Somewhere in Washington, D.C., former Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser might be reading the Kansas City Star and its treatment of current Mayor Sly James.
An he’s probably just shaking his head in bewilderment.
James, who was all but appointed to the position of Mayor by the Star’s chief editorial writer Yael Abouhalkah in May 2011, delivered his first “State of the City” speech on Monday. The newspaper could not have praised him enough.
But neither reporter Lynn Horsley or the Star’s editorial board even mentioned KCMO’s out of control murder rate.
In its editorial the Star managed to work in another shot at Funkhouser.
“James gets a good deal of credit for realizing City Hall needed to restore its credibility with many people after the dismal four-year term of the previous mayor,” it said.
In fact the area’s leading blogger, tonyskansascity.com, pointed out that James never even mentioned the words “murder” or “homicide” in his entire speech.
In her story of the speech reporter Lynn Horsley glossed over James’s plan to plan to let go 105 firefighters while moving ahead with a new downtown streetcar system.
The Mayor’s disastrous plan to take over the KCMO school system was covered by him noting “Over the last year, I have perhaps unwisely waded into the issues facing the Kansas City school district.”
In fact, in a column after the speech Abouhalkah even provided a guideline for James to follow when eliminating firefighters.
Get rid of the experienced ones.
“It’s relatively simple but effective: Get the longest-tenured, highest-paid firefighters and fire brass to retire,” said Abouhalkah.
KCMO MAYOR’S MEDIA PASS CONTINUES
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Seems like they are giving the same advice used by the Star’s management.
Get rid of the good ones!
That explains why Aboulhalkah still has a job…
Very sad.
Dear Mr. Landsberg: Thanks for this posting. Yes, the Mayor and the city’s journalists are ignoring the city’s surging homicide rate. In the last twelve months before James became mayor we had 98 homicides in KCMO-in the 10.5 months since he became mayor we have had 111-we are currently at 24 homicides for 2012; compared to 15 at this point last year. Now, most of the blame for this homicide surge is due to mistakes made by the city’s political class in the spring of 2008-not by the mayor. But he has a crucial role to play in ending this surge of violence. Take care!! Sincerely, Respectfully and In Christ, Ernest Evans
It’s easy to see why the media is giving Mayor James a pass. Unlike the last mayor does anyone know’s who his wife is? Yes his son has been in trouble, but unlike the Funk with his wife, James son is not the co-mayor.
James is not the butt of Jay Leno’s or any other late-night talk show host jokes.
And unlike the Funk, Mayor James can do the job without any relatives being around and do latenight’s at the job.
Whatever pass Mayor Sly “Feel Good” James is getting doesn’t make us forget the four or more years of embarrassment, humiliation and grace brought upon us by Mayor Smartwithnothinghouser. Thank g-d our municipal nightmare is over and that he and the equally vile Squid are gone. The only piece of unfinished business is Yael T Abouhalkah. That old former Lion of the Press remains a blight on the local scene with a platform provided for him by the Kansas City Star… A platform built over the dead bodies of his former co-workers who were let go so that he could still get paid. His blog has been rendered worthless by his decision to censure any and all comments that he either disagrees with or is personally uncomfortable with. Incredible that such a once proud, civil jewel would become the municipal nightmare that he is now. He and his boy The Funk… what a waste Time to go Yael… Maybe you can start reprinting your columns from years ago… when your opinion was respected and you were a positive force on the local scene.
I’m beginning to think that if 10,000 people from the East side were murdered in a year, “Feel Good” James would still be smiling. Luckily, he’s good at raising money so we will be getting four extra years of him. As long as we don’t have the Gruesome Twosome back n the Mayor’s chair, I’ll be breathing a sigh of relief. Luckily for Kansas City residents, we have Tony Botello, King of all Bloggers, and his associate Eric Wesson to keep reminding us that our City is crumbling around us. If all the City Council and the aforementioned ” Feel Good” James an think about are raises for municipal employees and protecting the pensions as well as what amounts to a $3.5 billion tax increase (the sewer bonds + the extra billion Sly wants to borrow for other infrastructure needs + plus some extra TIF money to giveaway) and we keep electing them, then we, the citizens, are getting exactly what we deserve.
‘Luckily for Kansas City residents, we have Tony Botello, King of all Bloggers,…’
Your comment lost every single ounce of respect the second you wrote that. Get freakin’ real.