KC's largest private company may be moving to KCK

[adebord]

Originally Posted by kcmo

KC likes having a 1960's Greyhound bus stop for an airport. Trust me. Few people in KC are interested in impressing anybody...

As someone who embraces change, It has to be one of the most frustrating places in the country for me to live.

[kcbluesprings]

Personally, as much as I want our rail line to be expanded, our airport needs to be replaced before that happens. The streetcar will likely continue south into Westport, Plaza, and UMKC, before anything gets built in the Northland. I hope that we can replace the airport. As much as I like the convenience of it, it's a business traveler's nightmare. I hope something gets done with it and soon!!

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by kcbluesprings

Personally, as much as I want our rail line to be expanded, our airport needs to be replaced before that happens. The streetcar will likely continue south into Westport, Plaza, and UMKC, before anything gets built in the Northland. I hope that we can replace the airport. As much as I like the convenience of it, it's a business traveler's nightmare. I hope something gets done with it and soon!!

Right. Getting a new terminal built is a much higher priority and at least people are trying to make something happen with it.

Rail to the airport is a pipe dream right now. It's not even on anybody's radar. It's not even a part of any long range planning. It's decades out. I'm talking like 15-20 years before it's even being seriously considered. Look how long it's gong to take to build 2-3 more miles of streetcar track. There is a big difference between light rail and streetcar. A streetcar ride to KCI would be totally ridiculous. Nobody is going to use that. Few would use light rail. Nobody is going to sit on a 20 mph streetcar for an hour or more stopping at 100 signals between downtown and KCI.

Look at the people that come out of the woodwork to slow or stop the few projects KC is trying to get done (KCI, convention hotel, streetcar).

A 20 mile long light rail line in KC is so far fetched that it's barely even worth discussing. It's almost as far fetched as talking about moving KCI back to Downtown.

I mean, the situation with KCI is so bad that you have Burns & McDonnell offering to build the terminal even though that will NOT save the city or airport anything. It will actually cost MORE to have Burns & Mac build it and they will use the exact same funding source. But people are so ignorant of this issue, they would probably vote for that before they would just allow the airport to issue low interest bonds, seek competitive bids and get multiple ideas from multiple design firms and build it the correct way.

Whatever it takes to get it done I guess, but whatever happens, KCI will likely be tied up for years, if not decades in lawsuits, petition drives etc. as people try to actually stop KC from progressing. It's absolutely mind boggling.

[empires228]

Originally Posted by adebord

Kansas offered 25.5m to move. MO offered 29m to stay. They still moved.

There is no reason to be downtown. The airport needs to be at MKC or have non stop rail service to MCI. Without it downtown is just another suburb with a skyline.

Ahh, but that's not where the DFA story ends. The Kansas incentive package was also tied to them receiving additional incentives for them to build a powdered milk plant in Southwest Kansas. The plant was to be built by both the DFA and the Chinese Government, but China pulled out, which didn't hinder the plant getting constructed. At face value, those were the incentives offered, but DFA also wanted the state to help them get their plant built, so they played their cards the way they saw fit. It's the one state-line poaching you will ever hear me defend because it had a benefit for the state outside of JoCo/WyCo. Complain all you want about AMC and Sprint because their presence in the state is negligible (they would still provide jobs to both states if they were downtown) and I don't like that the state wastes tax money on stupid things like that, but the deal with the DFA was strategic, unlike than the idiotic decision that was paying AMC to move to Leawood just to prop up job numbers in the state. I'd much rather see the money that goes into the border war go to fixing up downtown KCK or Topeka. It would be nice to tour the state capital without worrying about if your car is going to get jacked if you leave it unattended for 10 minutes.