Kansas City's proposed downtown streetcar was moving toward a special-district vote that would impose additional taxes on property owners and shoppers within the district. Even the Kansas City Star, generally supportive of civic development projects, had begun expressing concern about the burden the financing plan could place on downtown residents and businesses.

That hesitation was warranted. Kansas City already relied heavily on taxes, and layering new sales and property levies onto a relatively small district risked making downtown activity more expensive while committing taxpayers to an uncertain transportation investment.

Large civic projects need not depend primarily on compulsory public financing. The privately supported Kauffman Center offered a useful contrast: if a project has sufficient value to its beneficiaries and supporters, private financing should play a much larger role than it did in the streetcar proposal.