Thank you to Valley Park NIA

Tonight, we had the pleasure of speaking at the Valley Park NIA meeting tonight.  They were not only having their monthly meeting, but also marking their 2 year anniversary.  We talked about what TransformTopeka is, how we got started, and the plans we have for the future.  We would like to thank the nieghbors in Valley Park for the warm reception and well wishes.  We look forward to working with you in the future.

Thank you again!

What is TransformTopeka about?

At the TransformTopeka potluck dinner we met wonderful people who want to help make Topeka a better place through positive communication of ideas.

What do we mean by “positive”?  We desire to discuss the solutions to problems and not just discuss the problems themselves.  We want all communication to be thought provoking and create discussion, but we do not want to be argumentative.  We want diverse opinions and thought, but we want everyone to respect each others opinions and thought.

What do we mean by “better”?  We all want to make Topeka a desirable city for people to live, work, play, and raise a family.  We want to raise our families here and want to stay here, but need to be able to grow both personally and professionally in Topeka. Read the rest of this entry »

Heartland Visioning – Government

To continue our series of entries on the Hearland Visioning draft plan, here is my brief descripiton and take on the Government section.

First of all, I was very surprised to find that this section is only one short page. Maybe that is good thing, because the key to this Vision becoming a reality is the people in the community and private investment, not relying on the government to make it happen.  We do however need their support and some items in the Vision do & will fall in the public realm of government responsibilities.

The Vision for Governement is: Shawnee County will have streamlined, efficient governments that work with state and federal governments to create a better quality of life for all Shawnee County. I think the important words to note in this are efficient and streamlined. I don’t know if there are many people that would describe our local government with quite those words currently, but to move forward & grow, we do a an efficient & streamlined government. Read the rest of this entry »

TransformTopeka Contest – What I love about Topeka is…

What is one thing that you love about Topeka?

TransformTopeka would like to know. We are kicking off a contest that will take place between now and December 15th. For every positive post that you make about things you love in Topeka you will be entered in a drawing. On December 16th we will draw three winners and they will receive a prize (yet to be determined but I promise they will be cool). We can’t wait to see what everyone loves about Topeka.

The rules:

  • The post must be on the TransformTopeka Forum
  • You must register on the forum to post
  • The post must be positive
  • Be creative
  • Post as many times as you want as long as each post is about a different thing you love in Topeka
  • Post pictures if you would like
  • Have Fun!

For ideas, please view the Topeka Chamber of Commerce Quality of Life video.

Heartland Visioning::Infrastructure

First, I’d like to apologize for being remiss about getting this up sooner.  Now, for the review:

The vision listed under infrastructure is as follows:  Shawnee County will build a community that promotes learning, health, safety and growth for all residents through long-term planning and best practices. I think this is probably a pretty fair assessment of just about all people everywhere :)   Who doesn’t want this?  But it is among the top 10 issues that were deemed the most important in our county.  In fact, this section addresses 3 of the top ten issues.  Here’s a copy of it so you to follow along.

The strategies are broken into 10 areas of infrastructure… almost like a wish list.   We’ve all mentioned this before, but this is an ala carte type of thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

  • denise
  • October 21st, 2008
  • Comments    
  • City Government, Getting Involved, Improvements, Topeka News, Vision
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