Why is my Waldo Jimmy John's sandwich $1.00 more?
Dispatches from Waldo re-group, Community Improvement Districts, and what's happening this week in Kansas City Missouri
Dispatches From Waldo re-group
Awhile ago I started this blog in hopes of giving myself an outlet for thoughts, analysis, and hot takes. I also wanted it to focus on local Kansas City, Missouri topics as many of those don’t get much play beyond the Kansas City Star and twitter.
I’ve recently found myself reading City Council and other commission dockets and tweeting them out for people to learn more and get involved. I figure I could do this with a more thought out and detailed approach.
I also feel like their is a void in writing about new ideas in detail for local and state issues. More often than not we respond to bad ideas rather than putting out better ideas.
So I’m going to give it a try. I’m going to aim to do (eventually) 3 posts a week.
The first post will come out Sunday or Monday and will be a preview of what’s going on at City Hall and some shorter analysis, commentary, and hot takes.
The second post, which I think will take more time, will be focused on new ideas.
The last post will be planned to come out on Friday or Saturday and will be a recap of what passed, what didn’t, and what was discussed in addition to hot takes.
It’s 2020. What the hell! Let’s try it!
Tree of the Week
Here is the “Tree of the Week” shot by Dylan Little at the Blue River.
Community Improvement Districts
If you have ever bought anything at the intersection of 85th and Wornall in Kansas City, you probably have noticed you are paying an exorbitant tax rate. But why? It’s a Community Improvement District. An area of town where business owners’ banded together to implement a new sales tax to fund a service or improvements. These “districts” do fund some good things including street cleaning and public right of way improvements but sometimes they are slush funds for developers that lack oversight. There has been an uptick of developers requesting single-property CIDs, which means you go to a specific building or business and they can charge extra sales tax to fund improvements.
Luckily, 6th District Councilperson Andrea Bough is reviewing our policies and wants to hear from you. Answer her survey here.
So if you’re wondering why your Jimmy John’s sandwich is taxed at close to 11% in Waldo, now you know. Let’s make sure it’s working for us—the taxpayers.
The Week Ahead in Kansas City, Missouri Politics
So part of my goal is to highlight the some of the critical ordinances and discussions happening in Kansas City week by week. I can’t and won’t highlight everything but I’ve felt it’s critical to put this stuff out their to people who don’t pay that close attention, which is okay I’m just a dork.
So everything except for emergency issues goes through Committees where the City Council members and sometimes the Mayor vet the ordinances and then pass them or not (with a recommendation or not) to full Council to vote them into law. Committees are important because that is where public testimony takes place. These are the committees with schedules meetings this week and some of the highlights. The full dockets are linked as well. The dockets have to be released 24 hours before so it won’t be perfect.
If you are a City Council person or a group interested in commenting or previewing an upcoming ordinance or resolution, send me an email (jsb9008@gmail.com). Let’s talk.
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Special Committee For Legal Review (meeting Tuesday at 1pm)
This group takes on some of the more intensive legal ordinance and works through them. It has been a critical committee because it has and also hasn’t addressed some of the ordinances related to police, protests, and reform. The agenda is here.
Resolution 200597—Probably the most critical item is Resolution 200597, establishing Local Control of the Kansas City Police Department as a legislative priority. Right now the State of Missouri controls the police department. We are the only major city in the country without control. While we will more than likely not get control via the state legislature and we will have to do a statewide ballot initiative, this is a first step to gathering support.
Ordinance 200577—There is an ongoing effort to make smaller, non-violent municipal offenses like parking tickets not inherently “criminal” but a “civil” offense. Doing this will remove the ability to incarcerate someone for failing to pay a traffic or parking ticket and emphasize fines instead. This ordinance appears to change the “Failure of Appear” in Municipal Court to be in line with that goal.
Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee (meeting Wednesday at 9am)
Ordinance 200225—It appears to be a light week but there is an interesting ordinance about the renovation of Barney Allis Plaza and Garage. It has been a hot potato for a year now. It will be costly either way to completely renovate the Plaza and Garage or keep it up and running for a few more years. I’m trying to find out more what this ordinance will do.
Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee (meeting Wednesday at 10:30am)
Most ordinances this week, as of now, are approving contracts.
Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee (meeting Wednesday at 1pm)
There currently is an up to date agenda for this committee. I know that they can release it up to 24 hours before but with closer attention paid to the previous week, I’ll hopefully be able to piece together some of the holdovers.
What I’m Reading/Listening To
Local — Challenged on police union money, KC Council member will donate to civil rights group
Regional — Dems accuse Missouri GOP state rep of ‘fraudulent scheme’ to hide his move out of district
World — Global News podcast to keep up on Belarus news
What I’m Cooking
I’ve been trying to bake more. It’s been refreshing and rejuvenating and also delicious. This Bon Appetit recipe for “Basically Strawberry Shortcakes” was absolute heaven and not too difficult. Obviously not my photo though. I’d recommend making the whipped cream in the recipe rather than the can stuff!