Is KC Tenants destroying the development future of downtown KCMO?

[Karambit25]

But their real goal is to destroy the city and keep the cycle of poverty going. They will do everything in their power to support the addicted, the criminal, the free loader and bad tenant behavior while doing nothing at all to help anyone in any tangible way.

That is basically as reductive as KC Tenants can be. That rhetoric only poisons the well further.

You're welcome to your opinion but it changes nothing I said. What have they accomplished or provided in a tangible way for their "constituents?" Name a single life that has been improved by their whining and screaming? Since when is calling them out "poisoning the well further?" That's typical left rhetoric. Landlords are in business to make money. They don't want to evict people and have empty property costing them $$. If tenants don't pay their rent or act like fools they deserve eviction. KC Tenants is doing nothing to provide affordable housing. Nothing.

[chaglang]

Man, I can’t tell if you’re actually saying the quiet part out loud, or someone pretending to be cartoonishly callous landlord to bump up support for KCT. Maybe it doesn’t matter. But since you’re here, I am curious what your solution to affordable housing is.

[Sirius_Blue]

And as far as I know, most of the criticism leveled at KCT is about their rhetoric and tone, not their "base message" for lack of a better phrase.

[Pastense]

Still don't get the logic of KCT opposing the creation/preservation of 77 affordable apartments at Armour & Main? How do the residents of the New Yorker apts feel about having the rehab of their affordable units stopped by a group that should have been supportive of their needs?

[alejandro46]

Yea some of the things KCT does ARE genuinely good and nobody was doing before. Bad LLs need to be held accountable, especially for mold, maintenance issues, etc. and most tenants can't afford good legal representation for eviction hearings. However, being anti-development and anti-any incentives, etc. plus scorched earth tactics at City Hall... no support from me imho, just a member of the public.

[FangKC]

I predict the housing trust fund for the development of affordable units will end up being rife with corruption and cost overruns.

[Anthony_Hugo98]

I predict the housing trust fund for the development of affordable units will end up being rife with corruption and cost overruns.

Is there an example of something like this in the US that performed better than free market development at building housing units? None that I personally know of to say the least

[FangKC]

Many on this forum will remember the scandal with Kansas City's Housing and Economic Development Financial Corporation (HEDFC) spending $1.1 million dollars to renovate two Beacon Hill houses on Tracy Avenue. Not build new, renovate.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0806843 ... 384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.080564 ... 384!8i8192

HEDFC had to be shut down.

viewtopic.php?p=233541#p233541

[Sirius_Blue]

Yea some of the things KCT does ARE genuinely good and nobody was doing before. Bad LLs need to be held accountable, especially for mold, maintenance issues, etc. and most tenants can't afford good legal representation for eviction hearings. However, being anti-development and anti-any incentives, etc. plus scorched earth tactics at City Hall... no support from me imho, just a member of the public.

This is almost 100% my feelings on KC Tenants. Hearts are in the right place, but damn. For a group that is so "social-media savvy" they are quite blind to their own optics. Especially regarding those "scorched earth tactics." That attitude has no place in our day and age.

[FlippantCitizen]

^ Agreed. I think they are deeply misguided. One of my neighbors is s high school friends with of one of their organizers and we have met socially. I have told him everywhere they are going wrong and he listened politely enough. It's when we oppose them by referring to them as criminals and addicts that the sides only become more entrenched. We've got to engage with logic. You might think that is pointless and they won't listen but I'm sure that name calling will only result in a worse working relationship.

[Pastense]

^ Agreed. I think they are deeply misguided. One of my neighbors is s high school friends with of one of their organizers and we have met socially. I have told him everywhere they are going wrong and he listened politely enough. It's when we oppose them by referring to them as criminals and addicts that the sides only become more entrenched. We've got to engage with logic. You might think that is pointless and they won't listen but I'm sure that name calling will only result in a worse working relationship.

Nicely put. Balancing the scales between tenants and landlords is a laudable goal. Trashing a good landlord who continues to invest in our community and was meeting the city's affordable housing standards was a tragic misstep. Unfortunately it worked. I'd love to be part of a dialogue, but I don't have any trust in their real commitment to supporting affordable housing development. I think it's all about power.

[Cratedigger]

This thread on KC Tenants live tweeting the Port KC Lux project is worth the read for the perspective. Disheartening to see what seem like good projects on tougher parcels fail. Especially when this is the attitude:

Lux Living 25-year tax abatement officially FAILS. We shut it down, y'all. Power to the people.

https://twitter.com/KCTenants/status/15 ... meIb70Qd3w

[Anthony_Hugo98]

This thread on KC Tenants live tweeting the Port KC Lux project is worth the read for the perspective. Disheartening to see what seem like good projects on tougher parcels fail. Especially when this is the attitude:

Lux Living 25-year tax abatement officially FAILS. We shut it down, y'all. Power to the people.

https://twitter.com/KCTenants/status/15 ... meIb70Qd3w

Aren’t they supposed to encourage more housing so it’s more affordable for residents to live here? They are celebrating doing the opposite

[Chris Stritzel]

This thread on KC Tenants live tweeting the Port KC Lux project is worth the read for the perspective. Disheartening to see what seem like good projects on tougher parcels fail. Especially when this is the attitude:

Lux Living 25-year tax abatement officially FAILS. We shut it down, y'all. Power to the people.

https://twitter.com/KCTenants/status/15 ... meIb70Qd3w

Why even give them the privilege of posting a link to their tweets? They're not worth it and one day they'll be proven to be frauds who shot the rental costs on older buildings way up. Don't give them the attention they crave anymore.

[alejandro46]

More goal-post moving. KC MO needs to either change the affordable requirements or stop denying projects that don't meet them.

[Karambit25]

I hate these blue haired, unwashed commie bastards.
Good for nothing but wasting space.
Is that too harsh?

[trexel94]

I hate these blue haired, unwashed commie bastards.
Good for nothing but wasting space.
Is that too harsh?

Ironic how they're only contributing to the housing shortage but what do you expect from individuals who either have no education or majored in some socialist liberal arts crap along half of whom still work minimum wage well into their 30s. Interesting how the class that contributes the least demand the most. We have some of the cheapest rents in the country. If you can't make it here then you frankly can't make it anywhere. Add in the fact they typically demand free housing in the most desirable neighborhoods while completely ignoring the rest of the metro that could fit their budget. They want the best of everything for free essentially.

These cretins enrage me and are well on their way to smothering the nascent growth we do have. Its hard enough to do business in a city with obscene taxes and needless regulation like a major coastal city but with tepid growth, a lackluster talent base, inept leadership and with below average incomes like some stagnant rust belt town. These dumb assholes can live in cardboard boxes for all I care. I'm not affected by rents. Also the race-baiting school board twats need to f**k off and focus on their failure of a school district. They offer nothing except excuses as to why they can't do their jobs.

[TheLastGentleman]

I’m shocked a forum that’s ostensibly dedicated to urban KC could produce some of the anti-urban crap I’m reading on here

[Sirius_Blue]

I hate these blue haired, unwashed commie bastards.
Good for nothing but wasting space.
Is that too harsh?

These dumb assholes can live in cardboard boxes for all I care. I'm not affected by rents.

I don't think this attitude is helpful either. They're concerned with housing vulnerable people in KC, and that's admirable. It's just their methods and rhetoric that are tiresome and questionable.

[dukuboy1]

why is there not a counter group or someone who is watching the watchers so to speak? Do we know they are operating correctly? the only way to defeat a group like this is to use their tactics against them and look for cracks to exposes them as frauds. Name calling is not going to work.

Their goal is admirable but their methods are questionable and they have no strategy or real understanding. They are only harming those they say they are protecting. Why don't they look to pursue projects that will invoke the change they desire instead of going after other's projects? The answer, they lack the skills to and ability to pursue the development they want, they only now how to bring down other people's projects. Even ones that would be of benefit to them. Anyone who posts a congrats with a "power to the people" has lost credibility in my eyes. I support your ideas but now you lose any credibility when you promote that attitude. What you do not see is them pursuing any kind of alternative project and that to me is the core of them being frauds. Where is their project they want to promote. Just being on the opposite side of something is not an argument nor or you helping. Bring something to the table to counter, just don't look to tear ideas but perhaps try to share yours as well. The issue is they have no plan, no ideas how to help the very people they choose to "protect". My guess is development will continue to stall out and what does get built will be 100% privately funded and do whatever the hell they want. This will create a large gap in housing for those vulnerable.

New leadership at city hall is needed,