Connecting KC metro to the rest of the world

May 12, 2021 was KC World Trade Day, and the KC Downtowners celebrated the occasion by featuring Melissa Miller, director of World Trade Center Kansas City (WTCKC), as the virtual speaker.

The meeting also marked the transition of KC Downtowners leadership from outgoing president, Kim Gile, community reference manager, Kansas City Public Library, to incoming president, Stan Meyers, client development manager at Terracon. 

WTCKC, established in 1990, is part of a network 330 world trade centers located in more than 90 markets around the world, considered to be the largest global trade network.  Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce holds WTCKC’s license and is one of only three chambers of commerce in the United States to operate a licensed world trade center.

“Our mission is to facilitate international trade in Kansas City by connecting, educating and providing resources and services to the regional business community,” said Miller.

Miller said WTCKC covers the Kansas City metropolitan statistical area comprised of 14 counties across the bi-state region; however, WTCKC has a secondary territory that extends further.  The nearest world trade center is in Rogers, Ark. to the south.  There also is a world trade center in St. Louis to the east, Denver to the west and none between Kansas City and Winnipeg, Manitoba to the north. 

Miller said WTCKC helps businesses of all sizes, types and industries.  To access the resources of WTCKC, a business does not have to be a KC Chamber member. 

Some of the services which WTCKC provides are market and industry briefings and trade education. WTCKC brings in market experts, dignitaries, ambassadors and service providers who specialize in a specific area of international trade to discuss opportunities that they are seeing, market trends and other topics that Kansas City businesses need to know to perform successfully on the global stage.

As of 2019 (2020 numbers are not available yet), the Kansas City metro area was the 45th largest metro exporter, with $7.7 billion worth of goods exports.  Miller noted that the 44 markets above Kansas City are largely located on the coastal regions of the United States, the Gulf region, the Great Lakes region or in major air cargo hubs. 

“So it’s a lot of where those goods are leaving the United States,” Miller said.

Miller said Kansas City, at 8.6% of export share of GDP, trails the national average which is approximately 10%.  The largest markets to which Kansas City area businesses export are Canada and Mexico.

Why does Kansas City need to be global? 

“From a business perspective, you can weather an economic downturn better.  It’s that old adage--don’t put your eggs in one basket.  Businesses that export spread the risk over several markets.  So if one market’s not doing particularly well, you’ve got another market that you can rely on to help offset that,”  Miller said.

Exporting also helps some businesses minimize seasonal fluctuations, said Miller.  For example, a ski gear manufacturer may not make many sales in July, but while it’s summer in the US, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere.

“So that’s another market that you could go sell those products to keep it moving year round so you’re not relying on one market, one season,” Miller said.

Kansas City perceived as a global city is more attractive to site selection committees for large conferences, trade events and sporting attractions like the FIFA World Cup.  It also helps attract global talent to Kansas City and increase tourism.

On the global stage, Kansas City is a learning hub.  Miller pointed to the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor.  Companies are moving to Kansas City not just from other US cities, but from around the world to be part of the Animal Health Corridor, which represents 56% of total animal health, diagnostics and pet food sales.

Miller said there are 238 Kansas City companies that have overseas offices in 75 countries around the world.  Kansas City also boasts 1,135 foreign owned companies, not including branch locations.

The metro area has 34 sister-city relationships, 12 of which are solely with Kansas City, Mo.   There are 21 foreign consulates located across the metro area, and in 2017, Kansas City was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music.

In addition, the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. has an international military program that has graduated 8000 officers from 164 countries, many of whom end up as heads of state.

“It’s in our benefit to be a global city, to be connected with the rest of the world,” Miller said.

Bright future ahead for Kansas City's fourth district

Eric Bunch, Kansas City councilman representing the fourth district, highlighted some positive developments occurring in Kansas City when he spoke to the KC Downtowners attendees at its virtual monthly meeting last week.

Bunch said that despite the fact that the pandemic has been a really tough dark time for Kansas City, there have been “bright spots” where the city has learned to adapt to meet the needs of its citizens and small businesses {Kansas City’s fourth district includes downtown, the Historic Northeast, the Country Club Plaza and a portion of Clay County}. 

These bright spots include allowing restaurants to use outdoor space such as parking lots for seating space.  Bunch said the city realized that this use of outdoor space would benefit restaurants by providing more flexibility, and it made the permitted use permanent. 

Last April, the city also established the Open Streets KC program which allows temporary block-level closures of neighborhood streets to through traffic in order to create more space for people to get outside while maintaining social distancing.  Bunch co-sponsored the resolution.

“So we’re looking at how do we make that program permanent and make it safe for neighborhoods to continue to participate in,” Bunch said.  

Bunch said another bright spot is the anticipated receipt by the city of approximately $195 million from the American Recovery Plan.  Bunch said these monies, to be paid in two tranches, will cover a $70 million revenue shortfall the city had anticipated.

“So actually, we’re going to continue to provide the level of service that you all know and expect, despite being in such an economic downturn,” Bunch said.

The city recently passed its annual budget for its fiscal year which begins on May 1.   Bunch praised the finance department and the city manager for taking a surgical approach to the budget.  Bunch said that not every cut was made to departments equally. 

“I think that some departments need to be preserved more than others in terms of their budget year over year.  But there are also some cuts that came as a policy direction,” Bunch said.

He cited as an example an ordinance that just came out of committee to create a new housing department in order to put housing in the forefront of city policy and decision making. 

Bunch also noted that funds budgeted for street maintenance were doubled.

“I’m excited to see an increased budget for resurfacing as a way to not just fill potholes and prevent potholes going forward but actually to make our streets safer,” he said.

Safety in transportation is a priority for Bunch.  Last May, the council passed a resolution calling for a Vision Zero policy, a comprehensive effort to eliminate traffic violence.

“We’re going to be in the not so distant future probably revealing some high priority projects that would be geared towards making minor to major improvements that are high injury, those intersections where pedestrian crashes often happen more frequently,” said Bunch.

Other bright spots on the horizon for Kansas City include the streetcar expansion into the Berkley Riverfront and to UMKC. 

Bunch also reported that the city has plans to build a new bridge for bike and pedestrian access into Berkley Riverfront.  Currently, there is only one bike and pedestrian access point.

“We’re very excited to actually have a second that will obviously greatly reduce the barriers that exist between downtown and the riverfront,” Bunch said.

HNTB Corporation sponsored the meeting.  Tim Morgan, PE, HNTB’s office leader for the firm’s offices in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa, paid tribute to HNTB former employee and former KC Downtowners president, Jared Miller, who was struck and killed in April 2019, while crossing the North Loop freeway.

Kim Gile, community reference manager of the Kansas City Public Library and president of KC Downtowners, made an emotional presentation of the first Jared Miller Award to Miller’s family, which award was accepted by his wife, Julie Miller, and his parents Darrell and Lynda Miller.

Miller was active civic leader involved in many local organizations.  Gile described him as a changemaker. 

Gile said KC Downtowners will award the Jared Miller Award annually to others like Jared who are dedicated to the quality and success of the Kansas City community.

New KC city manager shares future plans, priorities

Improving efficiencies and supporting underserved communities are among the top priorities for Kansas City, Missouri’s new city manager, Brian Platt.

This week, KC Downtowners welcomed Platt as their monthly virtual luncheon speaker.  Kim Gile, community reference manager for Kansas City Public Library and president of KC Downtowners, moderated. 

Platt, who formerly served as city manager/business administrator for Jersey City, New Jersey, began his role in Kansas City on December 7, 2020.

Citing the city’s $70 million budget deficit for the next year, Platt said he is committed to finding ways to provide and deliver city services without reducing personnel, emergency response times or any crucial services. 

“We’re looking at a lot of ways where we can provide the same services, possibly even provide more of those services, in a much more efficient and cost-effective manner,” said Platt. 

Platt said that since he arrived, the city already has made some specific and aggressive changes to the snow removal policy to make sure that the city is removing snow quickly and efficiently.

As an example, Platt pointed out converting city street lights to LED lights could, over time, cut the annual cost for street lights and their maintenance by nearly one-half.

Platt said he is approaching his new position by listening and learning from the city’s residents and stakeholders to see what the biggest challenges are and will work collectively and collaboratively to identify the best path forward.

“I’m not coming in here and saying this is how I think things should be,” said Platt.

The day before Platt assumed his position, the Kansas City Star released its report on racism in the fire department.  One of the first challenges with which Platt was tasked was tackling systemic racism within city government.

“This problem exists and transcends far beyond the fire department.  It’s in all of our departments and it’s even beyond the halls of city hall, so to speak. It’s a cultural challenge that is not going to be something that we solve overnight,” Platt said.

Platt said the city will be making some big investments to increase staffing in its human resources department and providing management training to make sure managers know the types of behaviors that are acceptable and the best ways to support their staff.

Platt supports making economic development incentives more widely available to underserved communities where there might be some local developers or property owners that have the ability to build a successful project, but might not know or understand the incentive process.

Platt has been speaking with city council members privately - and discussing publicly with community groups - the need for a very detailed, specific and comprehensive development and incentive policy for the entire city.

“One of the ways that a better policy (with) more transparency, more openness will be helpful is anyone in the city, not just the biggest players, not just those with the means and those with the most resources, have access to those incentives.  There seem to be plenty of incentives available.  It’s not a question necessarily of, for the most part, making more incentives available, it’s a question of getting them into the right hands and ensuring that we’re giving them only in the circumstances and cases with the highest need,” Platt said.

Moving from a part of the country where the river is such an important part of the city, Platt was surprised to see so little development along Kansas City’s Riverfront.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity to do more stuff along the waterfront even if it’s just like restaurants and social activities and that sort of thing.  But, it’s one of those resources that absolutely has a lot more potential,” Platt said.

He also said that discussions are underway internally about the opportunity for energy capture from the river itself.

“You think about solar, you think about wind, but we also should think about hydroelectric power.  The water flowing down that river, you may not notice if you look at it, but there are tens of thousands of gallons flowing by every second and that energy and that force of water can be a big, literally, creator of power for the city,” said Platt.