Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Northeast, Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
Why is corrupt not accurate? If I'm to believe the account above (and I have no reason not to), you have a low-level government employee making decisions beyond the scope of their understanding and refusing access to due process of escalating the matter. This forced an independent business person to waste money on an industry consultant from that very department* to rectify the issue. Chalking that up to lack of experience and turnover lets them off the hook too easy.
*Would be shocked if there's not a supervisor somewhere in that department that gets lunch every now and then with this "consultant"
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
I know for a fact it is corrupt and that some citizens are able to influence who gets licenses, regardless of how the applicant's application jives with the ordinance. To deny this is to disregard the history of regulated industries and politics in KC – and also to be ignorant, foolish and blind.
^Ive always heard that the Lewellen Family that run Lews and The Well used their political influence to convert that building which is the Well into a bar/restaurant.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
I know for a fact it is corrupt and that some citizens are able to influence who gets licenses, regardless of how the applicant's application jives with the ordinance. To deny this is to disregard the history of regulated industries and politics in KC – and also to be ignorant, foolish and blind.
i've heard this about previous regulated industries leaders, but not the current one.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
Why is corrupt not accurate? If I'm to believe the account above (and I have no reason not to), you have a low-level government employee making decisions beyond the scope of their understanding and refusing access to due process of escalating the matter. This forced an independent business person to waste money on an industry consultant from that very department* to rectify the issue. Chalking that up to lack of experience and turnover lets them off the hook too easy.
*Would be shocked if there's not a supervisor somewhere in that department that gets lunch every now and then with this "consultant"
Corruption is a criminal matter. How the case was described there was an incorrect policy in place. And that policy was changed when the new director was correctly informed as to correctly rule. Things like this happens when an inexperienced person replaces a person with experience, who also made some mistakes when first on the job.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
I know for a fact it is corrupt and that some citizens are able to influence who gets licenses, regardless of how the applicant's application jives with the ordinance. To deny this is to disregard the history of regulated industries and politics in KC – and also to be ignorant, foolish and blind.
I worked with two past leaders of Liquor Control. At that time Liquor Control was not part of Regulated Industries. And they definitely were not corrupt. Recent history I cannot say but turnover is a problem with the city, and probably a problem with any organization.
brewcrew1000 wrote:^Ive always heard that the Lewellen Family that run Lews and The Well used their political influence to convert that building which is the Well into a bar/restaurant.
"Political influence". Well, knowledge of how the system works is an advantage. As well as knowledge of the people involved. Is that good or bad? If you had something to push and had some "political influence" wouldn't you use it?
And sometimes urban legends are just that.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:I wouldn't call it corruption. There are many other words that may apply. Like lack of experience for one.
Don't know in this case but with turnover and all I wouldn't be surprised that would apply here.
Why is corrupt not accurate? If I'm to believe the account above (and I have no reason not to), you have a low-level government employee making decisions beyond the scope of their understanding and refusing access to due process of escalating the matter. This forced an independent business person to waste money on an industry consultant from that very department* to rectify the issue. Chalking that up to lack of experience and turnover lets them off the hook too easy.
*Would be shocked if there's not a supervisor somewhere in that department that gets lunch every now and then with this "consultant"
Corruption is a criminal matter. How the case was described there was an incorrect policy in place. And that policy was changed when the new director was correctly informed as to correctly rule. Things like this happens when an inexperienced person replaces a person with experience, who also made some mistakes when first on the job.
Did you read the account? The correct policy was there, but the official refused to recognize it. Taxi was then forced to hire a consultant who just happened to be from that department. The Consultant was the only one who could make the officials recognize the correct interpretation of the law. How is refusing to provide access to a superior classified as "inexperience?" They knew exactly what they were doing, or they would have contacted a supervisor.
To wrap this up: yes, my own case was borderline corruption, as those refusing truthful consideration were influenced by others, I suspect either by money or threat of violence. Probably both. I have seen other, more obvious cases and they were clearly not the result of so-called "political influence." Wherever a lot of money is involved, there is a likelihood of corruption. I am not surprised, AKP, that you worked closely with that department and were unaware of what was going on behind the scenes.
Let's please get back to the topic at hand. And I don't mean black hand.
grovester wrote:That design will attract more cars to an area that's already a cluster.
Agree - I avoid that QT at all costs or risk getting stuck in that parking lot forever. Closing the street that goes between current QT and former Berbiglia will end up creating a dead end that will be a great place for the QT dead beat crowd to hang out. And are they going to be tearing down apartments to build green space behind the QT?
It gets better. They plan clearly violates city code on the buffering area. Even if you accept that mockup as 10 feet wide and assume they did the math and the lot green space is mathematically correct, they didn't put a buffer along the entire sidewalk in the image and they don't have a planter entirely along the residential zoning areas so it's not proper. Parking lot work in KC now comes with lots of grass and plants that effectively reduces the size of the lot. We may not have maximums but owners can't repair a lot and put the same number of spots back in.
88-425-05 and 88-425-06
05-
-A
1. the construction or installation of new vehicular use areas;
2.the repair, rehabilitation or expansion of existing vehicular use areas, if such repair, rehabilitation or expansion would increase the area of the vehicular use area by more than 20%;
3.existing vehicular use areas that are accessory to an existing principal building if the building or any portion of the building is expanded or enlarged and the expansion increases the existing floor area by more than 50% or 5,000 square feet, whichever is less; and
4.the excavation and reconstruction of existing vehicular use areas if such excavation and reconstruction involves the removal of 50% or more of the asphalt, concrete or other pavement devoted to vehicular use.
-B
1. Perimeter landscaping adjacent to street rights-of-way must be provided in the form of a perimeter landscape buffer strip located between the vehicular use area and the street right-of-way.
2.Except as provided below for vehicular use areas within the downtown loop, the landscape buffer strip must be at least 10 feet in width and be planted with at least one tree per 30 linear feet of landscape strip and enough evergreen shrubs to form a continuous visual screen at least 3 feet in height after the first growing season.
3.Ground cover plants must cover the remainder of the required landscape strip.
4. A masonry wall, planter, or berm may be substituted for shrubs, but trees and ground cover are still required.
5. Shrubs and walls must be located on the interior of the perimeter landscape buffer strips; trees must be on the outside (street side) of the shrubs or wall.
-C
1. Perimeter landscaping adjacent to residential zoning districts must be provided in the form of a perimeter landscape strip or berm located between the vehicular use area and the residential zoning district.
2.The landscape buffer strip must be at least 10 feet in width and be planted with enough evergreen shrubs to form a continuous visual screen at least 4 feet in height after the first growing season.
06-
-A-1
the expansion of existing parking lots, if the expansion would create 25 or more parking spaces in the Crossroads area or 10 or more new parking spaces outside the Crossroads area, in which case the requirements of this section apply only to the expanded area;
-B-2
At least 35 square feet of interior landscape area must be provided for each parking space. If compliance with this standard would result in the loss of existing required parking spaces, the amount of parking required is automatically reduced by the amount needed to accommodate the required interior landscaping.
-C
Landscape area provided to satisfy the perimeter landscape standards of 88-425-05 may not be counted toward satisfying the interior landscaping standards of this section.
QT's are so overrated, the food is garbage, the prices are actually quite high and the car traffic in the lots make getting out after a Chiefs game look like a breeze.
We need to bring the other KwikTrips that are based in Minnesota/Wisconsin up here. You can get good food and bakery items and you can grab items that you need for home for very cheap like Onions, Potatoes, Milk, bags of apples, and organges and as well as other Fruits, etc. The QT's down here are overhyped crap.
brewcrew1000 wrote:QT's are so overrated, the food is garbage, the prices are actually quite high and the car traffic in the lots make getting out after a Chiefs game look like a breeze.
We need to bring the other KwikTrips that are based in Minnesota/Wisconsin up here. You can get good food and bakery items and you can grab items that you need for home for very cheap like Onions, Potatoes, Milk, bags of apples, and organges and as well as other Fruits, etc. The QT's down here are overhyped crap.
