KC Confidential

Just last week Westport boss hawg Bill Nigro predicted a decent St. Paddy’s day…

Sure, KC’s infamous parade had been canceled, still Nigro thought it was a reasonable to expect a crowd of, say, 25 percent of the usual starting around 5 p.m. as folks got off work.

After all, for something like ever St. Patrick’s Day has been the party district’s most bankable holiday….the cash cow of all cash cows.

Then today happened and the KC put the kibosh on local bars and nightclubs.

As for Nigro’s 25 percent guesstimate…

“There will be no crowd, we’re shiut down,” he says. “Kelly’s isn’t even open, nobody’s open. Westport is shiut down, baby. I didn’t think it was going to be this bad. People have been walking up to the front door of Kelly’s all day and reading the sign that they’re closed.”

The quietest St. Patrick’s in Westport ever?

“Ever,” Nigro says. “And it’s always busy here – every year – it’s the top day of the year for everybody.”

The kicker:

“Yet the casinos are open today,” Nigro grouses. “How fair is that? We were ordered to be closed and they’re open. So Westport gets the shaft on the best business day of the year and the casino gets a pass.”

Indeed, a call to KC’s Isle of Capri reveals the casino is open tonight until midnight. Continue reading →

Act of goodwill or a blatant attempt to capitalize on a national tragedy?

You make the call:

The Kansas City Star has begun opening it’s “online paywall” for stories pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak.

It appeared to start with the cancellation of the Big 12 and NCAA basketball tournaments.

I mean, who doesn’t stand to benefit in these bizarre times by more fully understanding the whys and wherefores of the collapsed of college hoops?

No biggie – it’s understandable even – that the beleaguered local newspaper of record would try and recoup some online subscription monies for its sports department. And, you know, maybe sell a few $30 a year online sports subscriptions.

Certainly it’s a noble gesture giving locals a free peek at coronavirus news they can use.

That said, is it in good taste for the Star to pat itself on the back for taking the high road on the worst threat to this country since the Spanish Flu pandemic off 1918, by using the occasion to hawk online subscriptions? Continue reading →

Let’s be real, it’s hard to imagine things being much worse for local newspapers…

Then again, there’s always the death by a thousand cuts concept…and we’re at least 900 plus cuts into that scenario.

Which brings us to current state of college and pro sports.

Bad as things are and have been, canceling of the Big 12 and NCAA mens basketball tourneys – not to mention the NBA and NHL seasons, Major league Baseball, Major League Soccer and with pretty much all-things-sports – is the equivalent of a giant cup of  print journalism hemlock.

A prominent Lawrence lawyer who subscribes to both the physical Kansas City Star and Lawrence Journal World, made one thing clear to me earlier today.

“Most people I know that still take the Journal World do so its KU sports coverage,” he says. “This is really going to hurt them.”

Ditto for the Star but perhaps less obviously,

Case in point, look how the Star and Journal World handled yesterday’s NCAA news:

The Journal World front page was an exercise in sky-is-falling journalism.

The Star’s was more preoccupied with restaurants, bars and toilet paper.

Which didn’t stop the Star from using the death of the NCAA tourney to hawk its $30 online sports package. Continue reading →

You know the drill, where there’s smoke…

For years most of the white clouds billowing out of McGonigle’s Market at 79th and Ward Parkway had more to do with the old neighborhood grocer’s tasty ribs.

These days however, a controversial plan to tear down the current store, along with five family homes in the adjacent neighborhood is causing a stir,

That’s because an out-of-town buyer wants to convert the decades-old, quaint family biz into an 8,500 square foot store with a multitenant 4,500 square foot commercial building plus parking.

Which by most warm, fuzzy local neighborhood standards is a lot to love.

And that would appear to explain in part why after grudgingly granting McGonigle’s permission to expand recently – but only after city staff initially recommended denying the plan due to the required zoning changes and concerns of how the additional commercial footprint might affect residential properties and “character and fabric” of the surrounding neighborhood.

Not to mention KC’s strict boulevard and parkway standards.

The $64 million question:

Did McGonigle’s – which talked to the prospective buyers last year – sandbag the city by using its good will to schmooze the changes, in order to grease the sale of the biz?

Because right after getting permission to expand, McGonigle’s announced the sale.

Sound fishy?

Well, on word of the sale Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McManus introduced legislation to reconsider the move, and it was referred to committee for further discussion.

McManus is on record that he wants new owner, Fareway Stores, to “get buy-in from the community”  before it okays McGonicle’s expansion.

Owner Mike McGonigle conceded to the Star that Fareway talked to him last year about the sale, but said he did not believe he’d mislead the council by not telling them a sale was in the works.

That said, in the interest of lending a helping hand to an old-timey family biz, the city gave McGonigle’s an arguably questionable zoning pass for major commercial expansion along one of KC’s most esteemed boulevards, in a residential neighborhood. Continue reading →

Greitens

This is why readers are abandoning the Kansas City Star…

In yet another hit piece aimed at area Republicans, “reporter” Jason Hancock reached into his bag of dirty tricks to harness a “government watchdog” to bash former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens.

That after Greitens got off with what amounts to a wrist slap over ethics complaints over a pair of alleged campaign finance violations.

“The Missouri Ethics Commission said in a consent decree released Thursday that while there were reasonable grounds to believe Greitens’ campaign broke Missouri law, its investigation ‘found no evidence of any wrongdoing on part of Eric Greitens, individually, and no evidence Gov. Greitens knew’ about any violations,” Hancock writes.

Ah, but no way was Hancock about to let Greitens’ claim of being vindicated stand.

Citing a “liberal government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” that had filed a complaint against Greitens in 2018, Hancock allowed the group’s PR dude Jordan Libowitz to dismantle Greitens claims of exoneration.

“Beyond the legal matter itself,” Libowitz said of Greitens, “this should make a lot of people uncomfortable.”

Just one problem…

Using a so-called “watchdog” to bash Greitens, Hancock gave the impression that the critique came from an even-handed source.

Au contraire…

While Libowitz’ group describes itself as a “non partisan non-profit,” Wikipedia has another take.

“Since liberal Democratic operative David Brock became CREW’s chairman in 2014, CREW has almost exclusively pursued investigations and litigation against Republicans and conservatives.” Continue reading →