TransformTopeka on the Jim Cates show

This morning, Alissa, Shay, Ryan and I had the chance to chat about Transform Topeka on the Jim Cates show.  It was a great opportunity to share with a different audience what we are about.  We would like to thank Jim Cates, Tricia Johnston and cjonline.com for the opportunity.  You can listen to the mp3 of the show here.

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  • denise
  • November 18th, 2008
  • 3 Comments    
  • Getting Involved, Topeka News

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.

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  • denise
  • October 21st, 2008
  • No Comments    
  • City Government, Getting Involved, Improvements, Topeka News, Vision

Willow Park Makeover Sat Sep 20th - Come Help!!!

Come help make Topeka a more beautiful place and join in the clean up of Willow Park on Saturday! Several of the Transform Topeka members will be there and this is a great opportunity to take just a few hours & help out in the community. Here is all the info:

Topeka Tree Team

Y’ALL COME!

THIS COMING SATURDAY MORNING, SEP. 20, BEGINNING AT 9:00 O’CLOCK, PLEASE JOIN US IN A VOLUNTEER CITIZENS’ BIG AMBITIOUS MAKEOVER PROJECT TO BEAUTIFY AND RESTORE TOPEKA’S HISTORIC WILLOW PARK.

Willow Park, located immediately to the north across S.W. 6th Street from Saint Francis Hospital, is five blocks long, and extends to the west between SW Garfield and SW Lindenwood Streets. Its central Topeka location on a busy main east-west traffic corridor makes it highly visible to large numbers of out-of-town visitors and Topeka citizens alike. In bygone days it had a beautiful bandstand and a baseball diamond, and two pedestrian suspension bridges spanned the stormwater runoff creek toward its west end. But today, many of its trees are badly damaged or diseased, its shrubs are badly overgrown, the bridges have been torn down, and its creek banks are eroding away, choked with weeds and wild bushes. In short, Willow Park frankly has become almost more of an unfortunate eyesore than a valuable asset to our city and its image.

We intend to fix that on Saturday…or at least make a jolly good start at it!

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Visioning reveals true colors

The following is a link to an op-ed by Mike Hall of the Topeka Capital Journal. He attended the most recent Heartland Visioning Task Force meeting.

Read the blog at http://blogs.cjonline.com/index.php?entry=7633

Being an intentional Topekan

One of the frequent things heard (and I’ve been one to say it) is that there is nothing to do in Topeka. Being a part of this group has made me ponder how I think about Topeka. So, last month I made a choice to rediscover Topeka. Here is what I’ve enjoyed:

  • Marion Lane Candles on Kansas Ave - I’d always wanted to go, but never really made the effort to go there. It is a beautiful shop and has really lovely staff people. My home is now full of candles that were locally made.
  • Millennium Cafe in the Topeka & Shawnee County Library - I’ve starting going there about once a month to have lunch with friends. It’s not far from my house and offers a healthy alternative to what I usually consume :)
  • Helen Hocker Theater - Another place I’ve meant to go. My husband, brother-in-law and his wife and I enjoyed an afternoon of a fun musical filled with ’80s music and references… Bueller, Bueller…. it was fun!
  • Annie’s Place - this is a usual favorite, but a Topeka-specific restaurant.
  • Brickyard Barn Inn - I attended a Chamber Fast Forward Event that was held there this month. It is a beautiful, serene place. The food’s good too. (Yep! I enjoy food!)
  • Classic Bean - I met a dear friend there about a week ago. I’m not a big coffee drinker (but I enjoy the smell!).
  • The Blind Tiger - a marketing information meeting was hosted by the Blind Tiger. Yummy sandwich and fun atmosphere.
  • Collins Park - Independence Day parade… it’s become a bit of a tradition in the family.
  • Topeka West High - I attended one of the Heartland Visioning Community meetings there. Have you taken the time to get involved?

Places on my list to go to this month:

  • Lily’s - it’s a new specialty shop for women in the Gage Shopping Center. I plan on checking it out.
  • Brick Oven - It’s seems so long since I’ve gone there. (Don’t be fooled, this is not a chain.) I need to find an excuse to go… any takers?
  • Boss Hawg’s - I’m so glad that Fast Forward will be held there this month.

My challenge to you is to find what Topeka holds for you. True, some things may be a bit off the beaten path. But I dare you to stop the next time you’re thinking of heading out of town for something, to take pause and check to see if what you are looking for might just be right around the corner.

  • denise
  • July 14th, 2008
  • 17 Comments    
  • Getting Involved, Vision
  • , ,

Heartland Visioning Names Task Force

Heartland Visioning names task force

The Capital-Journal
Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 5:13 p.m. CDT

The Heartland Visioning office has released its list of 196 volunteer participants on the Vision Task Force. Twenty-four were elected at the community meetings in June; 40 are members of the Vision Steering Committee; and 132 came from the applications for involvement submitted to the Heartland Visioning office. Read the rest of this entry »

Why I choose Topeka Kansas

Why do you live in Topeka Kansas? is it the schools, the great jobs, or the excellent community? The reason I moved here was to follow a girl, who I married shortly after! She was going to Washburn University so I knew it would be at least 2 or 3 years before we were moving, until she finished school…

I moved to Emporia Kansas when I was in the 6th grade. I finished high school and continued to live in Emporia a few years after graduation but the job market just wasn’t cutting it for me.. I had pretty much worked at every job in the town that I had any interest in, it was time to move on.

That’s where Topeka comes into my life… I was able to find a decent cooking job ($7/hr) within weeks of coming to Topeka. I did the cooking thing for a year and had made it up to 10 dollars an hour, which I thought was outstanding. I started looking around for better jobs, I was able to search the classified section online at cjonline and for free! At the time, the Emporia paper was a paid deal for the full online content.

So i won’t go further into my job resume, but I did find a better job and was at it for 4 years before I gave it up for bigger and better things. The point is this… One thing that has definitely kept me in Topeka is the job market.

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