Making a Neighborhood Better - Edwards Market & Deli

Here's another entry under the heading "good people doing great things".

I stopped at Edwards Original Corner Market & Deli today for lunch. This small shop is located in the Riverview neighborhood at 81 N. Mill Street (corner of Mill and Reynolds) and provides a shining example of what one person can do to stabilize and improve a whole neighborhood.

Owner Dennis Edwards had just finished up cleaning freshly painted graffiti from the front of his building (frustrating how that pops up everywhere!) but he greeted me like he does everyone...with a smile.

Inside his unassuming store, Mr. Edwards sells excellent deli sandwiches along with a great selection of other lunch items and a wide variety of groceries and sundries.

He said that in the four plus years that he's been open, he's tried continuously to unite the neighbors in the blocks surrounding his shop. He believes that when neighbors know each other they will look out for each other and looking out for each other will improve the neighborhood. He talked with pride about the many houses around his store that are either being remodeled or have been recently remodeled. He plans to join his neighbors in the movement as he has a facelift and renovation of his shop scheduled for the coming months.

Another thing he was excited about was his Christmas in October program. He said that he and his volunteers were able to make improvements to three homes in the neighborhood last year and his goal is for 10 this year.

He has five homes on the list so far and is looking for an additional five that could benefit from the Christmas in October program. He's also looking for people who are willing to donate materials or contribute labor to the repairs.

If you know of a home that would benefit from  a Christmas in October improvement or if you would like to volunteer, you can contact Mr. Edwards at OriginalCornerMarket@gmail.com.

Many thanks to Mr. Edwards for re-establishing a neighborhood landmark and for making his corner of District 2 a better place to live, work play!

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
- or -
Suggestion Box

Congressman Kevin Yoder visits District 2

I had a wonderful meeting this morning with Kansas 3rd District Congressman Kevin Yoder, Donny Smith of Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC) and Molly Haase and Ethan Patterson from Congressman Yoder's office.

To start the morning, we headed down to Lou Lou's in Fairfax for breakfast. I know this may come as a shock considering I'm a lifelong Wyandotte County resident, but I had never been to Lou Lou's.

I got the biscuits and gravy and I only have three words to describe my experience…

… oh . my . gosh…

I'm sure I used up my entire allotment of points for the day in my Weight Watchers plan, but, man was it worth it! Definitely worth a visit for breakfast (and I hear their lunches are spectacular as well).

The congressman was in the area to touch base with his constituents and after breakfast, he dropped in for coffee at CHWC and then took a tour of District 2 with Donny Smith and Susan Carroll from CHWC.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that the congressman is actively connecting with the constituents that he represents. We had a great conversation about the challenges and opportunities that we face at both the local and federal levels (turns out a lot of them are the same...).

I'm going to speak for the Congressman (I'm sure he'd agree)  and tell you how important I think it is for all of you to stay in touch with us. Be sure you share your thoughts and concerns with the elected officials who represent your interests in government. Share your plans, tell us your dreams, communicate about your needs. We need this information so that we can make the best decisions possible when we create policies or pass legislation that affects our constituents.

You can reach the congressman through his web site (http://yoder.house.gov/) and you can contact me by email or through my anonymous Suggestion Box (links below).

Have a great weekend everyone!!

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
- or -
Suggestion Box

Kevin Yoder (L) and Brian McKiernan (R) at Lou Lou's

Youth Ambassadors / Alcott Arts Center / Clean Up

So... as you can probably tell from the title, this post is going to wander over several topics (some of which I'll come back to in future posts).

This past Friday morning (6/15/12) I had the wonderful opportunity to meet about 20 middle and high school age boys and girls who are participating in the Youth Ambassadors program at the Alcott Arts Center on South 18th Street (across the street from Prescott Plaza).

I'll post more extensively about the Alcott Arts Center in the future. In the meantime, you can check out what Chris Green and her amazing non-profit crew are doing by visiting the Alcott web site at: http://www.alcottartscenter.org/.

Here's a view of the Alcott Arts Center

from across the street at Prescott Plaza

OK, back to Youth Ambassadors. This very cool program was established in 2010 and "...is a work program designed to provide creative and educational activities that increase self-confidence and resilience in underserved, teenage youth." See their web site at: http://youthambassadorskc.org/. The program started in Argentine, but expanded into District 2 this year through a partnership with the Central Avenue Betterment Association (CABA).

After meeting these young men and women (who represented Bishop Ward, Central, Harmon, Sumner Academy and Wyandotte), I have no doubt that they will be future leaders of our community (or whatever community they choose to call home). We had a great discussion over a range of topics and they asked me a bunch of tough questions (more on that in a future post).

However, a question that stuck out to me was when one student asked what they could do to help clean up and beautify their neighborhoods.

Here were my suggestions to the students (and to all of you who read this blog).

There's not a whole lot we can do to beautify our district that's cheaper and easier than just picking up trash and debris in our neighborhood.

How about this...

• Pick up one piece of trash from your own yard or somewhere around your house and put it in your own trash can.
• Gather a small group of friends, get an empty trash bag and pick up trash on your block until the bag is full (then put the bag out with your regular trash).
• Contact your local Neighborhood Group and see if you can help organize a whole neighborhood clean up. See the map of neighborhood group on the UG web site and contact the Liveable Neighborhoods office to get the contact information for the leader of your local group.

Volunteers for Community Housing of Wyandotte County

(CHWC) clean up in front of a house on North 17th Street

as part of National Neighborworks Week on June 8.

Here's my challenge to everyone in District 2... let's make this the cleanest district in all of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County!!! If everyone does just a little, we can make a BIG difference. Thanks.


~ Brian
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
- or -
Suggestion Box

Wow! Waterway!

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I'll be making up some time in the next couple of days with more than one post. Please spread the word about this blog to anyone and everyone who is interested in District 2 of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County / Kansas City, Kansas.

My route to and from City Hall takes me past Waterway Park (between 11th and 12th Streets north of Grandview Boulevard). As I drove home from a UG meeting this past Monday, I was thrilled to see dozens of people enjoying the park!

Thanks to funding from Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC), a partnership with the Unified Government and the tireless efforts of CHWC community organizer Steve Curtis, Waterway Park has been transformed from a rather unattractive hole in the ground to an urban oasis.

As I drove past the park I saw neighborhood residents having a picnic at the covered picnic table, walking the trail that circles the park, playing on the playground equipment and just generally enjoying the pretty, open spaces. I've included a couple of pictures below (click to enlarge...sorry for the poor quality).

You can read more about the past and future improvements on Steve Curtis' blog at:
http://chwckck.org/http:/chwckck.org/and-then-there-is-waterway-park

Steve does a great job of detailing what has already happened and painting a wonderful vision for coming improvements.

Seeing how much the neighbors were enjoying the space, got me to thinking ... what would it take to make similar improvements in all of the other parks in District 2? By my count there are 10 more parks besides Waterway. Here's the list I came up with.

• St. John's Park (4th & Armstrong)
• Huron Park (6th & Ann)
• Eight Street Park (8th & Ann)
• St. Margaret's Park (7th & Homer)
• Shawnee Park (7th & Shawnee)
• Bill Clem Park (10th & Kansas Avenue)
• Bethany Park (12th & Central)
• Northrup Park (10th & Grandview)
• Waterway Park (Waterway Dr. & Grandview Blvd.)
• Prescott Park (13th & Ridge)
• Lally Park (10th & Central)

Did I miss any? More importantly, what could we do in one or more of these parks that would make a positive difference for the people of the community? Let me know!

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
-or-
Suggestion Box

Volunteers Clean Up South Coy

This post is way overdue!!

Many thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers from the St. Joseph's / St. Benedict's neighborhood who cleaned up a public area at the end of the alleyway between Coy & 8th Streets, just south of Central Avenue.

They worked their magic back on Saturday, March 31.

Former neighborhood resident Pat Winegardner helped organize the cleanup along with Watchdogs neighborhood group president Ann Dercher and a crew of willing and able neighbors.

Pat told me that, "the 'ditch' had not been cleared in yeeeeears" and she said that it looked like a park after the neighbors got through with it.

Thanks also go to Tim Nick and the UG Public Works department for picking up all of the debris that the volunteers collected from the site.

I can't tell you how proud I am of this group for taking the initiative to make their neighborhood a better place to live. We could learn a lot from their example.

I'm sure there are volunteers working on projects like this throughout District 2. Let me know if you're a part of (or if you know about) any efforts to make your neighborhood a better place to live and play.

Here are a few photos of the cleanup effort...

Before the cleanup started 

Hard at work 

 Making it happen

Success!

After the clean up - WOW!

Lunch time