Driving around Wichita, you’ll see the occasional Tesla, electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup or even one of the city’s battery-powered buses quietly cruising around town. With more electric vehicles have come more worries about what happens if they catch fire. They burn much hotter, emit noxious gases and pose an electrocution risk. But the idea […]
Civic Engagement
The Wichita Beacon shares the latest civic engagement stories in Wichita and their impact on their communities.
Posted inEducation
Some Park Elementary neighbors oppose Wichita homeless shelter plan
Bobby Harlan gazed over the shuttered grounds of Park Elementary School, which he attended 32 years ago, and shared his disappointment about its future. “How can it be a homeless shelter?” he said. “This neighborhood needs a school.” First came the news in March that Wichita schools would be closing the school to save on […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
Sedgwick County regulators hold up giant solar farm on Wichita’s outskirts amid objections from neighbors
Sedgwick County appeared poised to follow its ban on wind farms with widely vetted regulations that would allow acre after acre of solar panels pumping renewable energy into the electrical grid. Instead, the county still has a moratorium on the construction of large-scale solar farms. “Boils down to a simple phrase: not in my backyard,” […]
Posted inEducation
Wichita school district takes heat for not involving more people in its $2.1 billion plan for fixing buildings
Shana Balton expects a bigger say before endorsing Wichita Public Schools’ big buildings plan. “The board needs to be willing to meet the community,” she said, “so that board members can understand how we are feeling.” Balton, a teacher at Pleasant Valley Middle School, learned more about the long-range, $2.1 billion plan for school district […]
Posted inEducation
Teachers’ union appears on board with Wichita district’s plan to spend big, close schools
The union for 4,000 district teachers and other workers looks inclined to favor Wichita Public Schools’ $2.1 billion plan to remake several schools and buildings. Voters will likely decide this fall if Wichita Public Schools can borrow $450 million to fix up old schools, build some new ones and close 11 buildings. The school board […]
Posted inCivic Engagement, DIY Democracy, Education
Wichita parents fight to reverse the school board’s vote to close six schools
Minutes after the Wichita school board voted to close six schools last month, a handful of parents began signing petitions in the hallway outside of the meeting. It was the first skirmish in their battle to reverse the decision. “When we started doing the petition,” parent Ruth Lehman said, “that was the only thing that […]
Posted inCivic Engagement, DIY Democracy
Wichita’s noise ordinance struck down by Kansas Supreme Court over First Amendment issue
Takeaways: An ordinance used to convict a Wichitan protesting police brutality was ruled unconstitutional Friday by the Kansas Supreme Court. The ordinance criminalizes “noisy conduct tending to reasonably arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.” That’s just too broad, the state’s high court ruled. “We conclude the noisy conduct provision within is unconstitutionally overbroad because […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
Wichita joins City Bureau’s Documenters Network to bridge the gap between the public and public meetings
Members of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, The Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), and the Wichita Foundation are partnering with City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab, to bring the Documenters Network to Wichita. The new participatory journalism initiative is making public meetings more transparent and accessible, training and paying Wichita residents to access the information they need to actualize the change they wish […]
Posted inCivic Engagement, DIY Democracy
Not old enough to vote? Here are seven civic engagement opportunities for teens
Teenagers cannot vote until they are 18, but that doesn’t mean they need to wait until adulthood to shape the world around them. Many ways exist to get involved in teen civic engagement, whether in politics or other aspects of community leadership. “I used to think stuff like civic engagement … was for old people […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
How are you spending 3-16? Wichitans asked to donate that day
What are you doing on March 16? The city of Wichita and the United Way of the Plains are inviting you to take part in and donate at the 316 Day of Caring, a date selected because 316 is Wichita’s area code, often used as a verbal shorthand for the city’s name. It also conveniently […]