The Washington Post has reportedly lost 8 percent of its online subscriber base in the days since owner Jeff Bezos decided not to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump. Bezos determined the paper would endorse no one.
The Post works in a different world than we do, with a far different readership base and separate traditions.
For us, this wouldn’t be an issue. We don’t do nameless endorsements of candidates or issues, partly because we don’t consider the North Cass Herald to be an institution that deserves the privilege of personhood.
We are, instead, Laurie and Allen, people you know and have known. People you see in the grocery store and feel perfectly welcome to discuss something you’ve read from us, as you should. So when we endorse, which is rare, you know exactly whom you’re dealing with, whether you agree or disagree.
So it’s in this vein that I, with my face staring at you from the page, say this: despite our “redness” as a district, we absolutely must vote purple and put Pam Hatcher into the state legislature from District 56. No one concerned about losing Republican influence in the House has a shred of worry. The General Assembly will remain solid Republican for now, no matter who Belton sends to the House.
But after two terms of Michael Davis, surely we must realize we’re not being represented. He doesn’t live here, and as far as anyone knows, he hasn’t even cared to campaign for a third term in Jeff City since winning the primary in August. And that’s just the start.
His two terms have produced exactly zero legislation that has gotten past committee, and he’s known chamber-wide as the guy who walks up and down the halls of the Capitol with his phone pressed to his ear while only ducking inside the House chamber to cast votes. Early on, he asked a veteran House member just how necessary it was that he attend committee meetings.
Meanwhile, while he was authoring doomed legislation that, for example, would allow law school graduates who hadn’t passed the Bar to practice in Missouri (he’s a law school graduate who hasn’t passed the Bar), agencies like the Missouri Department of Transportation are backing out of promises such as the planned widening of Interstate 49 through and south of Belton with no challenge from our local legislators.
On the other side of the ballot, we have Hatcher, a Belton High School graduate from the 1980s who practically everyone knows, has been a responsible and successful businessperson on many levels. And can anyone imagine her sitting still for a MoDOT decision like the one last year that cast our needs carelessly aside? It won’t happen.
I understand the will to support one’s political party and ideology, I truly do. But on this level, unless the chamber is truly running at 50/50, constituent and district service truly is the most important job of a state representative. Can anyone with a straight face honestly tell me there’s any contest in that regard? Because there isn’t.
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Meanwhile, on the heels of last month’s closure of the MiRancho Mexican restaurant on the I-49 Outer Road, we get the news that Oden’s Restaurant and the Family Cabin on North Scott, both Belton institutions for most of my life, are ending their runs.
This is while the chain restaurants on M-58 Highway continue to fill their seats most evenings despite an often heftier price tag. There’s so much guesswork when figuring out the “whys.” Is North Scott just a hopeless situation? Jim Oden expressed that concern to me several years ago, and I understand. In the time since, the city has marshaled federal grant money to completely rebuild the street, and has worked with multiple businesses in terms of property design in compliance with the “North Scott Overlay.” The design code, which is in place to spur the transformation from air base connection of the 1960s (all base towns had them, low-brow strings of liquor stores, cheap motels and bars), envisions a modern thoroughfare that would support retail, restaurant and corporate trade on the revitalized thoroughfare.
But it takes years. Years that Oden’s and Family Cabin didn’t have.
And interestingly, Laurie brought something to my attention the other day while we were heading up North Scott. Why aren’t the power lines buried on that stretch of road? Until that happens, it’s impossible for me to envision a truly modern and attractive neighborhood. And I truly never thought about it until she mentioned it. Something just always looked wrong about that street and its potential to me. There it was.
I know that’s a utility company project and one the city likely has little control over. But whatever sway there is might be well placed there.
Meanwhile, some good things continue to happen. Lilly's Play and Stay has begun work on a dog training facility that, while not a business open to the public, will feature activity and positive vibes, rather than warehouse storage.
And Danny Chevalier has broken ground on four new contractor garages at the Elmira Circle intersection. He spent two years working with city officials to create a design that would fit within the guidelines of the North Scott Overlay. For a semi-industrial project, it should be a breath of fresh air on a once-decrepit thoroughfare.
But again, it's taken too long.
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