It’s been more than 30 years since I heard one of the best lines I ever came across in politics.
Then-City Councilman Bobby Hernandez had a stiff re-election challenge against someone whose name I don’t remember. Everybody was counting Hernandez out, so much so that a friend of Bobby’s, a county legislator named Virgil Troutwine, said, “Take his picture; he’s gone.”
As it turned out, Hernandez managed to pull through, and he stayed in office for another eight or 12 years. (It was before voters approved term limits.)
I still think of that line a lot…It can apply in many types of situations.
Like the case of Kansas City Aviation Director Mark VanLoh.
VanLoh — I don’t know how long he’s had the job — has been dead set on a new, single terminal at KCI. He’s made no secret of his wishes, and that’s fine, except that about 90 percent of area residents love the existing multi-terminal set-up and want to keep it.
About twice a week, a new letter to the editor pops up in favor of keeping KCI essentially as it is. The latest letter was in today. B. Parks Eubank of Lee’s Summit said, in part:
“Why trade our short security lines for lengthy lines and long waits? KCI updates and some perks would polish some rough edges. All said, an airport is not an entertainment destination but a source of transportation.”
At the other end of the spectrum is VanLoh, who not only wants a new terminal but initially proposed building a main terminal at a new location, south of the existing terminals. That was quickly exposed as way too costly, and VanLoh changed courses, saying a new terminal should be built at the site of the existing ones.
(For the record, I am in favor of a new terminal, or at least reconfiguring the ones we have so that all passengers go through a central security station before entering the trunk of the terminal, where they would be free to move about as they wished, amid a much wider array of shopping and eating options. That’s the way it is at most big-city, modern airports. And, as I told the KCI Terminal Advisory Committee recently, I want to live in a Kansas City where everything is up to date.)
But even though he might be right, VanLoh fouled the atmosphere by charging out of the gate with his plan for a new, relocated terminal. Obviously, he has no political instincts whatsoever; if he had been smart, he would have planned more carefully and then would have presented the plan as a mere possibility, not as a veritable fait accompli.
Now, even though he has been a low-profile bureaucrat, he finds himself at the center of a firestorm. He stuck his neck way, way out there, and today the man with the most credible political voice in Kansas City — The Star’s Yael Abouhalkah — called for VanLoh to be fired.
In his weekly Op-Ed column, Abouhalkah wrote:
“Mark VanLoh does not have the public credibility to lead on this extremely crucial project…A new aviation director would be a positive step because it could allow Kansas City to more or less start over with a different leader, at the top, guiding the process of improving KCI.”
I had not even considered the prospect of VanLoh stepping aside or being ousted, but the moment I read what Yael had to say, I realized that he was right on target. This whole situation has bogged down badly, and it’s because of the awkward way it came out of the starting gate, with VanLoh’s hastily put-together plan.
As soon as the shit hit the fan, Mayor Sly James, good politician that he is, appointed the Terminal Advisory Committee and installed Bob Berkebile, a widely respected architect, as co-chairman. Berkebile and the other co-chairman, Dave Fowler — retired managing partner of KPMG in Kansas City — now have the process moving methodically and carefully. The committee expects to make a public recommendation on KCI in April.
Still, as Yael suggested, the committee cannot repair all the damage that VanLoh wrought. He singlehandedly managed to polarize the issue, and it seems to me that it’s unlikely, at this point, to proceed with a radical overhaul at KCI. We’re now essentially stuck with our 40-year-old terminals for another generation or so.
Maybe bringing in a new aviation director will help turn the page, but it’s also going to further slow down the process. It will take a new director months to get up to speed and establish the profile and credibility that will be needed to move forward with anything significant at KCI.
Fortunately, somebody took VanLoh’s picture. Here it is…
Take a good look at it because in the immortal words of Virgil Troutwine…he’s gone.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Mark Van Loh started in June 2004. I remember covering his first meeting with the KC Council’s Aviation Committee.
Your memory is phenomenal, Mike, and you’re a font of information. You could have been a great historian, if you hadn’t fallen into journalism, like most of us who started decades ago.
If I recall my KCBJ reporting correctly, Berkebile and his wife designed the current airport when he was a cub architect and their marriage was still a courtship. His employer held a design contest, and his homemade entry won. I think my (2005?) story neglected to state that Bob was no longer a fan of the layout. He didn’t exactly say that, but he kind of rued his inexperience when he discussed the project. Can you imagine the difficulty of trying to kill your own creation in defiance of public will?
I completely understand local residents’ ardent desire to get as far away from Kansas City as quickly as possible, so I’m sympathetic to the public’s adamant refusal to support a modern, professionally designed single-terminal layout that MIGHT put a speed bump in their paths to sun, skiing, or civilization. (Apparently I’ve abandoned all pretense of political aspiration, eh?) It appears, however, that airlines hate our terminal because it cannot accommodate a large volume of passengers transferring between flights. Because the airlines hate the terminal, our airfield is under-used, and it operates at a fraction of its capacity. And therefore our three-terminal airport now requires just two terminals.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. So Terminal A has been abandoned, right, because of too little demand from local residents for flights in and out of Kansas City? So open it back up to one or two airlines as a transfer-only hub. See if any airlines decide to generate new flights through Kansas City for transfers only. No security checks would be necessary because no one would be embarking or disembarking from terminal A. Transferring passengers could have the run of the building, but they could not leave it except by airplane. If KCI’s location halfway between the coasts fails to interest the airlines, so be it. But I’d probably bet a small sum that some airline would determine that transfers alone justify use of KCI Terminal A as a hub. Then, there would be flights in and out of KCI that the locals could not board because the flights would use the transfer-only terminal. I suspect that even Kansas City’s stubborn and closed-minded flyers would finally get the picture. This can’t be a new idea. Sorry for bothering y’all with a suggestion so obvious that it is probably already in the works.
Give passengers the run of a terminal, instead of consigning them to the pig pens where they now squeal and forage on three-day-old turkey sandwiches? Outrageous!
Ruckus devoted a segment to the new KCI. It was interesting and spirited. Van Loh was pilloried in absentia.
Interesting point made here, Jim. After reading this last night I started thinking back to when I first heard about it, and you are absolutely right. I didn’t like it from the get go. Had this come as a suggestion along with some other avenues explored, I may have given it more thought. Instead, I instantly pictured another KC project that cost more than the returns and likely to have enormous cost overruns.
I also thought, what the hell is wrong with what we already have, other than where it is located! I’ve lived here all my life and have always loved getting a parking spot right in front of the terminal and not having to ride a shuttle. What’s even sweeter than that? Getting off the plane when you return, picking up your bags by the front door, walk to your car and pull onto
I-435 15-20 minutes after the wheels hit the ground.
I must admit that I never really gave any thought to connecting flights because I never have connected at KCI. After giving this a few minutes of thought, I realized that people who connect here must feel like they are on some kind of field trip from the mental ward. Once you are in the pig pen you are cut off from the few restaurants/bars they offer. It’s kind of like being in day care.
All that being said, I now agree that improvements are needed at KCI. I just don’t like the idea that was presented. We are not the only multiple terminal airport. Atlanta has five terminals connected by monorail and has all of the amenities of a nice single terminal airport like Minneapolis/St.Paul. Atlanta is also an International Hub.
So it’s not like it can’t be done any other way. I actually like the idea Mark posted above. I have a few ideas of my own, but to sum it up, I believe we have something we can build on rather than tearing it down and starting from scratch. Heck, if KCI had a rail system like Atlanta or Las Vegas, you could tie it in some how with that silly little street car that everyone is so excited about. Maybe even have it stop at Zona Rosa on it’s way Downtown. I’ll stop here before I attract any attention from Chastain! Hehhe!
So now we wait and see what will happen under new leadership…and hope for better.
P.S. I enjoyed lunch with you yesterday and look forward to doing it again sometime soon, but next time I’m buying!
Well put, Jason…I think “building on” is the way this thing is going to end up; there are just too many people, like you, who do not want to part with the existing conveniences of KCI…I’ve been on the losing side of several hopeless political battles, and I found out last year that being on the winning side is a lot more fun. So, I’m not going to put myself out there in the face of a 75-mile-an-hour headwind.
…We’ll get together for lunch again. Next time, though, we’ll have to try to find a place that plays the Oldies! That quasi-hard rock was not suitable for the crowd, especially those of us with hearing deficits.