It’s Not Easy Being Green
I recently read your article about Mayor Kay Barnes signing and enforcing an environmental resolution.
I am a card-carrying member of the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists. I am a die-hard liberal through and through.
I understand your frustration about this environment resolution. However, we must put blame where blame belongs. Mayor Barnes has and is working hard to make Kansas City a city we can be proud of. Recent projects in the downtown district are proof of that. Our city will reap the benefits decades after her departure. If we, as a city, make our environmental policies too strict, then companies will simply pack up and go to the next city, where the environmental restrictions are not as cost restraining.
No, it is not Mayor Barnes or any municipal leader’s fault. They have to do what is in the best overall interest of their city as whole. That is why we need a president or at least a ruling party that has enough backbone to sign environmental legislation across the board. That way, every city, county and state would have to abide by the same rules. That would eliminate businesses leaving for greener pastures (pardon the pun).
Alan Manker,
Kansas City, Missouri
Misplaced Maintenance
What a coincidence it was to find out that at the very moment my husband was at the office reading “Low-Quality Hill” this morning, I was at home making yet another maintenance call to the Quality Hill leasing office. My husband and I have been residents of this neighborhood for several years, and in that time our list of maintenance and customer service issues has continued to grow. It generally takes three or four calls to get the management office to fix anything (if it is fixed at all). In addition, they’ve lost our packages and been rude to us over the phone. Because repairs aren’t being made now, the damage will only cost more to fix later.
I echo resident Joseph Ford in saying that I can’t believe that McCormack Baron Salazar has allowed its beautiful properties to deteriorate to such an extent. Even more shocking to me, though, is how poorly the rental management treats its tenants. Even though we love this area, I no longer recommend Quality Hill to my friends and acquaintances looking for a place to live. Name withheld by request
The King’s Response
My reaction to the cover story about me was to remember what Mark Twain wrote about being tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, something to the effect of: If it weren’t for the honor of the thing, one would just as soon skip the experience.
The article was the worst hatchet job I have ever seen on anyone. It was full of factual errors, half-truths and jumbled bits. Almost every paragraph dripped put-downs, vitriol and negative spin. Even some of my worst enemies have reported that the article was unfair and malicious.
Of the dozens of false statements in the article, I will comment here on three. None of the properties I have owned have been “allowed to rot until the city ordered them demolished.” Each demolished property was being repaired when the city of Kansas City demolished it.
Second, it was false to write that I have “amassed $100,000 in unpaid taxes and fines.” If there is a total anywhere near that amount, 90 percent of it would be the demolition charges that are added to any taxes owed. Fines don’t “amass,” and if you don’t pay them, you go to jail.
Third, it was extremely harmful and false to claim that I said that my church “was created to protect [me] from the city’s scrutiny of [my] properties.” The city started tearing my houses down in the 1990s, after I began to actively oppose tax increase propositions. The church was founded in 1972.
Even more absurd was the claim that a handful of properties that I might have owned accounted for the blight of the east side. Both the city and Jackson County are part owners of thousands of distressed properties. If they will clean up all of theirs, I promise to keep all of mine pristine.
What mystifies me and everyone I’ve heard from is, why would a newspaper that excluded me from its only piece on the Jackson County executive’s race suddenly find my personal affairs newsworthy enough for a cover story?
The thing I find most galling is, for a man who openly admits to specializing in opposition politics to the ruling establishments, both black and white, why would a respectable publication make up so much stuff when what I actually and openly say is controversial enough?
Richard Tolbert,
Kansas City, Missouri
Nadia Pflaum responds: First, city documents and numerous court transcripts refute Tolbert’s claim that he was repairing properties before they were demolished. For each case, he was invited to provide evidence of repairs but did not. Second, the city fines homeowners for the cost of demolition. Third, Tolbert has repeatedly admitted that he incorporated the church as a way to protect himself and his derelict properties from the city. It was not incorporated until 2000, according to state records.
