Kansas

Saving a neighborhood park in this Kansas town was a necessary lesson in community — and democracy • Kansas Reflector

Published

5 months ago

August 18, 2024

Saving a neighborhood park in this Kansas town was a necessary lesson in community — and democracy • Kansas Reflector

It would be easy to overlook Quaker Park.

Located on the corner of First and Sylvan in Emporia, it’s less than an acre in size. It has trees and grass and a ball court and a weathered basketball goal, just what you’d expect of a neighborhood park in a working-class part of town. It’s a nice place to shoot hoops or play catch, but it doesn’t seem special. It’s not the oldest park in town. Others are bigger and more beautiful and have better amenities, including a zoo and several disc golf courses.

So it was no wonder that earlier this year Emporia added the park to its surplus property list, a sort of municipal equivalent of gathering up items for a garage sale. Who would really miss Quaker Park? The city could rid itself of the burden of maintenance and provide land for a modest housing development.

Then something surprising happened.

Residents fought back.

I am reminded of the petition drive to save Quaker Park because of recent news from Wichita that the city is considering selling some of its parks to make up a projected $3.6 million budget shortfall by 2026. At a public hearing earlier this month, Wichita Mayor Lily Wu said she wasn’t advocating to eliminate some of the city’s 146 parks, but that all options were on the table.

The future and function of municipal parks is something that cities of all sizes have long debated. Parks are both an expression, and a metaphor, for democracy; expression because they are policy made concrete-and-grass, and metaphor because they represent a community’s priorities, no matter the lofty marketing language you might find on a city’s website. If you want a glimpse of the soul of a community, look at its parks.

Although it would be reasonable to think there would be a metric for how many acres of parks a city should have given a certain population, that isn’t the case. While just about every other indicator does scale with population — road networks and crime rates, for example — it doesn’t work that way for parks and other green spaces.

“There’s no neat relationship between city population and parks per capita, or tree cover or even space that’s simply unpaved,” Emily Badger wrote in a 2013 Bloomberg article, citing the nonprofit Trust for Public Land’s study of parks in America’s 40 biggest cities.

We’ll return to an updated version of the Trust for Public Land study later, but first — of course! — a little history.

The first city park in America was Boston Common, founded in 1634 and initially used for cattle grazing, militia drills and public hangings. By the Civil War, it had become a place for non-lethal civic events and for free speech.

While the rich have always had private green spaces, the concept of a public park didn’t come along until the mid-1800s, with the rise of industrialization and the need for the tired and poor to, well, breathe free. The visionary who gave us municipal parks in the form we’d recognize was Frederick Law Olmsted. Known today as one of the designers of Central Park, Olmsted was more than a landscape architect. What he did best was travel and think, sometimes committing a little journalism on the way, and in 1850 he went on a six-month walking tour of England that would forever shape his — and our — way of thinking about public spaces. There, he visited Birkinhead Park, a “people’s garden” that was as open (in theory, at least) to the poorest British peasant as it was to Queen Victoria.

In parks, Olmsted imagined democracy in action.

Public spaces brought citizens together “with a common purpose,” Olmsted wrote, “not at all intellectual, competitive with none, each individual adding by his mere presence to the pleasure of all others, all helping to the great happiness of each.”

Central Park was opened to the public in 1858 and has gone through cycles of decline and restoration since. Like other American parks that would come later, it has reflected the sensibilities and sometimes the passions of its community, from the Victorian dinosaur craze to the massively attended free concert by Simon and Garfunkel in 1981.

Out here in the hinterland, our parks are heavy on history. You can scarcely visit any older city park here in Kansas that doesn’t have a monument to the Civil War or some later conflict. In Emporia, I like to walk Peter Pan Park, a 52-acre space that for about 40 years had monkeys on display in a WPA-built stone house in the middle of a lake. Most people around here know about monkey island, but the park still has some surprises. My route through the park takes me through a wooded area where stands a lonely, pylon-shaped monument to the Spanish American War.

“Monkey Island” in August 2024 at Peter Pan Park in Emporia. From the 1930s to the 1970s, rhesus monkeys were captive at the site. It is now part of a disc golf course. (Max McCoy / Kansas Reflector)

While many parks started as memorials — and originally had the look and feel of cemeteries — in later decades the emphasis has been on recreation, from ball fields to splash pads to pickleball courts. This reflects conventional municipal wisdom that parks should be useful in some way, that public spaces should offer utility in addition to, or perhaps instead of, reflection.

But public parks offer more benefits than just playing or thinking.

In addition to being essential for our health, according to the Trust for Public Land, access to green spaces conserves nature, fights climate change, reduces crime, and strengthens communities. The trust’s original ranking of the nation’s 40 largest cities has expanded and offers insight into how equitable communities are, based on what percentage of its residents are within a 10-minute walk of a park.

Called ParkScore, the project has now expanded to the 100 largest cities and many smaller ones, and on its website you can look up metrics for just about any urban area. ParkScore uses five metrics: acreage, access, investment, amenities, and equity. Washington, D.C., is ranked the best among America’s large cities.

Wichita is ranked 66. It scores below average on acreage, access and investment, and about average in amenities and equity. Only 4% of Wichita’s land is used for parks and recreation, compared with a national median of 15%.

For acreage, Emporia fares even worse.

Only 3% of the land is used for parks and recreation. Emporia is above average for access, however, because 74% of its residents are within a 10-minute walk of a park.

Hahrie Han, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins, was quoted in a recent Trust for Public Land study that over the past 50 years, American society has seen a “withering” of common spaces for people to gather. But, she said, that trend can be combatted by investing in parks and other green spaces.

“The audacious, beautiful, and exciting promise at the heart of democracy is the idea that putting people into community with each other creates opportunities to learn the capacities, skills, and motivations needed to forge a common life together,” Han said.

Sound like wishful thinking?

It sounded like it to me at first. Then I remembered the petition drive to save Quaker Park.

In March, the Emporia City Commission voted 3-1 to designate the park as surplus property and authorize its sale. The plan called for three houses to be built on the property, two by private developers and one by the local Habitat for Humanity. Some saw it as a step toward providing housing for the community, but others questioned whether the city should be shedding a park in a part of the city that didn’t have many to being with.

The park was acquired by the city in 1952 from the Conservative Friends of Galena. It was an empty lot then and had been for years. An original Quaker meeting house had been built on the site in 1881, but as the number of Quakers in Emporia dwindled, the building had been sold to another denomination and moved.

The grassroots effort to save the park had to be done in a hurry. The goal was to gather, within a 30-day window, the required 462 signatures on a petition to halt the sale. The signatures had to be from registered voters and the number was equal to 10% of those who had voted in the previous city election.

The organizers held a barbecue, talked to reporters and community members, and established a website. In the end, they came up with more than 800 signatures. The city commission rescinded its previous action to declare Quaker Park surplus and for sale.

“We talked to so many people in this process and the vast majority of people we met were eager to sign the petition,” the five organizers said on the website. “Those few who didn’t were always respectful and we didn’t have a single contentious interaction. … Parks are a precious asset in our town, and we want to preserve them — even when they aren’t necessarily ‘our’ neighborhood park.”

There are at least a couple of lessons here for Wu, the Wichita mayor.

The first is that people will fight for their city parks.

The second is that they will do so in ways that are confoundingly civil.

I use the word confounding because in this day and age just about any political activity is likely to get you into a shouting match with your neighbor over the backyard fence. But not this. Not a single “contentious interaction.” That has to be some kind of civic miracle in 2024.

Because Wu is a registered Libertarian, I’m guessing she wouldn’t be particularly troubled by the transfer of public land to private ownership. Libertarians are notorious in their belief that free markets and private interests can better manage assets than can government. But Wu should take notice of a community coming together to save a city park in a neglected neighborhood.

So, let’s hear it for “Save Quaker Park!”

It may be just the lesson we need in how to save democracy. Or at least it might make opportunistic politicians think twice before sizing up the office furniture for a municipal garage sale.

Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

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Related Topics:emporia Featured Lily Wu Outdoor Recreation Parks Public Lands Quaker Park Wichita

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Kansas

Kansas bills would end grace period for mail ballots and ban ranked-choice voting

Published

7 hours ago

January 28, 2025

Press Room

Kansas bills would end grace period for mail ballots and ban ranked-choice voting

Kansas’s two election committees are fast at work in the Kansas Statehouse this year and have already had hearings on some of the more controversial election bills being considered.

Kansas has taken on a flurry of election security bills since 2020, when President Donald Trump baselessly blamed widespread voter fraud for his defeat. Some of the laws that passed in the Statehouse fell flat in the courts, namely the prohibition of “impersonating an election employee.”

Democrats have signalled that they’re not willing to work on many of the bills being considered.

“Anything that makes voting more difficult for Kansans is going to be a nonstarter with us,” said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa.

Kansas bill considers ending the ballot grace period

In 2017, the Kansas Legislature approved a three-day grace period for ballots that were sent before Election Day, but received by a county election office up to three days after the election. A bill that would make a hard deadline of 7 p.m. on Election Day for ballots was recommended to be passed by the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs despite substantial pushback from opponents.

Identical bills have passed the Senate and House over the past few years, but they’ve failed to overcome Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.

Election Day is the mail-ballot deadline for most states, with 32 states requiring the return of mail-in ballots as the polls close. The other 18, plus Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands allows ballots after Election Day if it is postmarked with the date it was sent.

Written testimony for the bill largely skewed oppositional, with more than 50 organizations and private citizens asking the committee to reject the bill compared to 10 proponents.

Proponents argued that the U.S. Postal Service postmarks are unreliable, would speed up tabulation and would make elections more secure.

“Nothing in this bill does anything to change voters access. Kansas makes it very easy to vote. This law would also make it harder to cheat,” said Jason Sneed, executive director of Honest Elections Action Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for tougher election security laws.

Sneed previously managed the Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database, which found 16 cases of voter fraud in Kansas since 2005.

Opponents included several civil rights groups and civic organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and the Disability Rights Center. Opponents argued that the bill was uncontroversial when it passed in 2017, and responded to delayed USPS service that has only gotten worse since. Some also said this would throw out ballots and cause confusion among voters.

“Could you tell me your mail delivery time? How long it’s going to take for any letters? You don’t know,” said Davis Hammet, president of the youth voter access and engagement advocate Loud Light. “Weather events can happen that create mail delays that are outside of anyone’s control. So this is just a common sense simple thing. It’s about protecting people from some of the failures of the federal government.”

Ann Mah, former Democratic representative from Topeka and former Kansas State Board of Education member, called the bill “pure voter suppression” of Democrats, who are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.

The bill was also opposed by the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association, which represents the county clerks and election officials in the state.

“Most properly mailed advance ballots are returned the day after the election but diminishing quantities continue to be received after Election Day,” said Rick Piepho, the elections committee chair of the KCCEOA.

An identical bill, House Bill 2017, is submitted to the House, but so far the House Elections Committee hasn’t scheduled a hearing on it.

Bill would ban ranked-choice voting in Kansas

Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, introduced a bill that would ban ranked-choice voting in Kansas, which hasn’t been adopted by any city thus far. Current state law doesn’t have a method for ranked-choice voting outlined in statute, meaning cities couldn’t do it unless lawmakers passed a law allowing it according to the Kansas Revisor of Statutes.

Madeline Malisa, a visiting fellow at Opportunity Solutions Project, argued that ranked-choice voting has been a “nightmare” in Maine, where she lives. She said the tabulation process throws out ballots, is too complicated and increases the chance of less-popular candidates to gain office.

Maine adopted ranked-choice voting in 2018, but several Republican-led states have soured on the idea after Alaska elected its first Democrat in decades in its first ranked-choice election.

Ranked-choice voting advocates argued that the practice could improve the voting process and that several of the proponents’ ideas aren’t backed up by evidence. About 75% of Utah voters who participated in a ranked-choice voting pilot found it easy, though neither ranked-choice or single-vote plurality voting reached majority support.

Resolution would say noncitizens can’t vote in Kansas

A House resolution proposed slightly altering the Kansas Constitution to more explicitly state that noncitizens aren’t allowed to vote, though Kansas’s laws have interpreted the current language as doing just that for over 100 years.

Some municipalities across the country have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections, though they’re barred from participating in federal elections. No city in Kansas has followed suit.

The bill was supported by two out-of-state advocacy organizations, Americans for Citizen Voting and Opportunity Solutions Project. The ACLU, Loud Light and League of Women Voters opposed it.

Currently, Kansas enfranchises “every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 18 years and who resides in the voting area in which he or she seeks to vote.” Proponents of the bill argue that it still leaves some wiggle room for municipalities to allow noncitizen voting.

“It does not prohibit a municipality from allowing a non-citizen to vote legally. It is granting the right to vote to citizens of the United States but not reserving the right to vote to only citizens of the United States,” Becky Arps, director of research for Americans for Citizen Voting, wrote to the House Elections Committee.

About 15 states have language explicitly barring noncitizens from voting. Arps said some states with similar language to Kansas’s statutes have cities that allow noncitizen voting. But Arps couldn’t point to any currently existing city in Kansas that allows noncitizen voting.

“I am unaware of any situations where noncitizens are voting,” Arps said. “You are at risk for a municipality that maybe even considers themselves a sanctuary city, I don’t know if you have any of those or that consider themselves that, they would be a municipality that might decide to allow noncitizens to vote.”

The committee hearing turned contentious when Hammet, president of Loud Light, could give people the impression that illegal immigrants are voting in elections and increase incendiary rhetoric surrounding immigration. He referred to the Garden City bombing plot in 2016 as an example of violence targeted at immigrants.

“In their legal defense, they tried to say that they thought it was OK because of the political rhetoric about immigrants. And I know that’s no one’s intention here, to be clear, but I just want you to think about this. Legally and practically, it won’t do anything, but it could create fuel on the fire for some radical groups,” Hammet said.

Lawmakers grilled Hammet, who is frequently an oppositional voice in committee hearings, for invoking political violence and his use of the term xenophobic.

“It’s a little distasteful that we got into this,” said Rep. Ricky James, R-La Cygne.

If it passes, the resolution would require approval by voters in a statewide election.

Bill would require comparison of voter rolls to temporary drivers’ licenses

House Bill 2020 was the least controversial of the election bills that got a committee hearing this week, with even opponent testimony saying it agreed with the concept of the bill but had concerns about how it would work in practice. The bill would require the Division of Motor Vehicles to provide a list of all temporary drivers’ licenses issued to noncitizens to the secretary of state, who would compare the list with voter registration rolls and delete any noncitizens on the rolls.

General counsel for the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office said the process is similar to what the office has been doing on its own.

“Essentially what this bill does is it makes a statutory requirement of something that’s been going on for about 15 years, and we recently worked with Gov. Kelly on this where the Department of Motor Vehicles would give us a list of people that have a temporary driver’s license, and we would compare it to the voter rolls, trying to identify anyone that might be a noncitizen,” Clay Barker said.

Loud Light and the ACLU submitted testimony in opposition to the bill, but Hammet said the system should required investigation and due diligence before removing people from voter rolls.

“The most dangerous thing you could do is assume that you can take two lists and perfectly compare them,” Hammet said.

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The Best Kansas City Chiefs Merch for Every Fan (and Swifty)

Published

19 hours ago

January 28, 2025

Press Room

The Best Kansas City Chiefs Merch for Every Fan (and Swifty)

From special-edition Patrick Mahomes jerseys to Travis Kelce puffer jackets, here’s the best Chiefs gear to pick up ahead of Super Bowl LIX

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

After a 32-29 victory over the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl. That’s nothing new — this will be their fifth Super Bowl appearance since 2020 — but history is on the line this time. If Patrick Mahomes and Co. can take down the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs will be the first team in NFL history to hit a three-peat.

If you’re looking to rep Kansas City (or Taylor Swift) during this year’s Super Bowl LIX, read on. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the best Chiefs merch to buy online — whether you’re supporting from the stands, a Super Bowl party, or a sports bar.

Best Kansas City Chiefs Merch to Buy Online

Some of our favorite places to buy Chiefs merch are Nike, Fanatics, and ‘47. We also love Amazon for Chiefs merch and memorabilia, although be aware that not everything on the Everything Store is officially licensed. Another place we check for any merch is Etsy, which is all fan-made, but you can score fun pieces like this Go Taylor’s Boyfriend sweatshirt that you won’t find through official vendors.

Here are some of our favorite pieces of Chiefs merch to buy right now:

Off Season x NFL Travis Kelce Puffer

Can you guess who made this Off Season Kelce puffer jacket go viral? Correct, it was Taylor. Prior to the jacket’s release this January, the superstar wore it to one of the Chiefs games and everyone noticed. We think it’s one of the best pieces of Chiefs merch because it’s more unique than a jersey and well-suited to the frigid winter we’ve been having.

Chiefs New Era 2024 AFC Champions Hat

With their win over the Bills, the Chiefs picked up their fifth AFC Championship. If you’re looking to celebrate that milestone, check out this official 2024 AFC Champions locker hat, complete with commemorative graphics.

Nike Patrick Mahomes Chiefs Super Bowl LIX Jersey

You can’t go wrong with an official jersey, and you definitely can’t go wrong with a jersey for one of the best quarterbacks of all time. This special edition Super Bowl LIX Mahomes jersey is already selling out on Nike, so grab one fast if you want it for the big game.

Nike Travis Kelce Chiefs Super Bowl LIX Jersey

Another one of the best jerseys to pick up right now is this Super Bowl LIX Travis Kelce kit. Fanatics has both white and red variants in stock.

Go Taylor’s Boyfriend Sweatshirt

Taylor Swift might not be an official member of the Chiefs, but she’s certainly one of the team’s biggest stars. If you’re watching the game to join her in cheering on boyfriend Kelce, pick up this “Go Taylor’s Boyfriend” sweatshirt on Etsy.

‘47 Chiefs Snapback

We’re big fans of ‘47, a brand that specializes in throwback-inspired merch like this fresh Chiefs snapback. The Chiefs logo is embroidered on the front, and the whole thing looks (and feels) more high-quality than your typical sports gear.

‘47 Chiefs Beanie

Another great pick from ‘47 is this Chiefs beanie. It features a low-key style, a cozy microfleece build with raised front embroidery, and a pom up top.

Junk Food Clothing x NFL Chiefs Tee

If you just want a straightforward, affordable piece of Chiefs merch, check out this officially licensed T-shirt from Junk Food. It’s currently on sale at Amazon for 20% off, bringing the price to just $24.

YouTheFan Chiefs Party Bowl

Throwing a Chiefs Super Bowl watch party? Pick up this Kansas City snacks bowl. The large vessel is dishwasher and microwave-safe, and it features Chiefs branding on the inside and out.

Simple Modern Chiefs Tumbler Cup

This large 30-ounce tumbler is a great Stanley Cup replacement if you want a more celebratory cup. It’s insulated to keep drinks hot or cold for hours and works well for Super Bowl party beverages as well as daily drinks.

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Kansas tuberculosis outbreak becomes largest ever in US

Published

1 day ago

January 27, 2025

Press Room

Kansas tuberculosis outbreak becomes largest ever in US

An unprecedented tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in Kansas has reached historic levels, becoming the largest recorded in U.S. history.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has reported 67 active cases since 2024, with 60 in Wyandotte County and 7 in Johnson County.

Additionally, 79 latent infections—77 in Wyandotte County and 2 in Johnson County—have been identified.

“Currently, Kansas has the largest outbreak that they’ve ever had in history,” Ashley Goss, a deputy secretary at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on January 21, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

A KDHE spokesperson later clarified the statement, explaining that the current outbreak “is the largest documented outbreak in U.S. history.” Newsweek contacted the KDHE via email for further comment.

A stock photo of a doctor examining chest x-ray film in a medical laboratory at a hospital.

Amorn Suriyan/Getty

Why This Matters

TB, though treatable, remains a serious infectious disease that can lead to complications and fatalities if untreated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate 13 million Americans live with inactive TB and about 10 percent of these individuals could develop active TB without treatment.

The sharp rise in TB cases—from 51 statewide in 2023 to 109 in 2024—has placed a spotlight on public health measures. Kansas health officials are actively working to contain the outbreak, partnering with the CDC to prevent further transmission.

What to Know

TB is caused by bacteria that primarily attack the lungs but can affect other parts of the body. The infection spreads through the air via coughs or speech but requires prolonged contact for transmission.

Active TB disease makes individuals sick and is infectious, while latent TB infections are dormant, non-contagious and symptom-free but can become active.

Treatment is available for both active and latent TB infections and involves a several-month regimen of antibiotics. Active TB patients are typically non-contagious after 10 days of treatment.

Wyandotte County has been the hardest hit, but health officials maintain that the general public remains at “very low risk.”

A map shows counties impacted by the ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas.

What People Are Saying

Goss told the Senate Committee: “Some of you are aware, we have and still have mobilized staff and resources addressing an unprecedented tuberculosis outbreak in one of our counties. We are working collaboratively with CDC on that. CDC remains on the ground with us to support. That’s not a negative.

“This is normal when there’s something unprecedented or a large outbreak of any kind, they will come and lend resources to us to help get a stop to that.”

What Happens Next

Kansas health officials and the CDC are continuing their collaborative response to the outbreak.

Their efforts include identifying and testing individuals who have been in close contact with TB patients and ensuring that both active and latent cases receive proper treatment.

Vaccinations for TB are available in the U.S., though they are seldom used, according to the CDC.

For now, Goss said that infections are “trending in the right direction.”

Is there a health problem that’s worrying you? Do you have a question about low blood pressure? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice and your story could be featured in Newsweek.

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