A step closer to a new KCI terminal? (Kansas City, Blue Springs: car rental, taxi cab)

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

The people of KCMO in the Jackson County portion should not be the ones to vote on anything really.

The airport serves more than just the metro and I bet the Jackson County KC residents use the airport the least of the rest of the metro.

Just like the earnings tax, KC voters get to decide to extort tax money from non residents. I wish the suburbs would start taxing the KC residents who go to work in the suburbs. That would even the score with KC and it's earning tax

1. That's not how our system of governing works.

2. Jackson county residents use the airport more than any other single county in the metro.

3. KC voters set their own local tax policy, just like in every other city in America. You should familiarize yourself with the definition of the word extortion before you use it again. The suburbs, if their respective state law allow it, can set any tax policy their voting residents decide to. You are welcome to lobby you legislators to impose any legal taxing framework your heart desires.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by luzianne

I didn't say Johnson County.

That only augments the flaws in your logic.

[CrownVic95]

A point of clarification, as this issue is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.......much simpler than the attempted portrayal by those hell bent on trashing the great airport concept enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of KC metro users for the last 44 years.

Where the airport is concerned, Kansas City is competing with no one. Not with Denver, Charlotte, or Minneapolis. Not with Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Tulsa. Not with Sacramento, not with Salt Lake, not with Timbuktu, and not with the last train to Clarksville. No one.

As for the proposal to restrict Kansas residents to the kiddie table....an understandable position when viewed from a certain perspective, but one that could sadly put photos of the old KCI airport alongside those of Bannister Mall and Municipal Stadium in mid-21st century KC museums.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

Where the airport is concerned, Kansas City is competing with no one. Not with Denver, Charlotte, or Minneapolis. Not with Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Tulsa. Not with Sacramento, not with Salt Lake, not with Timbuktu, and not with the last train to Clarksville. No one.

And here we agree. The worst pro-new airport argument I have ever heard is that we need a new airport to seem modern, or impress visitors. And it's one I have never had any patience for.

That said, as someone who was initially an anti-new terminal KC resident, the arguments for a new terminal simply finally outweighed those against. I have never found KCI pleasant or convenient or even paricularly fast. Increasingly, it is the opposite of all those things in my own personal and extensive experience as a customer. By contrast, I am very often surprised by the quickness, convenience and pleasantness of probably 75% of comparable airports I fly into and out of.

Unfortunately, it is increasingly obvious that many of my fellow residents have fallen victim to classic black/white thinking, where the only options they can imagine are KCI or one of the very large (and not realistically comparable airports) that are unpleasant, inconvenient, and rife with hassles and headaches. Which is why you hear so many decry any new airport plan as "wanting to turn KCI into LAX/Denver/LaGuardia/Atlanta". It's like saying, "We don't want a streetcar because it will turn KC into a traffic and parking nightmare like Manhattan!"

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by s.davis

That only augments the flaws in your logic.

????? It doesn't have to be in Johnson County. Wyandotte County has the space and would be much more convenient for pretty much the entire metro, plus areas west and south, as I said before.


And I'd like to point out the flaws in YOUR logic, saying that it's the decision of the residents of KCMO about the airport. Uh...no it's not. They aren't going to ask you any more than they are going to ask us. They are just going to do it. And it won't be the tax money of KCMO residents paying for it, it will be the paying passengers, which includes the Kansas side, and as someone said before, the passengers on the Kansas side probably far outnumber Jackson County residents flying.


Like I said, KCMO needs to worry more about their failing sewage system than a new airport.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

The people of KCMO in the Jackson County portion should not be the ones to vote on anything really. The airport serves more than just the metro and I bet the Jackson County KC residents use the airport the least of the rest of the metro. Just like the earnings tax, KC voters get to decide to extort tax money from non residents. I wish the suburbs would start taxing the KC residents who go to work in the suburbs. That would even the score with KC and it's earning tax

What a great post!! I have thought the same thing, that Johnson County should impose a tax on Missouri residents working in Johnson County, because there are a LOT of them.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by luzianne

????? It doesn't have to be in Johnson County. Wyandotte County has the space and would be much more convenient for pretty much the entire metro, plus areas west and south, as I said before.


And I'd like to point out the flaws in YOUR logic, saying that it's the decision of the residents of KCMO about the airport. Uh...no it's not. They aren't going to ask you any more than they are going to ask us. They are just going to do it.

And it won't be the tax money of KCMO residents paying for it, it will be the paying passengers, which includes the Kansas side, and as someone said before, the passengers on the Kansas side probably far outnumber Jackson County residents flying.


Like I said, KCMO needs to worry more about their failing sewage system than a new airport.

1. No where in Wyandotte county with the land required for an airport is more convenient to the entire metro, either. I think you might have a pretty skewed idea of where the metro's residential center is.

2. Yes it is our decision. KCMO owns the airport. And they did ask us. If Kansas were to build a new airport, they would govern it. That's how it works.

3. Metro residents are not the majority of customers at KCI, but of the percentage of metro-area users, Jackson county is the highest by county and KCMO by city.

4. Sewers and airports are 100% unrelated. The Aviation department is an enterprise fund. That's like saying Kansas needs to worry about its water crisis before it builds a new interchange on I 35.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by luzianne

What a great post!! I have thought the same thing, that Johnson County should impose a tax on Missouri residents working in Johnson County, because there are a LOT of them.

You should contact your lawmakers and suggest it. I don't know if it's legal under state statute, but if a fair, flat income tax is what Johnson Countians want to enact to fund their goverment, it works very well here and is a very popular taxing framework.

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by s.davis

And here we agree. The worst pro-new airport argument I have ever heard is that we need a new airport to seem modern, or impress visitors. And it's one I have never had any patience for.

That said, as someone who was initially an anti-new terminal KC resident, the arguments for a new terminal simply finally outweighed those against. I have never found KCI pleasant or convenient or even paricularly fast. Increasingly, it is the opposite of all those things in my own personal and extensive experience as a customer. By contrast, I am very often surprised by the quickness, convenience and pleasantness of probably 75% of comparable airports I fly into and out of.

Unfortunately, it is increasingly obvious that many of my fellow residents have fallen victim to classic black/white thinking, where the only options they can imagine are KCI or one of the very large (and not realistically comparable airports) that are unpleasant, inconvenient, and rife with hassles and headaches. Which is why you hear so many decry any new airport plan as "wanting to turn KCI into LAX/Denver/LaGuardia/Atlanta". It's like saying, "We don't want a streetcar because it will turn KC into a traffic and parking nightmare like Manhattan!"

Never? What time period does your use cover?

I'm quick to admit that I don't have recent experience with KCI. All of mine was pre-911 and most was in the early to mid-80s, when I was doing nationwide online order entry training at Bell System operating companies in the days of corporate connectivity infancy. I was in and out of there constantly and always had a great experience, weather permitting. A far better experience than I had at other airports. KCI was just one more reason why it felt so good to get home.

You are probably much younger and, for all I know, your entire experience may be post 911. In which case, as I have said repeatedly on this topic, your experience has been tainted (quite unnecessarily) by the NSA and our grossly misguided national response to the 911 attacks.

KCI was once a wonderful airport experience and could be - should be - again. At least for those who don't see it as another shopping mall.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

I'm quick to admit that I don't have recent experience with KCI.

That's pretty obvious.