Kansas City’s more of less, Canada goose hunt, Kansas Legislature

The film and music department of the Kansas City Public Library has shorter hours. It seems as if 50 percent of the escalators at Union Station are closed.

Whether it is conscious or not, there seems to be a movement of “How can we give the public less?” The examples above are disturbing because both places get a large amount of money from the public in the form of tax revenue.

Stay tuned for more and more of less and less.

I read the Feb. 25 article, “Geese getting blame for fish kill at park,” about the dead fish at the Loose Park lake. They were possibly killed by excessive Canada goose droppings.

The number of these fowl seems to increase each winter, but nothing seems to be done to prevent it from getting even higher. Now not only are they laying waste to every area they inhabit, but they are being accused of killing other wildlife.

Perhaps it is time to do to the Canada goose population what was done to the deer problem. Calling the Canada goose police will only relocate the animals to another area to wreak havoc.

I believe it is time to find another method to reduce their numbers. Hunting them would offer the possibility of feeding the hungry and ridding the city of excess, unwanted water fowl.

I do not understand why Kansas dislikes lower-income people so much.

I will stay away from the Affordable Care Act this time, but the Feb. 27 front-page article, “Kansas studies YMCA’s tax break,” regarding the possible taxing of YMCAs because the Kansas Legislature sees the Ys as “operating with an unfair edge against the private health-club market.”

This assertion is enough to make a pinball machine go “tilt, game over.” Just compare the cars in the respective parking lots.

OK, compare the average salaries of the people who have memberships at the Y with those in private clubs. How many people belonging to private clubs take the bus there?

The article says the Y is competing for the “same gym rats” the private clubs do. Are the legislators for real? Do any of them know who goes where?

The Legislature wants to charge the Ys. Here’s the solution. Let’s put them all on equal footing. Tax the Ys but then require all organizations seeking the “same gym rats” to charge the same prices.

A church stands between a single-story strip mall at 75th Street and Antioch Road and The Clearing, a quiet neighborhood adjacent to a church, which MainStreet Group wants. The group petitioned the Overland Park Planning Commission for a special use permit of R-1 zoned property (more than four acres) to accommodate a three-story, 88,500-square-foot, 130-bed rehabilitation facility with 98 parking spaces, maintenance building, trash area and single entry/exit drive off Antioch Road.

The Planning Commission approved it.

The neighborhood does not object to the proposed development but to the inappropriate three-story design, size and density.

The City Council, agreeing with us by majority vote, returned the request to the Planning Commission, recommending a redesign: a single story, less mass, less land density and more in character with the neighborhood.

The new design still has three stories, drops 2,100 square feet but adds to the footprint and adds some trees. The commission approved it, congratulating MainStreet on its hard work, particularly “landscaping.”

What?

So, who’s in charge in Overland Park? The Planning Commission completely ignored the direction from City Council.

We should all feel insulted.

Overland Park City Council, please continue to fight for us and our community.

Are Missouri politicians going to attempt the same ghastly legislation that Kansas, Kentucky and Arizona tried? We can’t let this happen in Missouri. We just can’t.

I would be so ashamed of the state I call home.

The Feb. 24 article, “Payday loans may change in Missouri,” pointed out that the average annual interest rate on such loans is 455 percent. Payday loan lobbyist Randy Scherr said it is misleading to look at the annual percentage rate because payday loans don’t run for a year.

I like his logic. The next time I get a radar ticket for going 100 mph, I plan to tell the judge, “But your honor, I had only been driving for five minutes when I was pulled over.”

As for Mr. Scherr’s observation that the risk associated with payday loans justifies the exorbitant rate of 455 percent interest, take a look at the payday loan survey the Division of Finance publishes every two years at finance.mo.gov/reports/paydaysurveys.php. The default rate on payday loans has been around 6 percent since 2003.

One might wonder whether that default risk justifies charging 455 percent interest. This is especially so when one considers that the cost of money for lenders has been at historic lows for several years.

Everyone seems to want streetcars in Kansas City.

Look at the news media photos and see how much of the street a streetcar takes.

Kansas City already has buses. Now the city wants to spend millions of dollars to make a mess. I don’t understand.

There are no stores along Main Street as there were back in the 1950s. Where do city officials think people are going to go?

We didn’t drive cars downtown in the 1950s. Now people have to find a place to park.

This is not too smart.

I saw Kansas senatorial tea party candidate Milton Wolf on the news recently. He said nothing about what he stands for, or his vision as a U.S. senator.

All he did was bash incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts and President Barack Obama. In fact, Wolf wants to win and go to Washington so he can drive the president “crazy.”

I can’t be the only one who thinks Wolf is a good example of what is wrong with Congress. Rich, white, conservative Republicans are hell-bent on denying passage of any bill backed by the president that might help the poor or middle class in this country.

Milton is a wolf all right — a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A few days ago, I received four identical postcards from the city reminding me to pay my earnings tax for 2013. So that’s what they do with my money.

I’ve wondered about the extremely cold weather we’ve had this winter. Others probably have, too.

I found an email from American environmental activist Laurie David that helps explain what’s happening: “Some scientists think warmer temperatures in the Arctic due to climate change may weaken the jet stream, which makes it more likely that cold Arctic air will escape and move southward.”

It seems that the cause of so many of our problems is climate change. If we could get carbon dioxide emissions lower, there would be less climate change.

A national group called Citizens Climate Lobby advocates charging a fee for carbon emissions. Because utility companies and other sources of emissions would raise their rates as a result of the fee, the resulting money would be distributed back to the American people to help them pay their increasing bills.

Please! Folks who speed through red-light intersections endanger all those around them. So, what better way to slow everyone down or make some easy money for the city to use for road and bridge repair than with photo-enforced intersections?

Come on, folks, why are we letting speeders get their way?

This story was originally published March 2, 2014 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Kansas City’s more of less, Canada goose hunt, Kansas Legislature."