Letters: Readers discuss smart building codes, ‘geezer’ wisdom and online county fees
The right things
I would like to congratulate Bank of America and Kansas City market President Matt Linski for taking a leadership role in raising the bank’s minimum hourly wage to $20, as well as the other socially responsible actions the bank touts in recent advertising.
As a retired federal bank regulator, I find it refreshing to see a major financial institution live up to its corporate responsibilities and share its resources with its employees and their community.
- Jack Misiewicz, Lenexa
Future proof
Decisions will be made in early 2020 on revisions to Kansas City’s building codes, which will affect new homes and commercial structures. A half-dozen years ago, the city adopted an amended version of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code, or IECC. The City Council must make sure that the most recent version of the IECC is adopted without amendment in 2020.
Energy efficiency helps residents afford their homes, and commercial tenants afford places of business. According to an estimate by Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, if an unamended 2018 IECC were adopted, a household in Kansas City could expect to reduce energy use by 24% and save $285 per year on energy bills. Similar benefits were found for commercial buildings.
Good energy codes are also effectively health codes, reducing health problems associated with poor indoor air quality.
The city needs policies that move us forward, especially where the threats of climate change can also be addressed. By enacting an unamended 2018 IECC, Kansas City would greatly benefit from a decreased carbon footprint from new homes and commercial buildings.
- Don Wallace, Sierra Club Thomas Hart Benton Group legislative committee co-chair, Kansas City
We’ve seen worse
The author of a Dec. 8 letter opined that President Donald Trump is “the single most dangerous person in today’s world.” (18A)
Really? Trump is more dangerous than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un? Than Russian President Vladimir Putin? Than Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? Than Chinese President Xi Jinping?
Contrary to the letter’s assertion, we are not “a grand democratic experiment.” We are a long established, continuously functioning democratic republic, the longest-lived such government in the world.
I too get my news from many sources. For heaven’s sake, I even read Paul “One Note” Krugman.
I hold two advanced professional degrees. I wear the “geezer” badge proudly. I’ve lived in two millennia and two centuries. I grew up with the “duck and cover” drills of the Cold War. I’ve witnessed the racial desegregation battles of the 1950s. While a bit fuzzy, I remember the Korean War. The images of Vietnam War, with the attending war protests and race riots of the late 1960s and early ’70s, are still vivid. I’ve seen one president and multiple political and civil rights leaders assassinated, one president resign in disgrace, and another impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
The republic still stands.
- David Overman, Parkville
Inflection point
What our president did in attempting to use the power of his office for personal gain instead of the protection of the Constitution dishonored and put at risk all this nation has stood for the past 243 years.
A day of reckoning awaits if we do not recognize and oppose evil when it comes our way. Evil does not prey upon its own, but seeks what it can never possess: innocence and dignity. To that end, it will rob us of what defines a nation: clarity of purpose.
I will not argue the case for the president’s impeachment; his admissions are a testimony to his guilt. I will contend that if we do not again place country before party, then this government of, by and for the people will cease to exist. At that point, tyranny, rather than the rule of law, will become the arbiter of our fate.
- Michael G. Brennan, Mission
Some convenience
I went to the Jackson County website to pay my property taxes and was redirected to a third-party payment system. After setting up an account and logging in, I gave my bank information for the payment and was surprised to see a $3.25 “convenience” charge added.
Convenience? For whom? It seems I should get a $3.25 credit for using the online fund-transfer option. The county gets the money instantly with no hands-on involvement.
Not long ago, I could pay my taxes directly through the county website. The fee was less than a postage stamp, so that’s how I paid.
Next year, I will go back to paying via snail mail. I’m thinking I won’t be the only one. I regret now that I didn’t back out for this year when I saw the additional charges.
- Mike Helsel, Raytown