Harrison Ford will be in KC tomorrow for premiere of the Jackie Robinson movie “42.” Rumor has it Mark Hamill will be there…serving popcorn.
******
Google Fiber is expanding to Austin in 2014. Google wants to focus on cities that already have fiberoptic backbones…and lots of good BBQ.
******
Two college students were stabbed Tuesday in Cypress, Texas by a man who used to “fantasize about stabbing students.” If we’re going to get tough on crime, it’s time to outlaw Texans.
Kelly Urich hosts the morning show on The Point 99.7 FM
Dear Google Fiber
How about finishing up in KC before trying out a second city. How about hiring some more installers and getting to the rest of KC before I am too old to appreciate all that lightning speed.
Yours truly.
Waiting in Prairie Village
After 21 years in exile in Kansas City I was able to escape and relocate to my homeland of Texas – just in time to miss the massive snows KC faced this year. A couple of points:
I have enjoyed reading some of the reactions to Google expanding into Austin. A lot of the KC reaction sounds like whining and there is a distinct “We’ve been jilted” vibe to the coverage. Did KC and the surrounding area think that Google was doing this because KC had something particularly special to offer? Did KC think it was anything more than a cheap place for Google to “practice”? Austin is what Austin is – a dynamic city in a dynamic state that takes full advantage of their gifts and is incredibly pro-business. My opinion is that KC should look at Google’s investment as a gift and make something positive happen because of it. Companies will not pick Austin over KC due to Google Fiber – they will pick Austin for any of the 3,000+ reasons that Austin and Texas as a whole is superior to KC (lower crime, better weather, accredited schools, low tax/business friendly, etc, etc, etc). KC needs to improve a lot to compete with Austin and look at Google Fiber as a tool but not any kind of solution to the myriad problems it faces.
As for “outlaw Texans”. Dallas had 152 murders in 2012. Dallas proper has a population of 1.2 million. Kansas City had 108 murders in 2012. KC proper has a population of 450k or so. Dallas, at just under three times the population had 44 more murders – but Texans are outlaws? Seriously, the chasm between KC’s potential and KC’s reality is vast – and the difference isn’t Google Fiber – it is the idiocy and lack of vision (or misguided vision) that KC and the surrounding areas pursue.