Bar Tab

Grow out of it: Regarding Ben Paynter's "Last Call?" (December 11): How can an intelligent person purchase a home in a "club district" and then be surprised by occurrences related to the presence of these establishments? When driving around the Westport area, it's hardly a stretch of logic to realize, "Wow, there sure are a shit ton of bars here!"

According to Paynter's article, the building occupied by XO is 300 feet from Jim Grow's home. Should XO and the rest of Westport be responsible for Grow's negligence in not researching the neighborhood properly before making a home purchase? If Grow didn't see the incredibly large building that is XO, he is blind or he didn't look. Either way, it's the fault of no one but himself. Jeff Holloway's airport analogy was especially apt. Logical people don't buy homes in Tiffany Springs and then insist that the airport be moved or shut down to accommodate their whimsy.

Westport has been the city's nightclub district for decades -- why would a person who is disturbed by nightlife willfully choose such an area? As an occasional patron of XO, I can certify that the club's music is sufficiently quiet to enable normal-volume conversation at the front door. Even at the bar area near the dance floor, I rarely have to raise my voice when placing a drink order.

People like Jim Grow and his cronies should put their homes on the market and move to a place that tolerates whining bastards who are looking to capitalize on a situation they chose to put themselves in. No one is forcing Jim Grow to stay, and frankly, I'd be happy to see him go.
Jerry Fowler
Kansas City, Missouri

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Housing Authority
Blight reading: Regarding Casey Logan's "Captain Blight" (December 4): I do not run slumlord property. I mortgaged two properties recently, and they appraised well. Check my Web site for pictures (affordhousing.com). I rent decent, safe housing to people of modest means at modest prices. I have to maintain some standard or face too many vacancies.

About ten years ago, a man got mad at one of my tenants over an on-street parking dispute, and he took a listing of my properties to the city, wanting the city to cite me. It seemed like a good thing for the city to take a look. It has been a witch-hunt ever since. Properties all around mine are worse but not bothered.

The citations are usually minor -- a missing downspout, trash and debris, storage of unapproved items, a car not tagged or parked on a nonhard surface, peeling paint, a cracked window. We would have gotten to many of these things in time anyway. And many times, something across the street would be worse. The two houses that were torn down were fire jobs, and I couldn't fix them fast enough for the city.

I think Logan did a pretty good job in the last part of the article. I think [his article] does indicate that my properties were singled out and cited when others were not bothered.

A point he missed is that as people buy into these older areas at low prices, then spend bundles upgrading, then want their neighbors to upgrade -- this pushes the prices up, and the poor have to leave. Many of the poor don't make $25,000 a year, and they need low-cost housing. Is it fair for the man with the money to kick the poor out of their affordable housing?

I do not expose myself at City Hall, wear my pants crotch-down to my knees or consider myself snot-nosed.

I also do not feel that I cause blight, therefore I am not the Captain thereof.
Charlie Williard
Kansas City, Missouri

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Tails of the City
Articles III:Sorry I'm late writing again (the three jobs thing). So, here's what's up:

1. Hella props to you guys for cold bustin' out the TIF money that should go for the ATA Bus(ted) system but instead is going to developers' pockets (Casey Logan's "Busted," October 23). I'm sure the bus system could use all the tax money and then some. I, too, thought that all the tax money was going to the bus system. But Logan's story told how wrong I and most of your readers were for thinking this. I'm starting to think that TIF should stand for This Is Fu***d!

2. Again, mad props to the Pitch for exposing the free family and friends lunch program at City Hall (Joe Miller's "Hey, Big Spender," October 30). Maybe that's why my ass stays narrow -- 'cause I can't eat all I want and have taxpayers pay for it.

3. And finally, I died laughing on the Sewer Creek Duck Derby race between the rat and the ducks (Kansas City Strip, October 30). I, too, was pulling for the rat to win. I wonder, whose idea was it to have a "derby" in something that resembles four elephants' bath water? How much alowack were they on? (Alowack -- the process of being on ALcOhol, Weed, and crACK all at the same time.)

Keep up the good work. Some of us appreciate your magazine.
Ed Hendricks
Kansas City, Missouri

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Good Taste
Cook it up: Charles Ferruzza is just fantastic, and I must apologize for not writing sooner. Thank you for his thorough and insightful reviews. It is a part of the Pitch that is important and vital to read!
Michael L. Dressel

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Independence Rock Scar The Wes wing:Thanks to Nathan Dinsdale for doing such a fantastic article on Wes Scantlin and the Kansas City turmoil surrounding Puddle of Mudd ("Prodigal Son," December 4).