Activist works against governments' sleight of hand

Phil Klein is a harried, excited man. As manager of U.S. Toy's magic and entertainment divisions, he has a big job. And he is hands-on, working with customers, purchasing inventory, riding herd on employees -- sometimes in the space of minutes.

The U.S. Toy Co. Magic Shop is in what used to be a tennis and racquetball club. The 10,000-square-foot business is the mother lode for magicians and people interested in magic -- books, monographs, magazines, tricks, and even clothes. Thousands of items line the glass display case and counter, which surround three sides of the shop, and the walls behind them.

At work in the cavernous magic shop, nothing about Klein reveals him to be the alternately loved and hated community activist. But he has made a name for himself opposing tax-subsidized development -- from the Power & Light District in downtown Kansas City, Mo., to the Wonderful World of Oz in DeSoto, Kan. He exasperates public and elected officials, who sigh when they see him coming. Neighborhood activists keep their distance but like having him around.

"Phil brings to light issues people are hesitant to talk about and get mixed up in," says Daryl Penner, whose American Formal Wear is located within the Power & Light District boundaries. Penner, Klein, and other business owners threatened by the development worked on a petition drive to put public subsidies and zoning changes on the ballot in February 1998. Penner later ran for city council.

"Phil is the bulldog that will go in and mix it up," Penner says. "He is the underdog who never quits. Sometimes his style might rub people the wrong way. In the end, all he cares about is the city. He spends hundreds of hours, perhaps thousands, to help communities and neighborhoods and businesspeople gain an equal voice with the power brokers who can afford lawyers. He doesn't receive a dime.... The 'haves' have more resources to get things done. Phil exhausts himself to try to even the score. Every community should have a Phil Klein."

Nascent activist Klein became involved in local politics when he went to bat to save the President Hotel from being razed for the Power & Light District redevelopment. His interest came from working as a production intern in the late 1980s on the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. During the movie shoot, Klein set scenes and worked as an overnight security guard in the abandoned hotel.

"I love the President -- I fell in love with it during the movie shoot and dreamed of it after," he says. "The Power & Light fight got me started in politics because I wanted to save the President. It was then I began to understand how corrupt local politics can be. (Politics are) like Robin Hood in reverse -- taking from the poor to give to the rich."

Klein joined a coalition of downtown business owners threatened by the Power & Light District redevelopment plans. Klein argued the President should be preserved and that taxpayer dollars should not fund a private, profit-oriented venture. The district's redevelopers argued that restoring the President Hotel was too costly. Public officials, including members of the Kansas City, Mo., Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Commission and the city council, backed taxpayer subsidies for the project based on the public good that might come of it.

Klein and the downtown business owners ran a successful petition initiative that put the district's tax subsidies and zoning changes on the ballot in February 1998. Power & Light supporters spent $1 million to get voters to approve the changes. Klein and the business owners spent about $20,000 in opposition. Voters approved $176 million in public subsidies for the then-$454 million project along with a massive zoning change in a 59 percent-to-41 percent vote. The cost of project has since ballooned to an estimated $628 million.

The project stalled after AMC founder Stan Durwood's death in 1999. Last year, the development's driving force, Nick Bashkiroff, quit and left Kansas City. Business owners in the area, along with everyone else, wait for Power & Light District developers to secure leases and financing for their project.

Although voters supported the district, Klein scored a personal victory. Redevelopment plans have changed to include restoration of the once-doomed President Hotel.

All the way Klein believes nothing is worth doing if it is worth doing only halfway. He has worked for U.S. Toy for 20 years. A magician for 35 of his 40 years, Klein traveled the country as part of a comedy/magic team in the early 1990s. In 1991, he graduated from the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Clown College in Florida.

Clown college and an associate's degree in equine and stable management were the only interests Klein ever pursued outside of magic. He spends his workweek before of a wall of sponge balls, top hats, trick cards, and finger choppers. His world is filled with obsessive men and women who pursue their hobbies in private and emerge after work and on weekends to become the center of attention at weddings, children's birthday parties, and backyard gatherings.

"Magic is the greatest hobby in the world -- and one of the most educational," Klein says. "People can argue with me, but it is fascinating to see how it covers all the bases of science. It demonstrates and depends upon the very fundamentals of physics, mathematics, and chemistry."