Don't hold your breath on that new royals ballpark.

A decision on a new site now postponed.

How long will the royals now drag out?

The biggest question in Kansas City.

Remember red light cameras?

Are they on the way back?

Should money ever stand in the way of your big idea?

Not for Kansas City now.

Planning on moving forward with its $200 million highway lit plan, even though they barely have half the money to pay for the ambitious project.

Plus, light bulb has now become controversial in the metro.

And what type of dramatic comps do you need today to run for elected office?

One of the leading candidates, the Missouri governor, is kicking it up a notch this week.

We can review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, RSM Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley 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.

So glad you're with us On our weekly journey through the news of our Week, dissecting the week's most impactful, confusing and befuddling local news stories from KCUR News Lisa Rodriguez, former star reporter and editorialist Dave Helling, Channel nine political analyst Michael Mahoney.

And from our metro's newest newspaper, next page, KC Eric Wesson.

Now, I vowed to myself this week that I would not discuss the royals and the new ballpark plan.

I even told several of our viewers that, you know, they've been complaining they're suffering from stadium talk fatigue.

And then, lo and behold, there's the big walk back.

Team owner John Sherman issuing a news release that the decision has been postponed.

He won't meet his self-imposed deadline of choosing a ballpark site by the end of September.

In fact, there's now no timeline for that decision except a brief note that says the process is moving thoughtfully and directly, including a regular cadence of focused meetings.

Now, as we reach for our dictionaries to find out what cadence means.

What is the holdup, Michael?

I think that I've been one of these people that have said I believe that the Clay County proposal was a stalking horse.

I think I got to walk that back.

I think that the royals now are looking very seriously as as the Clay County option now, more than just a stalking horse to get a better deal with with Jackson County.

That it's being actively considered, seriously considered.

And we'll see it.

We'll see where it goes from here.

You know, the big timeline here is if they want to have a vote.

Yeah, next spring, either in Jackson County or in Clay County, they're going to have to make some moves pretty quickly.

But, you know.

That's what's interesting about this.

No deadline.

No deadline whatsoever.

It wasn't like, well, we're making the decision by October 15th.

So end of October, it was nothing open ended timeline, Eric?

Well, I think what happened was two things happened.

Number one, Jackson County has become more engaged in the conversations.

And two, they have two lawyers now.

So now they're trying to go through the paperwork and try to get things together.

That happened months ago.

It probably should have, but it just happened over the past week now.

Right.

Is there a delay?

We're not being told about.

My view that the royals and this goes to Mike's question.

The royals have not understood completely for some time that there are intricate lease negotiations that must take place.

And I think the royals, for whatever reason, believed that they could just snap their fingers and all of it would fall into place.

It hasn't.

The clock is ticking.

There's about four months before they have to figure out something for the ballot if they want to go in April of 2024.

I'm not sure they can get the leases done in that four month timeframe.

And finally, the Chiefs are involved, too.

And we I've said that on this show over and over and over, and they've got to get something done in a similar timeframe.

It's really a mess.

But there was another date offered this week and that was they want to be in this new ballpark, whatever it may be, by opening day of 2028.

So.

I mean, that's there's there's lots of deadlines they're throwing around here.

But another key part of this that hasn't fallen into place is we don't know whether the public support is there yet.

And if they want the public to vote on this in April, not only do they have to get through these lease negotiations and get city officials on board, they have to launch a campaign after a losing season.

Granted, the last few weeks have been all right to actually get people to support this project.

Of course, the what's been happening with the royals on the field certainly is a big part of this.

But while the royals refuse to put us out of our misery on this decision, we do have championship winning baseball after all, in Kansas City.

This is the scene Wednesday night over in Kansas City, Kansas, as the Monarchs win their league's biggest trophy, beating the Chicago dogs in the Miles Wolff Cup final.

So schools Eric will be closed on Monday.

We won't have to go to work for a downtown parade.

No, I don't think I don't think that's going to happen.

But congratulate since doing them, Dave, they've been doing really well.

And Frank, one of the coaches.

I don't believe so.

I don't think he's there anymore.

We watched for a while and we should not forget that for all their success, the taxpayers of the Unified Government and Wyandotte County have helped a lot with that stadium over there.

When the T-bones were out there, they defaulted on a lot of their obligations.

So maybe the parade should be down seventh Street, you know, when they win.

Should money ever stand in the way of your big idea?

Not for Kansas City, which announces it'll move forward this week with its ambitious plan to place a lid over Isaac 70 highway that bisects downtown even though the city is still only halfway towards its more than $200 million fundraising goal.

The so-called South Loop project would place a cap over a four block stretch of the busy freeway near T-Mobile Center.

The city has plans to build a destination park on top with spaces for music, entertainment and community gatherings.

We're on path.

Right now to get this project open by the World Cup.

It's a very aggressive schedule, but today was a major milestone in advancing the project to where we want it to be.

The priority would be to try to build out the infrastructure, meaning all the walls, utilities, roadways, CAF, two grand and at the same time continue to raise money to do the enhanced ments, the things that come above it right there, the structures, the playgrounds, the walkways.

So not having the money isn't going to derail this project.

And I was also surprised to hear that there's still a hell Bentley still on having this open by the time global soccer fans arrive in Kansas City for the World Cup.

Yeah, I think I think this indicates to me that that Kansas City and city officials are extremely confident that if they start, they will get the money because this is no small project.

Once you start covering up a highway, it's not something that can be undone once you begin.

And so I think that they are they're banking on state and federal money, maybe additional coming in to this.

We don't we haven't talked yet about any sort of taxpayer involvement in it.

But I think they're they're bullish.

They want to make a big splash for the World Cup.

And I think if they're if their energy is their their their confidence going to happen.

Even people predisposed to the project, Dave, being wary, that includes transit activists who are worried this may lead to the closing permanently of Walnut and Baltimore avenues right there.

And that would force more traffic onto Main Street, slowing down the streetcar line, especially now that they're expanding that route.

That's not a deal breaker.

Well, it's not a deal breaker, but there are legitimate concerns about closing streets in downtown.

It does dramatically affect traffic, car traffic and for that matter, foot traffic.

So that'll have to be worked out one way or another.

You know, one of the reasons this is moving forward is the federal government is offering enormous amounts of money to cities across the country to repair the damage from the construction of the interstates in downtown areas during the 1950s and 1960s.

And that is part of this.

But it's a lot of money, and we haven't heard as many details, perhaps as we should about maintenance, ongoing maintenance, who's going to maintain this thing once it's built?

And, you know, a cautionary tale is Borealis Plaza, which was supposed to be beautiful and have trees and places to meet.

And it turned into sort of a concrete pad right outside of the convention Center and Municipal Auditorium.

And you wouldn't want that to happen with this project.

So we need a little more clarity, I think, on those.

In every single news station, though, this week, Eric, there were all these people gleeful about it, the opportunity to walk their dogs, all of this green space when there's not much green space downtown, they view this as hugely attractive.

Yeah, for them.

And I guess I guess that's what this is for is not for the overall community.

I think it's for people that live in the Power and light district.

They can come and walk their dogs through there and they're delighted with that opportunity.

And it does something with noise reduction for people that live close to that area.

But again, my position has always been there's a lot more we could be doing in Kansas City than worrying about having a cover over the freeway.

You got homeless people, you got a ton of things that I think would be a priority.

But I'm sure I'm sure if Quinton Lucas was on this program this week, he could say that Kansas City can walk and chew gum at the same time.

They can do both.

I don't think they can.

They have no idea.

What the type of dramatic props do you need today to run for elected office?

With most of us drowning in information, what kind of eye catching stunt do candidates need to break through the clutter?

Former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens had his machine gun.

Eric Schmitt broke out a blowtorch, and now one of the leading candidates for governor of Missouri is kicking it up a notch.

Republican Senator Bill Eichel is seen in a video this week taking a flamethrower to a large pile of cardboard boxes.

He says that's what he'll do to the leftist policies of the jeff city swamp if he's elected governor.

And while some erroneously claimed he was boning book, Seigel cleared things up this week saying, Let's be clear if you bring woke books to Missouri schools, he'll burn those, too, on the front lawn of the governor's mansion.

Is this, Lisa, what it takes in 2023 to win elected office in Missouri?

Apparently, this is what it takes.

I mean, this is these kinds of theatrics, as you mentioned.

We've seen now in several campaigns over and over.

And this is the type of rhetoric and action that got Greitens elected that that Trump has been using to to keep people fired up.

And and it was an opportunity also for for Republicans to point the finger back at Democrats who accused them of burning books, which was not the case.

So, I mean, in in effect, it was a win.

I don't it's it's I lament that this is what it takes to get elected in Missouri.

But even Democrats can remember Laura Kelly with she was wielding an ax in a grocery store in Kansas last year.

You just took the words out of my mouth.

And Jason Kander also blindfolded himself and assembled a military rifle.

And I was glad that you used the Eric Greitens machine gun video because, you know, that was the first thing that came to my mind The first time I. I have seen this.

These are they're not unusual anymore.

They're they're a part of American political advertising machinery.

Bill, I is trying to run to the right of both J. Ashcroft and Mike Keough and and claim him self as the true conservative on in this race for governor next year.

Well, will see how it goes.

I I'm not sure we've seen the last of these dramatic commercial scene.

This was some people were very surprised, shocked by the video.

And yet, though it wasn't this successful in a sense of how many people knew Bill Heigl, particularly in this part of the state.

Now he is known to people in a crowded race of conservatives.

Yeah, well, right.

And of course this is aimed at primary voters.

It has nothing to do with the general election.

It's, you know, the contest and most Republican primaries these days in most states, including Missouri, is who can get to the right the farthest, the fastest.

And that's what this is part of.

Whether it has an impact in the general is more interesting to me because I think Crystal Quade and some of the other Democrats who are looking at that race think it might be closer than you can imagine.

And this kind of thing could bite.

Bill Heigl, if he's the nominee.

We're calling that dog whistle politics the term or the amplification of woke books.

That means that people in the black community that are aware of issues that have taken place, when he makes the comment of woke books, that means that he wants to change the conversation about what American history truly is.

That's also about gender and transgender issues.

Real quickly, Eagle is getting lots of credit for this, but it should be remembered that this was not a legal campaign event.

This was a campaign event for the state Charles Republican Party.

But the cheering in the back under the people under the tent, the cheering and the soup and that up, that's what makes politicians do those sort of things because it feeds into that base.

And that's what's really dangerous in Missouri is made national news and black media outlets because it was really offensive.

Okay.

Republicans are now going to say something about this.

You are going to do something or it's just the norm.

It doesn't it doesn't address the issues that people need addressed.

It addresses a bunch of sensationalism.

Is Kansas City experiencing the biggest collateral damage from the UAW strike?

The GM Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kansas, forced to close this week not because they're out on strike, but because they don't have the parts to make their vehicles.

The plant, which employs around 2200 workers, makes the Chevy Malibu when the Cadillac Xt4 crossover SUV.

This is an odd set of circumstances.

So they're not striking, but they're being forced off the job anyway.

Yep, they're being sent home with without pay.

And because of the strike, normally a stoppage would include some pay for workers.

But because of the ongoing strike, these workers are being sent home without pay.

That is because some of the metal parts that are produced at the Wentzville plant in Missouri have have stopped up the assembly in in Fairfax.

And so I do think so far this is the biggest collateral damage that we've seen from the strikes.

But it's certainly not the only collateral damage that we will see the longer these strikes go on.

This is it's a patchwork of manufacturing across the country.

And eventually the longer this goes on, other plants will shut down unnecessarily.

And we could be impacted far more in Kansas City because, first of all, these large automakers are only in about ten different states.

We are one of them here.

And we have two different facilities right here in our metropolitan area.

The other one being the Ford Tacoma plant.

They're not mentioned, though, at this point in time with regards to strikes.

Not at this point.

But by the time this weekend is over, I think we're going to have a better idea of how the UAW plans to expand this stand up strike situation where they're hitting just specific plants in the area.

The Clay Como plant makes Will Ford one fifties, which is a very popular model for them.

So they might be a target for it for the UAW.

We'll have to see.

And I think the the side effect of it all is going to be getting parts.

I have a GM product.

I had to get an oil pump.

It took three and a half weeks to get it.

And then after the oil pump came in, I had to get a gasket for it.

And that took another three weeks to get it.

It reminds me of the chip when we had the chip crisis.

With this strike going the way it is is going to be difficult to get those parts are they're going to raise the price on all of them.

In addition to the concerns over pay pension benefits for UAW workers.

Another side issue here is also making sure that workers in electric vehicle plants are getting the same kinds of benefits as union workers do in the during that gasoline era.

And that's playing out in Kansas, too, with a new Panasonic electric vehicle plant.

Exactly right.

Next to the effort to organize that plant will be intense.

And I think there is some sense from the UAW that they need to organize all of these alternative facilities for parts provided to places like Fairfax and Clay Como.

And, you know, when you couple that with the unions very aggressive, you know, requests for a reduced work hours and and raises, this strike might go on for a while and then it would really have an important impact in the economy and the overall economy, just not for the vehicles but to the restaurants around the area that depend on that lunch crowd coming into exist.

And back on that Panasonic plant in Kansas, Lisa, we should be reminded again, there was no commitments made to making that a unionized plant and there wasn't.

For all of the talk of the incentives, no commitment to actually the pay rate, the pay levels at that plant even for workers.

That is those are these are not things that we have promises on that was all negotiated without any of these guarantees.

So it really will be up to the unions and organizers to to ensure those safeguards.

Remember, red light cameras, Well, now they may be making a come back ten years after Kansas City suspended the program amid court challenges, Saint Louis is green lighting an updated red light camera system they claim will withstand legal scrutiny.

Is it just a matter of time before Kansas City joins them?

Let's not forget Kansas City was netting more than $2 million a year from its 29 cameras.

They were issuing 11,000 tickets a month.

I got a couple of them.

So can you refresh your memory just for a moment, though?

Why did Kansas City abandon the program?

The ghost of Steve Glorioso, by the way, is hovering over discussion.

He was up to his nose in the red light camera discussion.

The courts eventually found that the camera would take a picture of your license plate, but could not prove necessarily that you were was actually driving the car.

And so they sort of said there's a due process problem.

And that's why the legalities caused Kansas City to back away.

The money wasn't worth what the legal.

So how are they overcoming that in Saint Louis with this particular proposal?

Well, they've got new technology that that allows for a facial recognition, for an image of the person driving the car and using technology to identify who that is.

And and it even go so far as to say, well, if someone else is driving a car, we can figure out who that person might be as well to to charge the right person.

There was a lot of money to be made in this.

I can't imagine Kansas City is not going to want to move forward with this.

If it's working in Saint Louis.

Right?

They probably will.

It was at a meeting earlier this week with former city Councilwoman Catherine Shields, and she jokingly said, well, they they should be paying us for selling us defective equipment in the first place.

They couldn't do that.

But now is going to be able to get to image.

Here's the problem that they're they're projecting in Saint Louis.

What about people that have tinted windows in the front of their cars?

And what about at night when the infrared light flashes and you can't tell who it is this?

And I don't think, Eric, you have anything to worry about.

Your oil pump is out, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, no, I finally got it.

I actually I have to say, also, they are halfway there already because they never took down the cameras.

I was just on Bruce Watkins Drive today.

The cameras are all still bad right there.

The other thing here, this new system that they're trying to implement in Saint Louis and which he'll probably try to try to do here, requires the police to go through several different steps in order to positively identify who was the driver of that car at the moment that it was caught running the red light and police departments like Kansas City and Saint Louis have a lot on their plate right now.

Well, beyond sifting through some photos to make sure that they're going to have the right red light running.

An interesting story this week from KC, You are about the new Bobby branded Street car in Kansas City.

And it goes by I've already.

Made Barbie's big.

Headline.

So can someone so loving and sweet be so contentious?

It makes so many people angry.

This week, while some people thought the hot pink rail car was part of a paid ad for Mattel or the Warner Brothers movie studio, apparently it was Kansas City taxpayers footing the bill all along at $25,000 a pop.

Lisa, what's been the response to the story?

Does it matter that it might have brought more than $25,000 worth of smiles to Kansas City?

I think I think it does matter.

And you're right to say a lot of people assumed it was an ad for the movie.

And what we learned is that it's not the streetcar paid from its own budget, a $25,000 to to market the street, to wrap the streetcar.

And that it's not they insist it's not an ad for the movie.

And and I think for us, it was just a very kind of everyday example of this is how a government or quasi government agency spends its money.

It's it's in some ways a kind of a mundane story.

However, people have reacted really strongly to that.

Why?

Why is from everything from why is the city spending money to promote some big corporate thing to why are you even building this up?

What do you think, though, Erik, about how much money that local government spent?

25,000.

Just a drop in the bucket.

Why should we care?

Yeah, that's chump change.

Well, we should care because it starts there.

Then it lines up with them spending in other areas.

Where.

And maybe Lisa could help us understand this if it came from the street core budget, it came from the people who are taxed within the streetcar district and not general taxpayers.

It didn't come out of the general fund.

It didn't mean that you can't have a community center or some other event.

And Kansas City is, you know, spends millions of dollars on neighborhood tourism events that are designed to make people smile.

So maybe it's a little more complicated than just this $25,000.

Lisa, I have to say, because I'm really looking forward to the brand new Exorcist movie coming out soon.

Will there be demonic children and vomiting bile on the side of the streetcar as a promotion coming up shortly?

I highly doubt that.

You know, Dave's right that the budget for the streetcar comes from taxes paid by people who live along the streetcar line.

It also comes from from sponsorship money they get elsewhere.

And it is true.

Barbie was a moment.

It was a zeitgeist.

Just the way that that Taylor Swift was a moment and it was a way to be part of that moment.

And if it brought a smile to your face or increased ridership for that, what.

Did it do?

It did increase ridership.

We haven't seen conclusive evidence that it increased ridership.

We have seen very positive responses to the rap itself.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every story grabbing the headlines that we try.

What was the big local story we missed?

Overland Park finally comes clean about its police.

Chief City leaders acknowledge Frank Dongsheng was in the process of being fired by the city when he resigned last week.

The city manager says he considered a conversation between donkeys and the mother of a teen killed by an Overland Park police officer.

Inappropriate and grounds for termination has helped finally arrive.

Jackson County lawmakers freezing property taxes for seniors Alarmed over skyrocketing assessments.

Auto workers aren't the only ones hitting the streets this week, frustrated Wyandotte High School students staged a walkout after gunshots disrupt a football game.

The ball servers.

And do what?

Weeks of negative headlines over public safety.

Will it impact the crowds at the Plaza Art Fair this weekend?

After years of cutbacks, modo now working on a plan to expand amtrak rail service in kansas city, adding a third daily train to saint louis and new links to saint joseph and springfield.

And finally moving forward at the shuttered charlotte about water park.

Wyandotte county approving tax incentives this week for a new $800 million redevelopment plan that includes a Margaritaville resort and is officially pumpkin spice season.

Can we also declare this the official start of Halloween?

Kansas City's haunted houses reopened for the season this weekend.

Rick, Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I picked one of those stories and something different.

The Jackson County taxpayers is probably finally making some headway on what to do with that for the seniors.

And they'll get tax breaks and coming years.

And Patrick Mahomes being the highest paid player in the NFL.

After making such a scene of about Chris Jones getting so much money.

For making that scene.

And then he's opening a new Whataburger and every commercial on TV has him in it.

So he's going to need a break.

He spends the $25,000 Street car money every day.

Yes.

Yeah, I agree with Eric on the down the road freeze on property taxes for seniors in Kansas City.

And then the other one is the potential expansion of Amtrak service in in Kansas City.

Number one, this town has a wonderful heritage dealing with the with the railroads.

It's a shame that passenger rail service in the Midwest is so sparse as it is.

And if they can expand it down to Springfield as well, you know, that would that would help.

It would be good for the state.

Dave.

The Lawrence Journal-World filed an open records request with the prosecutor's office for a relatively mundane story, and the prosecutor's reply was to deny the request because they didn't like the kind of journalism that the newspaper did and said so at least in part.

And one of their letters.

Will a judge laugh that out of court, as he should have done and it's a reminder that the open records law, the Sunshine law, is for everyone.

It's not just for journalists.

It's for all of us to have transparent, open government.

And a judge understood that this was Lisa.

While I'm on the fun hating beat of Kansas City, I want to talk Ferris wheel, which is that we see you are posted a picture last week of progress on the Ferris wheel that got such a strong response from people about how is the city, you know, just, you know, abating this project when you know, when our schools are underfunded.

So we have a news story out this week about the Ferris wheel and about exactly what incentives this developer is asking for.

The Ferris wheel itself is not receiving any tax breaks and will not.

However, the development district around it is seeking tax breaks.

It doesn't have any right now.

And so and so we did a little explaining about what is actually going on at Fenway Park.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed courtesy of KCUR Lisa Rodriguez and from Michael Mahoney at Channel nine, at the helm of Next Page, KC Eric Wesson and former star newsman Dave Helling.

And I'm Nick Haines.

From all of us here at Kansas City, PBS, be well.

Keep calm and carry on.