Blog
Oct 18, 2019
The luxury apartment buildings keep going up, but who is going to fill those units at the rent levels we’re seeing today? I first arrived In Kansas City some time ago, happily just a few years after the native hunter-gatherers…
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Sep 25, 2019
What do influential executives’ choices of dinner companions say about them? Lots. “If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be, and why?” We asked that of the 250 good souls chosen to be among this…
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Sep 25, 2019
20 years ago at the millennium, Ingram’s published a very futuristic edition. We took our best shot to predict what the region could look like in the year 2050. Thirty years out, we still believe much of this plan can…
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Aug 20, 2019
Quality of life and growth aren’t the same thing. The American’s media’s descent into pettiness and irrelevancy seemed to have reached terminal velocity in January 2017. Remarkably, though, it picked up a little extra speed in July, after the president…
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Aug 20, 2019
More than a month later, I’m still steamed. But hey: I’m not alone. At last count, nearly 22,000 other Jackson County property owners had filed appeals of their 2019 property appraisals, which in many cases doubled, tripled or quadrupled from…
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Aug 20, 2019
High-school language-arts scores for boys continue to crater as masculinity-shaming efforts expand. Coincidence? In 1955, author Rudolf Flesch wrote a major best-seller simply titled, “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” The problem then, as Flesch saw it, was the failure of schools…
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Jul 17, 2019
There’s more to life here than lower home prices, but you have to keep an open mind to discover the benefits. There’s more to life here than lower home prices, but you have to keep an open mind to discover…
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Jul 17, 2019
The appraisal disaster might just be the worst failure of county government ever. And that’s saying something. In the long, often spotty and occasionally ugly history that is Jackson County administration, there have been some whopper instances of graft, mismanagement,…
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May 21, 2019
With all the billions invested in corporate diversity initiatives, why does the goal always seem to be out of reach? OK, here is what set me off: an email from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce promoting in big…
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May 21, 2019
The 2019 Ingram’s 100 has something of a fresh look this year—which is both a good thing and a bit of a discouragement for those of us cheering in the stands as the game of growth unfolds. The part that…
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