Buzz notes: A week ahead of the primary vote, candidates address seniors, livability
Down to their final week of campaigning, Kansas City’s mayoral candidates are fighting for undecided voters by promising a safer, more livable, walkable and equitable city.
Nine of the 11 contenders took questions Tuesday morning at a forum hosted by AARP, apparently the last one before the April 2 primary. The two top vote-getters will move into the June runoff.
Candidates have zig-zagged across town to appear before neighborhood, business, civic and single-issue interest groups, answering questions on affordable housing, crime, economic development and neighborhoods. Now, they’re short on time to win over the nearly 44 percent of voters still undecided, according to a recent poll commissioned by The Star.
Informed by a survey of AARP’s members — Americans over age 50 — who live in Kansas City moderators questioned candidates on how they would ensure Kansas City is livable, walkable, affordable and safe. The survey showed more than 90 percent of members valued pedestrian safety, infrastructure and the ability to age at home. A vast majority also wanted candidates to talk about how they would reduce crime and violence, improve education and create jobs.
Contenders said making life better for seniors means making the city more transit-friendly and easier to get around, cleaning up neighborhoods, easing the tax burden and improving basic services.
Phil Glynn, whose Crossroads-based business builds affordable housing in indigenous communities, said when his parents got older, they decided to move out of their Kansas City home, but the only place they found was in a suburban area.
“It was away from their parish. It was away from their friends, and it was sad for them to have to move,” Glynn said. “But honestly, it was a bigger loss for the neighborhood that they left behind.”
Glynn recommended the city provide property tax relief for seniors and build more affordable senior living units to ensure neighborhoods have a mix of ages.
Councilman Quinton Lucas, 3rd District at-large, focused on better delivery of the city’s existing services, like deterring crime or picking up trash.
“If there’s somebody who’s getting shot down the street from you, whether you’re 25 or 75, you don’t want to be around that,” Lucas said. “If there are people that are dumping trash down the street, whether you’re 25 or 75, you don’t want to deal with that.”
Councilwoman Alissia Canady, 5th District, highlighted the Love They Neighbor program she helped fund as a council member. Love Thy Neighbor assists homeowners who don’t have the physical ability or financial resources to address code violations. Such citations can result in court appearances, expensive fines or even arrest warrants, especially for older adults.
“I was able to identify some funds and with the support of my colleagues advance that program, and it’s doing a great job today,” Canady said.
The growing urgency to pick off enough votes to get through Tuesdays’ primary has added tension to the series of debates that began on a relatively congenial note.
Construction attorney Steve Miller took a swipe at Councilwoman Jolie Justus, 4th District, who chairs the city’s Airport Committee, claiming the airport plan put the taxpayers at risk and that the city wouldn’t own the developer’s plans for the airport.
“We can’t lurch from crisis to crisis to crisis as we have,” Miller said. “And we’ve got to look at a KCI airport, even as we broke ground yesterday, that still hasn’t guaranteed the actual final cost to the taxpayers.”
The city’s plan would pay debt service on the airport with fees charged to the airlines that use it, not taxpayer money. City officials have promised repeatedly to avoid using taxpayer funds on the airport.
The airlines are also expected to make up any shortfalls if airport revenue is insufficient to pay off the new terminal.
The development agreement Kansas City negotiated with developer Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate says the city does in fact own the plans.
Charles Renner, an attorney for Husch Blackwell who helped negotiate the agreement on behalf of the city, said in the event the city fired the development team it would still have the plans.
Miller also critiqued the City Council’s decision to modify its master bond ordinance after rejecting Burns & McDonnell’s bid for failing to comply with that ordinance.
At a council meeting last week, Justus said the ordinance would have had to change anyway, and that the amendment in question did not address the violation that disqualified Burns & McDonnell. But the decision still created consternation. Canady and Councilman Scott Wagner, 1st District at-large, voted against the ordinance.
Also attending Tuesday were Councilmen Jermaine Reed, Scott Taylor and Scott Wagner and bank branch manager Henry Klein. Transportation activist Clay Chastain and Vincent “The General” Lee were not there.
This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 1:36 PM.
