Equal access to government

Right now, I could be at City Hall watching "government in action." Yea, tonight is the only public budget hearing. The weather is warm, the neighborhoods have sounded their "let's show up, people" call.

I expect it is a good show.

I'm rather "supposed" to be there anyhow. It's a shame, I guess, that we don't have cable television. Then, I could watch from afar, get every juicy, primary-source detail that keeps me from falling dead asleep under that eerie golden chandelier - all the sneers and laughs and such.

We obviously are paying someone for Internet, but I'm not adding fifty more bucks to the "media" bills. If we did have Time Warner Cable (plug me!), then I could get the fun and furious Government Channel on 2.

Nope, no Channel 2 for me and no witness to Lynda Callon's "West Side, Best Side," for example, though I haven't heard her say that in a while. I wonder if someone encouraged her to recognize the way West Side tagging gang-ishes had infiltrated the Northeast? Perhaps she's just taking her role in the Neighborhood Advisory Council well, being rounded and holistic and inclusive.

I wanted to see people complain about having the trash carts implemented, too. And that really economical 311 information line. I know I complained about our phone bills, but it ain't no million dollars. Heck, I answer questions all day long for free already!

I won't ramble about the potential things that are being said at the budget hearing, unless it would make my case stronger - I want to convince you that I really wanted to be there.

Well, I did drive all the way downtown. I was on time. It's not that many blocks, but I saw about only 13 moving cars, perhaps, in the space of 10 minutes. More than I expected.

Twelfth street, Cherry, etc., 11th, circling, circling.

This week, someone on a neighborhood listserve asked about parking downtown, would it cost anything, she wanted to know. She seemed eager to join the fray - obviously a parking newbie. A city staffer replied friendily that after 6 p.m., the meters were off, free parking downtown at night!

There is so much to say it's hard to begin, but aside from the fact that I predict free street parking will vanish in Kansas City as it has in its favorite mentor-cities, I am just dying to know if this staffer is at the hearing. Stay after 5 p.m., without leaving for dinner? And either way, ain't his/her car parked in the garage anyhow?

Where is this knowledge of "street parking?" This is no densely-packed NYC. Why no mention of the garage?

(And, for the record, apparently, I am a downtown-parking reverted-to-newbie, too.)

B/C:

There's no fking street parking near 12th and Oak. All I see are single men wandering the sidewalks. Not just occasionally, but every block, like 7 p.m. is some agreed-upon migration time. Making odd-off faces, a few of them.

There is plenty of illegal parking. Yes. But no. Streetlights, sure, police cars, sure, but for men and women very much inside the other tower across the street.

Don't you think that if Kay Barnes et. al. really wanted you to come and testify about how they should allocate your tax money she'd spare one of her bodyguards and perhaps get another to patrol outside the City Hall doors?

I swear it was deserted!

No one to tag along or walk inside with (where are my neighborhood allies, are you all that on time?!).

When I go there during the day, even in rain, I park four blocks or so away and walk past a place where people sit on the sidewalk or talk into the air. Are the headphones really playing music? Anyway, it's no big deal. No one is interested in bothering me or anyone else and I respect that.

Tonight, the vernal haze out there just feels funny.

For a woman who ain't ugly, that's a woodsy-freak thing to honor, a "feeling" like that. Weaker vessels know where they crack. So to speak.

So far, so good.

I am used to quite a few events having "security."

You can call me racist, but not every solitary male I saw was black or brown or whatever. I think I saw one white female with a backpack. If (black) City Manager Wayne Cauthen refers to that area as "you know, we'd like to just make it all go away," then what is some wimpy, unarmed lone chicken supposed to do?

You can't bring weapons into City Hall, you know.

Why no signs welcoming citizen me to the garage on Oak? I am not sure it was open, though it was lit. I'm not sure that's even the City Hall garage. Ok, it has that handy "government parking" sign. I want a welcome (whine). We put up signs for elections and raggedy garage sales, and finer events such as festivals. This is not that important.

You know, even when KC Rep had a Friday night reception for its "Raisin in the Sun" production last month, there were cops for security, watching the cars parked on the street. It was at Vine Street Lofts, at 22nd Street, for those of you who may not know. There's nothing going on on Vine, let me tell you. It's so deserted (in an out-of-the-way way), that I feel safe wandering around in the freezing morning taking photographs of graffiti on park buildings.

Nevertheless, they had cops. Nearly every single person attending the event was African American, as is expected at a United States arts event where the product in question is a creation of a black person. I mean, (white-staffed) KC Rep was doing the show for the first time and brought in a cast and director (black) from out of town for Hansberry's play. Am I to presume that we have no talent at home? St. Louis has its own Black Rep, and that's a (home town) city I consider much more racially-divided than Kansas City.

But there were cops watching all the rich people's cars, not just "white people's cars," and my crappy one, too, probably the easiest to steal. When the Vietnamese have events like Founder's Day at the Sons of Columbus Hall on Independence Avenue, they have cops to watch the cars (in the parking lot). When someone I know got married at a Baptist Church on East Truman Road, there was someone hired for security. Same for a reception on the 900-block of Linwood.

All I'm saying is that it sucks that I felt too scared to walk downtown. Wednesday night is a very deserted one. . . can't wait for the cost-overrun Arena to dazzle me. Right.

PS:

The verdict is in - it WAS baby germs after all. My husband is sick (and I'm almost better) and thus couldn't come with me to witness government in action, and thus the baby germs set this whole chain of events into motion. Because we would have walked together and it would have been fine.