Wednesday, September 02, 2009

A Goliath among corrupt cities

A small group of developers and attorneys with City Hall connections glommed on to a program for poor neighborhoods and used it to build luxury hotels and fancy shopping centers in the richest parts of town, draining $90 million per year from the city's budget and racking up $5 billion in debt. Cash poor, the city's bridges, sidewalks and sewers were literally crumbling...

Did you think the above paragraph was talking about our San Diego Development Corporations?

No, it's about Kansas City. Here's more:


The oddest couple in politics
My brief, unhappy career working for the mayor of Kansas City and his eccentric wife -- the unofficial co-mayor
By Joe Miller

Kansas City is a Goliath among corrupt cities. From its earliest days as a muddy sin stop on the banks of the Missouri River, through the years when "Boss Tom" Pendergast ran the town with a greedy fist, to the 1990s when a near quorum of its City Council was indicted on criminal charges, K.C. has been at the forefront of graft.

For the last decade, the city has been caught up in a pork fest -- all of it perfectly legal -- the likes of which are unequaled in any American city...