The Reardon Report

I wanted to take a minute to share the remarks I gave today at the Google Fiber Announcement.

I want to thank everyone for attending today. March 30, 2011 is a momentous day for Kansas City, Kansas and our entire region. We are entering into a transformative partnership that will allow Kansas City, Kansas to deploy a next generation fiber optic system throughout our community – one that will benefit both our residents and businesses.

We in the Midwest understand the importance of infrastructure to the building of cities. Our region has benefited greatly from the rail infrastructure that was laid here and the westward expansion that forever ensured our destiny as a crossroads – a region tied to access and connectivity.

The infrastructure of tomorrow is likewise tied to access and connectivity. Technology leads to opportunity and new frontiers, and in this age it is essential that we build a robust connection to information and ideas on the world wide web — so that our connections today can span the globe while at the same time benefiting us locally.

So today, we are proud to announce our partnership with Google: To create those robust connections with a 1 Gig fiber backbone straight through to businesses and homes. An exciting partnership that will help Kansas City, Kansas realize the full potential of the new economy in a world that is becoming more connected every day.

The selection of Kansas City, Kansas as the site for Google Fiber speaks to our community’s commitment to be enterprising, and is the latest example of what we can accomplish when we work together. Google Fiber joins a long list of important milestones and accomplishments in our community – including the development of Kansas Speedway, Village West, the Hollywood Casino, the new Livestrong Sporting Park and our growing partnership with Cerner Corporation. As a result, we are achieving national rankings in job growth during this challenging economy.

The wonderful diversity of our community, neighborhoods and industry make Kansas City, Kansas a microcosm for the rest of the country. When you combine these assets with our well-established track record of development partnerships, we feel Kansas City, Kansas is the perfect location for Google to launch its Fiber Project.

This successful initiative is the result of strong partnerships with our public utility, our business community, and our school districts. I’m excited today to announce that in partnership with Google, our students will benefit from this new opportunity as free high speed access will be provided at schools throughout the city — allowing students to use this ultra high speed network to fully realize their potential in a global economy.

Our government will also benefit by receiving free broadband access at key facilities, allowing us to strengthen public safety and services to our citizens. In addition, the deployment of high speed broadband internet access into our neighborhoods will undoubtedly further advance the academic vision and goals of our local schools, universities, and learning consortiums.

While Google Fiber may be starting out in Kansas City, Kansas, I know that for an opportunity like this to be truly successful, it must expand beyond a single community. It is my hope that cities throughout ourregion will become part of this initiative. It is this regional focus and opportunity that will provide lasting benefit to all of our citizens as we compete around the globe. Today’s announcement will further regional growth efforts in life sciences, technology, manufacturing and entrepreneurialism.

Finally, I want to thank all those that have worked so hard to make this project a reality. It has been a long process but one that will lead to significant benefit. This truly was a team effort and we worked seamlessly with Board of Public Utilities staff to make it successful. Our negotiating team has been fantastic and I appreciate the dedication to this historic project.

To the Google Team, we have enjoyed working with you to successfully bring us to today. Milo, Kevin, Kris and Joe, and everyone on the Google Team, we have developed a strong relationship that I know will carry us to success as we deploy this new technology – right here in Kansas City, Kansas.

We now begin a community dialogue about the details of this project and its benefits to our citizens. We will be working in partnership with Google to implement this technology. I am proud that Kansas City, Kansas will be part of this effort to bring next generation high-speed broadband to cities throughout the US.

I wanted to take a minute to share the official press release for today’s big announcement with all of you. This is a very exciting opportunity for our community!

Google announced today its selection of Kansas City, Kansas, as the location for its ultra high-speed fiber project.

“The wonderful diversity of our community, neighborhoods and industry make Kansas City, Kansas a microcosm for the rest of the country,” said Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government Joe Reardon. “When you combine these assets with our well-established track record of development partnerships, we feel Kansas City, Kansas is the perfect location for Google to launch its fiber project.”

Google unveiled their plan a year ago to build and study the use of ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the country. As part of this process, the company asked interested communities to submit an application. Like more than 1,100 cities across the nation, the Unified Government (UG) submitted an application for this unique and innovative partnership.

“This project represents the future of how we connect to the web, and we want it to start in Kansas City,” said Milo Medin, Vice President for Access Services at Google.  “It is a real honor for Google to be here, and we will work hard to deliver a service that will delight and empower this community to lead the nation forward in broadband.”

Google plans to offer service to the citizens of Kansas City beginning in 2012.  In addition, as part of the agreement, Google will be providing free access to schools and city facilities as the fiber network is deployed.

“The deployment of this high speed Internet service into our neighborhoods will undoubtedly further advance the academic vision and goals of our local schools and universities. Our students will benefit from this new opportunity allowing them to use this next generation fiber optic system to fully realize their potential in a global economy,” said Reardon.

Google has committed to providing 1 gigabit per second fiber straight to homes and businesses at a competitive price. This is 100 times faster than most broadband connections speeds.  One of the company’s goals is to improve Internet access by observing how communities transition from traditional broadband to ultra high-speed fiber optic connections.

“Over the past decade, the jump from dial-up to broadband has led to streaming online video, digital music sales, video conferencing over the web, and countless other innovations that have transformed communication and commerce,” Medin said.

Additional information on the Google Fiber project in Kansas City, Kansas is available at  www.google.com/fiber/kansascityks.

This winter, I had the privilege of speaking to four of our high schools about public service as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy giving his inaugural speech in Washington, DC.  More than anything, Kennedy’s speech was an inspirational call to public service as he challenged us:

“Ask not what your country can do for you —- ask what you can do for your country.”

That call is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. 

In my conversations with our high school students, I asked them to try to find a role in positively impacting our community.  I emphasized how important it was for all of us to make commitments to the betterment of the place we call home.  Commitments to improving the human condition of our neighbors. 

I can tell you many of our students have already become deeply involved in community life.  But opportunities abound and the stories of our collective efforts often go untold.

One institution that has consistently promoted collaboration as a key to moving our community forward is Leadership 2000… a program that fully engages leaders and future leaders in the community and in purposeful impact. Class 24 has opened up a contest asking students in the community to record the ways they or others are making a positive impact on the community.

The contest is open until April 29, 2011 and the full details can be found at www.impactdotte.org.  I encourage our students to participate and share the great stories in our community.  I applaud Leadership 2000 Class 24 for coming up with this great project.

I gave the state of the Unified Government speech on Tuesday, Feb. 8.  We had wonderful turn out.  About 350 people attended the speech and among other things we showcased the new Sporting KC soccer stadium and the opening of the Sara Lee deli meat processing facility in KCK.

There never seems to be enough time to share all of what is happening in our community.  So I thought this space would be the perfect place to present some finer details.  We continue to make impressive progress in making our community safer.  I noted in the speech that violent crime went down 15.7% in 2010 in KCK.  This marks the third year in a row that we have reported less than 1,000 violent crimes in the city.  We are at a 25 year low in both violent crime and overall crime.  

There were other impressive statistics about the progress our police department has made during 2010 that I didn’t get to mention in the speech.  Our police department responded to over 211,000 calls for service last year.  Thanks to an increase emphasis on traffic enforcement we saw nearly 1,000 less traffic accidents then in 2009; a 25% reduction.  And our animal control unit in cooperation with the Humane Society of Kansas City saw the lowest rates of euthanasia on record in 2010.  In 2008 animal control euthanized 2,199 animals, in 2010 a total of only 20 animals were euthanized; over 2,400 pets were saved.  We should do everything we can to ensure this cooperative venture remains in the place going forward.

And while those statistics are impressive I know that we must continue to bolster our efforts to make neighborhoods safe.  Our police department continues to be responsive to our communities needs.  For instance, the department has created a Gang Intelligence Officer position who tracks gang members, gang activity, and graffiti issues throughout the city.    This reflects a hallmark of the department; its positive connections and responsiveness to our citizens and neighborhood groups.

As I said in the speech, I applaud the great work of Police Chief Rick Armstrong and the hundreds of men and women of our police department that honorably serve our community on a day to day basis.  

For this post I am continuing my discussion of the economy.  As we approach our 2011 budget sessions this month the commission and administration will continue to struggle with declining revenue attributable to the recession and another year of falling property values and reduced retail sales.  I will post more about our budget in future posts.

Today, however, I want to focus on another piece of our long term economic dynamic.  In the midst of the immediate economic challenges, our community is breaking records for commercial growth.

Through the end of June, we have issued construction permits for commercial projects totalling nearly $255,000,000.  This figure is at a three year high.  Commercial construction value for all of 2009 totaled $58,460,406 and $104,606,834 in 2008.

Importantly, we have several projects that are likely to move to construction still this year.  This includes the first phase of the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway. And of course construction continues on the Wizard stadium.  Somewhat conservative estimates show expected additional commercial construction of $125,000,000.  This would bring us to approximately $380,000,000 in commercial construction in 2010!

And while much of that activity is in the tourism district, as I noted in my previous post we are seeing commercial activity in various parts of the community from KU Medical Center and Hospital to Prescott Plaza with the new Jack in the Box restaurant to the new CVS pharmacy at 43rd and Rainbow to the Legends Toyota dealership at Parallel Parkway and I-435.

Construction activity today employs thousands in the building and trades and ultimately will lead to the creation of thousands of new permanent jobs for our citizens.  Sustained job creation over the course of the next several years is the surest way in my estimation to recover from the recession and this commercial construction report is a solid indicator of our job creation prospects for the next several years.