Ingram's April 2023

BETWEEN THE LINES

Pointed Perspectives & Penetrating Punditry | by Jack Cashill

Adieu to the Old KCI

It had a certain appeal—convenience, namely—and a few other things we’ll miss. In mid-February, I disembarked after an uneventful flight from Tampa (the best kind), wheeled my bag up the jetway (how is that we put a man on the moon before we put wheels on suitcases?) , walked the 50 or so feet from the gate to the front door, and bid a bittersweet adieu to the old Terminal B at KCI. Before leaving the Southwest plane (I remain a loyalist), I called Park Air Express to come get me. As a sign of the times, they had just gone digital. It was very exciting. From the terminal door to the bus top, it is about a 30-foot walk. I took note. The bus came within a few minutes. There were about eight of us on board. And although people rarely speak to strangers on a 10-minute trip, this group proved surprisingly chatty and nostalgic. “How long do you think we’ll have to walk from the gate to the door at the new place?” asked one guy with more than a hint of snark. With that question, the floodgates opened. My fellow passengers all started talking. They weren’t celebrating the new terminal. They were lamenting the closure of the old. Well, not that old. Kansas City Inter

no more fun to board a plane than to visit a prisoner at the state pen. Less fun actually, as the lines are shorter in Lansing. Still, despite the hassle, we locals loved our airport. KCI continued to outpace other airports in consumer satisfaction surveys, and our TSA people remained the nicest any where. Yes, security was an issue, but civic leaders could have adapted KCI to current needs had they chosen to do so. Instead, they chose to let the old airport run down. Not all at once: There was the small matter of a $258 million facelift in 2004 that, we were assured, would address the concerns of travelers disappointed with the condition of “the front door to Kansas City.” But in no time at all, KCI again accruing all the charm of a Greyhound bus station. A pull out-the-stops propaganda campaign followed. After years of pounding, KC citizens finally said, “No mas,” and voted for a new airport in Nov ember 2017. Ambitious Goals Then the squabbling began in earnest. As is normative today, special interests queued up for their slice of the airport pie. The original memorandum of understanding tried to oblige them all, calling for 35 percent minority- and women business enterprise participation in the airport’s construction. Few, if any, got everything they wanted, but whatever they did get did not exactly reshape the actual work force. When I would drive by the site, I would see few a minority workers— and fewer women—on the job. The middlemen (and women) did much better, of course, but then again, they always do. This subject of quotas—no, sorry, “goals”—was a little too sensitive for the riders on the Park Air bus, but the

KCI was designed for a more innocent era, one in which the “national security state” was some vague concept that had little meaning in our daily lives.

national opened 50 years and two months before my final flight. As a sign of the times, Vice President Spiro Agnew spoke at the airport’s dedication. “Vision, the gift to see the future as a place of hope and progress and expansion,” said Agnew. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is the secret ingredient that has made this airport possible.” Agnew was not electioneering. Two weeks prior, the Nixon-Agnew ticket carried 49 states to win re-election in a landslide. One state that the pair failed to

carry was the Deep State, which would soon enough take its revenge. For those who want clarification, I would rec ommend Geoff Shepard’s definitive account of Watergate, The Nixon Conspiracy , (Full disclosure: It’s a book that I was privileged to edit.) KCI was designed for a more innocent era, one in which the “national security state” was some vague concept that had little meaning in our daily lives. The 1972 airport had minimal security and maximum convenience. Yes, Virginia, in those days a passenger could get dropped off in front of his gate, walk right up the counter, buy a ticket, and board the plane unmolested by probing wands or patting hands. A spate of hijackings in the early 1970s led to the ramping up of security measures, and 9/11 sealed the deal. It became

Jack Cashill Ingram’s Senior Editor P | 816.842.9994 E | Editorial @ Ingrams.com

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Kansas City’s Business Media

April 2023