Coming up, we push aside our regular reporters to speak to the man in charge, Mayor Quinton Lucas is our guest this half hour from the latest on the stadium saga to the plaza.

From crime to busses.

No one wants to come to work and get hit in the face the way I feel.

Except this is a mobile psychiatric center.

Plus, what's your view on driverless or self-driving vehicles?

I'm about to go for a ride in one of waymo's fully driverless cars.

As you can see, there's no driver in the front.

I'm not nervous.

Are you nervous?

A woman has been seriously injured after being hit by an autonomous vehicle.

Well, you may think driverless cars are a galaxy away.

Think again.

We speak to the woman now preparing the rules of the road for robot cars in Kansas City.

Oh, Amanda Greer is going to drop a science on us.

So here I am.

Dropping a science we can review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City RSM Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourlrey the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust.

John H. Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

We love our amazing reporters who gather around our weekend review table each week.

But sometimes you have to go to the top to get answers.

This week, I'm joined by the highest echelon of power in Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Thank you for stopping by.

Put us out of our misery.

Is the royals going to build downtown or are they going to north Kansas City?

I don't know.

I wish I did, but I think whatever happens, we will be responsible with any taxpayer investment and sports facilities, whether they're downtown or the Truman Sports complex.

And I would hope my peers in the North land would do the same.

I want to know how much time do you actually spend on this?

You know, when you think about how much you're doing, all of the all week long, is this 50% of your time?

10% of your time?

You know, it is a small percentage of time.

I have met with the Kansas City Royals on a few occasions.

I understand they have a number of interests in public engagement and investment in the future of any baseball facility, no matter where it will be.

But there are many other issues at City Hall each day.

So I think people can rest assured that this is not something that's taking 50% of our time or all of the focus of City hall.

We're working on the basics.

You touch base every day on this.

I do not touch base each day on it.

I do, however, probably once a week or so.

Have some conversation, I think, with other folks in the city hall or folks from the Kansas City Royals about where they're proceeding on their plans and beyond.

What I have said time and again remains, which is that I think the people of Kansas City and our region would like to know what their plan is, what type of private investment is part of it, and what any public ask will be.

And then we get a chance to have real discussions on the future of baseball, potentially downtown Kansas City, and go on from there.

Is there anything the royals could tell you to say, We need this that would prompt you to say, you know what, this is not worth it.

Go to North Kansas City?

You know, I think anything where there would be no private investment would be traveling.

I think this is different than what we saw 50, 51 years ago when local governments would say, we are so dying to have a team, we will build it all for you, will pay for it all.

I think people want to see a public private partnership really with the private side taking the lead.

I want to make sure that this is the sort of thing that leverages benefits from public transportation investment, other investments that we've made downtown over generations.

And so those are things that make it positive.

But yes, no real sharing and cost responsibilities would be the sort of thing where I think the people of Kansas City and I think any responsible jurisdiction and I know my friends in North Kansas City, Missouri or the same would say, you know what, we don't think that would work for us.

The fact that they want to get a potentially a 40 year lease versus the 25 year lease of the stadium, that wouldn't be a deal breaker for you.

You know, to me, not necessarily.

I have lived in almost 40 years now with the Kansas City Royals playing in a venue that does not actually pay property taxes regularly, but generates in any number of other ways, I think, a long term relationship with Kansas City is actually not a bad thing.

I think it's a positive.

I also think that it's a positive.

If we could have that same conversation with the Kansas City Chiefs at the same time.

You know, in the last well, are you speaking with the Chiefs, too, every week?

You know, not as regularly.

I think the chiefs have said we're going to let the royals have their process, but that certainly they have an interest in making sure that they have a long relationship with Kansas City as well.

I have had more casual conversations with the Kansas City Chiefs.

There is nothing to suggest that they have any interest in certainly and leaving the Kansas City region ever.

You've heard that you've heard Clark talk about his connection and affinity for Arrowhead Stadium.

And so I think that is a retention effort that we would likely be looking at there.

The Kansas City Royals certainly have been a little more creative on where they wish to be.

In the last few days.

We've learned that a Texas company wants to swoop into Kansas City and buy the country club plot.

So you call this one of the most exciting things to have happened on the Country Club Plaza in 25 years.

But it's currently owned by a mixture of a michigan and California based real investment trust company.

What difference would it make to Kansas City that a Dallas based company would come in and take the baton and take that over?

You know, first, I recognize that there are still real estate transactions to complete.

So this is slightly speculative, although certainly we've heard a lot about the company at issue, they have a closer connection to Kansas City.

They have a closer connection understanding, I think, for historic real estate venues, having a shopping center in the Dallas area that itself, I believe, was opened in 1931 as compared to the plaza, which is open just a few years before.

And so I think that speaks to us on how they can attract top flight retail, the investments that they understand, and keeping up a crown jewel of our region like the plaza and more than anything, want to be cooperative and successful.

This isn't a one off investment.

They're not going to treat this just like a shopping mall.

I think what we are going to see is that they care about the future of the country Club Plaza.

We have seen all summer, by the way, a lot of people have been saying, oh, it's the end of the plaza and things have changed.

Huge real estate development deals that have been done around it, apartment buildings, luxury condos and beyond.

I think it's good that we are finally seeing this type of engagement and investment in the core country Club Plaza itself.

Dave Helling said last week that they're likely to ask for tax incentives.

Would this qualify as part of a blighted area?

They'd worthy the plaza worthy of tax incentives for city hall.

You know, I think that Dave's been thinking about these issues for quite some time, and so I won't necessarily discount his point.

I won't prejudge an issue I understand that they may come with asks.

There are certainly probably are infrastructure issues.

Any age facility has such things.

I think that Kansas City will look at it fairly, but with an understanding that we don't give out tiffs or tax incentives like candy.

We want to make sure that we're being as responsible as possible.

And we still see very good revenue generation opportunities at the Country Club Plaza without actually having that same level of public investment that you might have blighted areas like East Kansas City and beyond.

If you go to your social media account, we will all know that you are you seem to be an omnipresent mayor.

Whether it be going to be on, say, concerts, big sporting events, high school reunions, and this week meeting with the Jewish community over the war in Israel, over to Temple Benny, who did this week also posting, I noted a photo of the Ferris wheel going up downtown in which you said a beautiful night under the Ferris wheel, which is about to open a course just west of Union Station.

Yes, you got the can't wait to write comments, but you also got this one, which I want you to comment on from Go Chief's 516 writes A beautiful night where our cars get stolen, our friends get moved to the homes and businesses get broken into.

The police won't answer the phone when they do.

They don't come for hours.

If they get caught, they get released immediately because we have no jail.

Now, you didn't respond to this comment, but if you were to run in to go Chiefs 516 when you were out and about this week, how would you respond to his complaints?

You know, there are many that try to, I think, sit in an omnibus complaint on every issue in Kansas City on on comments th Let's talk first about the merits of the Ferris wheel itself, which has become this Rorschach test for Kansas City and their feelings of what you think the Ferris wheel looks like and broadly development in everything in Kansas City.

This was a strip of land between an interstate highway in a row that had said vacant for years, largely for as long as I can remember.

It is not a particularly attractive area for development in other ways.

There is a developer who said, No, I think I can make something work creating this new commercial, fairly narrow district.

So I think in many ways it's a positive.

The city of Kansas City did not provide incentives to build the Ferris wheel.

We're not funding the Ferris wheel.

They follow zoning rules, so they got no special adjustments for the Ferris wheel itself.

And so, you know, I have found it kind of humorous.

That's probably why I posted it, because everyone I talk to has an opinion on it.

In terms of the list of things, I doubt the Chiefs five, six, nine or whomever it is, actually has individually experienced in a number of those things.

But I would say to all of those points before I was with you today, we're working on a collaborative violence prevention effort where the police department is working with nonprofit actors, the YMCA and others to reduce violent crime.

We have an 8% decline in shootings this year in Kansas City, or homicide rate has slowed down at mid year large because of some of the interventions.

My office, the city of Kansas City, the police department and others have taken part in.

I forget the list of all the others issues, but you know, that's part of being mayor.

We try to address all of them each day.

I think to a person you would say, have certain things gotten better in Kansas City over the last four years and 12 weeks that I've been mayor?

And I think the answer would be yes, We're resurfacing more roads, we're paying our employees more, we have more development and interest.

Our population is at the highest it's ever been in its history.

Are there challenges?

Absolutely.

But I think we will turn the page on our public safety challenges.

I think this is a better city to live in now today than it was before.

And that's probably why for the first time, we're seeing someone trying to build a big Ferris wheel in Midtown.

Talking about problems.

You did have activists outside of City Hall protesting over the busses.

In a few weeks time, we're going to be having an election in Kansas City to support a bus tax, a renewal of an eight three 2% bus task.

And they're free now because of you during the first term.

You don't have to pay to go on them.

Some say they're now much more unreliable.

They're becoming rolling homeless shelters and the drivers themselves feel less safe.

This is chaos.

It's chaos.

We run people back and forth to the liquor store all day, to the drug house, all day, the mentally ill.

The way I feel it is if there's a mobile psychiatric center.

He says he's had his life threatened, his window kicked in, all four starting pay of $17.85 an hour.

The union says it's documented ten assaults on drivers the past couple of months.

You know, no one wants to come to work and get hit in the face.

You know, you're here to take care of your family.

You're here to serve the community.

And so you want your working conditions to be safe.

Now, we're less than a month away from the bus tax election.

If voters say yes to the bus tax, is there any evidence busses will run more reliably and be safer for passengers and drivers?

First of all, I think, yes, we always push for greater reliability of the car.

I caught the bus the other day going from Waldo back to downtown Kansas City.

It was very efficient.

It was actually for much of the ride, and I think it is a good ride.

But we need to make sure that we have more routes, east west routes.

And I would agree with increasing the salary of our bus drivers beyond that 1785 where they start.

But let me make this point.

I think there's much conversation on homeless folks as if you can just eradicate them by making it so they can't ride the busses or sit on a bench somewhere or anything like that.

The real solution is actually to address the causes of what's making them homeless, making sure that we're creating low barrier to entry shelters, something that Kansas City government is working on, making sure we create job opportunities for them, and importantly, making sure they can get to jobs, to doctors, all of these other issues which access to transit helps.

The real thing is how do we build a better city that's working for everyone?

That's our goal long term, and that's why I've been proud of our Zero Fair Transit initiative.

You say the bus drivers deserve a pay raise.

Two police officers deserve a pay raise.

There's a they're the border police commissioners is now asking city hall for a $10,000 salary increase for Kansas City, Missouri, police officers to address a 300 vacancies in that department.

You've said you support it, but you don't know where the money would come from.

Can the city afford not to give that money?

So, first of all, I'm a child of a state government employee.

For much of her career.

And so I believe everyone who works in government actually deserves a pay raise.

Just full stop bus drivers, parks attendants, police officers and beyond.

So I do support a pay raise for the Kansas City Police Department.

What I would ask of the Board of Police Commissioners to do, which was not done in our meeting last month, is to see where their cost savings elsewhere in the budget for the non personnel costs.

The Board of Police Commissioners, state appointed commissioners I did not vote for right are asking for increases of roughly 9% year over year as you can imagine, that is not sustainable long term.

That's non personnel.

And so then they're asking for other personnel cost increases.

As you know, the taxpayers, we can't fund a 9% annual increase in every area for the contractual services part of the police budget.

There is a 48% increase requested over what was allocated last year by the city of Kansas City.

48% is pretty extreme.

So I'd like to have a very real conversation about let's take a look at salaries.

What can we do for salaries, benefits of our officers?

Something I've been saying for years.

I have always supported increases for police personnel.

What I don't support is a ballooning budget that's going to consultants, to lawyers, to contracts, to everything under the sun.

And then half the time when we approve salary increases, the funding gets shifted to cover those other areas.

That's not what the people of Kansas City want.

They want money for 911 dispatchers.

They want money for officers.

While we in the media fixate on things like the stadiums and the Ferris wheel are lost, possibly in some of the headlines was the announcement of a new commission for new Americans, which would create a more welcoming environment for immigrants and refugees coming to Kansas City.

Are you worried that some of our governors closer to the border will see that welcome sign as an opportunity to bring busses filled with migrants to Kansas City, just as they have in other communities from New York?

And as we saw in the last few days to Chicago, where 27 busses of migrants came into the city.

You know, I don't have the same concern.

I think that our effort on the New Americans Commission was for Kansas City to say, rather than being reactionary like many other American cities have been, is to say, how do we get ahead of the issue, making sure that we can find housing for migrant communities, that we can help them integrate finding language access resources in Kansas City already?

Actually, they are.

There are migrants who walk among us, some of whom are undocumented, who come and bring kids to schools, our public schools and beyond, and that we need to make sure that we're actually ready to stand up a plan for how people can be successful in Kansas City or move on to another destination if that is their inclination.

This is what we are trying to work on.

But no, I'm not worried about Governor Greg Abbott or Governor Ron DeSantis all of a sudden saying that we want to send everybody to Kansas City and beat.

Having talked to the mayor of El Paso, Texas, which I have done often, the way that it's done is they ask the migrants, Where do you want to go?

They want to go to New York and Chicago because of family connections and beyond.

We want to make sure that Kansas City is ready for whomever may be present while our federal actors, the president and Congress, look to long term solutions on immigration issues, huge.

Swarms of the globe are expected in Kansas City in just a few years.

We're less than a thousand days away from the World Cup coming to Kansas City.

What is the biggest issue that keeps you up at night when it comes to hosting such a huge global event in Kansas?

Know it's what we've talked about today, actually.

How do people get around?

How does transportation work?

How do you have access to all of the venues from Fan Fest, which likely will not be at Arrowhead Stadium to the games that are in Arrowhead?

And how do we make sure that there are successes for everyone involved throughout Kansas City, from downtown to the Missouri and Kansas suburbs?

Those are issues that I think about a lot.

I don't know if we have an answer yet, but I know we're working hard to get to it.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, thank you so much for being with us on Weekend Review.

I mentioned the documentary we're doing on the 100th anniversary of the Country Club Plaza, which, by the way, you're also in Matt Lucas, along with a whole swarm of stars of the last political big names over the last 30 years, including some of the members of the J.C. Nichols family.

But it looks at the 100th anniversary of the Country Club Plaza.

Here's a quick teaser.

Mark your calendar.

You can see Nichols Folly that tracks the entire history of the Country Club Plaza on Thursday, November 9th at 7 p.m. on Kansas City PBS.

Now, in the words of Monty Python and now for something completely different, what's your feeling about driverless cars?

Exciting and promising or downright scary?

While we think it's not something we have to worry about for a while, think again.

Next, we're going to meet someone prepping Kansas City is Robert Karnes.

Get ready to join us on the road.

It's not a galaxy away after all.

It has arrived.

Did you know Walmart is already operating?

Driverless delivery trucks in Arkansas and Texas?

And did you know San Francisco now has not one, but two driverless taxi companies picking up customers in the city?

I'm about to go for a ride in one of waymo's fully driverless cars.

As you can see, there's no driver in the front.

I'm not nervous.

Are you nervous?

I think the technology is amazing.

It feels like we were.

We're living with The Jetsons.

A woman has been seriously injured after being hit by an autonomous vehicle.

Brings about the safety of autonomous vehicles, is cropping up once again after back to back crashes.

One of those accidents involving a city fire truck.

It's impacting public safety and my concern is that it's going to have dire consequences at some point.

If you think all of this doesn't concern me here, that's about to change.

With us is Amanda Gray, a chief innovation officer at the Mid-America Regional Council who's helping prep Kansas City for this new era of driverless vehicles.

Amanda, thank you for saying yes to us.

To have somebody with a science background on this program that's very rare to see anywhere on television these days.

So we appreciate that.

But is it possible that we actually have, without us knowing driverless vehicles on our roads right now?

No.

We don't have.

Any, not in Kansas.

City.

But you have been looking at what those rules of the road should be in Kansas City.

What are those rules of the road that you're looking at?

In some cases, it's creating separate lanes for autonomous vehicles and so they're not in mixed traffic, at least while they're being tested.

In some cases, it's looking at it.

So I think it was a Tennessee perhaps had to change a statewide rule.

The rule on the books in the state of Tennessee was that you had to have a driver in a seat with two hands on the wheel.

And that was just state rules on traffic on the roadway.

And so we we don't have anything exactly like that here, but there are state level rules or local rules about transportation that apply to all of these things.

You know, we saw some clips from San Francisco, again with the rival robot taxis going there.

But that's one city in one county, in one state.

We have lots of issues here at jurisdictional.

We have two states, lots and lots of counties, lots and lots of cities.

Could we find ourselves in a situation that you could not use a driverless vehicle in one part of town and then in another part of the metro, they would ban it?

Yes, absolutely.

We could find ourselves in that situation.

So that was the impetus for doing that.

A policy framework early.

If you think about driving from liberty to Alaska and you stay on I-35 the entire time or you take any detours, the number of counties, state lines, city boundaries that you cross, just even staying on the same highway, how do you make sure that someone has a relatively seamless experience through those jurisdictional boundaries?

Wow.

It's a lot to be thinking about as we look at those video clips, including those Wal Mart driverless trucks.

How far are we away, in your judgment, from seeing that in our own metropolitan area?

There's a lot of interest.

We have a lot of freight and logistics here.

I don't want to put a specific timeline to be held to, but I can't imagine they're that far off when it comes to goods delivery.

And, you know, when we have I have ridden in autonomous shuttles in a couple of different places that are meant for people movement.

I think there could be a lot of opportunity for those types of things where it holds 6 to 8 people and there's usually a steward on board that acts as sort of an ambassador.

They're not actually driving but could take over if they needed to, and just acting as kind of a circulator in between areas of interest.

I think that could be a really good opportunity maybe for the World Cup or something like that.

When you think about the rules for driverless vehicles, that has sometimes sometimes some unintended consequences, like this one.

Reports that some people are having sex in the robo taxis with no driver around to stop them.

Adding to the intrigue for locals in the city, it's cheaper than a hotel room.

But a little cramped.

You know, we're very inventive when it comes to illegal sexual activity in this town.

How many studies is the Mid-America Regional Council down on that particular challenge?

Zero to this point.

Okay.

But you get you never actually know.

One thing you did find in your studies, though, you see the opportunity, of course, for the word freedom, and that is particularly for people with disabilities and older adults.

Yeah.

One of the things we specifically did in that process was engage the senior centers.

We talked to folks who both worked for and engage with senior centers in the region and talk to them about what their opportunities might be in terms of being able to get to the grocery store, being able to get to doctor's appointments, relatively short distances.

But transportation is such a barrier for those kinds of things.

And so figuring out where we might break down some barriers without using populations like that for, you know, we're not trying to use anyone as a guinea pig.

We're not trying to test things on people that don't have choice and are kind of forced into it.

So making sure that these technologies are thoroughly tested, but that we really do examine the opportunity is that they could provide too.

Now, speaking of innovations, are we finally about to solve another modern day vehicle technology dilemma?

Can electrified roads help solve America's electric vehicle charging problem?

Did you see that Detroit now is becoming the first city in the nation to install electric roads that will allow you to charge your vehicle while you drive there?

Wrapping up a one mile stretch of experimental road right now with Orlando and the Pennsylvania Turnpike soon to follow.

Amanda, what about us?

Forget about the world Cup.

Could we be next for this?

You know, I don't know if it exactly if it specifically involves charge roadways, but I know the city of Lenexa got some money from K dot to look at some smart roadway projects not too long ago.

I think the way to think about electrified roadways think about it more like the charging stations you might see at a stadium where you can top off your phone.

It's not you know, it's not something that's going to fully charge your vehicle.

You'll still need home charging or retail or workplace, you know, something that really gets you that longer charge.

But it could provide just enough to get you home without having to stop somewhere or keep you at a level that you're comfortable with and start addressing some of that so-called range anxiety where people are concerned that the battery is not going to get them as far as they need to go.

But it's also a great expense at 1.2 million at scale, they say dollars for every mile.

And in a city like Kansas City, that is just just the city itself, 300 square miles, that would add up pretty darn fast.

Well, I think I saw a study not too long ago on the electrified roadways and the percentage that I saw was that to be really useful, only about 25% of the roadway really needed to be electrified to actually see a difference in the whole fleet.

So I don't think 100% of the roadways would need to be electrified to actually have a benefit.

But yes, it is it is a non-trivial expense on top of all the other expenses for a transportation system.

You know, we as reporters fixate a lot in this community on these big ticket items, like visible ones, like the new ballpark downtown or the Ferris wheel.

That's going up right next to Union Station.

What is the innovation that you're seeing that perhaps is under our noses that we haven't been paying attention to?

That excites you.

Both?

Excites and concerns probably is one that's been talked about in a lot of places.

And some of our local congresspeople have been involved in discussions in D.C. about it is the electric vertical takeoff and landing.

So basically electric autonomous airplanes.

So they're being tested just yesterday or the day before they were being tested at Long Beach Airport.

They've been at some larger airports and some smaller, more rural airports.

It really is it's sort of like what you'd think of as a helicopter, right?

It just takes off vertically and it flies and lands vertically as well.

So there's a lot of discussion about it.

It could change the way rooftops are used, especially in a downtown area.

Everyone will have perhaps an electric vertical takeoff and landing sort of helipad.

And just thinking about seeing more of that in the sky, what that actually means with downtown airport being so close to downtown, too.

There's obviously discussion about the limitations that are on things like development, height restrictions and all of that kind of stuff.

How would that play with downtown Airport?

How would just thinking about what kind of implications that has.

But those are absolutely being tested in other places.

And I'm really intrigued to see when we actually get them in Kansas City, there's a lot of both OEMs and startups that are developing these kinds of vehicles.

Amanda Greer is Chief Innovation Officer at the Mid-America Regional Council, providing us a futuristic but perhaps not so far off, look at life on the roads and possibly in the air here in our metro.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Next week, there is no week in review.

We are being preempted by Oscar winning director Kevin Willmott.

The Kansas based filmmaker has just released a brand new documentary about hate in our region.

It's called No Place Like Home, and it premieres in this timeslot next week.

We'll be back two weeks from now as our reporters return to roll up their sleeves and dissect Kansas City's most impactful news stories.

Until then, I'm Nick Haynes from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.