KC Confidential

In a word, no…

Not all locals worship at the altar of former Star business writer/downtown ballpark cheerleader Kevin Collison and the Kansas City Royals.

For years Collison – reduced to blogging now – was the poster child for campaigning for the Royals to bail on The K and move downtown. Yet, despite his heaping helpings of hype, to many, a downtown ballpark was the last thing Kansas City wanted, let alone needed.

In part because, block after block of towering stadium walls doesn’t paint a very pretty picture. Actually, the opposite. Add in crime stats suburbanites find worrisome, tight parking, and the team’s limited prospects of achieving playoff success – plus zillions in public tax dollars and many see it a lose-lose deal.

Take Westport business leader Bill Nigro…

“Downtown’s doing fine and our current ballpark is world class,” he says. “Everybody that drives by our stadium now, the first thing out of their mouths is, ‘Wow!’ And if they go by at night, it’s, triple wow.”

To former KC councilwoman Becky Nace, it’s about a millionaire owner wanting to roll the dice with public money – by floating romantic imagery past clued out voters – who don’t have much of an idea what’s truly at stake.

Outside of aging baseball fans and supporters like former Entercom radio main man Bob Zuroweste and Collison, does a downtown ballpark make sense?

“It doesn’t, we don’t need it,” Nace says. “They’ll have to bulldoze 20 or 30 buildings in the Crossroads to build this and everybody’s property tax is going to go up.”

The top  Reasons Not to Build a Downtown Ballpark:

“The Royals stadium is beautiful and nationally recognized,” Nace says. “So it’s a waste of money. And you’re not gaining anything when you move it from one part of Kansas City to another. In doing so, you’re choosing winners and losers. Thirdly, anyone who knows downtown, knows that parking is a problem. So when you go down there, you’re going to be on a mission to see where you can park. They are being intellectually dishonest to say there will be no problems.” Continue reading →

What goes around, comes around, right?

Or do I have it backwards? In any case, former Star columnist Jason Whitlock, who used to pimp Carl Peterson and Chiefs fans in general

Still out there trying to piss off whoever he can to remain relevant and getting his name back in play.

This time out, by going after sports talk icon, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

Naturally, Smith took the bait.

“And I will not deny it, I think he’s a fat, no-good bastard who I despise to the core,” Smith said of Whitlock. “But it doesn’t mean that I wish him harm. It ain’t hard to figure out who the hell I’m talking about.”

Mission accomplished! Continue reading →

Old flames fade away, but they don’t always die out…

Take Chiefs star Travis Kelce’s ex Maya Benberry and her recent YouTube rant:

“Certain qualities don’t change in men,” she says. “I feel like Travis is a narcissist. So most narcissists don’t change.”

They dated for 8 months after meeting on a reality show that a pal of Craig Glazer‘s set up and Benberry says she thought they were going to marry.

Until Kelce cheated on her, she says…

On top of which, Benberry doubts Kelce’s romance with Taylor Swift is for real. Continue reading →

There’s a risk to spending too much time on “cable” news…

Where most everything is presented in “cut and dried” form, with baked in conclusions. Kind like getting indoctrinated at the same time you’re trying to absorb actual news.

On Fox, for example, homelessness is often presented as an end of the world phenomenon. Throw in a bit of sympathy for good measure, so as not to appear heartless. Mix with a measure of, “Who are these people and why are ruining our world instead of being out job hunting or doing slam time?”

When it comes to the fair city of Lawrence, Kansas, homeless folks get to run amuck. Which at times can be a little scary or gross to halfway normal folks. All while hipster politicians allow them to create problems and put locals at risk.

That brings me to Topeka – the place I now work. Here, hipness is fairly low on the food chain, so unsightly homeless types are largely unwelcome.

As evidenced by this recent  Topeka Capitol Journal headline:

“Camping near trails banned in unanimous vote by Topeka City Council.”

Much of that can be explained by WIBW TV’s headline in February: “Topeka homelessness at four year high.”

In my experience, seeing homeless people used to be a rare occurrence.

No mas.

Explain it as you may – these days they’re almost everywhere, and often in comparatively large numbers. But how folks feel about it often, seems to be reflected by their political persuasion.

Not everybody sees it that way…

“It has nothing to do with stupid politics,” one woman said. “We are fact based.”

I get it, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Now let’s check out T Town: Continue reading →

This isn’t exactly breaking news…

Far from it, still I think it’s worth noting that while nice guy Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes‘s brother Jackson is crass and lame, his wife Brittany is only incrementally better.

That’s not saying much.

Yet while she’s not trying to jam her tongue into random dude’s faces, nor a gawdawful hip-hop dancer, she is a partner in crime to Jackson and some of his lame misdeeds. And she does seem to encourage his poor judgement, and defends him from those who roll their eyes.

On top of which, Brittany engages in her own fair share of poorly thought out acts, like spraying champagne on Chiefs fans in freezing cold weather and buying tacky, wildly expensive Chanel baby gifts.

In other words, both Brittany and Jackson are polar opposites of Patrick.

Patrick is a dream-come-true, model citizen, who represents the Chiefs and KC almost perfectly. And in this day and age, that kind of talent coupled with those skills only come around a few times in a generation. Let alone in our little flyover corner of the world.

Think George Brett minus the pine tar, hemorrhoids, huge ego, and bad temper.

So yeah, it’s easy for many Cowtowners and football freaks to give Brittany a pass.

But isn’t it time for her to look in the mirror and think a few seconds before she says or does something crass and stoopid? Continue reading →

Homelessness is hitting close to home in Lawrence…

And it’s not pretty. Downtown has long been a refuge for trendy locals and Kansas Citians with a penchant for the hip lifestyle. Forget KU basketball, think upscale small town living, a stones throw from KC.

Now set aside those idyllic images, and get your head around the hundreds of ‘homeless’ types descending on a post COVID college town. And they’re taking a toll on Lawrence’s charming downtown.

To the extent that wooden pallets are now in play to create what they’re calling a pallet shelter village to house some of the scary-looking transient types that have taken up residency in small settlements like the one behind the original Johnny’s Tavern in North Lawrence.

By day, they’re largely invisible, but as evening approaches they drift onto Mass Avenue unsettling downtown merchants, and leaving drugs and bodily fluids in their wake. So much so, that the fabled downtown toy store installed a water spigot to hose down its sidewalk out front.

And while winter temps may send many of them south and west, the city appears reluctant to enforce laws on the books that might prevent loitering, littering and licentiousness. Activities that are scaring off a number of the clean cut family types.

One local – who asked his name be withheld – thinks the problem is out-of-control.

“I don’t think, I know,” he says. “Because I’m reading people on Facebook talking about how unruly they are. The transients use the free local busses to go places where they can panhandle or scout out places to crash. Last week around 2 p.m. this homeless guy walked into our office building into a restroom off the lobby, and took his shitty pants off and tried to clean himself. He left his underwear on the floor and then walked out.”

“And there was a woman panhandling outside the entrance to Dillon’s with a bunch of kids. And the next day, a different woman was there with the same kids, and there was some guy in a truck or a van watching them. I’m telling you, the police are too busy to deal with it all.”

Word on the street is that people in California and places where homelessness runs rampant are telling people to come to Lawrence, the businessman says. Continue reading →

Time flies when you’re having fun…

That said, chances are, for  convicted Hereford House honcho Rod Anderson it’s been crawling…slowly.

That’s because 10 years ago, Anderson was sentenced to 15 years slam time for setting the original Hereford House downtown ablaze. That after launching failed eateries in both Westport and Lawrence and the downtown location was a run down money loser.

So heralded was Anderson as a civic leader at the time, the judge who sent him away all but apologized to him at at his sentencing.

That is, until prosecutor Jess Michaelson put things in perspective by chastising Anderson for not taking a plea deal and saving taxpayers the expense of trying him for five years. And for not admitting his guilt, and continuing to profess his innocence years after his dastardly deed.

The “funniest:” thing I recall:

When Anderson sent the dudes in to torch the place, he told them how to disable the antiquated burglar and fire alarm. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Anderson, a Hereford House staffer had recently installed a state-of-the-art alarm that busted them royally.

Anyhoo, while Anderson was trying to wriggle out of  his conviction, he got legions of civic leaders to write letters to the judge about what a prince among men he was.

And when he tried to appeal his sentence two years later, it was revealed he’d injected nearly $400 grand into the dilapidated, old building and tried to collect $2.4 million from the insurance company.

Not the stuff civic leaders normally do.

But wait, now that I’m back in KC, I went to the popular Shawnee Hereford House to get an update on Anderson. After all, 10 years into a 15 year sentence – maybe being a boy scout in prison – was he’d be able to secure some sort of parole deal.

Or maybe not.

Because Anderson was “sentenced without parole.” Meaning he’s got like five more years before his get outta jail free card matures.

Shortly after Anderson’s prison time began, KCC reported his wife Camellia had taken the Hereford helm and was running things. Yet some woman named Mary Holland is identified online as the owner?

Calls to Camellia at various Hereford Houses and its corporate office were not returned. Continue reading →

I had to see it first hand…

More than a year after my old, home-away-from-home Mayfield, Kentucky was all but wiped off of the map I got around to going there last week to relive my earliest days in business. That, and to witness first hand how badly the infamous December 2021 tornado had ravaged my tiny former town.

The second anniversary’s coming up in four months, but in general, around 1,300 “homes, businesses and places of worship” had been destroyed in Mayfield. Including most of the quaint, all-brick downtown where I worked, shopped, learned how to drink moonshine and eat delicacies such as country ham and  “brains and eggs” – in the “dry county” of my lost youth.

The news reporters were long gone, and the remaining rubble was mostly under control. However, arriving late at night I got totally lost searching for a town that was no longer there. My hotel, the Wingfield Inn had plenty of rooms available, and its pool was open, despite that half of its giant sign was still missing – the half that faced the entrance I drove in on – and it still had funky-looking padlocks hanging on the doors of its lobby entrance.

Mayfield Milling – the grain elevator I learned how to grade grain at and hang with farmers is still standing – but closed – with workers busy removing the twisted remains of giant grain bins that bit the dust in the storm,

There really wasn’t that much left to see, so back I went to the quaint Mayfield Country Club – where I’d encountered my first “beer machine” in the early 1970s – to find out first hand what had happened from locals. Continue reading →