While there has been some quibbling in the blogosphere, Star reporter Matt Campbell was right on the money this week in reporting U.S. Census Bureau figures showing the population of Omaha may surpass Kansas City, Missouri’s population in the relatively near future.
Let’s face it: Kansas City is no longer the “Paris of the Plains” that it had the reputation of being back when in the 1930s when Boss Tom Pendergast and his Jackson Democratic Club built skyscrapers and big public works projects and threw the city wide open for great music and high-rollers. Kansas City was among the 20 largest cities in the country then, ranking 17th I believe.
Campbell reported that just released Census Bureau figures reflect city population estimates as of July 2008 rank Kansas City 39th and Omaha 40th among the nation’s largest cities, with 451,572 and 438,640 persons respectively. If current trends continue, Omaha will be larger than Kansas City, Missouri by 2012.
That’s not too surprising, with Omaha now running commercials on Kansas City TV stations inviting us to the Nebraska city for vacations there. Just like similar commercials for St. Louis now showing here, Omaha’s ads depict a dynamic city with many big city attractions that would be worth a trip to experience.
Frankly, Kansas City by comparison seems to be a rather boring, stagnant city nowadays. To her credit, former Mayor Kay Barnes and the last City Council recognized these problems and attempted to reverse them by investing in the downtown Power & Light District and the Sprint Center, which on balance seem to be succeeding financially. But they are not enough.
Star reporter Campbell asked current Mayor Mark Funkhouser for comment, and the mayor acknowledged the city’s problems, but wasn’t at all worried by the low morale and the civic inferiority complex that, in the opinion of many, are at the root of Kansas City’s problems.
“I’m not terribly concerned about our self-image,” Funkhouser said, “but yes (the numbers) matter a lot. We need to have more people living in Kansas City and paying taxes so we can deliver quality services to our residents.”
There’s that “city services” mantra we hear again and again from Funkhouser and his bowling buddy and political sponsor, Kansas City Star editorial writer and columnist Yael Abouhalkah, who has been in his current position too long.
Of course, quality city services should be a top priority, but there is no indication city services have improved at all during the more than two years Funkhouser has been in office.
If anything, services have gotten worse. Just as Abouhalkah used the city services issue to foist Funkhouser onto the electorate in the first place, together the Funkhouser/Abouhalkah team have used the city services outcry as a convenient excuse for Funkhouser’s failure to accomplish anything as mayor except discord.
Reporter Campbell quoted Funkhouser as saying the city is losing “market share” as other parts of the Kansas City metropolitan area and other metro areas grow faster. According to Campbell, Funkhouser said the city should focus on attracting residents so that businesses would follow, rather than trying to attract businesses in hopes that the population would follow.
Rather than such digs at Mayor Barnes and Barnes’ predecessor, Mayor (now Congressman) Emanuel Cleaver, for their emphasis on economic development, the Funkhouser/Abouhalkah team continues to preach basic services and to deliver nothing but embarrassment.
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