About Momentum

With momentum on our side, a superior infrastructure, a deep entrepreneurial commitment, and no natural boundaries to impede growth, there is no reason that Kansas City cannot become the most emulated city of the 21st Century.

Everything is not exactly up to date in Kansas City, but it is getting there much more quickly than most people would have imagined possible. The recent passage of the rental car and hotel tax to finance the new Sprint Center arena is just the most visible reminder of how much is really going on.

Next month we will be exploring this development in some depth in Ingram's Downtown Kansas City and Urban Core Special Edition--an issue that also features an extended conversation with the economic development leaders in Jackson County. What is refreshing about so much of this new development is that it is centered in the heart of the metropolitan area. In fact, there was $2 billion worth of development in progress in the greater downtown of Kansas City, Missouri even before the passage of the arena tax.

Better still, there is an almost uncanny balance to much of this exciting new progress taking place metropolitan-wide. Platte and Clay counties are thriving. Wyandotte County has come back into play in a big way. Eastern Jackson County just signed a major deal with the Bass Pro Shop. The Grandview Triangle will fuel the already booming southeastern part of the metro boom even more. Johnson County continues to prosper as always. And, as we have documented, the surrounding counties are growing and becoming more and more a part of the metropolitan area.

Kudos to Mayor Barnes for her energetic work on the arena campaign. Thanks should also be extended to two individuals and their associates who have likewise energized the city significantly in the last year--two newcomers to the area, Kansas City, Missouri City Manager Wayne Cauthen and Kauffman Foundation CEO, Carl Schramm.

As the reader will see in this month's Industry Outlook feature on higher education, the Kauffman Foundation under Schramm has refocused its mission on education and entrepreneurship and, in this case, the relationship between the two. A properly focused Kauffman Foundation has the potential to transform the Kansas City region into the nation's capital of entrepreneurship. To be sure, Schramm made some waves when he first came to town, but when you are righting a ship of that size, it is impossible not to.

Wayne Cauthen made his share of waves as well. Some people at City Hall have not yet recovered. But beyond the walls of the city's departments, economic development leaders all around the metro-politan area were beginning to see that, in the best sense of the word, they could do business with Kansas City, Missouri once again.

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

jsweeney@ingramsonline.com