kansas citians united for educational achievement - www.kcu4ea.org
it is critical that kansas citians come together, united around a common vision: educational achievement. we must collectively create a school district that works for all children. as kansas citians united for educational achievement, we will become a torch in the darkness of our current educational crisis. we believe in what is possible for our district.

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.

ViableThird
For too long, I have complained about conditions in KCMO's third district. In my self-righteousness, I groaned on about the injustices and inadequacies and crime that seemed to smother the third district. Now I am awake to the reality of the situation: I am the cause of these things. And if I have caused these things, then I can cause something new. Viable third is a personal stand for the possibility of a peaceful, clean, educated and thriving third district that inspires me to be the change i want to see.

Ivanhoe House
The Ivanhoe House will provide student housing for local college students. In exchange for service learning credit and real-world experience, the students will tutor/mentor youth in the community surrounding the property.
For further information, view the project brief, application or a draft press release. Recently I've been asked -- with increasing frequency -- to clarify my vision for ivanhoe house.

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).

Urban Men's Leadership Academy (a charter school that is an all-male, inner city, public high school)

University Porch (Significant improvements on the Ivanhoe House concept)

Ivanhoe Community Improvement District (CID)

Legislative Duty
Citizen engagement in the local legislative process is an untapped potential of our democracy. I've honed my own thinking on this subject into several core beliefs and one important concept: legislative duty. A close cousin to jury duty, this form of direct, deliberative, consensus-based citizen participation technique will challenge our conventional notions of authentic citizen participation. Ideally, concepts such as this will reinvigorate our democracy and will remind the citizenry that voting is only intended to be the most basic form of civic duty, not the end of our collective responsibility. Legislative Duty is further described in this concept brief.

Ivanhoe Land Bank
The goals of the Ivanhoe Land Bank are to make housing affordable for Ivanhoe?s residents and to keep housing affordable in perpetuity. The project will make home ownership affordable by removing the cost of the land from the purchase price. In this arrangement, the homebuyer purchases the house, but leases the land from the Land Bank in a secure, long-term, transferable, renewable and exclusive agreement.
For further information, view the project brief.

Women & Children's Wellness Center
The Women & Children's Wellness Center is a concept designed to address the unique needs of women and their children, particularly surrounding pregnancy. This facility will house clinical, educational and social programming created to benefit an intentionally narrow geographic and demographic clientele most affected by infant mortality. Specifically, this facility is intended to be a Wellness home to the women in the 64110, 64127, 64129, 64130 and 64132 zip codes.
For further information, view the project brief.

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.