or throw tomatoes at Mr. Marohn. He is speaking as part of the KC Library series on January 30th.
https://www.strongtowns.org/eventspage/ ... as-city-mo

On the same night, Peter Kageyama is speaking in Overland Park.
http://www.fortheloveofcities.com/in-the-media/
http://forwardop.org/save-the-date-imagine-tomorrow/

Great city making overload, all on one nite!

beautyfromashes wrote:This is a guy trying to badmouth the city and pump up his own superlative laced, nothing vision to win some consulting work. Best to be avoided and ignored.

I stand by my assessment from six years ago.

AlbertHammond wrote:Here is your chance to give praise or throw tomatoes at Mr. Marohn. He is speaking as part of the KC Library series on January 30th.
https://www.strongtowns.org/eventspage/ ... as-city-mo

On the same night, Peter Kageyama is speaking in Overland Park.
http://www.fortheloveofcities.com/in-the-media/
http://forwardop.org/save-the-date-imagine-tomorrow/

Great city making overload, all on one nite!

Let's hear your thoughts on one of these presentations after you attend!

Lots of people at the Strong Towns event. Filled up the large auditorium in the basement of the plaza library.

He didn't really talk about KC much, just development patterns in general. There were a couple of slides before Chuck got the mic about how KC had grown so much in physical size without much growth in population size, delivered by some library people or something.

Chuck just talked about how suburban development was unproductive and subsidized and the true development costs are hidden, that sort of thing. He is a fan of small stuff that provides high ROI, not a fan of big signature projects or tax incentives. Talked about how we (American cites) were all doomed to become Detroit anyway. Talked about how poor neighborhoods often subsidize the rich, that seemed to unsettle some people, lol. Nothing he said would surprise anyone who has read his blog.

Interestingly, it sounded like there were some anti-airport people there. Someone asked him what he thought about our airport and he was a bit surprised at the question, but said it served his needs, he just got off the plane and into a car. Several people clapped (20-30 out of hundreds) and he responded by saying he wasn't aware of any controversy. Idiots. Does not relate to Strong Towns philosophy at all, but many anti-airport people would attempt to draw a correlation. I think some of the people who asked questions were anti-city government cranks. One guy asked about subsidies and how they can get city government to listen, etc.

Also interestingly, most people drove. Makeup probably would've been different if he did it downtown instead, but I guess you don't preach to the choir.

Chuck= the Donald Trump of development.

beautyfromashes wrote:Chuck= the Donald Trump of development.

He can be provacative, but I'm not sure I'd go that far.

Also, wouldn't Donald Trump be the Donald Trump of development?

I went to the Peter Kageyama event in OP. His talk was very good. In some ways, relating to the StrongTown message of focusing on small initiatives that have high relative return. "Return" in his talk was social, not monetary, but they go hand-in-hand.

The Chuck talk looked like a good one. You guys are holding out....what else did you come away with after the presentation?

https://www.facebook.com/strongtowns/po ... 4657161603

“Investing in infrastructure that will last 40, 50 more years is the correct use of debt. Just as people know that a mortgage is good debt as you invest in property to secure your family’s home and future.” Sorry, but no. That's not correct.

There are two correct uses of debt for local governments. The first is cash flow when temporary expenditures exceed momentary revenues. You have to have a great understanding your balance sheet for cash flow debt. KC does not.

The other is for self-extinguishing investments, spending that will be retired by the new wealth created. To pull this off, you need to know your profit margins (profit is an accounting term, not a synonym for greed), development assumptions, and other associated costs so as to aggressively monitor your investment return. Again, KC does none of this.

Like most American cities, KC is confusing their insolvency problem for a simple cash flow problem. They are really fragile and this will end badly, but it's likely they will blame whatever shock coincides with their downfall instead of the billions in unproductive promises and debt they accumulated along the way.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics ... 99864.html