Sure, the Chiefs and Royals have old stadiums. Taxpayers shouldn’t buy them new ones

On our dime

Yes, our baseball and football stadiums are old. But some say they are among the best in their leagues. There is talk of building new ones. I have two questions: What percentage of Jackson County residents can afford to attend even one game per year at either stadium? And what percentage of attendees at either of the stadiums actually resides in Jackson County?

If new stadiums are in Kansas City’s future, I believe the cost should be on those who would benefit from them. With the present state of our economy, no taxpayer money should be directed to the stadiums. Let’s address the homeless problem, food shortages, utility costs and education. The teams can build their own stadiums.

- Ken Henderson, Kansas City

Just a dreamer?

True, I am a nonagenarian, but I still dream the impossible dream. I dream that the sofa, chair and a heap of other castoffs piled on the street in my neighborhood will magically disappear and that the people who placed them there, who reside at that address, will be fined heavily. This has been going on since they took occupancy about a year ago.

The city’s 311 action center has not been effective in this case. A former City Council member assisted in forcing a cleanup of the site earlier this year, but the offenders are incorrigible. No sooner had the first mess been cleaned up than they started building a new pile in the street.

It is an eyesore and an embarrassment to our otherwise respectable neighborhood. I will keep on dreaming my seemingly impossible dream.

- Louise M. Pfankuche, Kansas City

Voting workaround

A Sept. 21 letter writer (14A) said he was born in New York City in 1933 and doesn’t have a copy of his birth certificate so he can vote in Missouri. I’d like to inform him that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has digitized all birth records since 1910. You can get a copy by mail, but the fastest, easiest way is to go to its website. (Be sure to use the official site at nyc.gov, not a private site offering to do this for a big fee.) I got mine in about three weeks for $15 plus an $8 processing fee. Surely some person or organization can help the letter writer with this.

Unfortunately, once he gets his birth certificate, he will need to stand in line at the department of motor vehicles for his photo ID and then find someone to notarize his mail-in ballot.

I wish him luck in his crusade to eliminate restrictive voting laws in Missouri. In their effort to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters, Republicans in Jeff City also disenfranchised many elderly and disabled voters.

- Mary M. Egle, Kansas City

All about money

I don’t know where the NCAA/NIL sports system is headed, but it’s apparent the NCAA thinks it will shape the future of college sports. But the NCAA won’t. It will be the agents, manipulators and individual athletes who have every right to own their talents and NIL.

To that end, the answer is an NFL regional conference scheme at the Division I level, instituting an NFL-like playoff ladder. Since the advent of NIL and the proliferation of legal sports betting, the power struggle is on to who’ll take charge of the new reality and make the decisions and adjustments going forward. Hey, NCAA: It’s all about the Benjamins.

- Paul Comerford, Blue Springs