While waiting on pins and needles for more results in our I-70 survey — to toll or not to toll — we motor on.
Here are a couple of items hot off The Star’s website.
:: The Star’s Tony Rizzo had a very interesting online story today (it will be in the printed edition tomorrow), reporting that the driver of the 18-wheeler that 24-year-old Shante Hopkins’ car on Interstate 435 last month “did not brake or attempt evasive action.”
From the time I read about this horrible crash — which took the lives of Hopkins, three of her four children and a friend of hers — I wondered how in the hell the truck driver could just plow into Hopkins’ car, which had apparently slowed to a stop, or near stop just north of the Eastwood Trafficway exit. She was southbound in the far right lane. Authorities are still investigating what caused her car to lose speed dramatically.
Rizzo’s story doesn’t shed any light on what might have been going on in the cab of the truck, which a 56-year-old Minnesota man was driving. But a Kansas City Police Department preliminary report says the driver had a “straight line-of-sight to the car” and “neither adjusted his speed nor altered his course in order to avoid the collision.”
…I’m having trouble comprehending that. What the hell was the driver doing? Was he texting? Was he masturbating? Was he watching TV? What the f___?
Rizzo reported that the driver did not appear to police to be impaired and that he tested negative for d.u.i. In addition, the police department’s commercial motor vehicle investigation section inspected the truck and found nothing awry.
I hate to say it but this could simply be a case of “big-truck syndrome” (a condition I just came up with) where some big-rig drivers are convinced they own the road and that everybody else should just “get out of my way.” We’ve all seen it, and we’ve all been subjected to their hurry-up tactics.
If that is the case, then what this driver might have done was simply roll up on Hopkins’ car with the intention of goosing her along a bit, thinking she would just put the pedal to the metal and move out.
I gotta tell you, that’s my theory: The Hopkins crew was done in by a trucker who fancied himself king of the road and didn’t really give a shit about the little maroon Mazda he was barreling toward.
:: The Star also reported today that the former Metcalf South Shopping Center “will most likely become a mixed-use destination, featuring retail, dining, office space and multi-family living.”
That’s what a development company, Lane4 Property group, told the Overland Park City Council Monday night. Lane4 and the Kroenke Group bought the property last February, and the two companies have been researching possible uses for the center, which has only one big store left — Sears, at the south end of the center.
I hope it works out. I always found the mall to be accessible, and parking was no problem. I shopped periodically at Macy’s and still shop at Sears, and I occasionally go to movies at the Glenwood Arts Theatre on the back side of the center.
Too bad the Glenwood is closing. Brothers Brian and Ben Mossman, who operate the theater, often screen outstanding independently produced films that you can’t see anywhere else, except at another of their theaters. (After the Glenwood closes, they’ll be down to two, the Rio and the Leawood.) Lane4 might bring in a movie theater, but it will probably be one of the big theater chains, which for the most part go with the pablum that the major studios dish out.
…For nostalgia’s sake, here’s a look at Metcalf South in its prime, probably in the ’70s, judging from the cars.
That truck driver had to know the damage he would cause, wouldn’t he? If it was intentional, isn’t that manslaughter?
Metcalf So. was sure in its heyday in that pic; looks like Christmastime. I hate that the Glenwood is gone. I hope they do something cooler than just sticking in another Walmart — blahhh!
The Star story mentioned the possibility of a Walmart store, and, unfortunately, it would make sense, with the Kroenke Group being an owner of the property. The principal player in the Kroenke Group is Stan Kroenke, who is married to Ann Walton Kroenke, daughter of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton.
Kroenke also owns the St. Louis Rams, and there’s a strong possibility he’ll be moving that team back to Los Angeles, where the franchise began, unless St. Louis agrees to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new stadium for the team.
Forbes estimated Kroenke’s wealth at $6 billion last year.
I believe earlier reports indicated that the driver of the car did not have a license, the vehicle was not currently licensed and was probably poorly maintained so I have a hard time turning her into a victim. Neither she nor those children, her real victims, should have been on that road to begin with. To claim otherwise is to continue to treat our ever hardening underclass like children who can never be held accountable for the mishaps they bring on themselves.
As for Metcalf South, one can only wonder if the Commission in JOCO will manage to turn that into the kind of disastrous scandal that the King Louie Bowling Alley has become. (see The Pitch’s latest on that debacle here. http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/king-louie-johnson-county-kansas-valbridge-property-advisors-appraisal-gutter-ball/Content?oid=5034724) You can bet that the powers that be down their will find some way to loot the till as they did with King Louie, or that little school in eastern JOCO that they dolled up and then sold for a pittance in a sweetheart deal.
The only difference between WYCO corruption and JOCO corruption is that they steal much more down in JOCO.
I will delay judgment on the tragic truck-car accident in the absence of additional information. The driver for my three-days-a-week Star route works at that Sears store on occasion and I know he doesn’t want to see a Wal-mart store come into the neighborhood. Yes, back in the day, Metcalf South was the place to shop in Johnson County, the quaint little shops of Prairie Village having temporarily fallen out of favor with shoppers who didn’t want to be exposed to the elements in any way as they went from door to door.
Hmmm, could have just been an accident as well.