AKP is an example of the problem. He represents the mindset of a significant number of people in the Metro, whose opinions hold the City and Metro back. AKP is among the most negative people on this forum. His posts are full of excuses and rarely solutions.
Negative - no. But I do like to question and challenge stands taken by others.
Example of the problem - no. But then, what is the problem you describe? What holds KCMO back, and to an extent the metro area, are decisions made by those in charge whether it be elected leaders, business leaders, community leaders, and to a lesser extent 'all' of the citizens.
You might take my comments about the P&L District as being anti-development. I am not anti-development, just opposed to how it was handled. The water and sewer improvements could have been financed by bonds for that purpose - of course all ratepayers would be paying them off but are they not doing it now anyway? The garages could have been built with revenue bonds much like many of the other city garages downtown. And instead of using TIF the council could have gone to the voters for approval of general obligation bonds - and yes the citizens would have been paying those off. Overall, the project was rushed through the council without many questions being asked or the issue debated (they have spent way much more time and debate on many minor issues that didn't affect city finances like this). So, in a nutshell, instead of having the bad press about the revenue shortfalls and the city's debt obligations the press would have been good reporting on the revenue increases the project was experiencing.
