OFFICIAL - Performing Arts Center construction

[FangKC]

I want my government to get the best price possible for the projects that we are taxed to pay for, and I'd rather that 5 people that are out of work and have families to feed get paid for a simple landscaping/concrete/electrical job than one person getting paid 5x the lowest wage. 

Why just the government, or people working for government projects?  Perhaps your family should also work for 20 percent of your current income for the work they do BeautyfromAshes. After all, there are unemployed people out there that could probably do that work as well.

[beautyfromashes]

Why just the government, or people working for government projects?  Perhaps your family should also work for 20 percent of your current income for the work they do BeautyfromAshes. After all, there are unemployed people out there that could probably do that work as well.

If my boss can find someone to do my job for 20% of my salary or if 5 people could cover my job for the same cost, then he should absolutely do it!

[shinatoo]

I want my government to get the best price possible for the projects that we are taxed to pay for, and I'd rather that 5 people that are out of work and have families to feed get paid for a simple landscaping/concrete/electrical job than one person getting paid 5x the lowest wage.  

1. I think you are greatly devaluing the work that your average construction worker does. I have seen plenty of work by your average moron off the street a half the price and its not worth it.

2. Get the money into the economy. That construction worker is going to spend the money he makes and create jobs for more people. Your tax dollars are going into the economy either way.

[beautyfromashes]

1. I think you are greatly devaluing the work that your average construction worker does.

No, I'm not.  This is not building a highrise or doing high voltage power work.  This is a project to pour new curbs, benches, light electrical and general landscaping.  Highly skilled construction workers like those who risked their lives on the PAC deserve a good wage.  I just think projects like this could be a good way to put unskilled labor, more than likely from the urban core, back to work. 

[FangKC]

If my boss can find someone to do my job for 20% of my salary or if 5 people could cover my job for the same cost, then he should absolutely do it!

Then don't complain if the day comes when your job is sent overseas, and you end up doing two or three part-time jobs trying to replace a fraction of your former income.

Besides, that figure appears to be for more than just workers, it was to also to purchase the municipal street furniture, which I'm sure can't be bought at Home Depot. It has to be durable and meet specs. It's probably expensive.  The planters probably will have to have self-irrigation installed as well. The price might also include the plantings.

Downtown has suffered for many years with broken down infastructure, and people wonder why businesses pick up and leave and go to the Plaza, or Kansas.  Now that it is being repaired, people are questioning the price without even knowing the particulars.

These jobs are bid out by the City, and presumably the job goes to the most experienced contractor who offers the best price.  The other factor is the contractor is also expected to get a job done on time.

While I'd like to see unemployed people getting work, remember that there are a lot of unemployed construction workers out there as well. New building starts are way down. States are cutting back on road spending.

My sister and her husband run a small, independent contracting firm that does infastructure projects.  They keep the same workers and pay them well because they are more productive. They don't go hiring unemployed people on the cheap because you end up not getting the job done on time, and have to deal with people that don't know what they are doing, and take too long to do it. It also involves more supervision. They do subcontract to other employers who hire day labor and such, to spread hay along excavated roads, lay erosion netting, etc.

[Major KC Fan]

I agree with you Fang, you generally get what you pay for, whether it be material items or work quality.

[aknowledgeableperson]

These jobs are bid out by the City, and presumably the job goes to the most experienced contractor who offers the best price.  The other factor is the contractor is also expected to get a job done on time.

Lowest and best bid.  Which means 99.99999% of the time the lowest bid.

Reminds me of a line from the movie The Right Stuff (or it could be Apollo 13).  The men are getting ready to blast off into space and one makes a comment to the other about the ship being constructed  with the lowest bid and they are risking their lives on this process.

[KCPowercat]

Cool story bro.

[pash]

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[FangKC]

The consumer is always paying--whether it be a government project, a product, or a service.

I'm not arguing any point that is attempting to keep people in other countries down. I was just trying to point out to Beautyfromashes that it's easy to say workers should be paid less, until it affects you and your family.  Everyone at some point, can be underpriced.  Wages downgraded.

It isn't just unemployment that is affecting the general economy. It's also wage degregation, and under-employment. When a huge portion of the economy depends on consumer spending, a continuous assault on worker wages doesn't help anyone.

If a parent is working two jobs to earn a former standard of living after losing a prior job, they have less time for their children, and that affects society at large as well.

And while people like to attack union workers, they also forget the union pay scales helped build the middle class in this country.  Other industries had to raise wages for everyone to avoid being unionized.  Read the history of local garment-maker Nell Donnelly.  Her business was never unionized because she raised wages in her shops to meet union scale, and provided many of the same benefits to her workers.

As far as overseas workers go, it doesn't help them either if American workers and consumer don't have enough money to spend on their products and services.  And it really doesn't have that much to do with American privilege in so much that even our lowest paid workers and consumera still have to be able to buy socks from China, etc.

[DaveKCMO]

the surrounding streets will all be repaved and restriped over the next few weeks: broadway (670 to sw blvd), baltimore (670 to 20th), 17th (broadway to baltimore), 17th/18th/19th (all broadway to baltimore). there is some indication that baltimore will be converted to back-in angled parking at the same time.

[chingon]

You cannot more clearly say, "Privilege the white man." Whatever force that argument has is illiberal and nationalistic. If you predicate your quality of life on keeping the Chinaman down, you really don't have much of an argument.

Alternately, if one was interested in the truth, I suppose one could quite convincingly argue that globalization, especially as it pertains to the relationship between the West and SE Asia (also, dude, "Chinamen" is no longer the preferred nomenclature) has been an unmitigated ecological disaster whose dire and looming effects will be felt with decidedly one-sided severity and immediacy in the "non-white" parts of the world.

But then again, anyone who considers the state-specific protection of employment "illiberal" or "nationalistic" either has a central misunderstanding of the purpose of societies, or is being willful obtuse in hopes that playing the biggest stretch of a race card in the entire deck will confuse the simpletons who do things like finish cement or support the human right of those who do to bargain together for a bigger slice of the pie they bake.

[IraGlacialis]

the surrounding streets will all be repaved and restriped over the next few weeks: broadway (670 to sw blvd), baltimore (670 to 20th), 17th (broadway to baltimore), 17th/18th/19th (all broadway to baltimore). there is some indication that baltimore will be converted to back-in angled parking at the same time.

Has Wyandotte been open yet? At least a week ago, it looked finished and the roads blocks a mere formality.

[missingkc]

Seems the webcam is down.

[pash]

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[kboish]

Not open today, but looks like it should be open any day now.  They are currently finishing up the crosswalks and putting in planters and what not along side walk.  Looks great.

Rode my bike up in front of the glass entrance and it looks awesome.  One thing I did notice that Im not sure has been mentioned on here before is the parking garage in front has an escalator that feeds onto the plaza area at the front main entrance.  It would appear people cannot enter the building through an underground tunnel entrance, which is great in my opinion.  Make for lots of milling about and great views looking south towards crossroads on events night.

[Downtowner]

Patti LuPone and Tommy Tune have been added to opening night...should get even more attention from the NY press now.

And I hear Aretha has booked for a later date.

[grovester]

Wandered around today, very impressive.  A little more accessible as all their barricades had blown down with the latest weather.  Wyandotte was open from the north but not the south.  I like the integration with the neighborhood.  The south side is iffy but I think it will be OK once landscaped.  Had lunch at Los Tules, they will have an awesome view once the grass grows, the Broadway elevation is fantastic.

[FangKC]

Producers aim high for Kauffman Center debut gala

On the agenda are performances by opera legend Placido Domingo, jazz star Diana Krall, Broadway hoofer Tommy Tune, Tony winner Patti LuPone and famed violinist Itzhak Perlman; an excerpt from “West Side Story” with dance students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory; a special performance by the Kansas City aerial dance troupe Quixotic Fusion; and a 17-piece all-star big band led by Bobby Watson that will perform a commissioned suite honoring Kansas City jazz greats with the Kansas City Symphony. The jazz performance will include projections of images from the American Jazz Museum.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/23/30 ... ucers.html

[KC-wildcat]

Had lunch at Los Tules, they will have an awesome view...

... until some developer acquires that block and Los Tules gets the wrecking ball.