Letters: KC readers discuss developers’ perks, school mask fights and Roger Marshall
Who’s being helped
Developers are at it again. The proposed development of Chicago-based Mac Properties at Armour Boulevard and Main Street includes 385 units, and only 10% are affordable. The rest would rent for $1,000-plus per month.
Meanwhile, MAC wants a 20-year tax abatement from the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority and yet more funding from the Midtown Business Interruption Fund, from which it has already received more than $10 million. Moreover, Mac seeks $10.5 million in the next 20 years from tax increment financing.
Corporations talk free enterprise when resisting government regulation, but these ideals go out the window when it comes to subsidizing their profits. Our tax dollars are “feeding the horses so the birds can eat.”
As pastor of a church on Armour Boulevard, I have seen the work of gentrification and have prayed with and held the hands of those displaced by these corporate proposals.
We hear comments about economic development, but these abstractions obscure the racism and classism they embody and enact. That these development ventures fall most heavily on people of color and poor people seem to go unnoticed by corporations, the rich and some people at City Hall.
Will we choose people or provide wealth-fare profits to developers?
- Tex Sample, Kansas City
People first
To the 26 elected officials who recently signed a letter urging Johnson County to end the school mask rule, (Dec. 14, 1A, “Elected officials urge Johnson County to end school mask rule”) I have a couple of questions and a suggestion:
Did you take the time to speak with school principals and teachers to ask how COVID-19 is affecting their students and buildings?
Data does show that younger people do not always get as seriously ill or die from COVID-19, but did you consider the teachers, administrators and support staff at the schools who will be exposed?
It might be good for all of you to take the time to visit an area hospital to see that many are using hallways and emergency rooms for patient beds because of the surge in COVID admissions.
Please put people’s health above your political aspirations.
- Barbara E Nichols, Leawood
Work for us
Congress passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill that would send billions of dollars to Kansas, Missouri and all states — sorely needed money that could be used for major improvements of our infrastructure. More information is available at transportation.gov.
If you are wondering what this means for you, think about the following: How much time do you spend idling in traffic congestion? How much money do you spend in automobile repairs each year because of poorly maintained roads? If you live in a rural area, how spotty is your internet or cable because of inaccessible broadband service? If you rely on public transportation, how much time and money do you spend waiting for buses and how many transfers do you have to make?
Thanks to the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration and the bipartisan cooperation of Congress, all those concerns could be addressed. Now let’s get the Build Back Better bill passed.
- Edward Leos Acosta, Lawrence
Got it wrong
I watched Sen. Roger Marshall’s appearance on “Meet the Press” Sunday and was disappointed and dismayed to hear him refuse to speak the truth that President Joe Biden had been elected fairly. Instead, the senator continued the lie about election problems by saying he was “still concerned about election integrity” — of course, without giving any evidence or examples to support that “concern.”
Further, I was embarrassed to hear him oppose a federal vaccine mandate by stating that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that 92% of people have “some level of immunity” to COVID-19, which is not at all what the website says about so-called “natural immunity.” For a doctor to disseminate such misinformation is dangerous and a grave disservice to his constituents.
Additionally, the senator’s claim that a federal vaccine mandate would be bad for business, but then refusing to acknowledge the interviewer’s point that allowing COVID to run rampant without a mandate could be worse for business, is a disservice to Marshall’s constituents in the business sector.
- Cynthia Lukas, Shawnee