The Columbia Heart Beat

The Columbia Heart Beat Twenty one years as Columbia, Missouri's All-Digital, Alternative News Source.
2005-2026

08/09/2026

OC scout on a warming fire reconnaissance mission at the Business Loop Dairy Queen, active fire extinguisher in hand. Add another shooting downtown last night and: we hear the Office of Violence Prevention is all over it. Solutions COMING SOON to a cray town near you.




08/08/2026

NOT gonna believe this, .

But here's the Mayor announcing utility rate hikes LAST YEAR! Literally one year ago, August 2025. Which the City Council repeated this week.

Watch the video. She immediately launches her Sesame Street Kindergarten teacher alter ego about LAST YEAR'S water and power rate increases. 😅

What is with City Hall? 🤔 Championing the homeless, DSA Vera, loving on affordable housing, going all WLW on us, then this? Over and over and over again.

"We know affordability matters," she says at the end.

What in the absolute May May ... ??









https://www.facebook.com/reel/2785006921705297/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

08/08/2026

"It ain't worth it, it ain't worth it, beeatch."

These ladies be fighting over our new public safety sales tax. 😅🤣 Where them downtown safety ambassadors at?




To be FAIR, exemplify the quality 🤣 journalism you guys demand every day, and keep our WLW coverage focused and on track...
08/07/2026

To be FAIR, exemplify the quality 🤣 journalism you guys demand every day, and keep our WLW coverage focused and on track:

First Ward City Councilwoman Valerie Carroll voted AGAINST raising everybody's power bills this week.

Fifth Ward City Councilwoman Christina Hartman, who soundly defeated fake conservative Don Waterman, ALSO voted AGAINST raising everybody's power bills. Weak-willed Don would have voted for the rate hike, so good on Christina for saying Hell No.

Surprisingly, DSA Vera, our champion of the poor, unhoused, and destitute, voted FOR the power bill increase. She votes for every greedy city move. Vera: Really? 🤦‍♀️

Pix: Hartman, Carroll



08/07/2026

City Hall public "engagement":
We're right and you're wrong.
Now hush while we tell you why.

OMG you guys! This is SO sweet. You're looking at two new BFFs. Chief Jill and The Mayor at a Wednesday press conferenc...
08/06/2026

OMG you guys! This is SO sweet.

You're looking at two new BFFs. Chief Jill and The Mayor at a Wednesday press conference praising the passage of the new public safety 50% sales tax increase -- by 85 out of 30,000 votes!

Look at how the Mayor is looking at the Chief. No more "de-fund the police" 'tude. Got some 'mirin big sister vibes, too.

Before, the Mayor was like: with pressure from my supporters, I'm kinda sorta maybe okay with defund the police. The Mayor loves to please EVERYBODY, so she's never 100% okay with ANYTHING that might displease ANYBODY.

NOW, thanks to We the People, an extra 85 of whom voted YES -- Just look at this photo! A liberal Mayor in a Blue City College Town, now in charge of a very rare WLW franchise, totally BFFing on the chief.

And they say money (aka taxes) doesn't buy happiness. Or that taxes don't have healing powers.

Sweet Amazing photo credit: Molly Fox, Columbia




City Hall's Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) wants to know what you think about this Matt Moyer sculpture proposed, fo...
08/06/2026

City Hall's Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) wants to know what you think about this Matt Moyer sculpture proposed, for of all places, Flat Branch Park in downtown .

Part of the sculpture looks like a water slide into a pool. It would have to include naked homeless dudes bathing or shooting up to fit the Flat Branch reality. Maybe a ho**er or two hanging around other features.

Which is one of many reasons should shutter City Hall departments like OCA, turning over their powers and duties to the volunteer citizen commissions, in this case the Cultural Affairs Commission, that advise them.

An *independent* citizen commission, aka a Board when they actually have power, would be more likely to debate several artworks, and be less prone to the tone deafness gripping 6-figure city management and the City Council these days.

Office of Cultural Affairs ---> Board of Cultural Affairs = Zero 6-figure taxpayer-funded admins


COST HIKES CITY COUNCIL JUST PASSED or planning to pass. Is all the City Hall rhetoric about affordability really this...
08/06/2026

COST HIKES CITY COUNCIL JUST PASSED or planning to pass. Is all the City Hall rhetoric about affordability really this fake?

50% sales tax hike, from 2 to 3 cents/dollar

In addition to lowering the amount of time for free garage parking, the city of is raising the price of garage parking to $1 per hour, up from 50 cents per hour.

ARC rents for the group exercise room rise from $27.50 to $35.

Meeting room rents rise from $25, $50 and $75 to $30, $60 and $90.

One full gymnasium court rent increase from $75 to $80. Two full courts increase from $121 to $140.

At the ARC Water Zone, two hour pool rentals increase from $160 to $200.

Increase fees for babysitting from $2 to $3 for two hours of service.

Increase the schools-out camp fee from $50 to a range of $35-$155.

Continue riding GoCOMO buses for FREEZ. Since COVID in 2020, the city has waived fares on the bus.

6% electric bill increase

10% water bill increase

Increase cost for 35-gallon roll cart to $14.53, up from $12.87.

Increase cost for 65-gallon roll cart to $18.28, up from $17.37

Pix: tops latest MERIC cost of living in cities study

In this Buz reader comment about their story on the latest downtown-safety brawl between Mayor Barbara Buffaloe and ...
08/06/2026

In this Buz reader comment about their story on the latest downtown-safety brawl between Mayor Barbara Buffaloe and president Mun Choi, Michael Williams cites the contrast then fires away:

"Choi urged city officials to reallocate funding toward direct police resources ... But Mayor Barbara Buffaloe ... emphasized that municipal leaders have already directed substantial support and committed resources to the Columbia Police Department."

Is it possible to read two more opposing descriptions of the same situation?

My read? Buffaloe is asking all of us not to believe our lying eyes. Absolutely pathetic gaslighter.

The plain fact is Buffaloe, Council, and staff have tried to be all things to all people, thinking this is a sufficiently rich community to tax limitlessly all the while spending every dollar possible on WANTS, to the exclusion of many NEEDS.

And now they want us to spend MORE on sales to provide the one thing this City Council is SUPPOSED to be giving us in the first place: fire and protection. This, after blowing untold Fed, state, and local millions on homelessness and other nonsense.

There is no way I'm voting for this sales tax. Cutting off my nose to spite my face? Yes, most certainly.

But this community has to hit rock bottom and realize we've got to quit voting in these weak incompetents that seem to be getting only weaker with each election.

I will NOT countenance this behavior on the part of this mayor and council with my vote. NO!

Pix: Police chief Schlude, Mayor Barb "Safety Savior" Buffaloe, fire chief Schaeffer, Rotary president Jason Knipp, during a tax promotion presentation

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