Cities create environments by providing services that connect communities, bus lines, bike lanes or walking trails. Park systems with easy access and spaces to exercise, benches to sit on, recreational areas for kids, landscaping and sculpture to visually inspire young and old. When done right Parks can be a hub in urban communities to bring people together, to socialize, picnic, or just hang out in the sun. Nearby businesses can benefit if they are able to provide food or beverage service to park goers. Local schools can take advantage of these spaces to do discovery projects, open air classrooms with students or simply reward them for good behavior.

Cities that use Parks as a hub to spur economic growth, engage community, provide healthy lifestyles for its residents and offer entertainment also help stabilize housing markets and create environments that attract new families to the neighborhood. Parks are a great investment for cities, communities and for homebuyers. Studies show that real estate valves  around neighborhood parks are 20% higher and that valve can extend up to 1,000 feet from the park. Simply adding a tree to your own property can increase its valve by as much as $5,000. So Parks do matter and if viewed as a potential investment for the city, for the community and for its residents every penny invested pays for itself in short order.

Parks are great places for cities to try new things. Develop pilot programs for health and wellness, test energy efficient solar lighting for park safety, advance storm water runoff management, eco cuts to save government dollars on gasoline and maintenance. Trees in our parks and along street right aways also help filter pollution and replenish our oxygen supply.*”A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings.”

The point of all of this is that Parks are not only a great natural resource but they also offer the opportunity for government, business, institutions and communities to work together, to invest together to create environments that can benefit all elements of our community – not just today or next year but for the future and for everyone.

*McAliney, Mike. Arguments for Land Conservation: Documentation and Information Sources for Land Resources Protection, Trust for Public Land, Sacramento, CA, December, 1993

On the 20th they held a session at CHWC – asking questions, sharing ideas and collecting data. It was a great session, lots of cool ideas about government sharing data and assets with the community to solve problems. They have another session this Saturday at the Kuaffman Foundation Conference Center (for details http://on.fb.me/WWlPia). The team is headed back to San Francisco in another week or so but will be returning off and on for the next year to develop apps to help government and communities work closer together to solve mutual concerns.

This is a great opportunity for both Kansas Cities. So if you haven’t been paying attention its time to wake up, smell the coffee and get involved.

A place where people can gather, can meet, share ideas and get to know one another. These environments are essential for our socialization. In urban neighborhoods many of the things that used to bring us together – like downtown shopping districts, neighborhood schools, mom and pop stores, park and recreational centers have been shut down, moved on or are under funded. Citizens have to deal with aging infrastructure, higher taxes and now bear the responsibility of maintaining alleyways, sidewalks and curbs or bringing their 100 year old homes into code compliance of new home standards.

Quality of Life means a lot of things. It involves almost everything that influences a neighborhood from government regulations and ordinances, variety of housing stock, ratio of rental property to home ownership, household incomes, type of schools, cultural diversity, park services, youth programs, leadership and resident accountability. If you don’t have the recipe – that can be a tough cake to bake. Unfortunately, there isn’t a recipe that fits every neighborhood or maybe any neighborhood.

You can have meetings and sounding sessions that may help exposure the most pressing issues, concerns or trends but any long term solutions come from neighbors getting to know one another. Developing lines of communication and trust with government, civic organizations and surrounding neighborhoods. It comes from creating a common sense of purpose about why we live here and why it is important that we learn to work together toward common goals. Its about believing in who we are and that what we do matters. Creating those – Gathering Places – is the first step in moving those types of conversations from small groups on our front porches to engaging the greater community. Sharing our ideas and cultures. Developing trust and friendships. Working on projects together, engaging our youth and our government and finding ways we can work together to make our communities better.

Los Angles spent 7 million dollars last year abating graffiti. Omaha about $100,000 and Kansas City, Mo about $250,000 – surely there is a better solution . Many cities across the country have employed artist to paint murals that brighten avenues and downtown areas. Some have created spray walls or free spray areas where any of the above can do their thing. Sometimes blanking the canvas every month or so to start anew. Most murals have remained untouched for years but of late there has been a trend to “tag” someone else’s work. To tag new structures, windows, highway signs, cars, and public art.  Even religious symbols that used to be untouchable are being hit.

Four years ago CHWC started a campaign to reduce the amount of gang scripting and tagging on young kids routes to school. First with the then Wizzards organization to create a mural with 5th graders from a local school in Argentine. The idea was to get local investment from the kids that live in the area and that also have older brothers and sisters(make no mistake about it graffiti is not just a male sport)that might be tagging. Four artist and 5o students worked to paint a soccer player under a bridge. The mural lasted about 3 years before persistant tagging made its repair impractical. We wrote it off as bad location, no light and no visibility from homeowners. Out of sight out of mind.

Two and a half years ago,with a grant from the Kansas Art Commission,  CHWC worked with 90 fifth graders in the Riverview Neighborhood to create a more cultural themed mural on a retaining wall that students pass each day going to and from school. The mural has brightened a once scary location and has been a conversation piece for the students as they point out their part of the mural to friends and family.  Two weeks ago the mural was tagged. With 24 hours, one of the orginally artist, the Community in Schools Coordinator and a few friends organized and with the help of 17 new students repaired the mural to its original beauty.

CHWC partnered with LISC of Greater Kansas City to provide supplies to neighborhood teens to paint small murals on the backs of garages along alleyways that once were tagged and vandalized. The alleys were also cleaned and solar powered motion detection lights were installed. The alley murals have become an attraction to neighborhood kids and given the alleys a safer and more inviting feel. Last month the murals were nationally recognized and awarded a grant of $2,500 to continue the program which now has a youth employment component.

I love graffiti art, i truly do, i think some of the work is amazing. I am totally supportive of the artist choosing the public display of their work instead of a gallery or museum and i understand using art to make strong statements about politics and social inequalities. I don’t feel the same way about gang scripting and tagging-they are a waste in my opinion. Have very little artistic appeal, offer a bad message for kids, scare seniors and devalue neighborhoods.  Regardless of what I like or don’t like in the end-its all vandalism and I can’t stand that so much tax money is spent abating graffiti every year.

There has to be a better solution. I don’t know what kind of progress can be made with gang scripting and taggers but I do know that engaging neighborhood youth can have a very positive effect on a community. Working with schools and school children sends a very powerful message to neighborhoods that they are not alone. Churches, businesses, and civic organizations can help support these efforts. Murals and abatement programs may not be the answer in very situation but I believe there is a walkable bridge between government and working artists in finding solutions. A bridge, it seems to me, that both can and should cross in an attempt to address these types of issues, reduce vandalism, promote public art and community.

Pictured from left to right: Lacchi, Hari, and Tara Ghimire

Tara Ghimire, pictured, was born in the country of Bhutan. His ancestors had migrated from the neighboring country of Nepal, some two hundred years ago, and had remained in Bhutan for generations, preserving their religion, clothing, customs and Nepali language. In the early 1990′s the government of Bhutan began a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The Nepali people were forced to accept the Bhutanese language, clothing, and religion, or risk being killed. Many Nepali people, Tara’s family included, chose instead to migrate back to Nepal. Upon their arrival, however, they found that they were considered illegal immigrants and were forced to remain on the borders in make-shift refugee camps. Tara recalls that the early days in the refugee camp, before the UNHCR intervened were very difficult. “The monthly food rations of rice only lasted about fifteen days of the month and many people died due to lack of nutrition, lack of shelter, and lack of medical care,” Tara said. The UNHCR soon began providing assistance to refugees in the border area between Bhutan and Nepal, considering them “stateless” or essentially homeless people. Tara was among the first ethnic Nepali refugees to be resettled in the United States just two months after the program began in March 2008.

Tara, along with his mother and younger sister (both pictured), and brother (not pictured) arrived in Kansas City in May 2008 and found it very lonely and difficult to adjust to life here. They received a lot of assistance from their local resettlement agency but on the weekends, when the agency was closed, they mostly stayed inside for fear of their safety in the area they lived in. With the help of a job developer, Tara found a night job at a gas station. He also enrolled in English as a Second Language classes at the local community college, and found a second job at the Oriental supermarket.

Sometime after starting his new jobs, Tara came to CHWC seeking to improve his housing conditions. His family was renting a house that was not in very good condition, and Tara had heard from other Nepali people, who came after he arrived, that CHWC had very good places for rent. Upon arriving at CHWC Tara says he was greeted by “a very nice lady named Betty Johnson.” He told her of his plan to rent a new house, but says she had a better idea for he and his family. Because of CHWC’s participation in the NSP program, there were many houses that Tara could likely afford, and ultimately own. Tara said he “had never thought of owning a home.” With encouragement from Betty (a CHWC housing counselor), Tara applied for the program,attended the eight hour home buyer education course, and was finally approved for the NSP program, which would pay 40% of his home price. On July 1 2011 he closed on his new home.

Tara tells all the refugees in his community that they too can become homeowners with the help of CHWC. He tells them that “CHWC has different homes at different prices, and if people can be approved for NSP, it will decrease the price they have to pay for their home.” Tara also tells his friends who are renting that “paying rent is like throwing your money away, but if you make payments on a home, one day that home will be yours to keep.” Tara takes to heart a challenge his job developer gave to him: to be an example for those refugees who came to Kansas City after him. He resides in his home with his elderly mother Lacchi Ghimire and his younger brother and Sister Hari Ghimire, and Prem Ghimire who are attending college with the encouragement, and leadership, of their brother, Tara.

With the help of Catholic Charities, the father of the family, Kua Sia Te, quickly began working at a meat packaging facility in St. Joseph, Missouri. He works on average 50-60 hours a week, 6 days a week. The work is difficult, but Burmese people are very hard working and proud, and it is important to them to be self-sufficient.

When the family arrived in the U.S., they were able to take residence in CHWC rental housing, but it was important to the family to own a home of their own. And now they do. Through their hard work, the family saved enough for a down-payment on a newly constructed home from CHWC in the St. Peters neighborhood.

Today, Kua Sia Te continues his work in St. Joseph, while his wife, Hae Paw, has become fluent in English and is assisting other refugee families learn the language.

We at CHWC wish the family nothing but continued success in the future, and are honored to be able to provide them with a place to call home.

I am a “Dotte original”, born and raised in a house in KCK that has now been made desolate by foreclosure. I went to the same public middle and high schools that my mother graduated from, and left home for college with a vow to never again return. To those of us who grew up here, dreaming of a day when we could leave, the slogan “KCK a great place to live” seems laughable. Being born here was a trial to be survived and having “made it out” I joined the hoards of others seeking an existence anywhere else but here.

This search led me as far away as Dar es Salaam Tanzania, where I met an artist born and raised in Kansas City Kansas.  She and her husband built, and have resided at a community center in Arusha Tanzania, since fleeing the political persecution that was commonly directed at members of the Black Panther party in the late 60’s. While talking with her about our shared hometown, I realized that the KCK of her memory was vividly different than the one I had constructed. She expressed a feeling of pride for this city and continues to return and give speeches to benefit the community center.

This experience thousands of miles from home opened my vision to the vast diversity of experiences in this community.  It also inspired me to plant myself back home to raise my family. I have been pleasantly surprised in recent years to see beautiful new homes popping up in the neighborhoods that I thought had been long forgotten. I’ve seen the parks and public spaces in and around my children’s’ daycare, which for as far back as I can recall have been seriously unkempt and uninviting, become beautiful and well maintained spaces. I’ve been awed to see gatherings of young girls at city bus stops, speaking foreign languages and decked in ornate exotic scarves, reminiscent of a daladala (Bus) stop in stone town Zanzibar. There is no doubt, a new vitality to Wyandotte County, which we owe in part to a collective of organizations like CHWC, who continue to affirm amidst the laughter that KCK is a great place to live.  Still, I sometimes lament over whether to home school, private school, or to send my own children to the same schools that I and my mother before me were educated in. In my lamentations I remember the words of a high school security guard; “Don’t be so worried about giving your children the things you never had that you forget to give them the things you did have.” To this list I could add a host of remarkable teachers, community programs and concerned neighbors. Our community is truly what we make of it.  If we can combine all of the good in our diverse experiences and strengthen those images by a resolve to grow and thrive where we’ve been planted, we could begin to take part in this emerging vision.  Let this be a summons to all “Dotte originals” to come home and help us rebuild our neighborhoods, and an invitation to all others to find their own niche’ in this unique up and coming community. KCK is truly a great place to live.

By Shaunika Cotton- Urban Planning Intern

Being an outsider you view things through the eyes of an investor or potential resident looking for a deal on real estate. That creates a different viewing of things. You know all those signs about “eyes on the neighborhood” and “guard dogs with gun tot’in mamas”, they might move the trouble makers onto the next block and make you feel better but they also tell a potential home buyer that “there is a problem here –  move on” and without new investments in our neighborhoods, without change, without new people moving in our neighborhoods become stagnate and start to wilt.

Change is healthy for our communities and its really the only constant in the life of a neighborhood. What causes the demise of a neighborhood is not change but rather structure or lack of. Neighborhoods need diversity. Diversity in housing stock-large homes, medium size homes, small homes and some apartment space or rental homes. Residents should have the opportunity, in their life time, to have mobility within their own neighborhood. Think about it, when you are single you may only need an apartment or a small starter home. If you marry and start a family, or get a dog, you may need something else. If you are retired or an empty nester you may not need the same house you raised your kids in. Having diversity in housing stock allows you to live within the same community, allows new people to move in at different income levels and that helps provide stability.  Now back to New Orleans and the signs.

New Orleans is an amazing city, diverse in almost very category, in food, housing stock, and certainly humanity. They have a great cable car system, things to see and an influx of tourist to see them. It also has a storied history and buildings older then most cities. I have been to New Orleans five times in 30 years and very time it is different but its also the same. It is a petri dish of urban planning and social engineering. It has seen many changes but probably none as rapid or as devastating as the arrival of Hurricane Katrina some 7 years ago.

Two of the neighborhoods I visited had 10 to 14 feet of standing water when Katrina passed through driving thousands of people from their homes, neighborhoods and in some cases from their city and even the state – some never to return again. Katrina, like most energized natural disasters, totally changed parts of New Orleans forever. Uprooting trees, washing homes off their foundations, driving varmints  and creators of the night into surrounding communities and worst of all taking human life. An awful, awful event for any populated area.

Katrina created a change, a very rapid change in several neighborhoods, some with their roots dating back to the French and Spanish occupation of the “Big Easy” but it also created opportunity. Opportunity for  some current residents and opportunity for new potential residents to pick up housing stock at a reduced price, using low interest federal money, private investment funds and the support of a whole world wanting to help rehab from top to bottom. Architecturally diverse housing stock from grand Colonial style homes, to Southern Shotgun style and French Creole homes. These old neighborhoods are being remade, given new life – they are changing. There is fresh paint on most houses. There is new landscaping, flowers and trees. There are small pocket parks popping up where homes have been abandoned. Retail shops and restaurants are opening up in old buildings that were vacant before Katrina.

Streets have been cleaned up, trash hauled off and new lighting installed. Those same neighborhood watch signs bring a whole new feel to these neighborhoods now. When they are seen within an environment that sparkles with bright new paint, fresh landscaping, well maintained housing these same signs shout out “this is a neighborhood that cares”. A neighborhood that is proud of who they are and where they are. A neighborhood that recognizes how important it is to watch out for each other, to help one another, to work together to build community. A neighborhood that invites new people to invest, to buy a house and become part of a great place to live.

Katrina was awful, it drove thousands from their homes and took others from their families forever. Katrina has changed New Orleans but there have been a lot of changes in this 300 year old city and there will be more. New Orleans is always different but at the same time it is always the same. A city of diversity, culture, food, architecture, music, humanity and evolving neighborhoods.

In the 1930′s, with the help of a WPA project, the Parks Department filled in the sunken garden because of maintenance and drained the lake at Waterway. Rather then filling it in they constructed a baseball diamond some 20 feet lower then the roadway. I can remember playing softball there in the late 50′s and assumed it got it’s name from the 3 inches of water that covered the field whenever it rained. That aside the park remained a place of recreational enjoyment for many years but by the time the mid 90′s rolled around it had become a gathering place for a much different clientele, a rougher crowd and a not very family friendly place to go.

CHWC started building new homes in the area as part of a major neighborhood revitalization project and the park was an eyesore. A partnership was formed with the Unified Government and LISC to redesign the park, filling in the big hole, planting trees, putting in a playground area and a sidewalk that surrounded the park. Since that time the park has been a nice attraction for joggers, walkers and families.

Inspiration from a tour of a urban park in Atlanta, last summer I returned with new ideas about what a park can and maybe should be. In discussions with park visitors they often asked why there weren’t more places to sit, why there wasn’t some sort of recreational area, a soccer field, baseball diamond? Why wasn’t there a drinking fountain or a restroom? Why wasn’t there any shade? or lighting? It was as if the park had been designed for day time use and joggers.

In the fall of last year we started working with Jeffrey Preuss, a Landscape Architect, that had volunteered his services to the visualization of the EPIC CLAY STUDIO on Strawberry Hill. We spent many hours sharing articles and ideas about park design and a few months ago Jeffrey came up with the idea of a park that is family and kid friendly, ecologically educational and recreational. A gathering place for the residents of our community, an outdoor classroom for our children and a place where all can run, walk, kick a ball, work up a sweat or just sit back and relax.

We have renewed our partnership with the Unified Government, the Parks Department, the Tree Commission,  Livable Neighborhoods and Neighborhood leaders to start a three phrase redesign of  Waterway Park. The kickoff was last weeks Arbor Day event with the installation of 17 trees, wheel chair accessibility to the playground area and shelter house as well as landscaping put in by the CHWC staff and neighborhood volunteers. The changes in just one short week have been amazing and there are more to come. Stop by and visit the park, sign up to lend a hand or follow along on the “Waterway Park” Facebook page. Be part of a new kind of Urban Park Design. Call steve at 913 342 7580 to volunteer.