Letters from the week of February 15

Web Exclusive, February 1

Final Curtain

Late Night Theatre will be missed tremendously. Kansas City was lucky to have it. Please don’t goooo!

Kristin Chow, Kansas City, Kansas

Letters, February 1

In Defense of Kris

Florence Streeter’s letter was a poorly informed swipe at Professor Kris Kobach and indicates that she knows very little about the law. Her letter contains two mistakes.

First, she evidently does not understand how lawyers who are licensed in one state practice in another. Professor Kobach is licensed in Kansas and Nebraska and had already been admitted “pro hac vice” by the federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri to argue the Valley Park case. It was simply a bureaucratic matter to make sure that the relevant paperwork was in order. The state court judge was determined to allow Professor Kobach to present the case — because his expertise surpassed that of all the other attorneys in the room.

Second, Ms. Streeter claims that Professor Kobach relied on a case that was abrogated by the Missouri Supreme Court. Once again, she shows her ignorance. The case was Harrison v. Monroe County, which the Supreme Court of Missouri has relied on many times since it was issued in 1986. Ms. Streeter’s attorney had confused this case with another one of the same name when she criticized Professor Kobach. A few days later, Ms. Streeter’s own attorney acknowledged to the judge that she had made a mistake.

Readers should know what Ms. Streeter doesn’t tell them in her letter. She is a plaintiff in the Valley Park case who claims that, as a landlord, she has the right to profit from illegal aliens who are breaking federal law. She brought this case so that she could continue to exploit the illegal aliens who crowd into her apartments solely for her profit. Her motives are clear. Wesley Carrillo, UMKC law student, Odessa

Wayward Son, January 25

Sax Appeal

Jazz is dead — long live jazz.

The titans of 20th-century jazz are given the title “maverick” for a reason — their ideas were not accepted for the greater part of their careers! (If he’s going to name-check Charlie Parker when talking of Kansas City jazz, please remind Chuck Haddix that Parker split KC for the more culturally adventurous New York scene to develop his radical-for-the-time bebop conceptions.) The jazz-revival of the ’80s and ’90s spearheaded by the Marsalis/Lincoln Center crowd drove a nail into the music’s coffin — presenting jazz as a museum piece quashed further experimentation, leaving the general public with a “music” defined primarily by nice suits and decades-old Tin Pan Alley variations.

That said, I invite you to bear witness to the oddball, experimental, jazz-purist-infuriating musical gumbo of Mr. Marco’s V7. We’re not sure if Monk or Mingus would have approved of our Afro-Turkish-metal-garage-fusion improvisations, but I’m not so sure those guys were concerned with what their forefathers thought, either. So we salute their spirit, rather than the notes they played. Rest assured that geezer hipsters (and maybe a couple of young sprouts) who are willing to put their cred on the line with something adventurous will find plenty to enjoy from our brazen, radical and, yes, OLD (one of us is 40! I won’t say who) little combo. Michael Stover, Kansas City, Missouri

Night Ranger, January 25

Logging In

Thanks for Jen Chen’s nice words about the Historic Northeast. I bought my first house just around the corner from Karen’s Kozy Cabin and many of my co-workers are buying houses in the Northeast, too. Where else can you get a 107-year-old adorable house on a double lot with huge trees and your own grapes? Not to mention the close proximity to a funky little bar owned by a really fun gal.

Gina Estes, Kansas City, Missouri

Slightly Askew

I grew up in NE, lived there ’til 1973. My sis and brother-in-law live there now. I lived there when I first moved back in 2003. Both bars you went to have been fixtures in the area since I was a kid.

But you missed my favorite, the Askew Inn. Andy and Bill Mortillero own it now; their father opened it down the street in 1952. Both worked for their uncle at the Chestnut Inn.

If I’d seen you, I would have insisted on taking you to see where Bob Walkenhorst lived (and wrote “Width of a Line,” among others) on Benton Boulevard.

If you get back, go to the Askew and talk to Bill and Andy. Tell them I sent you, and they will treat you more than right. Ernie Henderson, Lenexa

North by Northeast

Every week, I can’t wait to read the Night Ranger to see what new places and neighborhoods you have been to. I love that you don’t stick to the Plaza and Westport.

I grew up in the Northeast area, and I was excited to read this article. Not many people living in KC know what or where the Northeast neighborhood is; they assume you are talking about the northeast suburbs.

Next time you are in the area, try Gerry’s Silver Slipper (on Independence Avenue and Lawn), Askew Inn (Independence Avenue and Askew) and Arnone’s (Independence Ave and Prospect). There are some other really sketchy bars on 9th and 12th — I don’t think I’d check those out, but you seem to live dangerously. Janel Gillespie, Columbia