Letters

Watch Those Moves
Don't bring me down: Why move the clubs downtown (Bruce Rodgers' "Move the Clubs," September 21)? Westport has a reputation for the hippest clubs in Kansas City and great meals. I believe that moving these clubs downtown will cause a major drop in profits for the nightclubs, as well as for the restaurants in Westport.

No one wants to go downtown to party. You are most likely to be arrested for drunk driving downtown, and there are too many one-way streets.

If anything needs to be done, it should be a nightclub especially for young adults. The reason that young folks hang outside of the clubs in Westport is that they have nothing else to do. Let's face it: Kansas City is the most boring place to be if you are under 21. Clubs everywhere require you to be 21 to enter. In places such as Lawrence, there are clubs for young adults to actually have fun. These particular clubs give young adults the opportunity to be with their friends and have fun without the police looking at their every move and demanding them to go elsewhere.

Everyone wants to complain about the young crowds outside of the clubs in Westport, but no one wants to give them something to do. Why is that? Every time some city official does do something to entertain the young people, it is boring and no one wants to go. In my opinion, the new mayor doesn't know Kansas City from a hole in the wall and doesn't even care. I wish we had our old mayor back because when he did something to improve our city it worked.

Instead of spending all this money on rebuilding nightclubs downtown, they should spend it on something worthwhile.
Joi Smith
Kansas City, Missouri

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The Spin Cycle
A revolution per minute: Although I do not really think the Critical Mass event will be very effective, I do agree with the reasons the demonstration was staged in the first place (Deb Hipp's "Bike Pains," September 28). Yet holding up traffic is not going to be the way we change the minds of those folk who already view cyclists with hostility.

It has been my experience over the last 18 years of commuting by bicycle in Kansas City that safe and sensible cycling is the only way in which motorists will accept our presence on the road. Unfortunately, the majority of cyclists continue to endanger themselves by ignoring the basic rules of the road and are thus a constant road hazard! For instance, I regularly witness people who are otherwise mature and often professional folk, not stopping at stop signs and stop lights but plowing on through as if they were not there. No wonder motorists have a negative attitude toward us cyclists when we ride in a lawless, irresponsible fashion.

It is my experience, in riding from Fairway to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, each day, that when one rides the same route at the same time, obeying the rules of the road, those who share the road with you accept your presence and respect your right to the little piece of roadway you occupy.

In 18 years I have had only one accident, and that was because I disregarded a sign telling me I was in a right-hand turn lane. I kept going instead of turning right and was hit broadsides. It was my own fault, and it took me 12 months to fully recover. That lesson imprinted on me the dire need to obey the rules of the road simply out of respect for one's own safety.

Those who want to promote cycling in Kansas City should themselves cycle to work each day and daily demonstrate the practicality of cycling as a positive mode of transport.
Stuart Thomas
Fairway

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Tiresome tactics: The beautifully ironic photo of helmetless bicycle riders beneath the quote reading "Most people I talk to about cycling in Kansas City say it's way too dangerous" was just one more example of why I read the Pitch.

Here's Critical Mass purporting to be concerned about the safety of bicyclists, so concerned as to organize a bike ride for the sole purpose of deliberately blocking rush-hour traffic to prove a point about the need for bike lanes on city streets, yet I count nine helmetless riders in the photo.

Study after study has shown that helmet use by bicyclists vastly reduces the likelihood of death and injury, even in the relatively rare instances in which the bicyclist hits or is hit by a motor vehicle. Seems to me it's pretty hypocritical for Critical Mass to organize a ride for the purpose of raising awareness of the need for bike lanes for bicyclist safety but not require all riders to wear helmets.

By the way, although the "response from motorists was mostly friendly," don't think for a minute that the taxpayers delayed by Critical Mass's publicity stunt are going to think more favorably about bicyclists and their desire for bike lanes as a result. Most cities have laws requiring bicyclists riding on city streets to remain as far right as possible, single file, riding in the same direction as traffic except when approaching an intersection to make a left turn.