The Anita Gorman Exposé

Anita Gorman is a well-respected community leader who has won recognition for her contributions to the cause of conservation. She was chairman of the Missouri Conservation Commission, president of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners and had a park named after her when she retired from that post. The Discovery Center, an urban conservation area along Brush Creek, bears her name. She has figured prominently in several fundraising and charity events and serves on a handful of honorary commissions. Basically, she is a local hero.

Last night, she called me pathetic.

I was participating in a discussion at a public forum regarding the Riverfront Park development being pursued by the Port Authority. One of the discussion-inducing questions was "can you imagine this park without parking in it?," in response to which Gorman immediately became incredulous.

The development is involving some of the best consultants in mixed-used development and urban parks available, and the plan is advocating the leveraging of the adjacent neighborhood to provide event parking. More than 800 on-street spaces will be provided in the neighborhood, in addition to the private parking accommodations of the residents and an independent parking supply for the office space.

Gorman shook her head adamantly.

"You need to let these people know that they aren't getting it when it comes to parking," she said. I indicated, in turn, that I could absolutely envision the park without independent parking. It could leverage the plentiful parking in the area that would only be needed during off-peak times, all without destroying the park in the process.

Clutching her car keys in hand, Gorman began to stare me down. It was immediately clear that she is used to people reverently listening when she speaks, yielding to her legacy. In reaction, she evoked it, discrediting me with a smirk and sharing credentials like "I have been in KC longer than many of you [me] have been alive" and when events were held in Loose Park, neighbors were upset by the impact to the neighborhood. She laughed at the consultants suggestion that we re-route Riverfront Drive, saying the Kansas Citians can surely cross a street while missing the point that the sense of flow and connectivity was at play, not the ability to cross. She advocated keeping the street to accommodate a "sea of parking" for events.

I countered that the layout, connections and neighborhoods that will be near this park couldn't be more different than Loose Park and that a mixed use development is designed differently than a low-density, single-family homes neighborhood of mostly affluent people like the area around Loose Park. I also said that those who choose to live in such a development make a lifestyle choice that includes such complications as people coming in from outside of the neighborhood. In fact, we welcome it.

My continued deviation from her gospel clearly irritated her, and at this point it was visible on her face and apparent in her rushed delivery. She told me that "you'll never change things in Kansas City," "it won't work here," "you don't understand," etc, before ending with "you really are quite pathetic," to the shock of me and the others in attendance.

When challenged to defend her position, she made no defense other than to cite her legacy and then, failing that, to childishly call names.

In our only true riverfront space in Kansas City, this "conservation hero" wanted to make sure there was plenty of parking for her sport utility, despite the fact that parking would sit unused on the vast majority of days, adjacent parking would go underutilized and density and connectivity to the park would be lost.

For this park to be great, things are going to have to change in Kansas City, and they already have and continue to do so. I know because I'm paying attention and I'm an agent of change, not a member of an outdated way of thinking. I may not count for much, but I care about doing things right and I refuse to believe any tired stereotype about our city.

Perhaps everyone who yields to Anita Gorman out of respect alone should put a little more faith in our city and a little less faith in her outdated viewpoint and her childish tactics. I was very disappointed that this respected community symbol, a conservation hero who ironically falls in favor of more parking lots, could not have a constructive conversation about an important topic without attempting to immediately discredit me and call me names, all while undermining the thought that Kansas City can really become world-class.

On the way out, Gorman gave me an insincere smile while carefully analyzing my nametag to remember my name and then gave me the patronizing finale: "Now, Matthew, you won't be too upset if we just have a few parking spaces in our park, now, will you?" I'm sure I'm a marked man now.

Plenty of other people were there to see this and I hope they don't forget her behavior. I certainly won't, and I certainly won't let her legacy stand in the way of the legacy of our city and our return to the river.

If that makes me pathetic, so be it.

Awash in fresh, clear consumerism

Last night, I grew angry when I saw yet another person cart the warehouse-store sized gazillion pack of tiny water bottles into their home.

If you would tell our grandparents that we would be buying water in plastic bottles simply to drink, I should hope they would have called us idiots. It is something that was undoubtedly and should still be an absurd concept, but at some point, someone somewhere figured the right mixture of marketing and trend-setting could convince a gullible public that they needed their water out of a bottle.

I'm not quite sure what compels people to buy water like this. I assume for many it is a combination of laziness and a lack of a sense of consequence. With a bottle of water, you don't have to go through the hassle of filling up the container or carrying it home empty. You just grab that convenient serving size, sip it and then toss the container when you are done. Ahh, refreshing!

Still others probably think that the water is healthier than the stuff that comes out of the faucet.

Isn't it ironic that we're worried about the safety of our water because of all of the pollution we are causing, so we solve the problem by transporting our water in containers that are one of the single most significant presences at landfills? Instead of employing an efficient pipe to bring us water, we're counting on trucks, trains and boats and all of the destructive infrastructure they depend on, just to take a sip.

Maybe if bottled water was really healthier than its tap equivalent, we could begin to talk about whether or not it is worth the other costs -- but it ISN'T. Kansas City has some of the best rated tap water in the country, and regulations controlling water quality from public utilities are more stringent than the FDA's regulation of bottled water.

Yes, your tap water is held to a higher standard, but it has a far smaller marketing budget.

The answer to that age old question "if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you too?" has been answered many times over, resoundingly. Yes, we would, and we do everyday. We've been convinced to act destructively by companies that are more than willing to plummet face first into the rocks, as long as plenty of people come with them and bring their wallets.

With the amount of money that we spend on bottled water, we could do a lot of cleaning up. We could make sure everyone had access to safe, clean tap water no matter where they were, and we wouldn't need a complicated supply chain to get it there. We could protect our water supply instead of pulling it from other places and often causing shortages there.

The American Way is out of sight, out of mind, though, and nobody shall infringe upon our right to our Dasani.

Next up, bottled air, so we can all get a breath of fresh country air, brought to you via long haul diesel truck.

Key Economic Indicators

Recently departed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was famous for his interest in mundane statistics and what they meant to the larger economic picture. He tied standard indicators like the consumer price index in with funky ones, like the number of cardboard boxes that were ordered in the quarter, to try to get the clearest picture of how things were doing in the economy.

Like Greenspan, I'm a curious sort, and I'm pretty much constantly observing that world around me. Our human brains were given the added feature of reasoning, so I also attempt to derive meaning from those observations. As anyone that reads this blog knows, I'm very interested in the health and growth of the city, so I often tie my empirical observation in with other growth metrics. Like Greenspan, the typical urban health metrics aren't enough for me.

Here are some I subconsciously use:

Number of young, attractive people on the bus:
This metric has weight on a couple of different levels. First of all, attractive young people attract attractive young people. Downtown needs to be the "happening" place, and people will be attracted to areas where they can meet and interact with exciting, interesting and attractive people.

The bus element is even more critical, as it shows that young people are abandoning the negative stereotypes about the bus, even if they have the means to drive. More young people on the bus means more people wanting to advocate a truly urban lifestyle instead of bringing a drive in, drive out mentality with them, and it means one less parking spot used at their destination.

Central Library bustle:
KC's new Central Library is a great accomplishment for the greater downtown cause. A conversion of an old bank building, it features an ornate setting with lots of space for people to use its resources. When I see people that are likely downtown residents using the library, I know that they are educated and interested in culture. Most importantly, they probably walked to the library, adding life and bustle to the streets.

Office Chit-Chat:
I came from a company that might as well have been in another country from the urban core of Kansas City, where most of the employees lived very isolated lives with little interest in the city center. Now, I work downtown and I get a different view. There are still plenty of people that complain about the city for the various tired reasons, but there are also a lot of people that are interested and excited about what is happening downtown. Every time someone asks me what they are building here or there or tells me they tried a new restaurant downtown, I know that is someone that has opened their eyes to the excitement of downtown. The chatter is good.

Bicycles:
Like the bus, this points to alternative transportation and all of the benefits that comes with. It also puts people on the street in a human-scaled way.

People Talking:
When people stop using the city as the place they work or the place they pass through on the way to other places, they start to interact with it. When people live here, they start to form a community with others that live here. Too often, I see people in isolation, focused only on their own paths without regard to the world around them. So, when there are a few people chatting on a street corner, making small talk at a bus stop or sitting around in a street-facing restaurant window shooting the breeze after a meal, I know downtown is becoming more of a community and less of just a place.

Amtrak:
When the trains let out at Union Station, the passengers enter one of our grand public spaces and walk to hotels or transit to begin enjoying the city. Straight to the heart of it all, no parking required.

Tourists/Directions:
When you think of hot vacation destinations, you don't often think Kansas City, so when I give people directions or hear people talking about KC from an outsiders perspective, I know that someone is being exposed to what is an underappreciated place. Tourism often places people on the streets, fills up the restaurants and supports transit. If tourists can use and love our resources, so can the people whose hearts we are trying to win over from the fringes of the metro. Hopefully, after I provide directions, that person will find their way again.

Good beer on tap:
This one might just be personal bias, but when I go to bars that have good, less common beer available on tap, I feel like the market it getting more sophisticated. When I see people opt for a local Boulevard draught over St. Louis swill, I feel good about the money that is pumping back into the local economy and that presence of mind or good taste of the consumer who makes that decision. Bars become places to enjoy and commune and less places to drink as much cheap alcohol as possible before getting sick on the way home.

Taxis:
This one is like the bus one, only without all the bus stuff. A little discouraging if the bus was a good alternative, but just as satisfying after the busses stop running or to strange places with multiple people.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Because I am deeply involved in all of this, I feel as if I can tell you more about what is happening in the city than anyone with "traditional" data at their fingertips.

My analysis? Regression analysis points to a distinct... er, who am I kidding? I don't have time for that, I'm too busy talking to young people on the bus, passing an ever-busier library on my way to my downtown home. Ah, community.

Microwave on high until help arrives

While many people degrade the experience of the standard office job, it does provide valuable experience. The lessons are both professionally relevant and personally useful, depending on the context. Today, my brain was conditioned to associate someone letting a microwave cook indefinitely with big red trucks pulling up in front of the office.

Yes, a very small portion of my office, approximately the size of the inside of a break room microwave, caught fire today. The forsaken lunch was a total loss.

There were a few things that struck me as profound about this experience. First of all, the building I work in has a lot of people in it. I seldom see more than 10 people in one place and I'll see a steady trickle of cars leaving the garage at night. When the building spills its contents onto the sidewalk, there are people everywhere. I can only imagine what it would be like if even half of these people walked around outside from time to time, or arrived via bus or foot. A snapshot of those sidewalks at that time would have looked like Tokyo. More importantly, those people brought life to the streets. They interacted with their surroundings. They dropped into neighboring buildings they may not otherwise visit. They lived my life - the human-scaled existence - for a few minutes.

One of the places that the horde ducked into was Union Station, which is hosting a rather impressive can sculpture contest to provide food for the food banks. It was a rather cold day, with a wind that made it uncomfortable to stand around for long, and people used Union Station to pass the time and keep warm. I wonder if anyone realized how nice it was to have a public place to step into and enjoy, or at least to stay warm, that is available to everyone. I'm sure it was taken for granted and I'm sure the commuters who motor home to their suburban communities will still complain about the taxes that went to save our grand station -- one of the rare times that outsiders contribute to our regional attractions.

Another cool thing about fire evacuations is that they make everyone equal. The CEO of the company and the janitors all have to head outside as part of the same drill. Nobody is above it and everyone suffers the same plight. One had no choice but to go out into the street and wait it out.

I think we need to have grand fire drills. It will force us to get out on the street and see what things look like from our own perspectives. It will make us walk around and talk to other people. It will make us experience things we should be experiencing anyway, if we're living richly.

Instead, we're too busy to even grab our lunches out of the microwave.

Character Development

I'm starting to get involved with a new project at work and with that comes the meetings and the new people that I'll be associated with. On Friday, I immediately felt as if I recognized one of the participants. I glanced at her occassionally, trying to place her, when it finally hit me.

It wasn't her that I knew, but she reminded me of somebody. The somebody she reminded me of, I finally realized, was Geanie Bowen. I met Geanie a week earlier via another Kansas Citian -- the Kansas Citian that created her.

Geanie Bowen is a character in the book I referenced earlier and finished last week, and the woman in the meeting I attended looked exactly like I had pictured Geanie from the book. The likeness was so profound and my image of Geanie so developed that my mind attempted to associate reality with fiction.

I was careful not to regard Geanie's likeness like I would have the character herself.

It is a testament to the power of imagination and of engrossing writing that one can have an automatic response to someone that isn't even real. She reminded me of someone I know -- someone I know from a good book.

Picket Fences

I'm currently engrossed in Whitney Terrell's novel The King of Kings County, an account of the development of the Kansas-side suburbs of Kansas City that thinly veils some real players and some real tactics. The story is a "coming of age" bit about the son of an aspiring developer who becomes involved with Prudential Bowen, who is doubtlessly modeled after prolific KC real estate mogel J.C. Nichols.

The story is powerful, however, in that it makes its point in a story that has the son riding along. It doesn't pontificate directly, but it makes one think. It is an added perk that I recognize many of the areas mentioned in the book.

It is clear that Whitney and I share the same views regarding the responsibility of ones choice of residence. It is implicit in the book. It is expressed in this quotation I found from an interview:

“The idea that just because you don’t know how your neighborhood was formed ... doesn’t mean that you aren’t an active participant in a society or a city that has chosen to divide itself up that way. I guess the argument would be that Kansas Citians and Americans know how segregation works, and in public they’re against it, but in private, in the way that they buy their houses, they still enforce that old system.”

Buy the book. Read the book. Enjoy the book.

Journalism Found Dead After 41 Hours

I picked up a copy of the paper from the coffee shop on Wednesday because I was struck by the headline: "12 Miners Alive After 41 Hours." I knew from NPR's Morning Edition that morning that the headline was incorrect.

I can't imagine the process that the families of these miners went through. First, optimism that they could reach the miners quickly. Then, when poor air quality indications hit, they doubtlessly began to doubt. Time passed and they may have begun to come to terms with what seemed more and more inevitable. They were partly ready for the news.

That whole process was cancelled out when the good news of their survival arrived. In reality, the company has indicated that they had found the miners, not that they were alive. The message was bungled and when the families began to celebrate, the press ran with the story without looking back. The Star quoted the governor and family members, saying that they "just wanted to dance."

The dance ended 3 hours later when the error was corrected, though first runs of major city newspapers like The Star, the Times and the Post led with the wrong headline. Perhaps any dance in celebration of an effective corporate media ended at the same time.

There are several reasons to mourn about this, particularly in how the irresponsibility of media has exacerbated the obvious pain that the families have dealt with. I can't help but think that we should all be mourning the fact that those miners faced the risks they faced in the first place. In 2006, we are still sending men deep underground to extract a fossilized fuel source to run our high-tech gizmos? This cheap source of energy has a higher cost than we thought, between the millions that suffer from respiratory problems from the soot we put into the air and the countless miners who risk their lives to go get the stuff out of the ground.

Perhaps it is time that our energy sources, and our news sources, join us in the 21st century.

What Am I Missing?

For Christmas, I was given the stellar match-up of the iRiver iFP-899 MP3 player and Shure's exceptional e2C earbuds. The earbuds are the noise isolating variety, which means they block out the sound instead of employing some weird technology to try to cover it up electronically.

Well, they work, and they sound incredible. I wanted an MP3 player so I could fill up the time I spend walking and riding the bus with music, news and information, since I get sick reading and moving at the same time. Trying it out for the first time today, I'm not so sure it is for me.

I immediately realized what I was missing and felt like that isolationist "look straight ahead and aknowledge nobody" guy you see wandering around with a scared look on his face. While only about half of bus stop waits result in conversations with the other riders, jamming the phones in my ears gave the clear signal that I didn't want to talk. I completely lost that opportunity. While such things are usually idle small talk, I've often had some nice chats.

Getting on the bus, I felt compelled to pop the buds out to greet the driver. I always go out of the way to be nice to drivers. If I said something, I'd have no concept of how loud it was with the phones in my ears.

Conversations on the bus? Nada. I couldn't hear a thing, so no more amusement from the random stuff on the bus. Sure, 70% of the time the bus is people sitting quietly, but I'll miss the exceptions.

This is going to take some getting used to. I'm most certainly going to use it in moderation. The music from the combo of these top notch trinkets can't always top the sounds of the experience I call "going home".

Desperate Measures...

With a day to go before departure to the homeland and no gifts for my brother or parents, I'm about to do the unthinkable. I'm about to journey to the car, ensure it is still there, hope it starts and drive it... yes, drive it... to the Northland to finish my Christmas shopping in the land of the big boxes. I'll be driving it home anyway, so I figure the damage is done.

Being car free is easy, but it takes planning when it comes to things like Christmas shopping. I didn't plan. Next year, I will extend my carlessness into one of its final frontiers. This year, I have to get it done.

Death Sucks II

Robert Osborn was a local cyclist that lost his life while riding home from his night shift at a local grocery store. While hostility towards bikes isn't unheard of, we now know that Robert was simply a victim of bad luck. Two young men were joyriding and looking to perform a thrill killing. After missing two other potential victims with their shotgun, they circled back to Robert and ambushed him from behind a tree.

On Sunday morning, I rode out to a vigil and bike ride in honor of Robert, where I was interviewed by a local news station. Riding along Robert's commute route, we slowed to a stop next to the very tree that hid his killers.

The killers are behind bars. That is all that I ask to happen. The greater hope I have is that this sustained unity among those of us that ride and share Robert's vision for a better world and alternative transportation are given a new sense of urgency to keep it alive. Lets replace what we lost in Robert with a little bit of renewed energy in all of us.

Death Sucks

Last night, we learned that Stanley Williams died because the collective people of California thought he should. Well, the government of the people of California, acting in their behalf. A man who contributed more to society than most of the schmucks I met everyday with his messages against gang violence is dead. A voice of authority on the topic that stood a chance of reaching someone? Dead.

Okay, so, now we're better off to have this scum dead, right? Every argument I hear in support of the death penalty seems more and more absurd each time. Are we safer now that a man that was doing all he could to combat crime behind bars is dead? Did he deserve it? That isn't justice, that is revenge. We're a sick, sick society -- is it any wonder we have some crime problems?

...and what if we're wrong? To what clemency board do we appeal?

The Christmas Bus

The Christmas Bus
Originally uploaded by staubio.

I'd seen it pass by and I had heard of it from other riders, but today was my first time on the Christmas bus. Garland running down each side and a faux-fireplace in the back, complete with gifts on the mantle. They have Christmas lights as well, but I think they irritated the bus a bit as its external signage is dead and the gps isn't picking up the bus.

Alas, without seeing the lights on, I have not experienced the true Christmas MAX. The pursuit continues.

A Round-about Way to Poverty

Having tired of the mostly pointless evening trips to the dead side of downtown on the MAX bus, I decided to sprint after the Casino Cruiser bus last night and give it a try.

Though it was a nice change of scenery, it wasn't any faster. It does its own dance around town, going a few blocks out of its way just to make sure it passes in front of all of the major downtown tourist hotels. I suppose it aims to be a casino shuttle, so this is acceptable.

Sadly, the only people that could have been anything close to tourists was the old couple that couldn't operate the fare box. The rest of the bus was a rag-tag gang that just looked to be riding along.

I always figured that this route served a lot of the workers that kept the casinos running. After listening to some of the conversations, however, it became clear to me that a lot of these people knew each other and a lot of them were going to gamble.

Nobody was at the hotels. The bus filled up at the transfer points from poorer areas of the city. At 10th and Main, a man got on and was recognized by several people who said they had missed him. "I had to give it up for awhile," he said, and he was clearly excited to be back on the road to rock bottom.

This bus is always full. Should the ATA continue to masquerade it as a tourist shuttle or should it start running down Brooklyn, making sure what little money is left in these impoverished neighborhoods is delivered to casino operators as soon as possible?

I don't fault the ATA for operating the route. I am sure I will use it at some point. It is a sad thing to see on your commute home, though.

The Front Door

As I walked into work this morning, the security guard wished me a good morning as I walked by, as she usually does. She acted as if she knew me, which I thought was cute. Of the thousands of people that work in the building, she couldn't possibly actually remember me every day. She is just being polite, I'm sure.

Then it occurred to me.

I'm probably one of only a few people that actually enter the building through the front door. The vast majority of people drive into the garage and then enter the building through the parking structure from below. I walk right in the front door, which is usually reserved for smoking breaks and lunch walks to Union Station.

As someone that travels almost exclusively on foot, by bike and via transit, I always get to use the front door -- a concept that has almost become a novelty. I get to experience all sorts of things that other people don't, like the near-monopoly I have on the morning greetings of the security guard. I understand the context and the interconnectedness of the neighborhoods I frequent. I see the world -- a world that is increasingly fashioned so people can spend as little time as possible outside of their car or home.

From the street, everything is better. I pass storefronts to enter Coffee Girls from Southwest Boulevard, not from the parking lot behind it. I hop off the bus to enter Dragonfly from its pleasant frontage, which is good for more than just decoration, as opposed to the back lot passageway. I walk right in the front door of Lulu's instead of the little ramp in the back, facing the parking. I didn't even know that Harling's had a back entrance until recently, effectively hiding all of the activity from Main and funneling the patrons to their cars out back.

Most people don't choose to experience the world like this, which might explain why I get so much more excited about the built environment. Most people don't even notice that friendly security guard, either.

The front door is reserved for the distinguished guests and, in getting to see the world so much more vividly than those who drove up to the back entrance, I feel like one.

Corner Restaurant Redeemed

The aptly named Corner Restaurant, overlooking the intersection of Broadway and Westport, was on the verge of being dropped off the bottom of my coveted breakfast destination list. Formerly a favorite with its unique mixture of customers and servers, tacky outdated decor and hip urban location, it would be sad to not have the experience.

On the last visit, what is typically an always-hot bottomless cup of coffee sat with a few bits of coffee grounds at the bottom. Empty. The pancakes were grainy. In the last two visits, they were always out of bananas, which were essential for my favorite pancake. Our traditional server, Janette, an oddly dressed bra-less counter-culture hipster looking young lady that was had the attitude and service ethic that matched the location, was nowhere to be seen. In her place was a stoned out, inattentive girl that scarcely noticed our presence.

So, no refills, no service, bad food. When a guy lives in the best breakfast neighborhood in the world in the River Market (The Diner, Succotash, Cup and Saucer, Cascone's), making a trip to Westport for a lackluster experience just doesn't compute.

Sunday morning was the "last chance" breakfast.

Our server was someone I recall seeing as a bus boy and he handled the promotion well. Not only was he back 3 times to top off the coffee, but the other servers and bussers were armed with carafes of tasty goodness as well. I think I still have a caffeine high from that morning. They had bananas. The pancakes were good. The crowd was a little strange, a little hippy, a little blue collar, a little white collar, a little retiree, a little bum.

Corner Restaurant is redeemed. I tipped heavily and left them on the breakfast list. Don't let me down again, Corner.

Christmas Off Target?

When discussing Christmas shopping with my mother over the Thanksgiving holiday, a little spat ensued when I learned that she is boycotting Target because of an e-mail she received. Countless people get these forwarded messages, many of which are bogus. Snopes does a good job demystifying these things, as they did for this issue.

It seems Target has ceased to use the word "Christmas" in their promotional materials in favor of recognizing the "holiday." Last time I checked, everyone was bemoaning the overly commercial nature of the Christmas holiday. Now that Target isn't playing the word "Christmas," people are angry about that. If they just totally ignored the holiday season entirely, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

I find it frightening that the religious crowd never circulates an e-mail of outrage over the gross injustices in the world but calls for a boycott over what a store decides to put in their sales circular.

Target's line? It makes sense. They don't want to alienate. They want to allow everyone to celebrate in their own way. Kwanza, Hanukkah, Solstice? Come on in! It is a pretty weak Christian that thinks that Target has any impact on how they enjoy the holiday, or that the presence of the word "Christmas" is somehow going to change the minds of the general public.

Target also faced some heat for not compromising their solicitation policy to allow Salvation Army bell ringers outside their doors. What many fail to realize is that allowing Salvation Army to place solicitors outside of the store makes the company's stance against this type of behavior essentially meaningless. What kind of heat will the company face when another charity wants to do the same thing?

Good for Target, I say. God bless them.

Standing Room Only

Standing room only. Supposedly, some crazy millions pour into the Plaza for the lighting ceremony, the "largest lighting ceremony in the country today." The ATA has a unique opportunity to dazzle and the too infrequent bus is completely packed by Crown Center. They are running busses every 10 minutes, which isn't close to enough.

I hope these people come back. We need some articulated busses.

Standing Room Only

Jobs: An American Discussion

Last night, I attended a townhall meeting entitled "Jobs: An American Discussion" mostly to run elbows with the all-star panel and hear some interesting perspectives. On the panel: Neil Patterson, CEO of Cerner; Carol Marinovich, former mayor of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas; Elson Floyd, President of the University of Missouri System; Mark Ernst, CEO of H&R Block; Her Majesty the Mayor of the Great Kansas City, MO, Kay Barnes. Moderated by CNN dude Frank Sesno, who was impressive.

Much to my chagrin, the discussion got off tangent. It seemed like they plopped the panel in front of a frustrated job fair, with most of the audience complaining about the difficulty in getting a job or some other pet problem.

The biggest frustration? The constant and off-topic complaints about tax incentives given to companies and developers. One retired school teacher lambasted Barnes (and Ernst and Patterson) for the incentives and their impact on the public schools. It made it perfectly clear that few people in the audience had a solid understanding of what tax increment financing is and how it works.

Besides, per pupil spending in the Kansas City, Missouri school district is already higher than many other districts that outperform it. The problem isn't funding, it is that the neighborhoods this district serves are crumbling, riddled with poverty and crime and lack the level of human investment needed to make them successful. Failure to be aggressive in attracting development will just drown urban neighborhoods deeper into dispair. No wealthy child left behind. Long term, the schools depend on the urban environment.

The CEO's were pretty darn honest too. Patterson: schools aren't giving us what we need, we have to go outside KC to get talent, etc. Patterson looked annoyed all night and wasn't particularly pleasant with his smug responses. I could certainly see the man who sent a scathing and threatening letter to his managers coming out in his comments and general attitude and I was glad I worked for the more pleasant guy.

So, Mark Ernst: Indians are cheaper and better. This provoked an old lady to say she is outraged with H&R Block. Well, I suppose Block should just decide not to be competitive in the marketplace, then. If Block doesn't take these steps, they can't grow and add jobs here at home and build new green buildings downtown.

Nevertheless, OUTRAGE. Nevermind that 1000 of Block's 130,000 employees are in India, and they aren't outsourced, they work for Block. OUTRAGE!

Ironically, that sense of entitlement that came up as one of the reasons for America falling behind was being slung up at the panel. Nobody was willing to wonder what we needed to do to get ahead. Nobody wanted to know how they could perform better than those in India. They just felt entitled to those jobs and shamed Ernst for taking advantage of the talent.

Then the students spoke.

Smart girl of Syrian decent: We need to take a look at WHY these other countries are getting ahead of us. We need to get over our sense of entitlement. Okay, finally, somebody who gets it!

Not-so-smart girl of suburban KC decent: Like, where do I go to make contacts and stuff, because, like, the jobs need experience but I don't have any experience and stuff.

One man in a rather important community position I can't recall said something about our educational system being "broke" and I don't think he was trying to be ironic.

I'm still a card carrying liberal, but the rants of some of the typical liberal crowd seemed woefully uninformed. To be fair, we never really got to the real issue. We were talking about the top-end jobs and skill positions. The disparity of opportunity and gap between the rich and the poor is an issue bigger than what could be addressed at that discussion.

I was interested to hear my fearless leader a little more candidly, so I slid in to a discussion Ernst was having with a few people from the audience. I felt like the point he was trying to make about creating a vibrant city and trying to attract a vibrant workforce needed reinforced, so I shared the virtues of working for H&R Block and what investments in that kind of environment can do. Comparing it to Sprint's legacy location for legacy people, I told these critics what Block is accomplishing. Though I didn't officially meet Mark and, by the time I had joined the discussion I'm sure he was annoyed and ready to go home and get some sleep, I hope he appreciated my perspective.

The prize of the night goes to the lady complaining about tax incentives after the big show. She didn't like that tax incentives were given to the Village West development in Kansas City, KS, an admittedly ugly sprawling gaggle of chain crap and NASCAR but a new hope for a crumbling tax base. Her reasoning: she can still get a TV for cheaper at Wal-Mart than she can at Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Wow, the public REALLY doesn't get it.

I Heart the BBC

Nothing beats the BBC World Service for hard-hitting, balanced news coverage with an accent. I try to make the BBC part of my regular radio listening "shed-ule." Being a hopeless romantic for the past, I get most of my news through that "traditional" medium instead of the TV or the Internet.

However, with all of their other quirky features and subtle humor sprinkled in, I was convinced that our English friends were pulling a fast one when I heard a segment reported by Lucy Hooker. Lucy Hooker? Come on, that is too funny for real life.

Turns out she is real. Whether the name is a clever reporter's inside joke radio name or a result of very mean parents is unclear.

If that latter is true, Mr. and Mrs. Hooker should be very proud of their daughter.