Best Conspiracy Theory

If Kansas City voters reject a tax increase this November, those who depend on buses will no longer have transportation on Saturday nights and Sundays. Pretty rough. In an effort to drum up support for the tax increase, transit leaders held numerous town-hall-style meetings this summer, the first of which attracted dozens of pissed-off riders to the Gem Theatre at 18th Street and Vine. Understandably, many folks wanted to know why they should be thankful to pay more taxes in order to protect a system that already sucks. The Area Transportation Authority's we're-all-in-this-together attitude just didn't resonate at the Gem, especially when one furious attendee lofted her own theory about the bus cuts. It was improbable, but thought-provoking. In the past, she said, white people ran for the suburbs to avoid living among black people. Now, with city leaders pushing loft development downtown, many of those white people are thinking about coming back to the city. But they're still not too sure about black people -- mobile black people in general and bus-riding black people in particular. So, the theory goes, get rid of the bus.