Safety alert! Westport now charging $5 for covered parking, hiring attendants--and more guards!

This just in: the REAL news is Westport is so unsafe the merchants have panicked to keep the law abiding customers more safe from crazed druggies and drunks and Bernie Sanders voters out to wreak havoc.

Their FAKE news story is: Whoa, Yea, "We're finding better, safer ways to park your automobile."

Will this hooped bonnet be too tall for me to park my wagon
 in the CharBar covered, well-lit guarded lot in Westport?
 And does it make my white ass look like a big ole target??

I got the flier last night at the awesome movie theatre, The Tivoli.
Starting June 16, parking in the covered lot by the CharBar, which serves the Tivoli and a health club, on Friday and Saturday nights, parking is $5--in advance!

(No more broken toll gates from drunks bursting out of the lot late at night like the James Gang or Johnny Lazio at the Union Station Massacre.)  At $100 per broken gate, the cost for GateGate was prohibitive.)

And the good news for me is, with a stamp at the Tivoli boxoffice when I purchase my movie ticket, the parking attendant will then REFUND my PREPAID $5
IF AND WHEN 
I safely EXIT the covered AND NOW PATROLLED parking lot.

That is generous, and I appreciate it.  Jerry Herrington at the Tivoli runs by far the best art house movie theatre in the metro.  Tho I am also partial to Brian Mossman at Glenwood Arts and the Rio, home to my favorite film festival KIFF, Nov 3-9.

As to the FAKE NEWS flier announcing the parking fees:
Put out by what is now called the Westport REGIONAL Business League, aka westportkcmo.com.
(Are they part of NATO?  Not sure.  Must ask Lecron or Angela Merkel, I guess.)

The flier sweetly recalls Westport's origins showing a covered wagon.  Claiming a shortage of parking because--oh brother this is a stretch--"Westport's street grid and its buildings were made for wagons and walkers--not cars."

Go find Daniel Boone or Jim Bridger or anyone still inside Kelly's who hasn't left that bar since 1833.  Buy 'em a drink if they say that's why Westport needs armed guards and paid parking.

It's BULLSHIT PR.  The reason Westport merchants need armed guards and more lighting and parking lot attendants in bulletproof vests is CRIME.  Wilding.  Gangs of Angry Yutes who don't want to shoot hoops with Sly James, but prefer to menace dating couples out for a Friday or Saturday night date.  Same as the Country Club Plaza.

The supporting false claim in the flier is:
40% of Westport's patrons use taxis or Uber to get to their favorite establishment in Old Westport.

?????Prove it.
If you believe this statistic, you believe Donald Trump's inaugural crowd was the biggest ever.
And KC has 25 million tourists a year.
And 5,000 people a day ride the Toy Train, 
and would like to maraud their merry way to Westport and Main by voting this summer for ToyTrainII, and marching drunk and en masse down Westport Road until ToyTrain III builds another extension line.

(And just for the record, isn't OLD Westport that aging strip center half a mile west, at the Southwest Trafficway with the covered wagon? And a drive thru coffee shop?  Obviously the Westport "Regional" Business "League" hired a copy writer who is not from here.  Perhaps they're "regional".)

Question: Did Uber pay to be in this flier?  Ask Julian Assange.  Or Chelsea Manning.  They have all the facts.

Be safe out there.  KCMO is a summer war zone.

Trolley Army pisses off God's People! CHURCHES AND NON-PROFITS ARE BEST HOPE FOR DEFEATING TOY TRAIN EXTENSION! Priesthood joins high hurdles race; educating parishioners to qualify to defeat Streetcar Extension!

Hooray for Visitation Parish at 53rd and Main--Sunday they legally "educated and informed" their congregation that if the Toy Train/Streetcar is extended to 53rd St, their church will be ASSESSED hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most folks know churches and non-profits pay no property taxes.  But the streetcar issue is different.  They will be charged, every year, a "SPECIAL ASSESSMENT".  (See related story on Tonyskansascity.com, RH column--the video that another church, Redemptorist, made--their assessment just counting the first 10 years--would be $108,000!)

Sneaky Mayor Sly James has erected a three-hurdle tax grab special election for the Trolley Expansion.
It will punish non-profits and churches and shoppers and citizens for decades...unless they vote no this summer.

This election is despicable.  Tuesday May 23 at 5pm is the last day to file forms, in person now, not by mail--just to be allowed to CAST a ballot!  And that ballot will need to be notarized, because it's not gonna be sent from the KC Election Board--they're only involved in counting the results.

This oddball secretive election is like a Yale fraternity initiation, eg Skull and Crossbones.
The only other time the 16th Circuit Court ran such an election was five years ago--and that was for Streetcar district 1--the river to Union Station.  The election is controlled by Missouri Statute 233.  It was strictly cloak and dagger--a behind the scenes deal rigged in the Missouri Legislature, to allow special TDD's, Transportation Development Districts to be voted on by a ridiculously small narrow district.  Why????

FOLLOW THE MONEY--AND THE POWER GRAB 
Because Mayor Sly James and his cabal of sycophants including Steve Glorioso, and greedy merchants at certain streetcar intersections, hoping to raise their traffic counts and thus the value of their land, knew that a true city wide public vote would never pass.

CFRG, and my hero, "Watchdog" Phillip Klein, are working hard to defeat it.  I hope they are allowed by in-house legal counsel Scott Brinkman (816/881-3652) to buy the mailing list of the measly 3600 plus citizens who made it through the first hurdle.  But, again, this is not an election being run by the election Board.  According to the very pleasant and perky Janelle Jennings-Drummond, the circuit court's Coordinator of Special Projects, "access to a mailing list has not been absolutely determined yet."  (Scott Brinkman has failed to return my calls.)

So rigged is this state-mandated election procedure, if a voter forgot to sign their application for a ballot, or failed to include proof of being registered, the statute makes NO provision for Janelle to phone the voter and remedy the problem.  You just will never be mailed a ballot on June 20th.  Clearly, Sly James is hoping only YES voters are smart enough and greedy enough to clear the hurdles.

This sneaky Streetcar Extension ballot is voter suppression of the highest order.  Shame on Mayor Sly James.  This needs to be defeated!

The BEST way to defeat the Streetcar Expansion is for the churches and non-profits to fight it.
They are all along the narrow district a few blocks either side of Main Street, from the river to 53rd St, State Line to Campbell--to RISE UP!  Under current law, until Trump relaxes lobbying rules, churches cannot lobby.  They cannot say "Vote NO".  But they are legally allowed to "educate and inform".

So, pray for the churches to do just that.

The Streetcar issue will
1.  raise personal property taxes,
2.  AND assess churches and non-profits
3.  AND raise sales taxes for all businesses in the district...a high as 12%!

4.  And the Clockwork Orange factor that relates directly to further enabling KCMO's huge crime problem--
a longer trolley line will enable marauding bands of armed hoodrats to travel-- quickly, unmonitored and for free--from their current lair, the Power and Light District, down to the Plaza and out past Visitation Parish to UMKC.   

Meanwhile, if you're not absolutely positive your ballot request was done properly, it's up to YOU, before 5pm Tues. May 23 (no postmarks, must be received today), to track it down:
Janelle Jennings-Drummond,
Coordinator for Special Projects
KC Circuit Court
415 E. 12th St --(inside the County Courthouse)
3rd floor, #303
816/881-6671 

Update on free tickets: If you missed Rush BrothersMovie at KIFF Film Festival, Glenwood Arts/Ranchmart, come Tuesday 5pm:see the Best Doc and Best Narrative. Enter to win free tix to those.

Impt note:
As Tony says, sometimes Blogger does a hiccup.  So I didn't receive the free ticket request for The Rush Brothers Movie until 10 minutes before the Sat. night show.  And you are probably already there! so: "Pat", I left you a VM--and if you call me Sunday, I will get you two free tickets to ANY OTHER FILM--so sorry!  Select whatever you like--www.kansasfilm.com.

One suggestion is the 5pm shows on Tuesday--based on the Jury Awards this Sunday am at 11--for the best of the best.
5:05 will be Best Documentary (and who know, maybe Rush Brothers will win!!
or--
5:10pm will be Best Narrative.

Personally in that category I hope "Train Station" wins.  I saw it today, and it's amazing.
40 directors from 25 countries spent 3 years making (and financing) their own scenes.
Three of the directors flew in to KC for the week, including one from Dubai!!!

Director Kevin Rumley told me tonight, at the festival party near the sponsoring 816 Hotel, "None of the 40 filmmakers ever met the others.  We only wrote and produced this whole film using email on scripts, etc. And when any director dropped out, after the arduous 3 year process, we just had to pick up the slack, or re-shoot a few scenes, even if the actors had grown beards or moved across the world.   But meeting here today in Kansas City, now we are brothers."

Train Station is about the power of every choice we make, how it changes the trajectory of the rest of our lives.  So in Train Station, every time there is a "choice point" new actors take over for about five minutes.  It's WILD!  Here's a hint to watching it: The protagonist always wears brown, and carries a suitcase, but the actors and actresses change!

If you loved the 1991 movie, "Defending Your Life" with Meryl Streep and Rip Torn and Albert Brooks, you might love Train Station as well.

Tony woulda loved this moment:
During the Q&A, I told the three directors of Train Station--"Be sure to get someone to drive you down to OUR silly little train station--we have a stupid little train that basically goes NOWHERE!!! Two miles up, then back again!!!!

Wish I'd described it as our town's version of Groundhog Day.  Oh well, 20/20 hindsight.

---
ENTER TO WIN MORE FREE TICKETS TO KC's biggest independent FILM FESTIVAL--16th season:

ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE--
CHOOSE YOUR TITLE AT WWW.KANSASFILM.COM

Tony is helping me and my favorite local film festival give away free tickets to selected films this year.
To enter to win, send me a polite request via comment (not on Tonyskansascity-- but MUST BE ON WWW.KCMOPOST.BLOGSPOT.COM).
You may log on, or click the link Tony provides, or click this blog in the RH column of Tonys site.

I will need your name and email address and phone number--so you can't just be anonymous.  Since I screen all comments first, I won't publish it--just use the info to see if I can score you two free tix.

I will give away as many tickets as I can.

If you win, I will immediately send you the form, and notify the Will Call Desk at the Glenwood Arts.  I will also let you know if you did not win FREE tix, but encourage you to buy them early, as they are selling FAST.  As fast as a moving train that is not Sly James' toy train!

Winners will take your Confirmation Email (print out or just show your phone) to the Will Call in the vast underground theatre lobby Ranchmart South to pick up your tickets.  (You may park on the 95th St. side and walk down the 20 steps, or park in back, off 95th Ter. just east of Mission Rd.)
You may also buy extra tickets there --if it's not sold out.  Goin' fast!

Each of the 35 FULL LENGTH films at this year's KIFF film festival ONLY AIRS ONCE!!!
Tickets are not exchangeable for another film.  Five different indie films (docs, narratives or animations) are screened in the five auditoriums, one time only, at any given time.   Audience members vote on their favorites, to earn additional showings in the future.

This year a record number of filmmakers and performing artists are flying in for the festival.  It's a big deal in the independent film world.  The stars and producers will be partying in Westport, --except NOT at SunFresh in the middle of the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!   and mingling with fans and other movie producers at the Glenwood Arts, at the KIFF Cafe, where Kat Irons prepares gourmet food.  Paparazzi welcome.  So use your napkin when you're enjoying Kat's famous KIFF Carrot Cake, OK???!

Why service this month at KC's good restaurants could be slower than Sly James' Toy Train

The norovirus has scared the bejeesus out of the owners of our town's best restaurants.  Not to mention the chain restaurants.  (Buffalo Wild Wings lost 15% in their stock value in one week--all over the US, based on a norovirus outbreak in Kansas City.) Chipotle may never recover from their episodes of food poisoning issues.  They closed every restaurant in the US from noon to 3pm the other day, to retrain all their staff on cootie control.  And the New Theatre has lost its luster in Johnson County--no longer are women listing them at the top of their list for a birthday or holiday or anniversary outing.

Expect the management of YOUR favorite dining establishments to already have issued an edict to their staff: do not come to work if you are sick in the least.

The problem is: they can't call a temp agency for a waiter or a chef.  So restaurant managers are frazzled and scrambling.  Yelling at them won't help.  Let me ask you this...does getting loud ever help you get laid?

Last Saturday night, my movie club from the Glenwood Arts went for dinner to Macaroni Grill.  We arrived at 7:08pm.  I left at 9:15.  Afterward, I phoned the manager.  I said, "You can't fix what you don't know about.  So what the heck happened?  We had one great waitress, Jena.  She hustled her ass off.  But we had 25 people!  She was 'in the weeds' all night.  How many diners do you usually assign to one server?"

Joe, the manager, replied, "Twelve.  But the fact is: corporate told us: no marginally healthy servers or chefs may clock in.  No sniffles, no coughs, no nuthin.  So I was short four servers and two chefs."

He apologized profusely.  And we will give him another chance.  Just not on Valentine's Day weekend, which is way overbooked everywhere in town.

I do appreciate any corporation learning from the mistakes of others.  I would have liked to have had the manager explain the situation.

OK, Kansas City, you've been warned.  We just got thru a sensational KC Restaurant Week, ten glorious days.  But Feb. 12, 13 and 14 is even tighter to score a table, because most fourtops are used to seat just two people.

If you already have a reservation, anywhere, maybe ask about moving it up in the day.  The later it is, the longer it will take for your table to open up.

An 8pm table might not even open up until 10pm.

Your wait could be longer than this town has waited for Sly James to deliver his Toy Train.
It's not romantic to spend all evening standing in the bar, in uncomfortable shoes, (date nights are when gals wear shoes that hurt), or glowering at your watch.

OpenTable.com may have some options--you might be able to search by area of town, and reserve elsewhere.  OpenTable is THE way all good restaurants now want you to book a table nowadays.  Don't call the hostess--she's already stressed. Humoring the plate pounders or the dates at the bar who have been overserved.   Get the app now.  Use it from now on.

And here's an even better idea: treat Valentine's Day like New Year's Eve.  Chalk it up to amateur night.  Push your celebration to another date.  If your love is not strong enough to withstand a slight delay, you're with the wrong person.

Or get creative.  Grab an array of exotic goodies from warm climates, at Trader Joe's.
Have a mini-vacation. On a blanket in your living room, followed by a backrub.