I never have understood the elan of a pair of handcuffs hanging from one's car mirror. What are the driver's of those cars thinking? That's the way Johnson County sort of seems to me now that it
has passed a permanent prison tax.
Prisons, prisons, everywhere and you know the country is headed in the wrong direction. Maybe the big shot county commissioners like the idea of building prisons. They can put any dissident citizens in them and raise property taxes again.
More seriously the whole prison industrial complex is a gravely misguided way to build a law abiding society. Other nations seem to do a better job in this area and I am not talking about China or Saudi!
Johnson County needs to stop living in the nineties. Lets start dealing with the real needs of real people in this county and the metropolitan area. Lets stop raising sales and property taxes especially for a domestic police state.
Showing posts with label johnson county. Show all posts
Showing posts with label johnson county. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
WE NEED A GREEN DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE COUNTY
We need to rethink the current development plans, policies and the capabilities in the context of the opportunity of changing objectives for the largely idle construction industry. With an oversupply of very expensive, not very green homes and commercial buildings we need to rethink and retool the entire construction industry from top to bottom. Part of than change is in the direction is in offering affordable maintenance and green retrofitting for home owners and the owners of commercial and industrial property. Maintenance and the improvement of existing structures would be the new emphasis.
One obvious area is to sponsor and require superinsulation of currently heated and cooled structures. The need is enormous, the
opportunity is there and nothing will benefit both those owning and utilizing these properties more than an R-45 level of insulation. Of course obstacles to insulating should be removed. Insulation should not become an unaffordable bonanza for developers, just an honest job for thousands of construction workers who are willing to learn some new tricks. Nor should we underestimate the slashing of utility bills for the owners and tenants of these buildings. These are the kinds of change we
can finance and implement if we decide to go green and make it the policy of the state, the county and the cities in that county.
This is a great challenge yet it is something that needs to be done. All the hot shot construction folks who made bundles of money doing superficially efficient things will be missed by those who benefited. If those jobs are gone it is for reasons beyond the governmental policies that always facilitated this kind of superficially efficient economic growth and building development.
Another obvious reform is to severely limit any further suburban sprawl. Areas that are built up are already quite extensive and we should direct development toward these zones that are already developed. In short, most of the county that is currently not built up should remain for other, non residential, non-urban uses.
So maybe the County or State of Kansas can direct that certain zones be areas of restricted development prohibiting urban or suburban development in these areas. I am thinking, for example, about the recently annexed portions of Overland Park. Of course Overland Park could also make such green decisions. I don't know which level of state government has sovereignty over this, possibly all three, eh?
One obvious area is to sponsor and require superinsulation of currently heated and cooled structures. The need is enormous, the
opportunity is there and nothing will benefit both those owning and utilizing these properties more than an R-45 level of insulation. Of course obstacles to insulating should be removed. Insulation should not become an unaffordable bonanza for developers, just an honest job for thousands of construction workers who are willing to learn some new tricks. Nor should we underestimate the slashing of utility bills for the owners and tenants of these buildings. These are the kinds of change we
can finance and implement if we decide to go green and make it the policy of the state, the county and the cities in that county.
This is a great challenge yet it is something that needs to be done. All the hot shot construction folks who made bundles of money doing superficially efficient things will be missed by those who benefited. If those jobs are gone it is for reasons beyond the governmental policies that always facilitated this kind of superficially efficient economic growth and building development.
Another obvious reform is to severely limit any further suburban sprawl. Areas that are built up are already quite extensive and we should direct development toward these zones that are already developed. In short, most of the county that is currently not built up should remain for other, non residential, non-urban uses.
So maybe the County or State of Kansas can direct that certain zones be areas of restricted development prohibiting urban or suburban development in these areas. I am thinking, for example, about the recently annexed portions of Overland Park. Of course Overland Park could also make such green decisions. I don't know which level of state government has sovereignty over this, possibly all three, eh?
Friday, March 14, 2008
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.
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.
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