Clay Chastain: anti-hero?

Clay Chastain called last week to talk about his latest light rail plan, which he’ll kick off at Union Station on October 14 at “high noon.”

“We’re going to try to repeat the political miracle of 2006,” Chastain told me.

Chastain said he’ll pimp his latest plan on the 14th with a short speech, answer some questions from

the media and then hit the streets to start his

latest petition drive — or as he put it, “gallop to a new green horizon.”

Chastain sounded like he’s been watching a lot of old westerns, talking about “drama on the plains.” There will be plenty of drama if the public backs his latest plan. He says it’ll “reconfigure the infrastructure and the political structure,” taking away the City Council’s power to override a vote of the people.

The meat of Chastain’s plan is an upgrade of Kansas City’s “pathetic transit

system” to a “world class transit system,” he said. It’s a $2.2 billion

cap improvement project, “a big plan taking on a big problem,” he said.