Subject: Passenger Transportation

• One-Way Fare to St. Joe, Please

  February 25, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Shadowy Anti-Fun Directorate; Clay Chastain in the Matrix; Phill Kline in Your Uterus

  April 3, 2008

• Stackhaus' Transit-Hating Past

  June 26, 2008

• Councilman to Nutter: Fess up to anti-light rail ads

  October 9, 2008

• No Kansas hayseed

  March 23, 2000

• Letters

  July 20, 2000

• Letters

  July 27, 2000

• Pitch Forks Update: Holiday Cabs running after all

  After we sent out this week's dining newsletter Pitch Forks, reporting that Holiday Cab -- the free New Year's Eve taxi service -- had been canceled this year because it was unable to find a sponsor, we got word that the service got a last minute reprieve thanks to the generosity of Kansas/Missouri alcohol distributor and downtown club Seven. Holiday Cab will be available one day only, this Wednesday, New Year's Eve, until 3 a.m. To use the services call Yellow Cab at 816-777-1115.-- Owen Morris

  December 30, 2008

• Letters

  November 23, 2000

• Letters

  November 30, 2000

• Letters

  August 2, 2001

• Best Least-Understood Campaign Slogan

  October 18, 2001

• Sharon Sanders Brooks will not be bothered with your silly questions.

  The Kansas City Star is running "breaking news" about Councilwoman Cindy Circo's deposition on its Web site. DeAnn Smith reports what, to some City Hall watchers, will come as old news: Circo thinks Mayor Mark Funkhouser was punishing her for her vote on the volunteer ordinance when he took away her role as chair of the city's Housing Committee. Funkhouser then awarded the chair to Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks, who was the only councilperson absent from the September 25, 2008, meeting in w

  January 22, 2009

• The mixed-drink name game

  It's only February, but we already have a sure-fire winner for drink of the year. Named after Chesley Sullenberger, better known as Captain Sully the heroic U.S. Airways pilot, "The Sully" is already showing up on New York menus. U.S. Airways menus can't be far behind."The Sully" is simple to make: two shots Grey Goose, one splash water.I've heard it goes down smoother than anybody knew possible. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.) Actually, it sounds rather gross -- vodka and water isn't a great comb

  February 4, 2009

• Up Chuck

  June 12, 2003

• Laugh Track

  June 19, 2003

• Our New Look

  September 21, 2006

• Training Wheels

  November 2, 2006

• Sky's the Limit

  November 16, 2006

• With stimulus money, the bus company gets new buses to go fewer places

  April 16, 2009

• All You Need Is Love

  January 1, 2009

• Lather, Rinse, Defeat

  October 23, 2008

• Like TIF, the city’s new light-rail plan stiffs the neediest parts of the city

  July 31, 2008

• KC's light-rail villains look poised to mount another attack

  June 26, 2008

• While the mayor and the ATA bicker over light rail plans, here’s one that makes sense

  May 29, 2008

• ONE MOMENT OF YOUR TIME, PLEASE!!

  March 20, 2008

• The Dance

  The company that's bringing us an entertainment district pulls some tricky moves.

  November 22, 2007

• Crazy Train

  October 26, 2006

• Goodbye, Fair Mall

  August 24, 2006

• High-speed rail, right here, in Kansas City

  President Obama is talking high-speed rail, right here, in Kansas City. See, we're even on this nifty map. KC would be part of the "Chicago Hub Network." Obama sounds hopeful that the $8 billion in the Recovery Act and $1 billion a year for five years in his budget will get the project started. Obama said:There's no reason why we can't do this. This is America. There's no reason why the future of travel should lie somewhere else beyond our borders. Building a new system of high-speed rail in Ame

  April 16, 2009

• D:Fuse

  Saturday, May 1, at Kabal.

  April 29, 2004

• Runaway Train

  Clay Chastain is a few passengers short of a load.

  October 23, 2003

• Busted

  Rich developers helped bankrupt the city's bus system, and now you're being asked to bail it out.

  October 23, 2003

• Train Wreck

  Letters from the week of July 24, 2003

  July 24, 2003

• Bus, Tragic Bus

  With his newest film, Ben Meade dares to enter a world many Kansas Citians fear: a city bus.

  May 29, 2003

• Life in the Fast Lane

  The rapid transit dream rides again.

  June 5, 2003

• Arrested Development

  A professional light rail basher is headed to Kansas City.

  July 26, 2001

• Dead In Its Tracks

  The city may have derailed its own light rail plan.

  July 19, 2001

• Future Schlock

  With its new downtown plan, the Civic Council goes retro.

  June 7, 2001

• On a Rail

  After his latest light-rail defeat, Clay Chastain -- like his targets at City Hall -- needs it upside the head.

  November 16, 2000

• Clipboard in hand ... again

  While the city and transit alliance move forward with planning transit for Kansas City, activist Clay Chastain launches petition drives for light rail and a radical park transformation.

  June 15, 2000

• Chastain's next big fight: libel suits against The Star

  February 10, 2000

• Truly public transportation

  Transit has become a front-burner issue for city planners, and even business leaders, as demand for a better system grows.

  January 13, 2000

• Daily Briefs in Brief: Let's see what Clay Chastain and the gang are up to this week.

  Clay Chastain is one of Kansas City's major recurring characters, kind of our beloved "Boner" Stabone, although now that I've said that, Chastain's probably going to start ringing Pitch phones until somebody connects him with me in order to insist at stentorian length that he's way more like Kansas City's Luke Brower Seaver, the Leonardo DiCaprio character adopted by the Seavers in the last season of Growing Pains because the ratings were terrible. I couldn't find a good picture of "Boner" Sta

  May 5, 2009

• Absinthe: much ado about nothing

  Call me pessimistic but I've never understood the big deal with absinthe. It's supposed to contain wormwood and thujone and other hallucinogenics.Problem is, it never did. The real late-19th century stuff -- the Van Gogh-chopping-off-his-ear stuff -- contained barely a trace of thujone, not nearly enough to make a person go crazy. Researchers experimenting on old Absinthe bottles and using old recipes came to the conclusion that the thujone stays in the pot during the distillation process. S

  May 8, 2009

• Lawrence Musicians to Give Midnight Serenade to Amtrak Passengers

  Normally, this would be something I'd post in tomorrow's Friday Freebies, but this is A) Late at night and B) Pretty doggone unique. Visitors to Lawrence's historic 1955 Amtrak station are used to the sounds of growling diesel engines and the screech of wheels against steel rails. This Friday night, the depot will be surrounded with different sounds--the voices, guitars, and banjos of local bluegrass and old-time music performers, including Steve Mason and members of the Alferd Packer Memorial

  June 18, 2009

• Next time before you fly

  Tthanks to the collective brain of the Internet, air traveling is getting a little bit more comfortable. People have been using travel sites for years to save on fares, but only relatively recently have they been posting reviews of individual seats aboard aircraft to let other savvy travelers know which rows may be in coach but feel like first-class.

  June 18, 2009

• In-flight meals get an upgrade

  ​Nobody flies for the food. But while we're in the air, well-fed customers are happier customers. And as airlines continue to search for additional revenue streams, they've turned once again to refreshing in-flight menus in the hopes of winning over fliers. The Wall Street Journal argues that this move is different because it's about significantly upping the quality of the food served in coach: sushi (bento boxes on Hawaiian Airlines), premium ice cream (Ben & Jerry's on Delta), and celebr

  September 10, 2009

• Clay Chastain: anti-hero?

  Clay Chastain​Clay Chastain called last week to talk about his latest light rail plan, which he'll kick off at Union Station on October 14 at "high noon." "We're going to try to repeat the political miracle of 2006," Chastain told me. Chastain said he'll pimp his latest plan on the 14th with a short speech, answer some questions from the media and then hit the streets to start his latest petition drive -- or as he put it, "gallop to a new green horizon." Chastain sounded like he's been watchin

  October 7, 2009

• American Airlines cutting 700 jobs nationwide, closing KC overhaul base

  ​More bad news on the layoffs front. American Airlines is shutting down its overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport in September 2010 and cutting 700 employees nationwide, according to reports this morning.KMBC Channel 9 has the letter to employees announcing the shut down and layoffs, and KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reports that 500 people (450 of them union workers) work at the overhaul base.Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted her feelings. My heart goes out to the great American Ai

  October 28, 2009