Northeast News
July 23, 2014

Step right this way folks, catch the magical mystery snake oil salesman at his very best. Yessiree, you too can be the proud owner of a ballot initiative you just really didn’t understand and will pay for dearly for years to come. This carefully crafted news-pooch urges some very careful analysis of the ballot initiatives being decided in the Aug. 5th primary election.

First and foremost, the Toy Train Streetcar initiative (Question A), if approved, promises the same kind of traffic snarling steel plates and choking dust on Independence Avenue that currently exists on Third and Fifth Streets in the city’s River Market area. A compensated spokesman for KC Connect stated in an email to our office that three area neighborhood associations had “endorsed” the ballot initiative, those being Columbus Park, Pendleton Heights and Scarritt Renaissance.

This canine is dubious at best. Never mind that, per state law non-profit groups, specifically 501(c)(3) groups are prohibited from making any kind of a political endorsement. This truth-minded doggie queried a couple of the association presidents and both responded that their group had approved the addition of Independence Avenue to Phase 2 of the TDD, not necessarily the language on the August Ballot. Additionally, both distanced their group from any official “endorsement.”

But yet the pro-streetcar mob says they snagged these so called endorsements. So a neighborhood association’s decision to support the inclusion of Independence Avenue in Phase 2 of the Streetcar project is now considered a tacet endorsement of the August ballot initiative? Really? Wow! Kind of a stretch there don’t ya think?

It should also be noted that the ConnectKC website doesn’t list any kind of endorsements. Anyone else seeing red flags? Besides the ballot language on this thing being shabbily written and open to interpretation on a variety of levels, the backers of said regressive tax are playing fast and loose with their claimed “endorsements” of the initiative. This news-dog hopes that the general public will give this stinking heap of dung the kiss of death at the ballot box.