So the Pitch reports that the KCMO city council has voted to spend $500,000 to fund a study as to the viability/need for a "convention" hotel.
Apparently the answer to having too many vacant hotel rooms is to build more hotel rooms.
David Martin articulates this far better and more factually than I ever could, but I have to ask:
WTF are you thinking?
You are borderline BANKRUPT as a city, slashing jobs by the hundreds, and you do not have emergency provisions for the economic disaster that is the Power & Light district written into next year's budget.
And you're going to spend half a mil for someone to tell you what you want to hear--that you need a 1,055 room hotel or else the Unified Funeral Directors of America are taking their caskets to Jacksonville? Because you ALREADY KNOW that's what they're going to say!
And once you get this news, how exactly are you going to try to fund this hotel? You're broke. You have nothing left to tax.
Learn from your mistakes for once. Hell, do something--ANYTHING--right for once.
Showing posts with label civics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civics. Show all posts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Civic Duty: A Retrospective
First off, sorry about jinxing the weather. Yeah…my bad.
Despite an all-day (albeit fragmented) stay at the courthouse, I was not selected to be on the jury of the aggravated assault domestic violence case to which I was assigned. As the attorneys gave their final list of jurors to the judge “privately”, I heard the judge whisper my last name. The attorneys both agreed on the reason I was not selected, but I could not hear what they said since their backs were to me.
As you may guess, I’d like to possess that info. I can only guess it has something to do with my demographic status as a white male engineer, exacerbated by the fact that I disclosed I had been part of a hung jury. (Heh.)
The odds weren’t so great for me being excused. Of the original pool of 40 potential jurors, six were excused early on for various reasons. This is pretty interesting:
-One woman had an ongoing medical condition that would have made it really difficult to sit for 90 minutes at a time. Fair enough.
-One woman simply raised her hand for every question the attorneys asked. “Do you know anyone who has been a victim of domestic violence?” Yes, apparently 296 people in her family have been victims. “Would serving today and tomorrow cause a hardship for anyone?” Yes, apparently she has a car in the shop and a husband who needs a ride to work and a sick grandkid and a daughter who just moved back in…. “Do you know anyone involved in the case?” Apparently she’s heard of the district attorney, who isn’t involved in the case, but that should count, right? Point being, she was obviously trying to go home, and she was wasting everyone’s time, and she was visibly rolling her eyes and saying things under her breath…just kick her ass out. Give her what she wants. They finally did.
-One woman said she was a victim of prolonged domestic violence, but as a Hispanic woman (the defendant was also Hispanic) she was part of a different culture, was brought up a different way, and couldn’t really be impartial. Say what you will, but I lived in that culture for a while, and what she says is valid. I understand.
-One woman…well, she survived some horrible things. Dismissed without objection.
-One guy knew the alleged victim. Obvious dismissal.
-Finally, when the defense attorney asked if anyone would have a problem being impartial because the defendant was Hispanic, a guy in his mid-20s, a Carhartt jacket, a buzzcut, and a mustache raised his hand. “I’m just a boy from the South,” he said. The defense attorney (a black guy) said, “Then may I infer that you would not only have a bias against my client, but also against the black man who is serving as his counsel?” “Yep.” Gone. Whether he meant it or not, he had huge balls for saying that in front of a bunch of strangers that was about 60% black. Most glaringly, as I looked out at their faces, it barely fazed any of them.
Anyway, I could have been involved in this:
WYANDOTTE COUNTY Gossip Inn trial begins
Testimony began Monday in the trial of Brandon S. Hulett, who is accused of shooting Gossip Inn bartender Lori Reynolds to death.
Hulett is charged with first-degree murder in the April 19 shooting. Authorities allege he fired several shots throughout the bar and aimed directly at Reynolds, 44. Several bar patrons who witnessed the shooting are expected to testify.
Despite an all-day (albeit fragmented) stay at the courthouse, I was not selected to be on the jury of the aggravated assault domestic violence case to which I was assigned. As the attorneys gave their final list of jurors to the judge “privately”, I heard the judge whisper my last name. The attorneys both agreed on the reason I was not selected, but I could not hear what they said since their backs were to me.
As you may guess, I’d like to possess that info. I can only guess it has something to do with my demographic status as a white male engineer, exacerbated by the fact that I disclosed I had been part of a hung jury. (Heh.)
The odds weren’t so great for me being excused. Of the original pool of 40 potential jurors, six were excused early on for various reasons. This is pretty interesting:
-One woman had an ongoing medical condition that would have made it really difficult to sit for 90 minutes at a time. Fair enough.
-One woman simply raised her hand for every question the attorneys asked. “Do you know anyone who has been a victim of domestic violence?” Yes, apparently 296 people in her family have been victims. “Would serving today and tomorrow cause a hardship for anyone?” Yes, apparently she has a car in the shop and a husband who needs a ride to work and a sick grandkid and a daughter who just moved back in…. “Do you know anyone involved in the case?” Apparently she’s heard of the district attorney, who isn’t involved in the case, but that should count, right? Point being, she was obviously trying to go home, and she was wasting everyone’s time, and she was visibly rolling her eyes and saying things under her breath…just kick her ass out. Give her what she wants. They finally did.
-One woman said she was a victim of prolonged domestic violence, but as a Hispanic woman (the defendant was also Hispanic) she was part of a different culture, was brought up a different way, and couldn’t really be impartial. Say what you will, but I lived in that culture for a while, and what she says is valid. I understand.
-One woman…well, she survived some horrible things. Dismissed without objection.
-One guy knew the alleged victim. Obvious dismissal.
-Finally, when the defense attorney asked if anyone would have a problem being impartial because the defendant was Hispanic, a guy in his mid-20s, a Carhartt jacket, a buzzcut, and a mustache raised his hand. “I’m just a boy from the South,” he said. The defense attorney (a black guy) said, “Then may I infer that you would not only have a bias against my client, but also against the black man who is serving as his counsel?” “Yep.” Gone. Whether he meant it or not, he had huge balls for saying that in front of a bunch of strangers that was about 60% black. Most glaringly, as I looked out at their faces, it barely fazed any of them.
Anyway, I could have been involved in this:
WYANDOTTE COUNTY Gossip Inn trial begins
Testimony began Monday in the trial of Brandon S. Hulett, who is accused of shooting Gossip Inn bartender Lori Reynolds to death.
Hulett is charged with first-degree murder in the April 19 shooting. Authorities allege he fired several shots throughout the bar and aimed directly at Reynolds, 44. Several bar patrons who witnessed the shooting are expected to testify.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Civic Duty
I have jury duty Monday.
Yeah, it’s one of the downsides to living in the ‘Dotte. Shockingly, we have a few more trials than, say, our neighbors to the south. We also have about 1/3 as many people, so…you do the math.
This, I believe, is the 6th time I’ve received a summons. Two of those don’t really count—my group wasn’t needed those particular weeks, which means I got another summons to appear two weeks later.
Of the three “legitimate” summonseseses, two went like this:
Show up.
Sit around for 45 minutes until all the stragglers show up.
Get a speech from the jury clerk about how important jury service is.
Report to a courtroom.
Sit around for 30 minutes until the judge shows up.
Take a break.
Get a speech from the judge about how important jury service is.
Sit around for 30 minutes until the lawyers and defendant show up.
Answer questions about whether you know anyone involved in the trial, whether you’re biased in any way, etc. (This is where people claim they would answer outlandishly to get out of serving. I’ve never seen that happen. I would pay to see that happen.)
Watch the attorneys scratch off names one by one until they have their 13 jurors.
Go home at noon.
The other time went similarly, except the part about going home at noon.
I got selected.
For a week, I listened to testimony in a 2nd-degree murder/aggravated assault trial. I saw the victim’s family in tears, listened to the racist neighbors’ eyewitness accounts, and argued with two jurors whose rationale for the defendant’s guilt was, “I don’t know if he did this, but I know he did something.”
Seriously.
I can only hope for something that interesting to happen again. It was truly one of the most enlightening things I’ve ever experienced.
Then again, I certainly wouldn’t mind calling at 5pm today and finding out I’ve been excused. That would work too.
Yeah, it’s one of the downsides to living in the ‘Dotte. Shockingly, we have a few more trials than, say, our neighbors to the south. We also have about 1/3 as many people, so…you do the math.
This, I believe, is the 6th time I’ve received a summons. Two of those don’t really count—my group wasn’t needed those particular weeks, which means I got another summons to appear two weeks later.
Of the three “legitimate” summonseseses, two went like this:
Show up.
Sit around for 45 minutes until all the stragglers show up.
Get a speech from the jury clerk about how important jury service is.
Report to a courtroom.
Sit around for 30 minutes until the judge shows up.
Take a break.
Get a speech from the judge about how important jury service is.
Sit around for 30 minutes until the lawyers and defendant show up.
Answer questions about whether you know anyone involved in the trial, whether you’re biased in any way, etc. (This is where people claim they would answer outlandishly to get out of serving. I’ve never seen that happen. I would pay to see that happen.)
Watch the attorneys scratch off names one by one until they have their 13 jurors.
Go home at noon.
The other time went similarly, except the part about going home at noon.
I got selected.
For a week, I listened to testimony in a 2nd-degree murder/aggravated assault trial. I saw the victim’s family in tears, listened to the racist neighbors’ eyewitness accounts, and argued with two jurors whose rationale for the defendant’s guilt was, “I don’t know if he did this, but I know he did something.”
Seriously.
I can only hope for something that interesting to happen again. It was truly one of the most enlightening things I’ve ever experienced.
Then again, I certainly wouldn’t mind calling at 5pm today and finding out I’ve been excused. That would work too.
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