News and Updates
(11/15/2007) Sunday the 18th is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,400 people die daily on the world’s roads and tens of thousands are disabled for life. Expressed in those terms, it truly is the greatest of man-made disasters, yet we accept it as part of everyday life. These tragedies will not be reduced until we address the real safety issues on our roads and highways, like high speeds and signalized intersections, rather than fabricating false dangers to achieve a political goal.
(11/5/2007) Friends of Red Bridge today announced that we are withdrawing from the City-sponsored Red Bridge project and launching our own project for an alternate plan. The refusal of the project team to accept input that upsets the City agenda and their failure to provide real alternatives to the big bridge design lead us to undertake this course of action.
(10/30/2007) Last Wednesday’s Advisory Committee meeting went about as expected, but, without even a token consideration of the Friends of Red Bridge position, it’s Through The Looking Glass and we are forced to seek true alternatives in more ways than one. Meanwhile, please read a summation of tonight’s Mayoral Town Hall Forum at Avila University.
(10/17/2007) Four engineering firms applied for the job of conducting the Red Bridge Road Alternatives Study. You can now download each of their proposals.
(10/10/2007) See this press release for news regarding the September 26th Future Red Bridge Advisory Committee meeting and other developments. The survey recently sent to hundreds of homes in the Red Bridge Road area is, in the opinion of Friends of Red Bridge, biased against the preservation and enhancement of our neighborhood and environment, and skewed toward expansion of the roadway. However, Councilman Sharp has issued a clear statement by email to the project team to correct their apparent bias favoring the rejected “BridgeZilla” design.
(9/13/2007) The study of alternative plans for Red Bridge Road has been going on for some time now. At every point, events have not been favorable to Friends of Red Bridge. We now know that the City’s plan is to push through the original design at all costs. We are accordingly taking decisive action to put the process on track.
(9/6/2007) The City Council, with the leadership of Council members Sharp and Gottstein, passed the billboard ordinance. This is a great victory for improving the built environment in Kansas City. Friends of Red Bridge is linked with the organization that has led the fight for tighter billboard regulation in Kansas City, the Citizens Against Billboard Blight; Two FoRB members also serve on the CABB steering committee, and there is the thematic common ground of defending and enhancing the quality of life in Kansas City. To that end, we have both received the support and council of Scenic Missouri and their exectuive director John Regenbogen.
(6/20/2007) There will be a public meeting tomorrow night (6/21) about traffic calming on Santa Fe Trail in the vicinity of Pennsylvania to Wornall Road. (Lutheran High School at 7PM.) There are many tools in the traffic calming toolbox. Creative thinking combined with observations of what is working elsewhere could come up with solutions for Santa Fe Trail. (See also this previous story from March 7th.)
(6/14/2007) State bridge inspectors inspected the bridge over the Blue River yesterday -- above and below the water -- and found it to be safe. Up to now, implying that the bridge will have to be closed in the near future for safety reasons has been a tactic employed by former Councilman Eddy as well as some employees of the Public Works department in order to push through their massive bridge. That false sense of urgency should now be dead. Certainly the bridge has been neglected for decades, and -- again at the request of Councilman Sharp -- it will get some maintenance in the coming weeks.
(6/12/2007) The biennial bridge inspection reports for the Red Bridge bridge have recommended removal of debris from the area of the bridge for many years now. Today, thanks to Councilman Sharp, the public works department finally got around to doing it, closing the bridge for about six hours to do so. People who signed up for news from the City got notice the night before.
(5/31/2007) Listen to the National Public Radio discussion about digital billboards (like you can see on west-bound I-435 near the 103rd Street exit) with Kevin Fry of Scenic America.
(5/25/2007) Friends of Red Bridge has been advocating for adoption of the progressive philosophies of Context Sensitive Solutions and the principles of New Urbanism, but will it play in Peoria, you ask? Look at this article from the Peoria Chronicle, with particular attention to the key words “Public Works”.
(5/22/2007) Friends of Red Bridge is working with Citizens Against Billboard Blight and Scenic Missouri to curb the spread of billboards. Washington Post writer Neal Peirce sees it as a classic David v. Goliath struggle in his May 20th posting. Guess who’s David.
(5/3/2007) In its first legislative session today, the new mayor and city council unanimously repealed the Red Bridge land condemnation ordinance and directed the city manager to find an engineering firm within sixty days of today for the purpose of developing alternative plans for Red Bridge Road between Holmes Road and Grandview Road. [video]
(5/1/2007) With the demise of the Bannister Federal Complex, its Federal ownership, considerable acreage, and proximity to a railroad, we have more than enough parallels to suggest that another “inter-modal facility” will be proposed for that location. Will the re-development of that area be decided by the surrounding community, or -- as with Richards-Gebaur -- by politically connected special interests?
(4/21/2007) Despite what some see as the end of the Battle for Red Bridge, the owner of this site has started a blog about the Red Bridge campaign. Actually, there is still a long road ahead.
(4/20/2007) We submitted three times the number of signatures required to block the condemnation ordinance for 30 days. BridgeZilla is as good as dead (for now).
News and Updates Archive
Since its appearance at the end of 2005, the RedBridgeRoad.org website has gathered together hundreds of people to form the Friends of Red Bridge. You may have seen our signs along Red Bridge Road and neighboring streets in south Kansas City.
These yard signs, placed and maintained by the Friends of Red Bridge, show growing public support for our efforts to bring modern transportation planning to Kansas City. We intend to defend and enhance our property, natural, scenic, historical, and community values while improving safety and mobility.
