Film documents downtown KC's rebirth
By David Martin in Entertainment, Martin
Fri., Oct. 9 2009 @ 11:15AM
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| The Next American Dream |
The Next American Dream is essentially a story about suburban sprawl, peppered with pretty images of the Sprint Center and First Fridays. Funded by the Greater Kansas City Area Development Council, Dream paints a portrait of a city a bit more dynamic and progressive than it really is. But by the end credits, even cynics of the way business gets done in Kansas City will feel excited by what's taken place over the last five to 10 years.
The program is beautifully photographed and uses an interesting mix of experts. In addition to the ghosts of Kansas City CEOs past (Gary Forsee, Mark Ernst, Peter Brown), the filmmakers interviewed Bob Berkebile, the environmentally conscious architect, and Christopher Leinberger, an urban land strategist affiliated with the Brookings Institute. Leinberger does an excellent job of explaining the postwar suburban flight that left urban centers in decay. At one point, Leinberger chides the U.S. politicians and planners for throwing out the knowledge ("what the ancients knew instinctively") accrued over 8,000 years of city building.
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City leaders deserve credit for being proactive. But some balance would have been nice. The Next American Dream fails to mention that Kansas City is up to its eyeballs in debt, or how the flurry of tax abatements affects the bottom lines of the school and library systems.
There are a few unintentionally hilarious moments. Early in the film, Terry Dunn, the president of J.E. Dunn Construction, offers a twinkle-eyed, boyhood memory of taking a street car downtown.
Of course, as an adult, Dunn has worked to deprive Kansas City of the light rail system it conspicuously lacks.
Air dates for The Next American Dream are available here.
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