Inside the Group: Where is the Collaboration Kansas City?

project-kansascity-logo Last week on KCPT’s Kansas City Week in Review, the topic of a new $575 million Museum of Natural History project in Overland Park, KS was discussed. KC Star Columnist Steve Kraske brought up the point that this project will have impact on the entire metro and should have at least been discussed among the metro’s cities in that context. I wrote about this very topic a long time back on our old blog when another similar situation had arisen. I think it is worth revisiting so below is a reprint of that article.

…But Teach a Man How to Fish…(reprint)

Sometimes trying to understand the thinking of others, especially elected leaders is just too much "above my pay grade." Take for instance Kansas City's mission to out do Mission in getting a "tourism boosting, best in the region, solve all of our problems" aquarium. Put aside the fact that Mission has an actual development in the pipeline and that although KC officials say this has been in the works for years, only after Mission's announcement did a KC aquarium become a public topic. (Ed. note: since this article originally was written, the topic of an aquarium has somewhat faded into the background, however that is not to say it isn’t still being considered in some fashion.)Forget all that because there is something more important that is being shown here--actually two things.

The first thing "Fish-gate" shines a light on is the complete lack of cooperation and collaboration among Kansas City, at over 200 square miles and half a million residents, the biggest city in the metro, and the other counties and municipalities in the area. While this problem can be ascribed to any major metropolitan area in the country, the KC Metro seems to have perfected it. Look at some quick examples.

Water Parks.
The metro will soon have at least three water park offerings within approx. a 45-minute car ride of each other. Now water slides are great, but do we need this many water recreation facilities?

Retail.
Just in the Northland KC alone you could create a small town out of all the empty store fronts in malls, strip malls, and "lifestyle centers." And yet more bigger, higher-end developments are in the works all over both sides of the state line.

Casinos.
Kansas City can barely support the casinos already in existence, but with the addition of at least one, if not two casinos within a short drive to Kansas, what are the odds that one 0f KC’s casinos (maybe Isle of something) bites the dust?

Transportation. Sewers. Bi-State Initiatives.
Do we really even need to mention the lack of collaboration on these issues?

By now you may be asking what is the point. Well the point is that by failing to look at the metropolitan area as just that--an area, where synergies and efficiencies should be maximized, we spend more time trying to outdo each other. Competition is fine, but should we be competing with our own suburbs and nearby cities or instead with St. Louis, Omaha, Oklahoma City, etc? I vote for the latter.

That brings me to the second concern which I will briefly mention here and pick up again (and often) in later articles. Cities and states are fighting to attract the tourism dollar. Shopping malls, racetracks, water parks, casinos, restaurants---all rely on people's disposable income and discretionary spending. When times get tough and that spending goes down (THINK $3 gas) (Or 11 percent unemployment, Ed.), will all of this development really help or will it come back to bite us?

I don't know about you, but the answer scares me quite a bit.

(Sorry to end on such a downer, but sometimes the tough questions just can't keep being pushed down the road...to a new golf course...or a new hockey arena…or the best new BBQ joint across the street from the previously best new BBQ joint...or a…)