Help for the homeless. Grants for movie theaters. Hydroelectricity. As Kansas prepares to allocate $1.6 billion in federal COVID-19 aid, business groups, non-profit organizations and civic advocates from across the state are pushing a sweeping range of proposals for spending it. They are all angling for a piece of the one-time funding that could prove transformational for a host of programs and initiatives. The money holds the potential to ultimately touch residents in all corners of the state through dollars for affordable housing, business start-ups, new and improved public buildings, better access to higher education and faster broadband internet. How this funding is spent largely rests with a panel of state, civic and business leaders who have been touring the state, listening to local CEOs, non-profit executives and residents make their case for their particular project. Known as SPARK (Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas), the committee will produce recommendations that will go to the State Finance Council, a body made up of Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leaders, for final approval.
Source: The Kansas City Star

At one time, downtown Kansas City was well connected to downtown Kansas City, Kansas. Over the years, there were trains, ferries and streetcars that allowed people to easily move across the Kansas River and across state lines. But those local connections deteriorated with the arrival of the intercontinental railroads and the interstate highways, said Gunnar Hand, director of planning and urban design at the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas. He’s now eyeing a novel way of reconnecting the respective cores of the two Kansas Cities. Hand and other planners are proposing an aerial lift that would move people in gondolas far above the ground.
Source: Kansas City Star