Where Have the Leaders Gone?

Before Kay Barnes finally filed for a second term as Kansas City, MO mayor in mid-January, even credible people were beginning to wonder whether she'd bother.

We were kind of hoping that she would. Once Paul Danaher dropped out, no one else even moderately electable has dropped in. This is in itself disappointing. For all of Ms. Barnes' virtues, and they are considerable, she has convinced few Kansas Citians that her leadership skills are so formidable that we should suspend serious debate over the issues or the election itself.

The city needs leadership to step forward. For too many years now, we have proceeded through space and time reactively. I recall the debate over Science City. Its promoters argued that we were the only city of size without a science museum as a way perhaps of embarrassing us into creating one--just like everyone else's. And that's what we got, a second-rate fun house as devoid of science as it is of uniqueness, an act redeemed only by the otherwise worthy restoration of Union Station.

The downtown arena project that Mayor Barnes has strongly endorsed during her phantom re-election campaign has the ring of me-tooism about it as well. "Hey, all the other big cities have downtown arenas," goes the argument. "We should have one too."

In this edition Bill Worley also argues for constructing a downtown arena. Hard to blame him. Any contractor that would benefit from clearing land and being a part of building a structure of this type certainly should.

But both Barnes and Worley overlook the obvious: other cities have something that we don't have--namely professional sports franchises, big-time college programs and major city events, conventions and traffic that will often fill an arena with people to pay for it.

What we do have is a budget crunch, inadequate city services, deteriorating public infrastructure and the hapless "Roos" of UMKC. A new sports arena is a nice thought, but again it's a reactive one. Remember, too, that just 5 years ago the city of Kansas City, MO invested more than twice the original cost of building Kemper Arena in 1974 simply to renovate it, and with only a few extra seats.

That the recent bond issue passed enabling us to better maintain and expand Bartle Hall is a good thing. It would be better still if we could attract more conventions and better utilize that facility as well. Right now, we can't and we aren't.

Investing in an arena for which we have no substantial use and no good way to pay for it is simply not prudent. What is prudent is taking care of the people of our community by insuring that the city's basic services are met.

It would be refreshing to see a cohesive plan for the Kansas City metro area that would diminish the number of disjointed projects and politically-influenced agendas. Rather than Kansas City being known as the city that built the wrong things in the wrong places, let's do what we can to devise a more logical and cohesive development strategy so KC's future yields results instead of excuses.

This all starts with a leadership infrastructure. Our best people need to run for and serve in office, even if only to advance their ideas. Mayor Barnes would be a better mayor, and the city would be a better city, if there were a serious contest both of ideas and of people.

We welcome your thoughts.

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher
jsweeney@ingramsonline.com