Bus? Rail? No, Bus!

Everything's up to date in Kansas City.  We Kansas Citians voted in 2006 to get 3/8% sales tax for a light rail system that extends from the zoo to downtown to the airport.  Some group has gotten enough signatures on a petition to put the question before voters to reallocate that sales tax for improvement and maintenance of the bus system.  I guess we get to vote on this issue again in February.  I just want to say, I'm much more likely to park and ride a train than to get on the bus.  It would be much simpler to get someone to drop me off at the train station than to get a ride all the way to the airport.  In most big cities, I feel safer at a train station than a bus stop.  I don't understand how we can allocate funds in 2004 for a redundant arena and it opens on time and under budget with 2204 panes of glass, and it looks like a giant napkin ring in just a few years, but we can't get some trains running to downtown and the airport without voting on the issue year after year after year.

One of the things I noticed when I was visiting Kansas City on business before moving here is even highway overpasses are adorned with art.  I learned that 1% of every city project budget goes to art.  The funny thing is they're spending $14 million on a new auto impound facility and $140,000 of that budget goes to art.  Making an impound facility look attractive is going to be, well, interesting art.