KC Confidential

The owner of the Plaza, has put KC’s CROWN JEWEL up for sale…

Yep, it’s come to that. Highwoods Properties has owned the Country Club Plaza for 17 years and put a truck load of money into the area to reboot what was once one of the busiest places in our city day and night.

Highwoods says it wants to to put its money into other developments around the nation. They also owned Prairie Village shopping district and sold that to Lane4 in 2009.

And today that area is booming with hot restaurants and more traffic than we saw back in the Toon Town days of the 1970’s,  so maybe a new owner for the Plaza will be a good thing. Right now nobody knows what’s in store for the future of one of America’s nicest shopping and entertainment districts.

Just a few months ago I wrote about the Plaza’s problems.

They remain the same. Continue reading →

Try Googling, “violence on the Country Club Plaza”

You’ll get 822,000 hits. Scroll down that lengthy list and you can read stories from every media outlet known to man. The Daily KOS, The Blaze, WaPo, HuffPo, USA Today, TIME, KCC and every major TV network and blogger in the nation. Everybody’s covered it.

Why? Because it’s a big eff’ing deal.

Headlines include –

“KANSAS CITY BLUES: VIOLENT BLACK MOBS”

“Man says brother was surrounded and shot at by teens near the plaza”

“Kansas City police hope to lay to rest to the violence, supercharged by social media, flash mobs and memorialized in online videos”

“Teens say fun night on the Plaza took terrifying turn when woman brandished gun”

“Everyone arrested was black. Everyone kicked off the bus was black.”

“The Plaza in Kansas City is an entertainment district under siege.”

Then a week ago, “Police search for suspects accused of brutally beating 37-year-old Army captain outside Plaza restaurant.”

I grew up on the Country Club Plaza. Continue reading →

He was a team player in a world where stars dominated…

The press was all about Mickey Mantle, but it was Yogi Berra who we loved. And kept on loving long after his playing days were through, because although he was a member of the jockcracy, Yogi danced to the beat of his own drummer, he was not beyond feuding with Yankee’s owner George Steinbrenner, because winning isn’t everything, it’s how you play the game that counts.

But back then the Yankees were winning everything.

It was so different from today.

No one flew, never mind went to spring training camp. But we couldn’t wait for the season to begin. We’d camp out in damp basements watching exhibition games when the snow had already melted but it was still too cold to go outside. We flipped baseball cards. We bought books. Baseball was the National Pastime.

Before the players grew moustaches and gained free agency. Before we discovered their foibles. Sure, Joe Namath transcended the stars who preceded him, he played both on and off the field and won in both arenas. But before that athletes were two-dimensional.

And then there was Yogi. Continue reading →

It’s like there are two internets…

One of skeptical consumers doing their best to navigate their lives and the other of scumbag providers doing their best to win through subterfuge. Then again, in a world where brands are revered and Volkswagen cheats why do we expect people to bend over backwards for businesses?

We can talk about ads slowing down mobile loading times, we can reference Apple making its money on hardware, but what we’ve really got is a public that’s sick and tired of getting the short end of the stick. If Republicans were advertisers they’d tell people to just pick themselves up by their bootstraps and be just like them, winners. But is it a winning economy when we’re inundated with messages that aren’t relevant that intrude upon our everyday life?

But websites will tell us there’s no free lunch.

Which brings up the question of payment. Everyone on the corporate side believes no one will pay. But the truth is we pay all the time, when you offer convenience and a desirable product. But when you do your best to put one over on us, we get angry. And if there’s any way we can get retribution…

Kind of like Napster. Sure, tunes were free. But they were also unlocked from overpriced albums with few good tracks. Furthermore, now radio was no longer in control, we were able to sample wares based on our own desires. The irony is the major labels and music business honchos will STILL tell you radio is in control! Ain’ that a laugh. Radio is where you can reach the most people easily, but it means less than ever before. How do we know? Because most of the public is clueless as to the Top 10, they just don’t care about it. In other words, it turns out the music industry is not giving people what they want.

We’ve all got to focus on giving people what they want. That’s internet 101. The consumer is in control. Win by serving them, not by corralling them to fit your own desires. Continue reading →

Well, are we over the Chiefs yet?

Not quite yet, right? Well, they have 14 more games, but hey folks, with that offensive line being a different group of guys nearly every week, they’re going nowhere.

I feel like coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey have had three years to fix it. They haven’t. So in my opinion, that’s not a good job.

Thus the Chiefs will not contend for much as usual.

They have other issues as well. That Thursday night game was an ugly loss. Next Monday Night at Green Bay – I don’t think so.

College area teams have no heros this season. Missouri has a solid defense but lack offensive weapons. They will go to a bowl game but I see this as a lesser year than the first two in the SEC. K State will also go bowling but not compete for a title in the Big Twelve and Kansas. Need I say anything. Outside of Ohio State the rest look like we won’t know for a couple more weeks. Alabama has a big game with Ole Miss ant that will tell us if they are big time or not this year.

WITH THE CHIEFS loss we are probably starting out behind. 3-5 overall lets get rolling. Continue reading →

To think I picked them to win…

I thought this was going to be a much better year for KC. I felt the Chiefs were a post season team, based on their preseason, Jeremy Maclin, and a new beginning.

Was I ever wrong. LOSERS LOSE.

The Chiefs are for sure a loser. Again. They have no ability to win big games. None. They were a disgrace last night.

They gave away a 14 point lead in the second quarter in mere seconds to Denver’s Peyton Manning. Manning decided to take the game over from his new head coach. He went back to running the offense. And from that point forward we got our butts kicked. Continue reading →

Who won last night’s Republican presidential debate? Answer, Carly Fiorina…

She’s now a player and likely will end up in second behind Donald Trump at some point and maybe as his VP. Although she jumped him hard on the face joke, she also was also somewhat respectful to Trump and kinda nice. She showed that she’s tough, has a plan more than anyone else, and even addressed our backward criminal justice system. She’s a winner.

Jeb Bush had some moments mostly about his wife being hispanic and Trump being a jerk for not saying he was sorry for putting her down – but he wouldn’t do it. Jeb also made his brother, George W look good. He got some nice responses. However Trump still smashed him down and Jeb is just a bit weak up there.

Overall Bush is a nice guy who just isn’t strong enough.

I think he may gain a bit not much. Continue reading →