Today is the vote on the earnings tax for both Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo. This subject has caused much debate and with good reasons. If it is repealed, according to supporters, the city will have to cut fire and police to balance the budget. Our other taxes will be raised too because about half of the earnings taxes come from people who only work in KC metro, they don't live here.Looking at the pie-charts, the e-tax makes up a significant part of the budgets for both cities. So why is this such a debate? How come this is even a vote? Why is there such a debate? How come the citizens of Kansas City (don't know about St. Louis, I don't live there and no ads from there have been shown here...none I know of anyway), considering cutting off this tax?
First, I DO think this tax will pass. With commercials show how "outsiders" are supporting this tax and how police and fire will be cut, along with ambulance services, they are literally terrifying people into voting for this tax. I've seen quite a few commercials saying vote "yes" to keep KC Alive. In fact, that is the slogan, Keep KC Alive...as if repealing the earnings tax will kill the city. Hmmmmm....let's take a closer look at that one. What is keeping KC alive vs. sending businesses and residents away?
I have never heard of any city that is thriving having a school district that is deathly ill. KCMO school district lost accreditation in 1999. I personally know several people who left the city for the sake of their child's education. Many parents who remain in Kansas City work to send their children to charter or private schools. Can you blame them? No one wants to send their child to a school district for 13 years only to receive a degree that is only good to wipe their butts. The district just got accreditation, although probationary, this month. Unfortunately, it only barely had it returned. I believe the district made 4 our of 11 needed goals in order to get even probationary accreditation. How many children graduated with garbage degrees before today?
The city also allows blight to thrive in certain areas because "those people" caused the problems. This statement is in reference to a conversation I had today with a co-worker and I must admit, it lowered my opinion of her. To blame the average neighbor or the neighborhood for the decline of a shopping mall/center is not only short-sighted, it can also be racist. After looking up information on Bannister Mall, I discovered the mall's death was due to a variety of causes, not the least of which being competition and "white flight."The Bannister Mall atrium, pictured above, was an awesome place to sit and enjoy food court food. I really enjoyed that mall, the movies, the food court and the many fantastic shops. the picture above is the results of many years of neglect and the fact that the building was not fully secured once closed. Vandals had a great time at the mall...before and after it shut down.
Instead of a logical conversation discussing the complex reasons for why a once thriving mall could sputter to its death and finally be demolished and basically become a dirt pile, I got accusations directed at the mall's neighbors. I was really shocked to hear this person, whom I consider intelligent, telling me that Bannister Mall died because young people in the area systematically destroyed the mall with theft and violence. Uh...where were the police? My response also included the observation that -every- city in the nation has teens who misbehave and/or do violence. I also quoted something I had been told since I was a child...my mom would whip my butt or the police would. Problem with KC is that the police doesn't take over the whipping duties when the parents fail. Instead, the city allows an entire neighborhood to fall apart and then blames that decay on a few bad apples...YES...I said a FEW!
There are malls in plenty of low-income areas. They are probably not the best malls in the world, but they are there. Ignoring the addition of 6 more malls to the area, including several that are more modern, vibrant and better advertised, is just short-sighted. That kind of competition would hurt even a thriving mall. When Bannister Mall owners ignored the competition, never upgraded, didn't manage to keep anchor stores and eventually just allowed the entire place to fall apart, blaming a few bad elements is just crap. This person wasn't hearing/listening to my points and instead fixated on the erroneous belief that bad people in the neighborhood caused the destruction of an entire mall. This wasn't just ignorance but also racism. It's easy to blame "those people" for anything bad and never give "those people" credit for anything good. It's even easier to say the city is not to blame for ignoring an entire neighborhood while pouring money into an area where no one lives. That brings me to Power & Light District and downtown.
Kansas City's down town has been dead for years...as dead as Bannister Mall is now. The city decided to revitalize downtown. One of the arguments made by this person was that downtown was revitalized...not quite true. The P&L District has been plagued by lawsuits over a dress code that seems to discriminate against African Americans to weird rules about parking. Restaurants there have failed and now the city claims it needs money to continue funding the district. Citizens were promised the P&L District would be -helping- the city funds, not draining. P&L isn't really the place for me but it seems like while KC gripes about needing more and more money, it isn't really offering much in return.
In the end...I'm certain the e-tax will pass. Despite the failing school district, the failed "money-generating" projects and the pit that used to be Bannister Mall, money-sucking P&L District, the sucks to be you for living in a shitty neighborhood attitude. BTW, the only construction in the Bannister Mall area for probably 20 years has been the moving of a city fire station. Even Wal-Mart closed in the area, the following day the company opened a brand new store in a different part of KC. Why didn't our city "leaders," what a joke, make Wal-Mart do something, ANY thing with Hyper-Mart, the mega-store that is now sitting, vacant and contributing to the blight?
The biggest reason I oppose the e-tax is simple...the soccer stadium that was to replace the mall went to Kansas instead with developers citing the e-tax as the reason for the move. Therefore, I pay extra to live/work in KC while city leaders tell me sucks to be for living near a mall it allowed to die and then made no efforts to rid this area of blight. I voted no with good reason.
