Coffee and Conversation (Part #1)

About 70 people from District 2 gathered together on Saturday, August 25 for the first of (hopefully) many "coffee and conversation" meetings.

I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see everyone who responded to my postcard and showed up on Saturday morning. I hope that everyone who attended had a good time. I know that I completely enjoyed our morning together.

For those who couldn't make it, don't worry… we're planning to host another breakfast in about six months. Next time, we'd like to double the number of people in attendance.   :-)

For those of you who weren't able to attend, here's how we organized the gathering. After everyone had an opportunity to get little breakfast, I shared some information with the group and then opened the floor for comments, ideas, suggestions and questions.

I got a literal *ton* of great feedback from everyone who attended. Thanks!

I'm still collating and summarizing all of that feedback and I plan to print a report in an upcoming blog post very soon.

Today, however, I'm going to share some of the information that I presented to the group on Saturday along with a few of my thoughts, observations and questions about that information.

It's a lot of material and it makes for a long blog post, but I encourage you to stick with me. Interesting stuff coming...

District 2

First of all, as a reminder, the boundaries of District 2 are roughly State Line on the east to 18th Street on the west and State Avenue on the north to the Kansas River on the south. Here's a map.

Here's a map of District 2.

Click to enlarge and see street names.

Population
I looked at census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010 to try to get a sense of who we are and where we're going. Here is some of what I found.

(Disclaimer – All of the data on this page were gathered by me from census documents. These data are accurate to the best of my knowledge and to the best of my ability to interpret and extract data from census tables, charts and reports. Any errors are unintentional.)

The total population in District 2 in 2010 was 19,980. That's about the same as 1990 and higher than 2000. I think this is good because it shows that people are coming back to the district. Woohoo!

Although the total population has stayed the same, the data suggests that we've gotten a little younger over the last 20 years. In the graph below I collapsed all the age group data into "17 and under" and "18 and over". Compared to 1990, there are a few hundred more people "17 and under" and a few hundred fewer people "18 and over".

This suggests to me that younger families with younger children are moving into our neighborhoods. If that's the case, then we need to go out of our way to welcome those new families to our community and help them get settled so that they are good neighbors for years to come.

The biggest eye opener comes when we look at how the ethnicity of the district has changed over the last 20 years. There has been a large increase in the Hispanic population (of any race) and a somewhat proportional decrease in the non-Hispanic population.

Again, this suggests to me that we have new people moving in from outside of the district. We must meet these new folks, welcome them and help them get settled in our neighborhoods so that they are encouraged to help make our district a great place to live, work and play.

Household Income

The median household income for District 2  in 2010 was $28,392.

It's really important to remember that "median" is not the same as "average". The median is the value that's halfway between the biggest and the smallest. A median value of $28,392 means that we are definitely not an affluent district overall. However, the 2010 value is higher than the 2000 value, so we are moving in the right direction! We need to keep supporting local businesses and helping them find new and better ways to hire our residents into better paying jobs.

Housing
The median value of an "owner-occupied" house in District 2 was $62,648 in 2010. Again, this is median, not average, so there are a lot of houses in our district that have a pretty low appraised value.

My first thought when I saw the number was, "Yikes, that's too low!", but then our UG "data guy" Mike Grimm told me that the median value of an owner-occupied house in District 2 had actually increased 120% from 2000 to 2010.

WOW!

That suggests two things to me: 1) we're tearing down old and low value houses (see below); and 2) public, private and not-for-profit agencies that build and/or rehabilitate housing units are making excellent progress in raising the quality and the value of the housing stock in our neighborhoods. We're not where we want to be, but we're on the way.

The next graph shows the total number of housing units and compares occupied against vacant. The total number of housing units in District 2 is lower today than it was in 1990. I think that this reflects the demolition of a lot of older and unlivable housing units.

American Community Survey (2006-2010)

Getting rid of junk housing is great, but here's what I don't like...

We've lost housing units overall which means that we're tearing down junk faster than we're building new. That can't continue.

Also of concern to me is that this graph shows we still have about 1,400 vacant housing units in 2010. Since vacant houses are often eyesores and seem to be magnets for people who are up to no good, we must lower that number by fixing up those properties and putting people in them.

Finally, in 2010 the number of rental units in District 2 grew larger than the number of "owner-occupied" units for the first time in recent history.

American Community Survey (2006-2010)

The increase in rental units makes sense if you think about how bad the economy has been the last few years. Many families have decided that it's better to rent than to own until the economy improves.

However, we need to make sure that renters are protected from bad landlords who just take rent money and don't re-invest in properties and we need to make sure that landlords are protected from bad renters who don't pay rent and/or ruin property. I'm also concerned that absentee landlords who don't live anywhere near our community don't have an incentive to make our neighborhoods the best on earth.

So...there you have it. The background information I presented to everyone who attended our breakfast on August 25. Interesting stuff. Click either of the links below to share your thoughts, ideas and perspectives with me.

Coming next...my thoughts about the 2013 Unified Government budget. You don't want to miss that!  :-)

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Bhutanese Community Garden Inspires

Humbled. Inspired.

Those are two of the many feelings that washed over me as I stood and admired the Kansas Bhutanese Community Garden before a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning.

I was blessed to be invited to the official dedication of thoroughly amazing space. I was joined by Commissioner Mike Kane and many other great KCK folks for a neat event. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But first, a little background...

The Prescott neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas is now home to about 125 families who relocated as refugees from Bhutan (a small country that is located northeast of India in South Asia). Difficulties in their home country have forced hundreds of thousands of Bhutanese natives to relocate to other countries around the world, including the United States.

Bhutan is roughly in the center of this Google map.

Click the map to enlarge. 

I've underlined the country name on the map.

I was privileged to meet and talk with Mr. Bhola Siwakoti this morning. He is president of the Kansas Bhutanese Community Foundation (see their Facebook page here) and he told me great stories of people travelling and settling down right here in KCK.

Now, back to the garden...

The garden is located at 323 S. 14th St. and came about through the cooperative efforts of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, Cultivate Kansas City, the Kansas Bhutanese Community Foundation and the Unified Government. The land for the community garden was acquired by the group from the Unified Government Land Bank. For those who aren't familiar with the Land Bank, the Unified Government keeps a "bank" of property in Kansas City Kansas that is tax delinquent and/or has been abandoned by its previous owners. Mr. Chris Slaughter works tirelessly with community partners to return those abandoned parcels to productive use.

The garden sits between South 14th St. and Valley St.

just north of I-70

I am a member of the standing committee that approved the transfer of the land from our Land Bank to the Bhutanese community. Since we had just transferred control of the land in April of this year, I wasn't expecting much when I got the invitation to the ribbon cutting. I figured they'd have a fence up and maybe have some plots marked out, but little more.

I couldn't have been more wrong…

What I saw when I arrived was stunning. About an acre and a half of land that was not only fenced and divided into plots, but fully farmed with some of the biggest and healthiest looking plants you'll find in all of the Midwest. Mr. Siwakoti told me that 26 families are currently tending plots and that six more families plan to join them soon. He said that there are 30 more families who have expressed an interest in tending a plot, but they have to clear and prepare more land before that can happen.

Most of the crops being cultivated are the same crops

that you'd find if you visited any garden in Bhutan or Nepal.

I can't put into words how proud I am of everyone who made this happen in Kansas City, Kansas. Thanks to Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, Cultivate Kansas City and, especially the Kansas Bhutanese Community Foundation for providing a shining example of the positive things that can be accomplished even under the most difficult of circumstances.

Everywhere I turn it's the same thing… great people doing great things in Kansas City, Kansas. Keep it up everyone!

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Duchesne Clinic Makes a Difference

If you've ever driven on 7th Street by City Hall, you may have wondered, "Just what is that building?" when you passed a dark brick structure south of St. Mary's / St. Anthony's Church.

Well...decades ago that building housed St. Anthony's elementary school. However, these days it's home to the Duchesne Clinic... one of the jewels of Kansas City, Kansas.

Duchesne Clinic - 636 Tauromee Avenue

The folks at the Duchesne Clinic hosted an open house on Friday, August 10 and I had an opportunity to learn first hand about the wonderful work the physicians, staff and volunteers are doing for low-income uninsured residents of Wyandotte County.

Here's how Development Director Karole Bradford described the clinic to me...

"Founded in 1989 by the Sisters of Charity, Duchesne Clinic is a primary care doctor’s office for low-income uninsured residents of Wyandotte County. So far in 2012, Duchesne has seen 23% more patients and provided 36% more appointments than in the same period last year. That works out to 200 more patient appointments every month than last year. In addition, last year brought a tremendous upsurge in very sick 'high-acuity' new patients at Duchesne Clinic.

"Often referred to as a 'safety-net' or 'free' clinic, Duchesne Clinic provides the same services as most family doctors in a welcoming, compassionate environment.  The difference is that our patients have no insurance, not even Medicaid or Medicare, and no way to pay for their care. Patients are asked to pay $15 per visit, but no patient is ever turned away because of inability to pay.

"Our patients are poor or low-income, 70% are women, over 80% have one or more chronic disease. Patients come to Duchesne Clinic through a number of community outreach partners; social service agencies, the public health department, hospitals, other safety net clinics, and local doctors’ offices.  However, over 70% of patients report that they were referred by family or friends. Similarly, most patients tell us that they recommend the clinic to others.  Our most effective outreach is good patient care."

I was very impressed with the clinic. The waiting areas were inviting, the exam rooms were well-equipped and the staff were friendly and helpful.

The clinic provided 11,447 patient appointments in 2011. In addition to their onsite staff, the clinic has 21 physician volunteers and over 50 total volunteers. Many thanks to everyone who has a hand in making this clinic a valuable resource for the residents of Wyandotte County. This is just another example of what I find in Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas every day... great people coming together to do great things!!

If you'd like to learn more about how you can help the clinic make a difference, just visit their "How You Can Help" webpage.

 ~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Armourdale Summer Recreation Program a Success!

"Can do" spirit wins again.

The air was filled with excited conversation and laughter last Friday afternoon at the Armourdale Recreation Center as over 75 elementary school-age children showed their stuff by singing, dancing and acting their way through a very cool talent show to wrap up Armourdale Renewal Association's summer recreation program.

I had the wonderful opportunity to join parents, families and friends to witness the program and I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.

Parents, families and friends eagerly await the start of the show.

Historically, the Unified Government's Parks and Recreation Department used to fund summer recreation programs at all of the recreation centers across the city. Unfortunately, budget cuts over the years forced the UG to gradually discontinue those programs.

The folks at Armourdale Renewal Association (ARA) decided that they valued the program enough to find private funding to keep it going. Patty Dysart and Kim Hausback are the driving forces behind ARA and they have done a great job of rallying the community to support the kids.

Individuals and businesses throughout the Armourdale community give generously to make sure that the kids have a quality summer program. The Unified Government Parks and Recreation Department partners with ARA and opens the Armourdale Recreation Center, then ARA does the rest.

Although you can't really see it (poor camera work on my part),

one of the talent show acts made great use of Silly String!

The Armourdale summer rec program lasted for six weeks. Anywhere from 75 to 90 kids came to the recreation center five days a week from 9:00 through 2:30 each day.

The fearless leader of the summer program was Josh (Coach) Boswell. Mr. Boswell is the PE teacher at John Fiske Elementary School in Armourdale and he directed the daily activities of the summer program. It was clear throughout the afternoon that the kids think the world of Coach and really appreciate all of his hard work on their behalf.

Mr. Boswell was assisted by two college students who are working toward degrees in childcare science and 12 high school-age "team leaders" who received a stipend through the BPU summer youth program. It was very cool to see these young men and women take true leadership roles in helping direct program activities.

Coach and his crew had activities planned every day. In addition to general daily "stuff" (and swimming on Fridays), the kids all participated in Armourdale's own version of the Summer Olympics.

All of the kids were divided into teams and each team took on the name and flag of a country that's participating in the Summer Olympics. Then, the teams battled one another in all sorts of athletic and artistic competitions throughout the summer. In between acts at the talent show, Coach handed out medals to all of the individual and team winners of the Armourdale Summer Olympics.

As this summer's program came to an end, Kim was already looking forward to next year. She said that one of the new projects for next summer will be the creation of a community garden. A neighbor near the recreation center has agreed to let the summer program use a plot of land and the kids will plant, tend and harvest the garden.

Congratulations to everyone who had a hand in making this year's Armourdale summer recreation program a success! You give all of us a powerful example of how a community can pull together and do great things.

Coach Boswell (back row, second from left) and his teen team leaders

celebrate another successful summer.

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org

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Google Fiber One Step Closer

Many thanks to everyone who has sent a note saying that they enjoy this blog.

My goal is to continue informing and educating folks about the Unified Government and about District 2 (my home district). Today we're headed off into a looooooooong post about cyberspace, because yesterday Google unveiled the details of how it will provide gigabit Internet to the citizens of Kansas City.

It was really exciting news.

It was particularly great news to me because my wife and I fight. Now, before you say, "That's too much information, Brian" or "It sounds like you need family counseling" let me clarify. We fight over the Internet.

My wife works for North Kansas City Hospital. She works from home three days a week. On those days, she uses the Internet to connect to the hospital servers all day long.

If I'm also home on any of those days and try to work from home by connecting to the servers at Rockhurst, my wife and I compete for Internet connectivity and we definitely slow each other down.

We are excited that the new Google fiber service may allow both of us to work full speed at the same time.

City Hall displays Google colors

on Thursday evening

Fiberhoods and Pre-Registration
However, it's not as easy as just saying, "Hook us up."

Google has divided our city into what it calls fiberhoods (fiber neighborhoods...get it?). Google will not run its fiber cable into any fiberhood until a minimum number of residents have pre-registered and confirmed that they are interested in signing up for the Google Internet service.

Here are some screenshots taken from the Google fiber website this afternoon. They show the different fiberhoods that Google has created with in District 2 of the Unified Government. You can find your neighborhood in one of the pictures below (click any picture to enlarge it).

You can see how many people are already pre-registered in your area and how many more it will take before Google adds your fiberhood to its list. If you are interested in pre-registering for Google connectivity, simply go to www.google.com/fiber and type in your street address. There is a $10 "up front" fee for pre-registering.

It's interesting that each map lists the schools and public buildings that will get a free connection once the fiberhood itself reaches its target sign up. Those schools and public buildings won't get a Google Internet connection unless the fiberhood around it meets the pre-registration goal.

So...What Will All This Cost?
If it costs $10 just to sign up, what will the service cost once it arrives in neighborhoods later this year?

Google has outlined all of that on the Plans and Pricing page of its fiber web site. The breakdown is pretty simple (but be sure to thoroughly read *all* fine print on the Google web site).

• Gigabit Internet + Google (cable) TV = $120 per month with no up front installation fee.

• Gigabit Internet = $70 per month with no up front installation fee.

• Free Internet = $0 per month after paying a $300 up front installation fee (the $10 pre-registration fee counts toward this total). This last option is probably the most interesting. Although $300 is a fairly hefty installation fee, you can pay $25 a month for 12 months and then Google will guarantee an additional 6 years of Internet service at no additional charge (no monthly bill) after installation (7 years total). The speed of this connection will not be the same "1 Gigabit" speed as its premium service, but will be "5 Megabit" speed, which is roughly the same as today's "fast" DSL or cable Internet connections.

Cool stuff, but here's a couple of parting thoughts and a couple of questions. There are many people in our city who, frankly, don't have the financial resources to pay for Gigabit Internet service. So, could this program ultimately deepen and widen the digital divide (the "haves" get more and the "have nots" still don't have anything)? "Free" internet connectivity sounds like a great thing, but it still costs $300 per household to get the free service. Is there a way to creatively find some funding for "scholarships" or "grants" that would allow people with limited financial resources to join the Google bandwagon?

Learn more on the Google Fiber KC Blog.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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When is a dollar not a dollar?

The answer is, "When it's a 'budget' dollar, of course."

We're knee deep in wrapping up the revised 2012 budget and the initial 2013 budget for the Unified Government. Commissioners and staff alike have been putting in lots of hours to make sure that we have the best budget possible for the residents of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County.

Property taxes account for the bulk of income into our city and county general funds. I'm not sure any of us like writing those checks every six months, but that money is critical to the operation of our city.

However, I was reminded again last night at our budget work session how easy it is to fall into a trap of misperception when we write the check to pay our property taxes.

In their budget presentation, our staff provided us with a reminder that less than half of every property tax dollar actually gets used to pay the expenses of the Unified Government.

Take a look at this graphic (click to enlarge)...

This picture clearly shows that only 47 cents of every property tax dollar actually goes to help the Unified Government pay its bills and provide services to its citizens. It's easy to overlook that fact since we all write our property tax checks to the "Unified Government Treasurer". But the UG passes over half of our money along to other taxing entities.

Here's the breakdown:

Unified Government (Kansas City)                 26 cents
Unified Government (Wyandotte County)       21 cents
USD 500 (K-12 public schools)                       34 cents
Kansas City, Kansas Community College      13 cents
Public Library                                                     5 cents
State of Kansas                                                 1 cent

Anyone who lives in Turner, Edwardsville or Bonner Springs has a slightly different breakdown since they contribute to a different school system, but the overall picture is the same.

I frequently hear people say that the Unified Government should work hard to lower property taxes. We hear you. We held the line on the property tax rate this year, and everyone associated with the UG is working hard to find ways to lower the property tax rate in the future.

But you have to remember that the UG only controls 47% of the total property tax bill. So, if you believe property taxes should be lower, be sure to share your thoughts with representatives of the Unified Government AND with representatives of the other organizations that receive property tax dollars.

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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Minnesota Avenue Revitalization - First Steps

So, a friend of mine saw me yesterday and chuckled, "Where you been, blog boy? It's been weeks since your last post."

Well... combine a mid-week holiday and an especially busy week at my "day job" at Rockhurst University and I've fallen way behind.

But I have a couple of great stories and a bit of personal opinion to share, so here's a long post that will be the first of several to finish out this week.

Last Friday morning (July 13) I had the wonderful opportunity to be present at the ribbon cutting for the newly renovated building at 727 Minnesota Avenue that will serve as the headquarters for the Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the Wyandotte Economic Development Council.

Despite the summer rainstorm that moved the event indoors, it was a great morning. This wonderful, historic building was completely gutted and renovated into a spectacular office space. Cindy Cash, Greg Kindle and their respective staffs are doing a fantastic job of moving KCK and Wyandotte County forward. This will be a great new "home base" for both groups.

727 Minnesota - Cloudy skies, but a great day!

I commented on Friday morning that I'm confident that the renovation of this building will be the first domino in a revitalization of Minnesota Avenue from one end to the other. I predict that, within the next couple of years, we will have many, many new reasons for people to come live, work and play around Minnesota Avenue.

NEXT STEPS
There's going to be a ground breaking this coming Friday (July 20) at 7th and Minnesota to mark the start of a project that will not only beautify a chunk of Minnesota Avenue, but will also make it easier for people to get to and from our downtown.

The groundbreaking will mark the start of construction of a major transportation center that will be an anchor of the new State Avenue Connex bus line. The 7th and Minnesota MetroCenter will occupy the southeast corner of the intersection (the current green space). Here are a couple of artist's drawings of what it will look like.

Looking east along Minnesota Avenue from 7th to 6th

Looking south along 7th Street from Minnesota

When it's fully operational, the bus route will stretch from 10th and Main in Kansas City, Missouri all the way to Village West! The construction will occasionally make travel on Minnesota Avenue a challenge, but our downtown will remain open for business and the end result will be amazing!!

OUR CHALLENGE
OK, it's not all peaches and cream. Here's our challenge...

The TIGER grant that will fund the construction only covers street improvements for about a half block in each direction away from 7th and Minnesota. That's going to leave two "half blocks" (from 6th to "6th-and-a-half" Street and from "7th-and-a-half" to 8th Street) still looking like the "Pylon Plaza" of the early 70's. I don't think that's acceptable, so our challenge is to find the funding to "finish off" the remaining half blocks so that we have beautiful streets and sidewalks all the way from 6th to 8th. We're going to need to work together to pull this off. I'm open for ideas if you have them.

COMING UP...

• Google fiber update
• YouthWorks does GREAT things in KCK
• My thoughts on curbs, alleys, sidewalks and the "grind and overlay" program for city streets

~ Brian

bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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