About the new Kansas City Star editorial board…
Isn’t it great to finally have an eager editorial assemblage at what’s left of the dying-on-the-vine local newspaper of record? A smattering of out-of-towners that has embarked on a path of weighing in on anything and everything – from porn blocking software to the death penalty to frat parties at KU and expanding the streetcar line.
There’s virtually nothing this wise counsel of know-it-alls won’t weigh in on.
Jack of all trades alert, anyone?
Unfortunately, too many of their shoot-from-the-hip musings have been based on obvious political biases and poorly reported on news stories.
Take KC’s free ride streetcar line.
Look, who doesn’t want the cowtown to have the latest and greatest? And it’s hard to argue that a fun, hip transportation source like a modernized, old-fashioned streetcar line wouldn’t be an excellent addition, if…it can be shown to be economically feasible and geographically mapped out to do the greatest good.
Too bad the Star’s reporting has been more supportive than investigative.
As a refugee of Tucson, I’ve kept an eye on that city’s fledgling Sun Link streetcar system the past four years.
What’s more, it’s a system that has benefited from the local media keeping a far closer eye on its development, economics and ridership than the cheerleaders at 18th and Grand.
For starters, unlike KC’s far smaller system, the Sun Link’s 3.9 mile route was a no brainer.
From start to finish it was a guaranteed grand slam that ran from the University of Arizona campus thru the wildly popular 4th Avenue entertainment and shopping district to an enormously successful downtown and on to the Tucson Convention Center and Mercado shopping and dining district.
It’s hard to imagine a better route…
Or for that matter, anything close to resembling anything in or around Greater Kansas City. That’s not to say KC doesn’t deserve or can’t support a streetcar system of its own.
To bad downtown KC’s population of 22,000 is half that of the U of A’s student population alone.
Meanwhile instead of scrutinizing questionable “estimates” of more than 5,400 daily streetcar riders here, the newspaper turned a mostly blind eye to a convoluted voting process to expand the line and left questions unanswered as to how the streetcars here can break even while letting folks ride free.
Contrast that with Tucson’s far superior route and more realistic estimates of 2,500 paid daily riders.
That’s right, from the get go, Sun Link riders have coughed up cold, hard cash to ride.
The bottom line:
It’s time for the Star’s opinion eager editorial tongue waggers to do more actual reporting on important local news and less time worrying about Mo. Governor Eric Greitens past sex life and all things Donald Trump.
What Kansas City needs and expects from its primary local news source is just that; in depth, comprehensive local and area news and less cut-and-paste, national news filler and off-the-cuff opinions about everything under the sun.
Just saying…
I don’t believe there was ANY mention in THE STAR of the early season ‘problems on the Plaza’ that went down a few weekends ago.
The TV stations covered it. So did talk radio. But I saw nothing in print.
Wonder how they ‘overlooked’ that one at ’18th and Grand’????
They’re spread pretty thin….
And again, to the point, they’re using day to two day old national news as filler because it doesn’t cost anything. Unlike local news which requires live bodies and paychecks to originate.
So it’s actually kind of a subscriber con that depends on people who are either a) older b) computer phobic or c) all of the aforementioned.
The bottom line: While they say they’re looking toward the future, they’re totally anchored / betting on the past. Pretty weak strategy.
If you read the Star you realize they have a specific agenda and only report on those items and ignore many others.
They hate Greitens (well actually any republican governor)
They hate President Trump (well actually any republican)
The love ku, the Big 12 and johnson county, ks (and hate MU, the SEC, and pretty well anything Missouri)
…. that’s pretty much it.
Hearne is a wonderful writer, experienced, insightful and talented. It’s confusing how his site is filled with sports essays and movie reviews. Perhaps it’s too much to expect that I’d be intellectually challenged here, but I fail to see why. You guys are wasting your talent.
As far as the streetcar issue is concerned, the line will eventually stretch to UMKC so where’s the beef? The powers that control the politics in this area spend billions to resurface and add lanes to surface streets and then complain that rail systems are too expensive … when the opposite is true. Rail is an economical mass people mover that creates an economic revival in the areas it serves.
Thanks, Laura…
I’ll try olive up to your kind expectations, but I dunno.
That said, I’m going to reawaken back in KC within the next couple three months and will try and branch out with more frequent writing and reporting. Harder to do from the wilds of Lawrence and Topeka.
Um, Dave Helling just won a $2500 ASNE award for “editorial writing that is excellent journalism and makes a difference in a community.” Read the judges’ comments and the winning editorial at its site.
http://asne.org/awards-2018
These inside baseball journalism awards are basically gloried circle jerks…hate to say it— but every industry has them.
Which isn’t to say, they’re entirely meaningless.
Then again…