From Slogans to Strategies

For all of the talk about positioning, Kansas City has not had a fully viable plan of action since the cows went west and Charlie Parker headed east. In the sixty or so years since, we have pretended that talk was as good as action, that a slogan was as good as a strategy. They are absolutely not.

In the Economic Development Industry Outlook section of this edition we explore a series of concrete ideas that will ground greater Kansas City’s easy talk in hard reality. What follows are several ideas—our top 10 anyway—that I believe are worth not just exploring but strategically executing.

• We exploit our centrality and focus on transportation. This is an asset we will always have. This means positioning KCI as a national, even world-class air and road transportation hub, a center for cargo and a major factor in regional industrial and mixed development.

• This also means establishing Richards Gebaur as another anchor for national and international distribution using highway and rail. We remain America’s second leading rail center. Enhanced traffic with Mexico and the Americas will reinforce that role and guide NAFTA traffic to and through Kansas and Missouri intersecting in the Kansas City area.

• Given the focus on transportation, we should develop a metro-wide fixed rail master plan that builds upon other transportation systems. We should consider and design a metro rail system that is funded by area counties equitably as determined by linear mileage of development.

• Roads are an essential part of any plan. To optimize our bi-state clout, we should create regular regional assemblies of key leaders and establish a formal organization composed of representatives from both sides of the state line to focus on area road improvements, including funding and scheduling.

• Waterways are not to be overlooked. We should update our levees and collaborate with the Army Corps of Engineers and viable river communities for an extensive redevelopment of the riverfront of the Missouri and perhaps Kaw rivers. The KC area should capitalize on its abundance of natural resources.

• We make a concerted effort to grow Kansas City from within, to make it the most entrepreneurial-friendly city in America. Similar to the success of the Life Sciences initiative, we establish a metro-wide venture capital fund created and managed by leading banking and finance partners that avails necessary funds for entrepreneurial startups and development.

• We establish a non-piracy development agreement between privatized ED agencies in Missouri and Kansas, enacting legislation and regional funding mechanisms that empower the area as a whole to attract investment to the region.

• We establish into law an operating agreement between all area counties (based on population/census) that they’ll equitably fund specific city-wide amenities and initiatives, including sports stadiums and transportation networks. The day has come where counties that enjoy the benefit should share in the expense.

• We develop not only a world-class research educational institution, but a coalition of public and private universities working in collaboration with corporate partners modeled somewhat after the Research Triangle in North Carolina. We develop a bi-state research campus or community anchored by extension operations of our state land grant institutions.

• We establish a non-profit voluntary fund drive to create a modest but steady source of revenues to enhance and support the arts.

If we were to engage efforts to study and act on several of these and other select viable concepts, by 2015 or soon after, Kansas City would not only reclaim its role among American first-tier cities, but earn its position as a “World Class City.” The question then becomes, at what stage do we transcend talk and focus our energy, strategy and commitment on action?

 

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

jsweeney@ingramsonline.com

 

Regards,

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

Editorial@IngramsOnLine.com