This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Main Street Extension Opening

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Yes, Mike was at the opening for the KC Streetcar's Main Street extension.  Not only did he get the audio from the festivities, he got to ride one of the first streetcars on the extension.  And he's here to talk about it.

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Tune in now just waiting Just press play we're on our way Voice a sharp opinion This is a tough one to have tough one to make just because I've been busy with so many other things. But let's go and do this. So as you know, we're fans of the KC Streetcar here on, I'm called for. And we took the opportunity, by we, I mean me, I took the opportunity to go to the opening,

the grand opening of the Main Street extension, which took place in October 2025 and basically tripled the length of the extension. By the time this releases the riverfront extension, which is a lot shorter, should be open as well. But this is what's going to follow this is audio from the grand opening at the mainstream extension. Of course, it goes unfamiliar with the KC. street car. It opened, this current iteration, I know there were street cars prior to the 1950s that's a crisscrossed, and it was one of the larger streetcar networks by the time it was forced out of existence by the car manufacturers and everything. Even had a

inter-city rail system like the string line for example as part of that inner city rail system but it was one of the most extensive in the country again before the car manufacturers came in and ripped it all out and forced everyone to drive cars. Then on comes some guy named Obama and he and his Department of Transportation decided it's a good idea to get rail back into these communities and and Kansas City for the years prior to all this there was an activist named Clytecestain who catch putting rail on the ballot in Kansas City proper and kept failing for one reason.

He actually did get a thing to pass and then the state council said no. But eventually something happened because I think Obama, to judge, a lot of credit for it, because by May 2016, The starter line opens. Starter line is just the downtown portion, so it goes Union Station, Crossroads, Kaufman Center, which also serves as the Crossroads District,

but it's down the street from the actual Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, which you have to go up a freaking hill to get to. Then power and light. If you're watching any of the videos, I did during napot pomo, you know, I had to get on and off at power and light stop because that's the closest to a bottle hall. Then it's a metro center, then library, and just to be clear, folks, the photos you see of the downtown library can see it. That's the parking lot. The actual library is the old bank building across the street.

With the parking lot with all the books and everything in the mall. And we have North Loop, which is the least used stop on that starter line, because it's surrounded by parking lot, literally. And to their credits, the streetcar authority worked out a deal that those parking lots open up on weekends. So you can park there for free on weekends, and Gilmore use of that specific stuff. And then the river market loop.

So it goes city market, then river market north, then river market west, before going back to the Union Station same way, just in reverse. So northward only to Union Station. And this all happens to be mostly on Main Street. The loop goes from Maine to Fifth Street to Grand, and the Grand portion that will come and play for the, riverfront extension as well as sets the track to the depot and it goes third streets back to Delaware and Delaware becomes main after the after the loop so the

main street extension covers the rest of Main Street in the rail and the station orders and we'll start with Union Station going south so after Union Station is now and this is the portion that opened October 2025 so full nine years after the original line went in they were playing that long okay so goes Union Station then World War I Museum and Memorial and is and the audio actually says World War I Museum and Memorial when you're on the streetcar then he goes and And by the way, locals call it the Liberty Memorial, but it is a National World One One Museum as well.

And this is also where you get off to go to the Fed building, you know, where they print money, because it's right there. Then it goes Union Hill. Union Hill is just like a couple blocks from the PBS station, which sits at the base of that Channel 5 tower that gets all lit up and everything. The history on that is a bit long, but basically the PBS station used to be Channel 5's studio before they moved out to Johnson County. But they, but Channel 5 still owns and operates the tower.

So you have the CBF, the CBNs. affiliates has the tower the PBS station has the studio underneath the tower then next is armor which you would think there's not a whole lot there that's interesting it's just a neighborhood but but halfway between Union Hill and armor is Linwood Boulevard where they're working on that east-west extension and at the corner of Main and Linwood is Gates Barbecue. I'm a happy. So armor, and I expect armor to get a lot more use when East West gets done because that is the only

station on the Main Street extension that would possibly have shared platforms with both lines. So then we have Westport would be next and and it's just the northeastern corner of the Westport district. Again, that east-west line I mentioned would service the northern edge of the Westport district and get closer to the heart of Westport than does. And then after Westport is Southmoreland, which would be much like armor another neighborhood type stuff.

There are a couple of small restaurants and everything there is close to a quick trip, is close to the Tollwine warehouse that used to be in Office Depot. I used to clean that Office Depot when I was in college. So I got that and then probably the close. outside of the Riffel Market you'll see stops would be from Southmoreland to art museums. The Arm Museum is here being the Nelson, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Arts, and the KC Arts Institute. And then the big two after that, so you had the plaza, which is a huge platform. Huge platform they could easily, and they demonstrated this at the grand opening, you could

sits two street cars in each direction at this station and you shouldn't have any trouble with it's

in fact it's so it should even put a bus lane in so you can take the bus here to with bus shelters and stuff and it's directly across the street from the plaza

which is well we'll see what happens with that district and then of course the inland line is UMKC, University of Missouri Kansas City and Plaza actually is when

Main Street becomes Brookside Boulevard so it's Brookside for the last two stops but it's all one straight line and everything and UMKC

it's at double-sided center platform at the streetcar can park on either side of the platform so you could walk you get off on one streetcar and then walk across the platform to the other if so inclined and I and everything in name they did a great job revised and that's sort of a sort of a entrance if we will to the campus proper and remember this is where I went to college. The riverfront extension, that is complete, and by the time this releases, it will be open, most likely.

And it's just two stops. It's the river market north. They built a new platform called a river market. And by the way, when you're riding the streetcar, they no longer call it River Market North, and the announcement is now just River Market. Yet the platform still says, River Market North.

So they're going to use that for the southbound traffic. The new platform, which is just River Market, is only for the northbound traffic. North, going across the bridge that goes across the train tracks, into the middle of Riverfront Park to the riverfront stop. So just one small little spur. and they're going to build a I guess they're

now since today Wildernerner Corners they're going to put in a big pavilion on the other side of the stop to welcome people and everything and that's been built up

significantly over the past 10 years because forever that had just been the Riverfront Park so but right now

you see apartments going up that dog bar dog yeah that dog bar that was there I'm going to say it was because unfortunately they have now closed which prompted comrades have the dog takes you back home so that's up the women's soccer stadium is there too and and once again no I don't plan on buying tickets to any games to that team because Brittany Mahomes is one of the owners and I cannot stand her. I'm sorry. So and we now have, you've heard discussions on the podcast and meetings to the fact on the East-West.

That's still very much in the steady phase. I don't miss any construction happening on that until 2029 per day timetable. However, since Donnie is in charge now, and he is quite hostile to transits, especially rail-based transit, like a streetcar, it could be pushed back even further, which is quite unfortunate because that north, that east-west line would be about similar in length to probably, it'd be similar to length. to the Main Street extension. So I'll go and talk about that first. So we got, so it's basically two spurs. One is the 39th Street spur go west. On the 39th Street, starting at Westport.

They build new platforms for that. They have at least four plans for new platforms, three of which involved tearing down a, tearing down a furniture store next to a CVS. And those three also involved tearing out the parking lot for the CPS. Yeah, encourage public transit to the local drugstore. And it would have three more staffs before it's terminus and would basically service the northern part's west porch.

With the terminus being KU Med, So this one would actually cross state line into Kansas for about a couple of blocks. And the last plans I saw, they were looking into the question of whether it should stop at the emergency room exits, which they just finished, or all the way to Rainbow Boulevard, which is a major thoroughfare throughout KCK. The eastern Spargo would go along Linwood Boulevard. So brand new platforms at Mainlandland Wood. And then platforms every couple of blocks. I think it's like Gillum would get one. Then Trusd would get one where it would connect with the Maxbus routes.

I think it's, I'll look this up. I'll look this up. I'm trying to go Shirley Ben-Marie here. So I think it would go Pseo would be nice. then Brooklyn, then prospect, another ex post. I think Indiana would be next that would service Central High School. Then Jackson, I think that meant another neighborhood one. And then Lister or Elmwood, and that would service the VA hospital that's out there.

And the end line would be Van Brunt. When they started this study, it went all the way out to, the ballparks but they but there's really between van brunt's and the ballparks there's nothing really so nothing to justify permanent streetcar infrastructure so they're like okay let's just run a bus out there from this assumes that the chief said they'll hey a new stadium out there for on that site because we all know the royals ain't sticking around there hopefully they'll be downtown at the Union Station stop so in a nutshell that's east-west north rail is still being steady too that's the North KC going over the river Swift Street

Taylor's version I think they just did an advanced study on that and and then they just started the new study on the 18 line line which would be in these which would also be east with us to be east from the starter line, in this case, down between Crossroads and Coffman Center, and it would serve as part of the Crossroads District into the 18th Divine District, which is currently you cannot drive between Woodland and Paseo. You can't drive between Woodland and Pseo. You can't drive on 18th because there they are. That's under construction. They're putting in a pedestrian plaza through that historic district.

And certainly I could see a streetcar service in this. I'm talking too much. So I'm going to pause. We're going to listen to the audio from the streetcar grand opening up to a certain point. I was joined at this thing by the proprietor of the Better Transit KC YouTube page. Really nice guy, and I do plan on having all on the podcast at some point. And we got to write one of the first trip to get together. To his credits, Mr. Healy was at this thing.

To my credit, I didn't try to punch the guy in the face. or talk to him from there but Logan I did see you there so time to put up a shot bow I bet about to again this thing that's to Johnson County and that's

a discussion for another time but let's turn over to the festivities as they took place oh wow who's ready to ride I want to welcome you all diehards out here today.

What a beautiful day to open the Main Street Extension. I'm Tom Garend. I'm the executive director of the Kansas City Street Car Authority, and I want to welcome you to our Main Street Extension grand opening. On time and under budget. I'm really in shock. I can't believe we're finally here. It's been a long time coming.

This is a historic day for Kansas. Kansas City. This is a generational project that's going to reconnect the employment centers of downtown in the plaza through the densest residential neighborhood. Through the heart of Kansas City to our largest university and the University of Missouri, Kansas City. There's no question. This is a monumental milestone. I hope. Yes. Yes. This represents years and literally decades of work by many. and many of you who are here today. So round of applause for all of you.

Thank you for coming out. I was recently asked what two words best describe how we got to this grand opening today. And after a lot of thought, there's a lot of words we could use. My response was one, perseverance and two partnership. Perseverance, you all know this wasn't easy.

Over the decades, we had failed political. We had failed votes. We had political uncertainty. We had naysayers who didn't get the vision for what high-capacity quality public transit could do for our city. We had COVID. We had financial challenges. We had, you know, to find resources for a $352 million project, the largest in our region's history. We had to knock on doors and gather signatures.

Thank you, David Johnson and the RTA. Round of applause for these guys. We had at least five times over the life of the planning, of the fundraising, of the execution, where it wasn't clear if we were going to get this project to the end of the line. That's perseverance. You all believed in what this project could do, you did the hard work, you stayed the course, and we're here today on October 24th of Rio to open this generational project. Of course, perseverance and hard work isn't enough.

It really is about true partnership. And before I pass the torch to our other speakers, I need to say some thanks and acknowledge the partners that came together from the very beginning to make this project happen. No one person, no one entity could do this alone. This was a community effort. Our effort was spearheaded by really four organizations. The streetcar authority, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, you'll hear from in a minute. And the Main Street Rail Transportation Development District and our friends at Ride KC, KC, ATA. So big round of applause to our partners.

For delivering the project on time and under budget. A hat to the city Public Works Department and our construction crews. This stuff is hard, right? This is generational project through the heart of our city. Jason Walden, the Public Works team. Thank you. Round of applause. Our city can do big things, right?

Our city can do big things and we're here today and tell us the doing of big things thanks to their hard work I also want to thank our team at Streetcar Authority and our operations team for 10 years of demonstrating how to do this at the highest level so operators and maintainers our streetcar staff the folks who are delivering this system each and every day you all instill confidence in our city to believe we can extend this beyond downtown it was just work each and every day to demonstrate by the opportunity, the impact, and the benefit that this system could bring, not just downtown, but our entire city. So thank you to you all.

And of course, we need to recognize our federal and state partners. The $352 million project, over $170 million we captured in federal funds. We have some congressional representatives and some champions here today. You'll hear from in a minute. But I want to thank our FTA staff at Region 7, at D.C. sitting in the front of home for being here with us from the very beginning to navigate a challenging federal process to bring resources from Washington to Kansas City. It's not just resulting in projects that are going to be transformational, but jobs and generational impacts and reconnections. They believe in what we're doing, and they've helped us get here. So thank you to FTA, Regents. And the last look, the first look, the very question. not least, I want to thank all of you from downtown to UMKC and beyond throughout the region

who believed that Kansas City deserves the best, right? The best public transit system, the best streetcar system, and you all persevered, the partnerships made this happen, nobody can do it alone, and with that, I'm going to introduce the chairman of the streetcar authority board of directors who helped make some of those hard decisions when it wasn't easy over the course of the last 10 years Michael Collins. Good morning, everyone. Okay, let's try that again. Good morning, everyone.

It's a great day. Morning. Today marks a defining moment for Kansas City, the opening of the Main Street Streetcar expansion. What began as a vision for connected, accessible, and thriving downtown has now become a reality that extends opportunity and connection to even more for our city. First, I want to express my deepest thanks to the Transportation Development District Elective Board members. Your foresight and commitment made this expansion possible.

From the early planning and financing to the steadfast leadership required to see this project through. To my colleagues who are all around here from the Kansas City Streetcar Authority Board of Directors, thank you for your unwavering dedication, partnership, and advocacy. Together we have built more than a transit line. We've built confidence in Kansas City. confidence in Kansas City's ability to deliver complex and transformative infrastructure. I also want to recognize our federal partners, but not just the names of the organizations they represent, but the people that are behind those organizations.

So I thank you for the people from the U.S. Department of Transportation, federal transit administration, and our congressional delegation here today for their belief in Kansas City's future and investing in a model of transit-oriented growth. that's being watched nationwide. And finally, thank you to Mayor Quentin Lucas, the City Council, the entire Kansas City streetcar team, and the countless local businesses, community members and workers who have helped make this day possible.

This expansion is not the end. It is the step. It is the next step in creating a truly connected Kansas City, a city that moves forward together. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. And it is now my honor to introduce friend and district four council

representative Eric Bunch. Eric's been a member of the street car authority board as the mayor's appointee. He's been a petitioner to the district and he's been a long-time advocate of public transit, not just streetcar, but regional public transit that are citizens.

Councilman a bunch? Thank you. Thank you so much. What an incredible day. I wish we had a little bit better weather, but just goes to show how important this is by how many people are here, regardless of the weather. So thank you for bearing with us and enjoying this amazing day. You know, when we imagine this car running down Main Street to the plaza, to UMKC, the leaders of the city weren't just thinking about public transit.

They were thinking about the people that this was going to connect, about the families and students and small business owners who make the neighborhoods of Midtown and downtown in the Plaza vibrant and exciting. And those who believe for years that Midtown specifically deserves better public transit access

and the greater Kansas City deserves better public transit access. This project is a reflection of what happens when a community comes together with a shared vision from neighborhood associations to local businesses to city staff and advocates that I want to put a finer point on advocates. This was a project that would

not have happened but for the tireless efforts of our advocates. So please give a round of applause to all the people who pushed so hard for so many years to make sure that this would happen. This really is a community-driven project, and it's a reminder that when we plan with that community and not just for it, that the results are longer lasting and more impactful. For Midtown, the streetcar access means better access to opportunity, to education. It's worth noting that my kids are here right now, and my twin daughters will be able to ride this streetcar after this event back to school. They are skipping school at the moment.

Sorry, teachers. This was really important stuff, and I think valuable experience for everyone. It means we're creating streets here in Kansas City where people feel safe walking, biking, and waiting for public transit and getting on those public transit vehicles. And I do want to talk, I just want to mention again about how important it is for the youth. I'm a parent of young children and what public transit does, especially something like the streetcar, is it allows our young people of Kansas City to have freedom, to explore their city, to enjoy the things that we all get to enjoy and experience the city in new ways.

And I would say that I think that there's no better indicator species of a vibrant, active community than seeing children on public transit. And so for that, I'm incredibly excited. I hope one day to see dozens of kids from Hyde Park and Valentine and elsewhere riding that streetcar and experiencing that freedom that we all really deserve for us. children. So today as we celebrate this ribbon-cutting or I'm not sure exactly smoke coming out of some smoke cannons or something in the streetcar going ahead on its own and taking people

up to downtown, let's take a moment and thank the neighbors and the advocates who showed up to meetings who circulated petitions, made sure friends who, you know, friends who, who, became notaries so that they could notarize the ballots of our neighbors. I mean, I see so many of my own neighbors here in the crowd who did so much to make this a reality. They pushed us to do better. They pushed us to make sure that this was

not just a streetcar investment, but that it was something that invested in our streets to make them safer and more walkable. And those who never gave up on the idea that Midtown deserves world-class transit. So again, this streetcar isn't just connecting destinations, it's connecting people. And that's what makes us such an incredibly proud day for Kansas Cityans. So thank you very much for being here with us today.

Next stop by, I would like to welcome our city manager, Mario Vasquez. We've asked a lot from the city, from mentioned public works and their leadership. The Tammy Queen and the finance department wouldn't happen without the buy-in of our city leaders. not just at the elected official level, but through the city manager's office. So, Mario. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's grand opening of this streetcar. It's a great day, but it's still a beautiful day for Kansas City, so I think we shall be proud of being here today.

I'm going to go a little nostalgic here and say that I came here to Kansas City 28 years ago, and I was looking for experience. And what I found in Kansas City's opportunity, and I think over time, many people took advantage and found a way to make the most out of the opportunity. And since my time here, we've reinvested in 18th and Vine. We rebuilt Union Station. We built the Paranian Light District. We built T-Mobile Arena. We actually re-invigrated the Crossroads District into the eclectic and artistic district that it is today.

We opened up Liberty Memorial. We built the World War I Museum. We've been doing a lot of work in the riverfront. We opened the Casey Kern Stadium. The neighborhood over there is just incredible today. And we're not done, right? We are hoping to next re-embarate the plaza, re-imagining what it needs to be,

is the future in center of Kansas City. And beyond that, you know, we still have a baseball team to bring downtown. So we're gonna do that too. So all of these things are, got to get stitched together by this streetcar. This unique and transformative investment that is going to really make Kansas City what Mayor Kay Barnes was once imagined as the core and the heart of the metropolitan region. The concept of the River Crown Plaza is alive today,

and actually some of these routes go back to her and her ideas about how to bring back Kansas City to what it is today. I want to spend some time thinking really, really my predecessors, I'm a Johnny Cum Laelie as he comes to the street car. Other city managers did a lot more work than I did. Troy Schulte, Brian Platt. I want to thank them for the leadership and vision and really the leadership they provided to our team. I want to thank my staff, the Public Works Department in particular in the leadership of Jason Waldrum and Director Michael Shaw.

They spent countless hours making sure that this project is executed correctly and with much attention to the needs of the community. I want to thank the neighbors and the business community along Main Street. I know this has been a long run, but without your support and without your patience, this is not possible. So again, I am looking forward to what the streetcar is going to do for Kansas City. I've seen a lot of transformation in my career. There's much more to come. So thank you. Thank you, Mario. This was always designed to be the spine of a regional system and it's really with great pleasure that we have the congresswoman from the Kansas third district here today Sharis david's to talk a little bit what this project

canes to give the city of good morning thank you guys for being here in this beautiful weather but really for an amazing an amazing event and I would like to particular say thank you for, I thought I had to speak after Emmanuel Cleaver, so thank you for not making me do that. The Wormap Act. I just, before I get into my prepared remarks, can I just, I'm going to take a point of privilege here and say thank you to our federal, our federal employees, our federal civil servants and all of the people who literally are showing up to work every single day in service of the American people and are not getting paid.

My mom was in the military for 20 years and then was at the Postal Service for 20 years. and like so many of our federal civil servants, missing a paycheck is very real and has very real consequences. And I can tell you that Congressman Cleaver and I have been going out to D.C. and trying to push for us to get this thing back open. So I just want to say thank you to our federal civil servants, our active duty service members. Thank you, everyone. It's an exciting day to be here.

For folks I haven't met, I'm Sheree Davids. I represent Kansas' third district in Congress. And to put it very simply, I am a huge infrastructure nerd. I love seeing projects like this come to life because we're not just talking about moving people. We're talking about moving communities forward. We've heard a bit about that already. And as you've heard today, this expanded streetcar is going to connect River Market all the way down to UMKC, where I happen to have graduated from. And I do have to say as a former UMKC student, I absolutely would have loved jumping on this thing, going from Broadway Cafe down to class. When I was walking a class and getting where I needed to go, I can tell you this would have made life so much easier. Passengers are going to be able to ride for free, and it's just going to make life a bit easier for folks to get to jobs, to get to school, to get to the local businesses that, as we already heard, have been great partners during all of this.

You know, Ride KC put out this report that since 2016, the streetcar has already provided 15 million rides. And that, I mean, 15 million rides, that's like pretty amazing already. And, you know, this is, again, I know I'm an infrastructure nerd. It's absolutely about the infrastructure of it all. But the infrastructure is what provides those opportunities for our small businesses to boost our local economy to create jobs and to connect people. And I can tell you right now, we need to be connected to each other more than ever. We need to be, we need to be getting people in community and having conversations with each other. And this is going to be one of the tools to make that

happen. And for all of us pragmatic Midwesterners, this project came in $7 million under budget. Now, if you guys could come help me. And again, this is a major partnership. This required local partners. It required federal investments, and those did happen on a bipartisan basis. We passed the bipartisan infrastructure law. I was absolutely proud to support that. I mean, I'm just going to say this.

I was proud to be the only person in the Kansas delegation to vote for this, because these are the kinds of projects that we're going to get to see for us. We're also going to continue to see the more than 370 projects that have shovels in the ground, everything from replacing lead pipes to modernizing U.S. 69 and rebuilding bridges throughout the KC. Metro area. And today is proof that when we invest in communities, those benefits of that are absolutely tangible. They're lasting.

They're concrete. see what I did this literally concrete so to everyone who worked on this project thank you so much to everyone who is going to be jumping on the street car and getting where you need to go

thank you for being part of that our planners our construction crews I know I saw some folks over here the folks who are getting us where we need to go and making sure that we're safe as we get there the street car is

It's just exciting. It's a path to opportunity connection and growth and I appreciate getting the chance to do something where we get to celebrate the work of the people of this community. So I'm going to stop there. Thank you so much. Thank you, Congresswoman, I now am proud to introduce our representative from Missouri's 5th District, Congressman of Angel Cleek. The Army had just suffered three devastating defeats in New York. Way back to Pennsylvania. Thomas Payne, Anthony called the American Crisis Cities. He wrote each month.

He wrote some words that we still remember. These are the times that try men and so. So these are the times, try men's souls and women's souls. And I could stand here and paint a picture. It could be placed in a horror gap gallery on how difficult these times are. But there is, even in the midst of ugliness, some joy. And those of us who are fortunate to live in this community, we can experience joy

with the understanding that none of this would happen without some cooperation. Cooperation from the federal government and the municipal governments and the county governments and the ATAs and the corporate community doing something today

that probably no other city is doing on this continent. We're celebrating a big success because we work together and when people talk to me about Kansas City I said you go to the Chiefs games most people don't want to admit it because they're secret fans

of the Chiefs even if they live in Buffalo but I tell them watch the machine work together. Go to Arrowhead, watch the machine work together and this community is a machine that works together

And we ought to be proud of what these folks have done. Now, on this final statement about cooperation, I was downtown in the downtown area, not too far from Crown Center, with one of my family members had come here. And a couple of businessmen were standing outside, and I waited at them, and they'd beck me to come across the street, which I did.

And they said, Congressman, this is a mess. We can't get into our stores. We can't do it. Everything is bad. It's horrible. And I said, Slat James and

when Lucas's phone numbers, we'll call cooperation. Thank you, that's a great segue, actually. To the man you need to know introduction. Our mayor,

How's everybody doing today? Y'all should be even happier. I'm your last speaker, and we're going to start riding this train soon. First of all, I want to talk about how proud I am today of so many things around us. I am proud to have Emmanuel Cleaver as our congressman today, tomorrow, two years from now. We are proud to have you with us. I am proud to have a good friend like Congresswoman Cherise Davis. Y'all may not know this, but Cherise and I went to law school together.

And shortly after she finished law school, we had a coffee in the crossroads area talking about settling in Kansas City. This was probably 2010 or early 2011. And it would be hard to imagine all the improvements and all the progress we would see. But thanks to some outstanding people we have been able to see these differences. In early 2011, the people of Kansas City had the wisdom to elect Sly James as mayor. And Mayor James was a visionary. Working with a number of folks, he said this streetcar system could be a game changer not just for transit, not just for economic development, but for the future of Kansas City.

It's all. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give flowers to slide James, everyone who work with them as we built up to speak. I am proud and the city manager already noted of the visions that we have seen for even a generation of Kansas citizens. As was noted, Mayor Barnes saw that we needed to be connected more fully. During Mayor Cleaver's tenure, we saw we needed to renovate important sites like Union Station and the Liberty Memorial. And as we say we are not done yet, we need to make sure that the story of street cars, something that the Mayor James tried before, is something that we continue. We bridge important divides. East West across truce, east west across state lines, and more than anything, working each day to connect our entire community. So what I encourage all of us to do today is certainly celebrate what we have been able to do, but also to recognize.

recognize the work ahead. In that work ahead, we want to make sure that we acknowledge all of those who've had a key role within it. He's not with us today, but Congressman Sam Graves of Northwest Missouri has done outstanding work making sure we could have the support we needed. Everyone on this platform party has played a key role, and many of you, not just out watching here, but watching on television and beyond, have been believers in the future of public transit for Kansas City. So earlier, we got to hear from the children and hello again to all of you. I get to have my son with us today. My four-year-old son gets a chance to know in Kansas City with this great fixed connection throughout our community.

We get to build it for so many more and we get to say that Kansas City truly is a city that cares about its history, has reclaimed legacy areas like the Riverfront Union Station, downtown the plaza, and more. But more than anything, Kansas City is committed to connecting people for generations ahead. So thank you to everybody who has been part of this. And let me just say this before I go. We have been through pandemics. We've been through a lot of different interesting presidential elections.

Mayoral, once so many others. But there's somebody I always call, and he is smiling at me. And that's Tom Garrett, the happiest man on the face of the earth. And I said, time and again, Tom, what are we going to do? and Tom says we'll be all right I said Tom I don't know if we'll find money we'll be all right Tom we need a hundred million dollars from somebody

he says we'll find a way Tom has gone to Jefferson City Washington Topeka City Hall like every day he is working his tail off and today is a sign not just of him but of his staff and everyone's been a part of it so make some noise for everybody

who has worked to make this happen you got to sit down Kansas City are you ready to ride City, are you red-flip the switch with the room and ride the Kansas City street car? Thank you, someone. There's some of the thoughts here. Shortly after this, they did a ceremonial switch that opened the streetcar. They had four streetcars, parts, at the Plaza stop,

and probably a couple more at EOKC to handle everyone wanting to ride. So myself, along with the proprietor for Paratransits KC on Facebook, we got one of the Northbound streetcars and towards the starter line and we rode the whole line. This is where things get really interesting because that's Union Station when old meets new. We get announcements. But yeah, we might... We're experiencing a blockage on the track. We'll be... Well, some of the things have.

Well, some of the things had translated eventually to stopping full stop at the library stop. Because on the self-bound tracks, there was a streetcar that broke down. And we got to see the whole process and everything said, he had to bring in another street car. To tow this thing back to the depot.

And that took a good long while. We were sitting there for almost an hour, it seems like, waiting for this to clear out. But, you know, it was cool. And when service resumed, yeah, we made the ad loop. And, yeah, on the streetcar announcement itself, River Market North is now River Markets

despite it's saying River Market North on the actual platform. River Market North is the existing platform and in the loop and we'll handle this southbound traffic once the riverfront extension opens and the northbound the new platform is just River Market.

So I think it would behoove the Street Guard authority to just be a little consistent with everything and just rename that platform River Market. Otherwise, we have a Manu-Mintz-Bunk situation

going on there. This would probably go over ahead as a trouble nerd, as a transit nerd, but in the London Underground system, there are two stations, bank and monuments.

They're basically one big station together so depends on which lines they handle it it's the the cut-cover lines like the circle district i think i think those are two lines that service that station that's a monument and it's all the other stuff like waterland city um and it is the term is for the Waterland City, its term is for the dock on site rail. I think it's the central and northern lines run through the two and it's a bank. So I think you're agreeing that sort of a situation there on the at the referr market. And I made me wonder what will happen when East West finally does come about. And we see different names on the platforms at Westport.

But it's pretty cool when we got to River Market Hearing that's a and I said this is a streetcar to plaza and UMKC But that is awesome and then hearing the names of the new stops being the route off So that that was quite satisfying everything and again by the time this comes out that that river front extension should be open. They've done a lot of cool things to that park. And before I wrap things up, just a couple of notes on the speakers.

We start with Tom Garrence, who opens the presentation. He is the executive director of the KC Streetcar Authority. Good guy. I met him at a open house for the riverfront extension in person. Great guy.

And I told him my thoughts. I think a could we get a streetcar out to the Johnson County and some more and he said a couple of things one it depends on this main street extension that we're talking about because such a line would have to spur off from the plaza stuff and certainly that's up is large enough it could buy it could handle it and and for me once again these are my thoughts on a John's County line you'd have the connection line spurring from the plaza through the plaza through the actual plaza right down the 47th streets before turning into war parkway and gone where it becomes war parkway into shunning mission parkway into Johnson Drive and stopping at the mission transit center which is a generous way of saying massive bus stop in this particular case. If the name Transit Center appears,

it really should have all modes of transit, not just buses. And then from there, two lines. And Metcalf line, because Metcalf is basically, for those of you're not familiar with Johnson County, Ovalon Park. Metcalf Avenue, US 169, True. is also the de facto main streets of Johnson County. So I have a line on Metcalfe. And it would probably behoove them to do a spur of that Metcalfe line to service

on Nexas City Center down the Santa Fe, the 8th 7th Street. The other line is the Equivera line, so just continue to. down either Sherman's Parkway or Johnson Drive to Cuvera and service the following insights. Oak Park Mall, Johnson County Community College, KU Edwards Campus, Minimum. But what was interesting in my discussion with Tom and others at that function, they had expressed interest in finding ways to connect. Gardner. Gardner is the Southwestern corner of Johnson County along with Hedgton and quite a ways out from what we're talking about so we're really getting into possibly commuter rail at that

point I certainly think streetcar should service Maccaf and Quivera and and yeah we do need to talk about to get some commuter rail in this area too especially considering the lack of the total lack of rail being discussed on that green corridor I don't think buses are the way to come it's I think it should be some form of rail

in that green corridor it's basically State Avenue on the Kansas side, Independence Avenue on the Missouri side yeah just maybe that's a commuter rail situation a commuter rail situation certainly to the

airport and then got to get commuterated to the other far out suburbs like independence blue springs a summit liberty smithville i'm going bolton boutson grandview um stanley finally fire springs edwardsville uh plat city platt city would be right next to the airports you know things to think about. So that's Tom Garron. Cherise, Shrease David's,

my current congresswoman. I had met, I talked about it briefly, but not in the whole lot of detail, but Sheree's I first met through the Lee woman voters when I was still doing a video for them. We actually sat on a committee

talking about media awareness. Can you tell what's fake and what isn't? She and I were both on the committee.

This was about the time she first decided to run for Congress 2017-2018 time frame. And during this time frame, she also came to a podcaster's meetup

and learned about her entrepreneurship podcast called Starty Fans, which you can still find on YouTube. and do highly recommend. It's about entrepreneurship, particularly entrepreneurship in minority communities.

Remember, this woman is Native American. And it was the first time I, and this was actually the first time I'd seen Cherise since before. She was in the middle of her first congressional run. Last time I saw her in person. And so you've forgotten who I was. And I reminds her. So it was 2018, so I, so I completely understand.

I forgot who I was. So, so, no question about that. And Cleaver, first of all, his name is on the cross street, Cleaver 2 Boulevard. And Clever 2 Boulevard in Brookside, that's the plaza stop. former mayor of Kansas City before is now two two plus decades in Congress. And he actually spoke at my commencement from UMKC.

So I thought that'd be a pretty cool detail to end on some of those other speakers. Will Bunch, I think was, yeah, he's big on the, on transit. So I think he's the big transit guy in the, in Kansas City government right now. So great to have him in office right now. And, of course, shot to Mayor Lucas as well. He did. He's been doing a great job with the city and helping get this expanded. But, of course, credits to Sylvester James, the mayor before him.

for getting this thing started in the first place. And, of course, more credit to Kay Barnes, who was mayor, when I went to a UMKC and got interested in downtown revitalization, because that was a big thing even then. No streetcar, no P&L district. Granted, I do have my issues with P&L district. There was literally nothing there in the other part of the 2000s. She helped kickstarts every single.

everything that we've seen up to today in Kansas City and she does her hell of a lot of credit. And again, by the time this comes out, the riverfront extension should be open. And yeah, I'm looking forward to riding it and being at that opening ceremony. And I'm looking forward to getting Better Transit at KC on the podcast too. Yeah, fun times to be a Kansas City. And with that, I'm going to close. And thank you all for listening, and we will talk soon. From Union Station to crossroads, we ride along the line through the heart of Kansas City, where the lights always shine.

Kaufman Center and Power and Light, where the city comes alive, metro center and library. where the stories thrive on the KC street car where the city beats like a drum from North Loop to City Market we're always on the run River Market and River Market West where the history is told World War I Museum and Memorial where the heroes still hold Union Hill and Armor through escorts live they see scene. Southmore into the art museums where culture ain't supreme. To the plaza and you and KC, where knowledge takes its stand, and the riverfront where the city meets the river's grand. On the KC street car, every stop's a part of home, connecting us together

where the heart of KC roams. Through the neighborhood. and history our journeys never blend on the KC street car riding hand in hand on the KC street car where the city beats like a drum from north route to city market we're always on the run river market and river market west where the history is told World War I Museum and the memorial where the hero is still hold. So let's ride the Casey Street car through every twist and bend. From Union Station to the riverfront together till the end.

In this city of dreams, where our stories intertwine. On the Casey Street car, where Kansas City shines. So let's ride the Casey Street car through every twist and bend. Bend from Union Station to the riverfront together till the end in this city of dreams where our stories intertwined on the KC street car where Kansas city shines where Kansas City shines. This podcast is Uncalled for is hosted, produced, and edited by myself, Mike Chernepski. Our opening music is the, this podcast is uncalled for a theme, created at suno.com, suno.com. And the outro music is the K-C-S-T-C-S-R-S-C-R-S-C-R song, also produced at Suno.com, S-U-N-O- dot com.

Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive Uncalled-for merchandise, T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. Go to www.comfacepress.com slash uncalled for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time.