Media Round-Up for Kansas City Light-Rail Release
The Show-Me Institute’s study on light rail proposals for Kansas City certainly received a good deal of attention yesterday. Many in the KC media, but certainly not all, seemed to focus on the crime aspect of the study, which was a small part of the overall study. Our editor, Eric, previously posted a rebuttal to some of the criticisms of Randal O’Toole’s use of crime stats. I am going to leave that aside, as there are much more important reasons why Kansas City should give very serious thought to reconsider moving forward with light rail, such as the small proportion of jobs downtown in comparison to other downtowns, and the fact that the much-desired new development along light rail lines almost never occurs without additional subsidies. Yes, when I ride MetroLink, I feel very safe — but, then again, I am a total badass …
A quick note to commentators and blog posters everywhere: It is not sufficient to say that Randal O’Toole is simply opposed to light rail, and as such this study should be discounted. You have to actually read the study and then document where you think he may be wrong. So far, after reading various blog comments and news articles, I have not seen anyone do the latter.
So here goes the media roundup, if you are interested — as I am sure you are. The Kansas City Star published a solid article on the study, and linked to the full document as well, so readers can judge the arguments on their own — which we appreciate. Randal O’Toole and Crosby Kemper appeared live on two radio shows yesterday. The podcast of the "Chris Stigall Show" on KCMO AM 710 is here, and we’ll provide a link to the "Shanin and Parks Show" interview on KMBZ AM 980 when we have it.
I can only find one streaming video online for the TV station interviews. The video of the NBC Action News report is embedded here. Two TV stations, Fox 4 and KMBC-9, only have the online text versions of their stories online. KCTV-5 also appeared at the press conference, but I can’t locate the story on their website. We appreciate the coverage from all of these stations!
We will link to additional stories about the study as they appear. We are pleased to be a part of the discussion about this issue in Kansas City. Our primary goal was to give the people of Kansas City additional information about the other options they have for mass transit. If they choose to pay the higher taxes that will be required to move ahead with light rail, that is entirely up to them.
