Funkhouser Says KC School District is “Covington’s Problem”. Oh Funkster…
Dumbness/Funkness:
So my whole perspective of Mayor Funkhouser has changed tonight. It went from a complete idiot to a helpless, complete idiot. I went to a townhall tonight at the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center — an essential KC asset that is the victim of state-level funding cutbacks — expecting to hear about this very subject and perhaps the other insurmountable issues that KC’s struggling with as well. What I got, however, as Craig Smith and I witnessed, was a canned speech about his newly formed, ubiquitously scoffed Schools First plan to enable kids to “walk to school”.
Walking to school sounds like a great idea. Frankly, I wish that everybody walked more — not just to school but to work, the grocery store, church, etc. — but this plan is simply outrageous and lacks even a SPECK of viable data to support it.
Throughout the speech he kept referring to a map of the Kansas City Metro area and how the city is losing density — obviously — and it’s because “of the schools”. This is arguable.
Density is important to this mayor; understood. So at the end of the speech I ask him about the current move to annex a part of south Iowa into Kansas City. I say “Mr. Mayor it seems as though the constant annexation of land into Kansas City has historically been the solution to curb KC’s dwindling population. Some neighborhoods, typically those on the fringes of the city, have been built to cater to the automobile and are not meant to be walkable spaces. Do you really think that building sidewalks in these areas will be worth it?” He says “Oh yes! If you look at all the data about the annexation it indicates a win for the city. I’m voting FOR it…”
Now, how can a man encourage density within the city if he votes for sprawl? There’s something fishy here. I won’t suspect what that might be.
Other idiocies:
The topic of trash and littering came up in one mans question. He asked how the community could get involved. Funkhouser simply says that there are programs that do this very thing and if you want to help support Schools First.
But on the topic of schools Funkhouser didn’t want to touch it with a ten foot pole! There were many evasions of questions from the audience regarding the topic. He said things like “That’s [John] Convington’s problem” and “That’s not my job.” He further explained that the city and school district were two different governances. This is true but dude, you friggin city is suffering; you need to do everything you can possibly do to build a foundation for the school district to work with. CITY HALL NEEDS TO COMMUNICATE with them as well.
SOOOOOO….
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO SCHOOLS FIRST!?!?!?
Sounds more like FUNKHOUSER/Re-election first
It’s almost getting to the point where I vomit ever so slightly whenever I see the guy. The bad thing is, I really do think he has great intentions. He just doesn’t know how to communicate effectively, keep people around him that are smarter nor indicate an ounce of patience. How many times will he prance around this city giving these speeches about his ideas? Time is running out and you need to raise more than the $300 you have to win in 2011, Funk!
