My Town, My Take

That's no wind turbine!

2009-01-26T10:36:00.002-06:00

I'm skeptical of KCP&L's "wind-powered" clock tower in the Power and Light District. The clock tower was billed as the "centerpiece of the district's piazza" and would light up when the wind turned the corkscrew wind turbine.

In a highly scientific experiment a couple of weeks ago, a fellow blogger and I pulled up chairs inside the windows of Willie's Sports Bar and observed this so-called wind tower for a couple of hours. The process involved enjoying a few Boulevard IPA's and simultaneously watching sports on the flatscreens but such are the sacrifices one must make for science.

Our conclusion? The thing never stopped spinning. In fact, it seemed to be turning at a constant rate. Either we have a constant wind source in downtown Kansas City and can solve the region's energy needs or somebody's pulling our leg.

EXCLUSIVE: Exclusively boring

2009-01-16T09:05:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to train my dog to do things like find her favorite tennis ball when she wants to go outside and play fetch. She knows "Where's your ball?" means we're going to play and she gets very excited, but she hasn't completely put together the part about going and getting her tennis ball yet. When she does manage to get her ball and run to the back door with it I give her even more praise. It happens about one out of three times. We'll get there.

Today the Star ran a "big" exclusive story about Rep. Stephen Tilley (who?) from Perryville (where?) not filing a disclosure report that states he owns an airplane as a member of an L.L.C. with a lobbyist. Had this been someone Kansas Citians actually knew, or had it been something sinister, or had Rep. Tilley actually tried to hide it, this may have actually been a story. Instead the EXCLUSIVE story reads like the administrative equivalent of "you left your lights on". Much like when my Izzy accidentally grabs her chew toy instead of her ball in the excitement of heading out to play, I feel like I should throw the Star a biscuit for the effort. Good intentions. Right idea. Poor implementation.

There is so much investigative reporting that could be done by the Star that would actually make for interesting reading. I would list some ideas here, but what good would it do? I could also hand Izzy her tennis ball when it's time to go out...

Taste of Kansas City: Minneapolis Barbeque to Chicago Pizza

2009-01-13T14:49:00.002-06:00

A long time ago I questioned the reasoning behind putting a Minneapolis-based barbeque restaurant that features St. Louis style ribs in downtown Kansas City. With taxpayer subsidies to boot!

Now it turns out that Famous Dave's apparently isn't making the numbers and is wanting to move. The franchise owner wants to convert the space into an Old Chicago Pizza.

Not that there exists a Kansas City style pizza, but good grief!

New Blog: MetroI70

2009-01-05T13:40:00.002-06:00

In a very forward-looking attempt at embracing all forms of communication, the MO Department of Transportation has started a new blog to take input from the public about the future of I-70 through Kansas City. It also has links to presentations and the planning process. Good stuff for all of us public policy wonks!

If you don't have time to make their public meeting tomorrow night you might consider dropping a comment or two over there.

Definitely not major league

2008-12-26T10:47:00.001-06:00

Times Square is getting a wind and solar powered billboard. Meanwhile our own Power and Light District has a small LED display powered by a whirly gig...

Darn kids and their addictive trash bags

2008-12-11T09:00:00.000-06:00

Every year the neighborhood kids hit me up selling everything from flowers to trash bags. I don't mind. I too did my time hounding the neighbors. For little league it was World's Finest Chocolate bars. For school it was popcorn in decorative glass decanters. I don't remember what I had to sell for Cub Scouts but I'm sure it was useless also.

At least today's kids are forced into peddling things that are actually useful. Back to those trash bags. They're the best! Big, tough and available in colors. The problem is, what to do when you run out and there's no poor kids out hawking them at your door? I need some bags man! I need me some of the good stuff! Aren't there any organizations abusing kids by making them sell trash bags door to door this time of year?

Fairfax and Claycomo. The new Armco?

2008-12-10T09:21:00.004-06:00

Years ago it was every high schooler's fallback position. If college wasn't a shot in your bag, you could either sling brake pads at one of the car factories or sling hot bricks in the steel furnaces of Armco Steel. It didn't take a college education to do either and the pay was good. Then Japan got into the car business. In order to build cars they needed steel, so they got into the steel business too. Soon the modern Japanese steel plants began outproducing and underpricing American steel. And soon the big names like Sheffield, Pittsburgh and Armco were out of business.

The days of the behemoth steel plant are long gone. There comes a point were economies of scale give declining returns. But in the 90's, a new business model emerged. The mini-mill began to do what even cheap Japanese steel couldn't do. Produce a high quality product, cheaply and save the cost of shipping by locating near the customer. These mini-mills used modern technology, required fewer employees and had much lower operating costs. American steel was back, but with an entirely different look.

I think what we're seeing with the Big 3 automakers is a repeat of the collapse of the steel industry. Sure we can prop it up for a while, just like we did for domestic steel companies with high tariffs on imported steel. But a free market abhors a vacuum and in the end a dead business model is just that... Dead.

New automakers are emerging with business models similar to the steel mini-mills. Small, fast and reflexive, they do not have the vast bureaucracy that prevents traditional automakers from bringing a car to market in a matter of months instead of years. Companies like Phoenix Motorcar, Tesla and Fisker are American manufacturers who may soon become the norm instead of the exception. In business, like in gunfighting there are two kinds of players; the quick and the dead. We've already seen that Detroit is not quick. My only hope is that some of these new players in the automotive field will Consider Kansas City.

Put your PC to work

2008-12-08T18:50:00.002-06:00

IBM and Harvard want you to help them solve some technological puzzles. Using your idle PC's processing power, a simple program crunches numbers for researchers who are using the web as one giant super computer. Similar to the old SETI screensaver program that parsed data looking for extraterrestrial radio signals, the World Community Grid asks you to sign up your PC to parse data for projects like AIDS, cancer and cheap solar cells.

You can sign up for everything or mix and match projects. It's all free and you get the satisfaction of knowing that if you leave your PC on, it's doing something more worthwhile than recording TV programs or serving web pages.

Click here to get started. Let me know if you sign up, or if you already have and what your experience has been. No word yet if Harvard is going to have a program in which your PC solves our current economic crisis.

The Conditional "No Soliciting" Sign

2008-12-02T10:04:00.002-06:00

I work from home. It's a luxury I'll admit, but it does have its downsides. One of them is the periodic annoyance of people ringing my doorbell. This sends my dog into a full scale meltdown which of course means I have to descend from my attic lair to the first floor to calm my dog and find out who is ringing my doorbell.

Ninety percent of the time the person at my door is an unwelcome intrusion. If only there were some way to filter out the 90%. A simple "No Soliciting" sticker in my storm door might discourage everyone from ringing my doorbell and I don't want that. Somehow I need to figure out a sign. I don't mind politicians and school kids hawking trash bags, but the rest need to leave me be.

Tip til it hurts

2008-11-11T15:56:00.002-06:00

Now certainly doesn't seem like the time to be eating out a lot. The economy seems to worsen every day and we all fear for our jobs. Why on earth would I be advocating being a good tipper? Bear with me.

Let's say you stay home slurping Ramen noodles and fearing the arrival of a pink slip. How is that going to help you, or the economy? Sure the noodle makers are happy, but what about the lost revenue for that locally owned restaurant you used to frequent? What about your own mental well-being? I survived many a black Friday in the 90's. Unfortunately at the time I was doing the very thing I now advocate against. I was worrying myself prematurely gray, not going out as much and in general living an unhappy life. It did me no good to worry and the money I saved by "scaling back" realistically would probably only have bought me an extra week or two before having to move into a cardboard box.

This time around I'm refusing to let the Sword of Damocles rule my life. I still have my job so I'm trying to make sure everyone who depends on people like me still have their jobs too. I eat out at great places like Accurso's and Cafe Al Dente. I make sure I tip well for good service. Hopefully that tip goes right from the server's pocket and right back out into the economy. Economists call that the "Money Multiplier" effect.

I realize I alone can't spend us out of an economic downturn, but unless I'm unfortunate enough to lose my job, the least I can do is help other people not to lose theirs. And if I have some really good meals and a good time doing it? That's just an added bonus.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T12:36:00.004-05:00

Izzy is ambivalent about her costume.

Where have you gone J.J. Maloney?

2008-10-30T13:30:00.002-05:00

Of course I know J.J. Maloney passed away years ago. He's gone, but certainly not forgotten. What else is gone is the kind of journalism that had you waiting for the paper to hit the driveway so you could read an exciting story about happenings in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Star spends no small amount of time blaming bloggers and the internet for its declining circulation. They themselves haven't seemed to notice that the Metro section has all the pop of a phone book. Nothing interesting. Nothing exciting. Is it because Kansas City has become inactive since the days of J.J. Maloney and the River Quay? Hardly. There's plenty going on. Granted there aren't many guys with flashy nicknames ending up dead in the trunks of their cars, but there's plenty of drama going on. You just have to look a little for it.

A couple of years ago I was invited to a reader's feedback forum at the Star. One of the Star's editorialists was there, supposedly to "listen" to what we had to say. When they asked me what I would like to see in the paper I said "more investigative pieces" which they immediately took to mean KCTV5 type "investigative". When I replied that no, I meant more pieces like cellphone misuse by the City Council or yes even pieces like J.J. Maloney used to do. The editorialist quickly dismissed me by saying they did not have the budget to do those kind of stories. Telling him The Pitch does those kind of stories once a week was not what he wanted to hear.

I'll soon be cancelling my subscription to The Star. Why spend money on something that most mornings goes into the recycle bin unread?

What to do?

2008-10-29T14:42:00.002-05:00

What am I going to do with this blog? I barely come up with enough anymore to write on thekansascitypost.com. My one reader (Brent) is about the only person that still comes and checks this thing out.

What say ye Brent? Should I keep this blog going? About what should I write?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Friday Rant: The presidential election

2008-09-19T08:18:00.002-05:00

This has been an interesting presidential election for me. In more years than I care to say I actually have a clear choice and look forward to November. In the past my vote has been for the candidate I perceived would do the least amount of damage.

As an independent, I like to think that I can be objective as I watch and listen to the campaign messages and the opinions of the rabid partisans. It seems the vitriol has risen to new levels this time out. That's fine I guess. People certainly have the right to express their opinions in this country and candidates should be free to run their campaigns as they see fit.

I only have one meager request. Please stop screaming at us, the swing voters about how bad the other guy(s) are. We don't want to hear your subjective rantings. Of course you have a poor opinion of the opposition. That's why they are the opposition! How about for the next few weeks you stop telling me about how awful the other side is and start telling me about how awesome your side is? After all, I think we'd all prefer to vote for a candidate instead of against one.

That is all. As you were.

MO Clean Energy Initiative makes the ballot

2008-09-09T07:50:00.001-05:00

The Clean Energy Initiative made it on the ballot! Now get out November 7th and vote for it!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 08, 2008

St. Louis, MO — - Missourians for Cleaner Cheaper Energy (MCCE) announced today that the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative will appear on the November 4, 2008 ballot. The Cole County Circuit Court found that the initiative has the necessary number of signatures to be certified for the ballot in November.

More than 400 Missouri volunteers statewide circulated petition pages for the initiative, which would require investor-owned utilities to generate or purchase 15% of their electricity from clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power, landfill gas, biomass, and small hydroelectric projects. Approximately 163,000 signatures were turned in from six US Congressional districts.

“The Clean Energy Initiative will reduce the use of fossil fuel for electricity and encourage growth in Missouri’s renewable energy industries. The potential growth in these industries could lead to significant job creation and gains in income for Missourians,” said Dr. David Laslo of UM-St. Louis Public Policy Research Center.

“The Clean Energy Initiative would diversify Missouri’s electricity supply by adding a significant amount of renewable energy, and potentially save Missourians $331 million over twenty years," said Martin Cohen, former Illinois Citizens Utility Board Executive Director.

The Clean Energy Initiative is endorsed by a broad based coalition of industry, labor, faith, and environmental groups such as Kansas City Power & Light, United Steelworkers, Restoring Eden – Christians for Environmental Stewardship, and Republicans for Environmental Protection. Twenty-six other states have enacted similar renewable electricity standards to increase production of clean energy and promote energy independence.

“Missourians support this policy because it cleans our air, creates jobs, invigorates the economy, and makes Missouri more energy independent,” said Erin Noble, Energy Policy Coordinator for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. “In fact, by 2022, the Clean Energy Initiative will have the same effect as removing 2 million cars from the road. This initiative moves us towards a cleaner and healthier future for Missouri families.”

Heycameraman.net: Justus in Denver

2008-08-27T08:09:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite local bloggers Laz at heycameraman.net has a great video interview with Senator Jolie Justus about blogging, politics and the new media.

Money quote: "I don't think any of us know how we're going to be getting our news in the next five years."

I would add I don't think any of us know what we're going to do with a multi-million dollar glass printing plant in the middle of downtown in the next five years. Maybe turn it into an aquarium?

Check out Laz's post here.

Friday Rant

2008-08-22T14:26:00.001-05:00

I'll make this real simple.

Commenters are not "bloggers." Learn the difference.

That is all. As you were.

Another gift idea

2008-08-21T08:23:00.001-05:00

At $5K it's a little steep for my pocket book, but if anybody wants to buy me one....

You heard it here first

2008-08-08T15:51:00.000-05:00

John Edwards has admitted to the affair, but says "the kid is not my son, oh no no, hoooo!!!"

Any bets on how long it will be before a Billie Jean parody appears?

Efficiencity UK

2008-08-08T12:55:00.002-05:00

This is pretty cool if only for the animation. Check it out here!

So now I'm a liberal?

2008-08-07T08:37:00.002-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it a thousand times more.

Digging things out of the ground and setting them on fire is not a responsible way to generate energy.

Think about it. The majority of our energy comes from burning things. Coal, natural gas, oil... In the 21st Century doesn't it seem odd that we're doing something so completely primitive? It seems ironic to me that as I sit here typing on this high tech computer that somewhere there's a great big mound of burning coal making this possible.

This morning I read a heated letter to the editor supporting offshore drilling and how liberals describe oil usage as an addiction. The writer uses the term "liberal no-drill crowd." I know I'm very liberal when it comes to social issues, but fiscally, and I am a Finance wonk, I've always been quite conservative.

Do I think it's a good idea to drill holes in the ocean floor and pull out what can only be described as a toxin? Do I want a repeat of the 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara? No I don't. So does that make me a "no-drill liberal?" I guess it does. Do I at least get a t-shirt with that?

BarackObama(.com) is taking too long to respond

2008-08-04T09:16:00.002-05:00

Everybody has their hot button issue for a presidential race. Mine is, and has been since 2000, renewable energy. In '00 Al Gore hadn't really discovered global warming yet. Apparently he was still basking in the glory of inventing the internet. In '04 I'm not really sure what John Kerry was up to. I'm not sure anybody did. Republican candidates seem enamored with oil, and Libertarian candidates love ethanol. And Green Party candidates? Well that's always Ralph Nader. I'm not concerned that we need to be saved from the Corvair again. As a matter of fact, I still see quite a few of them on the road and the drivers seem healthy and happy.

This time around John McCain told us here in Kansas City that he wants to build 45 nuclear power plants and start drilling like hell off our coasts. Once again an old white guy trying to make decisions the consequences of which he won't be around to see.

So this morning I thought I'd look at Barack Obama's website and actually read his energy policy. He's making me nervous right now because he seems to be backsliding on offshore drilling, dipping into the strategic oil reserve and the biggest misnomer of all "clean" coal. So I did a quick search on "barack obama's energy policy" and found the link to his site. When I loaded it up I got the following:

The server at www.barackobama.com is taking too long to respond.

Wow! That's either very good news for the Obama campaign in that so many people are attempting to hit his site that the server is overloaded, or someone is trying a denial of service attack (I doubt it). As I write this I finally got the page to load.

Al Gore has the right idea. T. Boone Pickens has the right idea. Hopefully Barack Obama will have the right idea. I have some reading to do.

My midtown adventures: Part II

2008-07-31T08:23:00.000-05:00

So I have to fill another prescription for poor Nicole who is still suffering from her tonsillectomy. Off to the 39th Street Walgreens I go. This time, I used the drive through. Very handy. Unless of course, they haven't taken the call from your doctor for the meds.

It was about 2:30PM so the parking lot was fairly empty. Especially the north side lot facing Big Dude's. It was completely empty so I drove up and pulled into one of the spots where I could call the doctor's office and find out what was up with the prescription. I begin working my way through receptionists, phone nurse's voice mail, receptionist, another receptionist and finally the nurse. She explained to me that she had finally gotten through the busy signal at Walgreens and the script should be ready.

About the time I'm finishing my phone call, the thundering bass alerted me to a car pulling in to the spot right next to me. "Be cool" I thought. I'm just a middle-aged white guy in a German sports sedan parked mid-day in the Walgreens parking lot. Nothing out of place. Just blending in. I'm sure there's no reason out of the dozens of empty parking spaces in every direction this person chose to park next to me. As I was completing my phone call I casually glanced over at my new neighbor. She was gathering her things and was preparing to exit the vehicle. Her "things" were a blinged out cellphone and a brown paper bag with a 40 oz sticking out of the top.

She staggered around behind our cars and began yelling. "Oh crap" I thought. Fortunately I quickly realized she wasn't yelling at me, but at someone on one of the apartment porches along Central. Something about "Girrrllll I didn't know where to park!" and "You know how we do!" She staggered and weaved her way across the parking lot and disappeared through one of the many bent openings in the metal fence that surrounds Walgreens. Mid-afternoon on a Tuesday and the party in midtown was under way.

My midtown adventures: Part I

2008-07-30T07:55:00.002-05:00

The wife had a tonsillectomy last Thursday. As anyone will tell you, this is not an operation you want to have when you're an adult. I brought her home from the surgery center about 3PM, made sure she was comfy and promptly headed out to the Walgreens at 39th & Broadway to get her pain meds prescription filled.

When I dropped off the prescriptions they told me it would be at least 30 minutes. Just enough time for me to head next door to McDonald's for a quick lunch. It's funny to sit inside that McDonald's with all the normal looking people when you know there's complete craziness going on outside. You would think the place would be filled with crazoids but their clientele appeared to be businesspeople grabbing a quiet, late lunch.

I finished my lunch and walked out to my car. I had parked just opposite the speaker box for the drive through. I started to back out, but a weird sound caught my attention. I know now it was the warble of a police siren being pulsed for a couple of seconds. I rechecked behind me and there were now multiple unmarked police cars surrounding an SUV. The cops had come from all directions in literally just a few seconds. In just a few more seconds there were serious looking plainclothes cops aiming serious looking assault rifles and screaming at the occupants of the SUV.

The most interesting part of this was the reaction of the occupants in the SUV. Woman passenger, seemingly not surprised that she was being ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint. Male driver, disgusted, but also obviously not surprised he was being ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint. I can't even imagine how I would react to a bunch of serious-looking dudes aiming assault rifles at me. As the police put them both in ziptie handcuffs and moved them out of the way, all the police vehicles vanished as quickly as they had arrived. The whole thing went down in less than 30 seconds.

I backed out and got the hell out of there. Will I ever go back to that McDonald's? Sure! Just another day in midtown. That's just how I roll...

My Town, My Eyes

2008-07-11T08:10:00.000-05:00

So I've been waiting to blog about my lasik experience until I could look back objectively. I think I'm far enough removed now to describe my experience without using too many profanities. For the faint of heart, I suggest you stop reading. This post is pretty graphic.

First, the surgery went fine and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Being able to live without contacts or glasses is wonderful. My eyesight gets a little wacky every once in a while and my eyes tend to get tired in the evening but I'm told that's normal for the first few weeks.

The day of the surgery I was nervous. They run a bunch of you through one after the other so you're sitting in a waiting room with people who are in the same boat as you. In my case I was sitting across from a prominent TV news personality who was just in front of me on the schedule. They call you back in 20 minute intervals to a prep area where you are fitted with a surgical gown, cap and booties. They give you a half milligram of Valium and some ibuprofen to take the edge off and put you in a recliner to hang out until the drugs take effect. TV news guy gave me a nod and a "hello" in a manner that told me he was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately for me I have a very high tolerance to most sedative-type drugs so giving me a Valium did about as much good as a sugar pill. In fact, by the time the nurse came to get me I was jiggling my legs like a preschooler who just finished off a box of Cocoa Puffs.

So TV news guy gets taken back to surgery and was back very quickly. He seemed none the worse for wear and gave me a sort of "it's not so bad" look as they ushered him back to his recliner. So they take me back to the operating room where they ask you to state your name and which eye(s) is being operated on. After that there's no messing around. You're on your back on the table and they're taping your eye wide open with four strips of medical tape and putting anesthetic drops in. Then comes the CLAMP.

First some explanation. Your eye has to remain absolutely motionless during the laser procedure. Since a normal person is not able to keep their eye still while someone smokes it with a laser, they place a jig that literally clamps on to your eyeball. Only one problem. To your average person who is whacked out on Valium this amounts to about as much discomfort as a tap on the shoulder. To someone like me with full awareness of what was going on it felt like... Well, it felt like someone was putting a clamp on my eyeball! As I attempted to rip the cover off the operating table and refrain from using the kind of language reserved for hitting your thumb with a hammer, I felt several pairs of hands holding me still. I'm pretty sure at that point they all realized I wasn't a drugged-out Valium-type guy.

After the shock of the clamp, everything else was a breeze. First Doctor Silverstein explained that I would briefly lose my vision. He didn't explain "why" but I knew from research that they were making the incision for "the flap." That only took a few seconds. Then the laser began. It was nothing more than a seeing a bunch of tiny red dots dancing around in your vision. It was almost soothing compared to the medieval torture device clamped to my eye. Of course something else they don't prepare you for is the smell. Ever get a whiff of burning eyeball?

Each eye took four minutes total from clamp on to clamp off. I was much more prepared for the second eye since I knew what was coming. Tape, drops, clamp, internal swearing, temporary blindness, light show, "what's that smell?" and then done.

So it's been three weeks and my eyes are doing great. I see perfectly and even my closeup vision has improved to the point where I don't have to ask Nicole to read fine print for me. I know reading glasses are still in my future but it seems I have delayed the inevitable for now.

The people at Silverstein Eye Center were fantastic. Aside from the whole "not telling me about the clamp" thing which really wasn't their fault. How were they to know I need a horse tranquilizer to get me in the mood for eyeball clamps? If you want to ditch your glasses and contacts it's definitely the way to go.