As part of Randal O’Toole’s visit to Wichita, he recorded some remarks in front of a few of Wichita’s monuments to government planning. Paul Soutar of Kansas Watchdog recorded video and assembled the remarks. His reporting is Randal O’Toole on Wichita’s WaterWalk and Government Planning.
Randal O’Toole on Wichita’s WaterWalk and government planning
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4 responses to “Randal O’Toole on Wichita’s WaterWalk and government planning”
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Why do you need lots of free parking?
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@ Glenn: you need lots of free parking to support retail shopping centers because people aren’t going to pay to park in order to shop when every other shopping center in town has free parking. You don’t find thriving shopping areas without plenty of parking in all but the most dense cities. “Smartgrowth” Planners try to force density by making parking scarce, but all they usually do is create spaces that no retailer wants to lease because there isn’t enough visibility or access. Wichita just isn’t that dense, nor should it be if you want affordable home prices and/or reasonable taxes.
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There needs to be an investigation as to who (including the city) petitioned the state court and got the property taxes reduced for the TIF district in the Old Town Cinema District.
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Hotelier John Q. Hammond wanted to build a hotel connected to the downtown arena without any government incentives, but neither City or County officials were interested. In Topeka, Mr. Hammond was able to work with the local government to build his hotel connected to the Topeka Convention Center, but in Wichita “if you play, you pay”.
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