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The Planetizen News Brief

14 December 2007 - 11:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

Light rail has been a contentious issue in Kansas City for the past year. Voters approved a plan for a light rail system back in November, but city officials say it’s not a realistic blueprint. Though many in the city want the system, there is very little consensus on its details. From its location to its extent to its funding sources, there are many divergent ideas. And now, there’s and even more divergent idea. The Kansas City Star recently reported that city council members are now looking into the possibility of ditching the light rail plans and tunneling a full-on subway beneath the city. Officials are planning to meet with engineers to discuss the feasibility of tunneling through the limestone on which the city stands. Light rail proponents are dismissing this idea, but a project manager on the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority’s light rail study team says a subway system might cost only a little more than a light rail. After the city repealed the voter-approved light rail plan, it promised to have a revised version of the proposal on the ballot by November 2008. But now the subway idea is in the ether and more in-depth analysis is scheduled to begin in January. Depending on the outcome, the light rail initiative planned for the November 2008 ballot may have to be edited.

Meanwhile, in central New York, the small college town of Aurora recently underwent a five-year, $40 million renovation and revitalization effort that restored historic homes and brought new life into a struggling downtown area. This all sounds nice, but it has made many residents of this small town fuming mad. The New York Times reports that residents are saying the renovation effort has turned their town into a dollhouse, with overly cutesy restorations that don’t mesh with the historic character of the town. And the dollhouse comparison is appropriate, at least for the fact that the benefactor responsible for the renovation is the founder of a doll company called American Girl. She is also a graduate of Wells College in Aurora, which called out to her when enrollment started to sag a few years back. After the renovation, enrollment at Wells is back up and the downtown area is thriving. Many other local establishments are also booming, but residents say they are booming in a bad way. The businesses may be successful in their newer, classier forms, but for longtime residents, this renovation has destroyed the small town character of their community.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Is A Subway System Possible In Kansas City?

College's Makeover Of Downtown Leaves Residents Sour

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