JOHNSON COUNTY KANSAS WATCH

I have lived in Johnson County, Kansas, for most of my life, four out of five decades more-or-less. I went to Shawnee Mission South and my kids all went to Shawnee Mission North. Two siblings and my parents also live in Johnson County. I think I have a right to say something about this county by virtue of this tenure. Of course, whether or not I have anything worth saying is another matter.

I tend to see the good and the bad in Johnson County. It is statistically a supposedly affluent area. This is certainly more true in some areas than others. I live in northern Overland Park and frankly can see a dramatic difference between the affluence of this county and say Wyandotte County where I work. Still, there is poverty in this county and with this sub prime crisis and the general decline of U.S. living standards the county and cities of the county are going to have to make
some adjustments.

Of course the county is pretty Republican and I hate that. I actually have come to a point of sometimes screaming when I hear Huckabeeites arguing with Ron Paulists about whether or not McCain or Guliani are religiously right-wing enough. Of course I and others who live here benefit enormously from the relative wealth and economic stability in much of the county. Unfortunately affluence and these ridiculously right-wing residents seem to come together. I suppose I will be offering a somewhat distinctive voice to this mix.

I am concerned about whether the county and city governments are going to recognize the absolute necessity of reorganizing our cities and counties so that we use less energy and produce less carbon dioxide. I don't see any real thought being put into this by Overland Park, for example, as it expropriates fifteen acres in southern Johnson County. The county commissioners rubber stamped the annexation knocking the land grab from twenty to fifteen square miles. This maneuver hardly seemed necessary except as an effort to continue the kind of ecologically destructive and suicidal development that we have had in Johnson County since WWII. We need a radically different model of development that radically reduces the necessity of transporting individuals such long distances. Of course the model of suburban sprawl is 180 degrees against this goal.

[As for annexation, let us adhere to the principle that what is good for the goose is good for the gander so that if today the privileged and powerful can expropriate the poor and disadvantaged then tomorrow the poor and disadvantaged may expropriate the powerful and wealthy, not as a robbery but in order to advance a different vision of development.]

Then there is the matter of costs being assumed by such a large number of different cities within the county. Some sort of County-Cities unification should be explored so that Johnson County residents can start paying less for local government. A Johnson County-Many Cities unification would also make more effective regional cooperation with Jackson and Wyandotte Counties possible.