Kansas City, we have a winner!
It’s the KCI Terminal Advisory Group, which today stood up to the head-in-the-sand crowd that would like to keep Kansas City International Airport just as it is, even though it has become a veritable aero-saur.
After painstakingly sifting through studies, testimony and recommendations for the last year, the 24-member committee recommended razing KCI’s three terminals and building a single new one.
…Everyone who is now wearing a hat, please take it off and throw it in the air!
Ah, I see a sky full of hats…Good to know.
…Well, maybe my glasses need cleaning, but I hope there are more hats in the air than there would have been a year ago, before this process got started.
We’ve seen lots of letters to the editor on both sides of the issue, and the committee’s deliberations have placed a spotlight on KCI — and it isn’t pretty.
When you load all the factors in a mixing bowl — including the estimated $1-billion-plus price tag for a single terminal on one hand and the quickly deteriorating, existing terminals on the other — the unavoidable conclusion is that Kansas City is stuck with an airport that no longer adequately serves the needs of modern aviation or the pace of society.
KCI, unfortunately, was becoming an antique about a decade after it was built. Remember those nice, quaint parquet floors? I loved ’em, but, hell, they were totally impractical — a maintenance nightmare.
You probably don’t remember this (I do because I was covering City Hall at the time) but there was a big to-do over what company was going to get the right to install photos of Kansas City — the Plaza, Crown Center, Arrowhead Stadium, etc. — in the late 80s. But we never got any good promotional photos in the airport — at least none that really stood out in those curving concourses.
So, now, let’s get rid of it. Those who insist on clinging to the “but-it’s-so-convenient argument” need to get on board and help us get a light-and-bright, modern airport, with a smooth-flowing, central security station and plenty of retail and food options.
I am sick of going to places like Denver, Chicago, Nashville and Louisville and walking through modern, energizing airports and then coming back to dingy, dull KCI.
…Yes, razing the terminals and building a large new one is going to cost a lot of money. But one thing many people don’t understand is that it’s not going to require a tax increase. The $1 billion plus price tag would be paid for primarily by the airlines, through gate rentals, landing fees and other fees. Of course, the airlines will pass the cost on to the airport users — the flying public — but that’s the way to do it.
If voters approve, the city would issue “revenue bonds,” which would be issued to finance the project. Revenue generated by the new project would be used to retire the bonds. The city would not ask residents to approve a new sales tax or a new property tax.
I think that is a very winnable issue at the polls.
As my friend Anita Gorman, former president of the Kansas City Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners, used to tell me whenever the park board went to voters with a ballot measure:
“Jim, if we can educate the voters, if we can explain to them exactly what they’re going to be getting and how we’re going to pay for it, they will go along with us.”
It’s all about educating the voters — showing them images of what a superior, modern airport would look like; laying out how it would surpass what we’ve got; and assuring them it would be paid for one airline ticket at a time.
Get on board, everyone. With any luck, KC could be flying high in several years.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Let the planning for the $15.00 hamburger, fries and soft drink combo begin. Whoops make that $18.00 with tip
Hamburger? Hell, I’m talking halibut, rainbow trout, asparagus and potato casserole!! Just put it on the MasterCard, waiter…
Jim:
Wish I could agree with you but we’re going to end up with a terminal with long walks to gates and baggage claim. KCI is the most convenient airport in the world for getting to and from planes. It will be sorely missed.
All best,
Laura
Let the moving walkways carry you to your gate, Laura. Enjoy the ride.
If they don’t build it, they can’t steal from it.
It would be a lot easier to support projects like this if I knew the usual band of pirates wouldn’t have their fingers in the pie.
By the way, who all was on the advisory board?
I’ve been looking all over and cannot find a list of who the members of the advisory board are, even on the advisory board’s website. It’s awfully hard to give any credibility to a report when we don’t even know who’s on the board (and strangely enough, not one member of the KC media have condescended to share that information with us.
I DON’T TRAVEL LIKE I DID IN THE 80’S, 90’S AND EARLY 2000; I DO RECALL ARRIVING BACK TO KCI, SOMETIMES LATE AT NIGHT OR VERY, VERY EARLY A.M. AND WALKING ACROSS THE STREET TO MY CAR, THIS AFTER FIGHTING LAX OR SEATAC OR O’HARA… WHAT A MESS! DALLAS/FORT WORTH OR ATLANTA HARTZFIELD. EVEN MINNEAPOLIS WAS A CHALLENGE. BUT SERIOUSLY, A GREAT CITY DOES NOT AN AIRPORT MAKE. THE ABSOLUTE SIMPLE OF THE MATTER..I USE THIS TERM OFTEN TO MAKE THE POINT MORE CLEAR AND EMPHATIC…KANSAS CITY AND THE SURROUNDING “VILLAGES” ARE NOT DESTINATION CITIES, LIKE SAN FRANCISCO OR NEW YORK CITY OR MIAMI OR DENVER…WE HAVE NO MOUNTAINS, NO OCEAN, NO TIMES SQUARE. BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT WE HAVE…A LIVABLE CITY THAT CAN BE TRAVERSED NORTH TO SOUTH, EAST TO WEST IN LESS THAT ONE HOUR WORST TRAFFIC, DECENT RESTAURANTS AND NITE LIFE, SOME FIRST CLASS GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS AND OVERALL, A GREAT LIVING ENVIRONMENT.
SOMEHOW SPENDING 1.2 PLUS BILLION FOR AN UPGRADE TO “FIRST CLASS” SEEMS OVER THE TOP…I DON’T CARE WHOSE MONEY PAYS FOR IT…IT’S JUST WRONG. AND, OH JIMMY, I’LL PICK YOU UP AT 6:30 WED., THE 14th…WE’LL PARK ACROSS FROM THE SOUTHWEST GATE; DON’T WANT TO BE LATE YOU KNOW. LATER
FREDDIE
I’m anxious to see what Baltimore Washington International (BWI) is like, Fred…We’ll have the better part of six days to roam around D.C. and argue about airports…
Let the chips fall!
Jim:
I’ve been on moving walkways. They don’t move that fast. And I agree with John Altevogt. Who in the he– was on the Advisory Board??
Laura
I haven’t been able to find the full list, Laura…I don’t think The Star ever ran it, and I can’t find it on the city’s website. The co-chairmen are architect Bob Berkebile and retired accountant Dave Fowler.
As a KC resident who only gets on or off planes here, I don’t find the airport a problem. Would love to be able to move about the terminal after I got through security, but I don’t find too much of a inconvenience. But when you travel to other places–in the last month I was at Dallas, Orange County and San Fran airports–the time spent waiting was comfortable and open for movement to other areas for food or wi-fi connections. That seems to be the way to go.
The mistake of KCI was made years ago when they put it so far north from every community in the metro area.
I hope your point of view and perspective take root with many other people, Jennifer. While KCI is not a big “problem” for most travelers, it certainly isn’t up to what it could be, compared with what other cities have. For me, that’s what it comes down to: Do we want to have an airport with modern amenities, or do we want to keep our heads buried in the sand and fall farther and farther behind competing cities?
…Also, got to mention what a turd U.S. Rep. Sam Graves is. He represents Missouri’s 6th Congressional District, which consists of Clay and Platte counties and, otherwise, a bunch of rural, northern Missouri land. His position, as described in today’s KC Star, is to keep KCI just like it is.
No surprise. When former KC Mayor Kay Waldo Barnes was running against him a few years ago, he said, in so many words, that he would have opposed funding for the Power & Light District.
He doesn’t give a shit about Kansas City. He’s strictly a hick…an unhelpful one, at that.
This just in: Southwest Airlines, one of our major carriers, will build a second long runway at Olathe. You heard it here first. And THAT airport will be their KC version of Love Field /Dallas and Midway/Chicago. Far cheaper to build a runway than to finance Burns and MacDonald’s latest raid of the pocketbook.
As for the list, Kevin Coster (ad guy north of the river) was on Darla Jaye/98.1 kmbz yesterday. He was on the committee.and revealed that the pro forces tried to ram the report through last December, before they ever talked to the airlines! The fix is in.
He said he will keep his private website up: savekci.org
It’s Koster, and he was one of the founders of the Save KCI organization. Yes, Sly James put at least one ardent, single-terminal opponent on the committee.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be progress, but it should be real progress with a lot of citizen input and full disclosure of what’s going on. When you can’t even tell me who was on the advisory panel, the red flags start waving furiously.
And why is it that not one media outlet took the time to find out and share who was on that panel? That’s yet another reason why people are so suspicious, we do not have a press corps that provides us with the kind of information we need to make informed decisions.
I opposed the ball park purchase here in WYCO until I read Mike Hendricks’ well written, thorough and balanced piece on what had gone on and did a complete 180.
Show us, don’t snow us.
Oh, good grief, more run on sentences. I need a copy editor.
I asked Tony Botello and he provided this link. http://kcur.org/post/two-dozen-will-advise-future-kci-airport. I therefore have to correct my previous statement. One media source, KCUR did provide us the information. Kudos to them.
Steve Vockrodt at The Pitch also provided this link. That’s two that deserve a round of applause.
http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2013/05/14/kansas-city-mayor-sly-james-names-his-kci-advisory-panel
Lest we broad brush all the media as lazy, the Business Journal listed all of the task force members almost exactly a year ago: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2013/05/14/meet-kcs-advisory-committee-for.html?page=all
I’m pretty sure I saw a list published within the last week, but for the life of me (and the guilty brain cells) I can’t remember where? Yael?
I just picked up a friend at KCI yesterday at 2. I parked at the curb right in front of baggage claim and waited till she walked out minutes later. She arrived on Southwest, which is now in Terminal B (they used to dominate Terminal A.)
Terminal A is now completely closed! So, we are down to just the two terminals.
Now if Southwest relocates to Olathe, a very real possibility, not just a joke, then KCI could probably condense just to Terminal C. One terminal. Problem solved, saving the taxpayers $1.2 billion (which would likely be nearly $2 billion.) Go fix your sewers, boys and girls. And privatize all your schools, offering free tuition. Now THAT would build your population and your property taxes.