Monday, Feb. 08, 2010
COMMENTARY Gates’ vision encompasses many projects and potential
By STEVE PENN
The Kansas City Star
By STEVE PENN
The Kansas City Star
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ReprintNothing entrepreneur Ollie Gates does is by accident. Every move he makes is calculated and planned. Take the events last week as an example.
Last Tuesday parks and recreation commissioners gave the Enshriners, the fundraising group that Gates belongs to, preliminarily approval to build a memorial to African-American veterans in the median of the Paseo between 11th and 12th streets.
Then on the weekend, Gates made more news when he agreed to take over the fundraising and initial construction of the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center.
If you think that Gates’ involvement in the two projects — both along the Paseo — is just by coincidence, then you don’t know Gates. There’s a definite synergy involved.
“There’s a direct connection,” Gates said last week. “A whole lot of things can happen if we pay attention to what we’re doing and kind of concentrate our efforts in one central area. I look at it collectively. We don’t have anything that continues to pull people into our community. Our area of town should be celebrated, not tolerated.”
Gates would also like to see the median from 12th to 18th streets along the Paseo be used as a sculpture garden.
“I’d like to see monuments all the way down along Paseo so there’s an attraction commemorating people who have done things,” Gates said. And he would like to see a trolley car run along the Paseo median.
He said the trolley could draw people to the area who might not otherwise visit, allowing them to discover attractions such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Gates will apply for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project to make the O’Neil center a reality. Grants are awarded each month. The effort may need votes from the public cast on a Web site in order to be to be selected. Stay tuned.
Gates has a definite motive behind seeing the construction of the O’Neil center completed. O’Neil and Gates were close friends. And a true friend finishes what his buddy started.
“He became a friend of mine,” Gates said. “He had the same kind of notions. Like me, he had a love for Kansas City.”
In completing O’Neil’s legacy, Gates will undoubtedly cement his own.
“It’s just like Bruce Watkins,” Gates said. “He started things that needed to be finished. And if I die before I’m through, then I’ll have things that need to be finished. The job is never done.”
If you had to pick one person in town with the drive and the clout to get the project completed, it would probably be Gates. He has a track record of accomplishments. He has built a few things around town. He has connections. And if anybody could persuade the philanthropic community to support the project, it would be Gates.