conversations: the opportunity of community schools in the kcmsd
because i have a student in the kansas city, missouri public school district, i am more concerned than ever about the wellbeing of our academic institution. towards that end, i have been collaborating with other community leaders and organizations to discuss a recent policy change: abandoning the busing/desegregation program in exchange for neighborhood schools. i am maintaining extensive notes and photos from these conversations.
Lightrail on Prospect
an enlightened public policy -- for economic development, transit, safety and funding reasons -- would be to place lightrail along the chouteau/prospect corridor. this is the corridor starting north of the river at antioch mall near chouteau & i-35 and proceeding south along prospect and eventually to bannister. further details about this policy approach are available on a recent viablethird post.
Community Planning for Neighborhood Leaders Course
The neighborhood that I live in, Ivanhoe, has seen tremendous blessings in recent years. We have an obligation to share those blessings, and the lessons we've learned along the way, with as many other neighborhoods in Kansas City and beyond as we are able. Because of my philanthropic and professional involvements, the area that I feel most able to assist in concerns urban planning. Towards that end, I am co-developing a series of courses that will empower fellow urban advocates and community leaders to initiate conversations amongst their constituencies concerning how land is used in their neighborhoods.
For further information, view the course flyer or the course outline.
Ivanhoe Aggregate TIF
The Ivanhoe A-TIF will collect the increase in property tax over a ten year period for all parcels in the Ivanhoe neighborhood. These funds will be used primarily to rehab housing in Ivanhoe with the goal of providing affordable homeownership opportunities to existing residents. Residents that own their homes would be eligible to receive grants to rehab their properties.
For further information, view the project brief, the application documents.
Ivanhoe Community Benefits Agreement
As Ivanhoe continues to assert its collective interests, partnerships with real estate developers and business developers are inevitable. To guide those partnerships, Ivanhoe has begun leveraging research and language from the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Plan (see below) to create contractual agreements with developers to ensure that certain provisions of the neighborhood's plan are inacted. These agreements -- known as, 'Community Benefits Agreements' -- are legally binding contracts that are developed by the neighborhood and signed by the developer in advance of Ivanhoe lending its support to any project.
This example CBA was used to determine which of two proposed gas stations on the same block Ivanhoe would support. The chosen developer agreed to all provisions (although the neighborhood has since modified two provisions).
Public Improvements Advisory Committee FAQ
As I've become more involved in capital improvements budgeting for KCMO
through my service on PIAC, I have fielded increasing numbers of questions about the PIAC process.
My best advice is contained in the the following PIAC Community FAQ.
Ivanhoe Neighborhood Plan
The Ivanhoe neighborhood has begun the process of creating a comprehensive document that details it's interests concerning land use, zoning, city policy and self empowerment. When complete, the final version of this document will be presented to the Kansas City, Missouri City Council for formal ratification.
For further information, view the cover and the final version of the plan (~12.3M file) .
Alternatives to Institutional Planning
In leading the creation of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Plan, a history of
ineffective (at best) and destructive (at worst) planning emerged alongside the
handful of effective and beneficial planning efforts that had taken place in our
community.
Further investigation revealed that the plan's intended audience and primary
owner made an incredible difference in the local after-effects of planning. This
abstract precedes the paper that a colleague and I are writing to document my
community's planning history from institutional to participatory and finally to
grassroots planning (as demonstrated in the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Plan).
For further information, view the draft abstract.
KCMO 3rd District Infrastructure Planning Forum
The wisdom of planning where civic spending is concerned is rarely questioned. So it should come as little shock that when one community chooses to bring intention and public involvement to its planning efforts while another community does not, the planning community sees its needs met with greater frequency than the non-planning community. In KCMO's 3rd council district -- the most impoverished in the city -- concerning capital improvements and infrastructure planning, we have reaped the benefits that come of insufficient planning and public participation. But there is a vision underway to address that.
Waterman Tennis Arena
The effort that the Stephanie Waterman Foundation has expended has taken hold and produced excellence in many of our youth. Now, flush from the successes of 15 years, the need has arisen for a permanent home. The creation of a world-class, twelve court tennis arena will enhance the foundations work and catalyze much needed economic development in Kansas City's neglected east side.
For further information, view the project brief.
