Unfettered Letters

Illegal labor’s effect on economy

What plans are being made to fix the construction depression regarding housing? How are the men and women who were and are displaced by illegal immigrants going to get their jobs back? Many builders and small-business owners have been gleefully subverting the income tax and Social Security systems by paying “contract” wages. Illegal aliens happily take untaxed money across our border.

How is that going to be fixed? How do local workers protect themselves against van loads of workers who are allowed to camp on the job site and undercut the cost of labor so drastically? How do we protect ourselves from poor construction practices when building inspectors turn a blind eye?

Maybe the housing depression is a blessing in disguise. It puts workers on an even field: unemployment. You don’t need building inspectors either, if there isn’t any construction. Trickle, trickle, trickle.

Carol A. Clopton
Kansas City

Save the Imperial Brewery building

I agree with Ted Caster (1/1, Letters) that the preservation of the old Imperial Brewery building would be a beautiful addition to the commute up Interstate 35 into Kansas City. It is also important to remember that, according to the United States Green Building Council, “40 percent of the total solid waste stream in the U.S. comes from construction and demolition.”

It would be a shame to add so much waste while destroying such a nice old building.

Further, as the council also points out, by reusing the building there would be a reduction in the impact on the environment from raw material extraction, manufacture and transportation — another important and worthy goal.

Brian Brookbank
Merriam

Paseo Bridge needs bike lane

I had always expected gasoline prices to set new records, but I still was shocked to spend more than $4 a gallon. Then the Big Three automakers simultaneously needing a bailout certainly was a bigger surprise than that.

Paseo Bridge project director Brian Kidwell needs to take a close look at current events and stop thinking of cycling as recreational (11/18, FYI, “Cyclists push for right of passage; New Paseo Bridge over the river will not have a bike/pedestrian lane”). It’s beyond that for a lot of people, and a dedicated Paseo Bridge bike and pedestrian lane is a definite worthy cause. It’s certainly not too late in the planning to take care of this.

Out in here in the backwoods (Independence) better foresight has been shown. When the Bundschu Bridge was rebuilt a couple of years back, it received dedicated walkways going both ways. And this is in an area that is probably decades from development.

I think the record gas prices will be back sooner than later. The money for the bike lane can be found and would benefit more and more people for years to come.

Mark Breeding
Independence

Remembering Ernie Dunn

Ernie Dunn died Oct. 9. If you wanted to inquire about the construction business in and around Kansas City, his name would pop out at, or near, the top of the list of people responsible for building our town. His father, J.E. Dunn, started what was to become one of the biggest construction firms in the country.

When Ernie was a young man, labor conditions made it necessary for him to temporarily go to St Louis to work as a carpenter. He loved that time in his life and was very proud of his craftsmanship.

With his brother Bill, Ernie carved out an empire in the building industry. It was next to impossible to look in any direction and not see a big royal blue crane sticking up with the J.E. Dunn sign on it.

Ernie was a giant, and all of the people he touched, over his many years, will bow their heads and intone a prayer for him.

Bob Hemenway
Retired general foreman, A.D. Jacobson Co.
Kansas City

West Edge headaches

The residents of Kansas City are without sympathy for the West Edge development (10/9, Business, “Agency: Developer fails to reach goals; The TIF Commission finds West Edge project didn’t have enough minority participation”).

From the beginning it has been a project of greed when it displaced the residents of that block, who were not living in blight. Now construction, which was supposed to be completed in spring 2008, will be delayed at least until spring 2009.

Meanwhile everyone who drives the northbound thoroughfare has had to suffer the closed lanes of traffic. The construction a few blocks north has even compounded the problem.

The city should impose a nuisance fee on projects that interfere with traffic.

Larry A. Vaughn
Kansas City

Strong winds: Our Big Bad Wolf

The “Three Little Pigs” children’s story has a message for adults. For eons, tornado-like winds have followed predictable paths. Like the first two piggies, we build fragile homes. I live in one of those “stick” homes and have been spared twice.

Traveling west from Liberty on 291 Highway, there are thousands of acres of farmland that will have stick homes. One day the Wolf will “huff and huff,” and the destruction will be horrendous. Many lives will be affected. If we continue to build fragile homes in tornado-prone areas, insurance rates will go out of sight.

There are safer designs and better materials that will resist high winds and protect lives, but few builders have the know-how. It is time for the insurance companies to offer large premium reductions and for FEMA to offer large tax breaks to encourage building these safer designs.

Darrell L. Apple
Kansas City

Sprint Center

I recently saw my first event at the new Sprint Center and left with three strong impressions.

1. The glitz of the computer graphics, the exterior of the building and the showmanship were spectacular.
2. A rotating advertising sign in front of the scorer’s table is a standard feature in all new arenas, but the one in the Sprint Center is very annoying because it constantly spins instead of every four to five minutes as in other arenas. The advertisers are paying big money for signs that are annoying and distract from the event.
3. The quality of the building materials appeared to be far below what is normally used in public buildings. The interior walls are drywall and paint. Repairs will be weekly if the building is to remain attractive. The dividers on the handrails for the stairways are made of clear plastic and will be scratched and unattractive within months.

The Sprint Center must be the only public building built in the past 15 years with manual instead of automatic flush valves on the urinals. Within months, handles will be missing and they will not flush. If I spotted these three things in one trip, there must be hundreds more shortcuts that will cost the city huge maintenance and repair bills very soon.

This is what can be expected when the city turns over money to an out-of-town contractor with no local ties. When J.E. Dunn built Kemper Arena and ran over the budget, it found ways to get in the basics with good quality. I remember them donating the concrete stairways on the four corners of the building to keep in the budget.

Ken Landes
Blue Springs

The all-powerful grout

Wednesday’s paper was full of startling revelations, but perhaps the most amazing was the surprise about the true nature of grout.

On Page One, I found the opening paragraphs of a story which revealed that Mosul Dam in Iraq has been held together for decades — as it bottled up some 3 trillion gallons of water and preserved as many as 500,000 Iraqis from death by drowning — by more than 50,000 tons of grout (10/30, A-1, “Mosul Dam crumbling, U.S. warns of calamity”).

On Page 2, I discovered a new medium for presidential sculptures: grout (“The Buzz”).

Is there no end to the wondrous things one can do with this mighty substance?

I have been told that duct tape was like “The Force,” since it has a dark side and a light side and it binds the universe together. But after reading Wednesday’s paper, I have become convinced that the true cosmic power that binds the universe together must actually be grout.

Jan S. Gephardt
Westwood

More green roofs

In response to “Skyline gardens: High above the concrete are green patches of heaven” in Star Magazine (9/30): This should be a requirement by Kansas City because of all of the benefits involved with having a green roof.

What gets me is why you don’t see more solar panels on businesses across this city. I have been in the new H&R Block building, and when I look around at the new entertainment district, you do not see any solar technology or green roofs on these brand-new 21st-century buildings. Why is that, in this day and age?

I would hope the buildings are LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system), but more can and should be done.

If money is on these people’s minds, wouldn’t you think that saving money in the long run would be important to these business owners and developers?

Kansas City — as with cities all across this country of ours — is so behind and not moving on this issue quickly enough.

Scott Keith
Kansas City

Remodeling difficulties

What a great article on remodeling you published in the Sunday edition (7/15, H+H, “Surviving the remodel; Expect life interruptus and construction delays when the work crews move in”). My wife and I moved from California to Bethany, Mo., last year and purchased an older home. We felt sure that no one “back in the Midwest” would give us any problems, but after nine months of having this construction trailer parked in our yard, we realized it was a little more like the nightmare on Beekman Street than a simple remodel.

Keep up the good work of informing citizens how to tackle problems like remodeling, and add a little bit of how to push for legislation to protect consumers. Your article should be made into a small brochure that could be presented to homebuyers in the state, if not every state.

Donald Flau
Bethany, Mo.