Election in less than two weeks!

Please see the sidebar to links to each candidate's website. Each has ways that you can contact them and get to know them. Look at both sites, if you have any advice on who should get our votes. Post here!

Candidate Holds Open House

A candidate has e-mailed me and told me that he is holding an event. I am more than happy to steer people toward opportunities to find out about their candidates. Mike Riley and his wife Ellen are holding an Open House for Ward III voters. It's tomorrow, Saturday, 4000 west 74th Street, 2pm to 4pm. If you can't make it, call or e-mail him and tell him to come to your neighborhood and meet you there. If you speak to him, let me know what you think. He's MIKE on your ballots.

Silence Broken ;)

I get the sense from my colleagues that sitting council members do their best to stay under the radar during the election season for their counterpart's seat. I was pretty happy to follow suit and still am...... essentially.....

I just have to say one thing. I know most of us were pretty green and raw when we ran for office, especially the first time. There aren't that many fantastic ideas and there are even fewer clever slogans that will energize the voters. Candidates are mostly people doing the best they can on their own, without the political consultants and pros that make the big shots look good.

And that's all just fine. I don't want to get on anyone's case because I happen tho think that his big idea is kinda small or his clever slogan isn't that impressive. HOWEVER, when someone's catchy motto is so poorly formulated and so short-sighted that it borders on insulting, I gotta punch-up the blog.

No ad hominems, just an attack on this candidate's premise.

Before I start, I'm not out to get Michael KELLY. But think he's been flippant and careless in choosing his words and I'm a little offended by it. Kelly is the candidate with the three-generation history in PV and the Shamrock on his promo material. On the ballot he's “Michael”.

He's also the candidate whose major thrust is "J.C. Nichols vision for Prairie Village should be our vision for Prairie Village". I don't know why he wants to drop this particular name. In the interest of neutrality, I'll not speculate. In my opinion, Kansas Citians invoke J.C. Nichols the way St. Joe invokes the Pony Express (although the pony express existed for only 18 months!) – Hey, it's one of the few claims to fame that they have.

But J.C. Nichols is not some kind of benevolent urban/social/cultural architect. J.C. Nichols was a very astute real estate investor/developer and innovative planner who successfully exploited the coming dominance of the automobile in post war KC. He's also, like, the father of the shopping mall.....

Don’t get me wrong, Prairie Village is a beautiful city and it’s planned elements still work pretty darn well despite a community that wants to be increasingly neighborly, increasingly pedestrian friendly and increasingly socially and economically integrated. And a great deal of that is owed to J.C. Nichols vision.

But let's be honest, it's becoming more and more pedestrian friendly; it has the potential to attract and keep young growing families as well as offering older citizens homes to "age in place"; residents here are working toward a better and better place to live every year, every decade. But that's mostly because of the inherent qualities of the people who live in PV, not solely because of J.C. Nichols "vision". Most Prairie Villagers can get a larger and newer house for the same money in Beige-ville off an exit of I-70 or 35 or 29. They’re in Prairie Village because of what they can be a part of here and what they can create here, not because someone figured it all out for them 50 years ago.

There are several problems with the concept of "J.C. Nichols vision for Prairie Village should be our vision for Prairie Village” but I’ll only speak to the one that I find truly objectionable.

The problem that I have with J.C. Nichols’ "vision" is another of his pioneering works: the restrictive racial covenant. There have been numerous articles in the KC Star, academic journals, the writings of Nichols himself that document the use of racially restrictive covenants, but, to me, none is more in-your-face than the deed restrictions that STILL EXIST, IN WRITING in the deed restrictions of the Prairie Village Homes Association. Sure, they’ve been unconstitutional since the late 40’s but they’re there. You still get them in black and white on page 3,

“Section 2
Ownership of Negroes Prohibited
None of said land may be conveyed to, used, owned, or occupied by negroes [sic] as owners or tenants.”

No, they’re not enforceable, but is that the point? You tell me. To me, that’s NOT the point. They exist and apply to the homes that some of us live in, Today, Right NOW and it’s revolting.

These rules automatically renew every 25 years and if you want them amended, all the paperwork has to be done 5 YEARS in advance of the 25 year anniversary – Nichols built these rules to last. And if he’s the major KC benefactor that people claim he is, it seems to me that he would want to be the driving force in undertaking the tedious and expensive task of completing the paperwork to make these covenants go away.

So I object to the cozy name-dropping that comes with "J.C. Nichols vision for Prairie Village should be our vision for Prairie Village”. It’s ill-considered and dare I say, slightly ignorant from someone who touts a three generation history in Ward III. In the first of those three generations, the ink on those restrictions was barely dry and absolutely enforceable. . . . . nice vision.

More Committee Vacancies

There are several committee vacancies on some interesting and active groups. Please consider serving or recruiting a friend of family member. In my opinion, some of these committees don't have enough turnover as it is; the problem is exacerbated if no one new wants to serve:

Animal Control Advisory Board
Board of Code Appeals
Communications (includes youth positions)
Park & Recreation Committee (includes youth positions)
Prairie Village Arts Council (includes youth positions)
Tree Board (includes youth positions)
Sister City Committee (includes youth positions)

A couple of the vacancies are Ward-specific but if you're interested in serving, let me know and I'll give you the details.

Council Packets Available

City Council Packets are now available on the PV Website. Although there's a pretty substantial lag between when the meetings take place and the publication of this document, if you can bear to wade through this huge document, you can get the gist of council meetings and most committee actions.

If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, just click on the Bookmarks tab and you can go right to any topic you choose. Acrobat Reader is a free application that you probably already have on your computer; if you don't, you can downlod it for free.

Check the sidebar on this blog, underneath the link for the city website.

Keep checking here if you want your council news shorter and editorialized

Planning Commission

In keeping with it's statutory autonomy, the Planning Commission has stuck with it's original decision and refused to re-bid the position of City Planner and firm of record for city planning services. That's how I read it anyway. I might also read into this that the Planning Commission has -- respectfully -- given the city council The Bird for not respecting their judgement in the first place.

They wrote us a letter last week saying that they didn't think that re-doing the process of asking for proposals and interviewing respondents would be fruitful and that Bucher, Willis Ratliff and Ron Williamson were the best team for the job.

If you read, "Conflict of Interest or Much Ado About Nothing" from my November posts, you know I agree with the Planning Commission and have always voted against dumping the current firm and Planner just because the mayor is a principal with BWR.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Planning Commission

I'm sure there are many of you that want to keep tabs on Planning Commission actions on the property at 3308 West 71st Street.

To that end, I see that there are several issues with this property before the Planning Commission tomorrow, March7.

Although this is not a "Public Hearing" per se, you absolutely may attend. But since it is not a Public Hearing" you might not be asked to speak. The only opinions welcomed or heard will be those specifically requested by the Planning Commission members. Although this is an Open Meeting where anyone from the public can attend, our ordinances (which largely reflect Kansas Statute) do not require a Public Hearing for a building line modification or replatting wherein citizens can come forward to express their thoughts.

I do know that the Planning Commission is aware that there is a potential issue with the apparently unapproved changing of the structure's elevation. This elevation change will be part of the discussion tomorrow night.

However, I have to set expectations that at the moment, Prairie Village does not regulate how people's houses look. Some of these issues are routinely administrative. It does appear as though the homeowner has failed to follow procedure in several cases, however, it does not guarantee that permission to do some of the things he wants to do will be denied.

I have no indication that the Planning Commission will go either way. I just think that the elevation issue may have more to do with drainage and safety issues than aesthetics.

I will get an update with all due haste after the meeting and send everyone a note when I've posted that update here.