In case you missed it, we (Prairie Village) are in the news again for not the best of reasons.

The award-winning student journalists of The Harbinger at Shawnee Mission East High School published this editorial on Monday:

I agree, Editorial Board.

City Council and staff (myself included) could have done a better job proactively and consistently communicating on this topic about goals, current zoning/ordinances/guidelines, possible ordinance/zoning changes from these recommendations, and the Planning Commission process that we’re going through right now.

Even our FAQ/Housing primer page is a bit dense if you have zero baseline knowledge about zoning (as I did about, oh, three years ago. 😉). I still recommend everyone read it themselves because it may answer their particular concerns, or it may inspire questions they hadn’t thought of.

Communication is key in every aspect of life, and we just didn’t do a good job. Transparent, we are! (I’ll argue anyone on this.) But if you don’t know where to find information on the website, or if you’re just not a website person, or you don’t know the right person to ask, it can be frustrating to stay-up-to-date on ALL the things going on in our city at all times. The printed Village Voice newsletter that is mailed to every address in Prairie Village just isn’t big enough to cover everything, and we can’t rely on social media platforms to get to every resident. Now the question is: will we learn from this communication feedback?

More to come, folks! Let me know if you have questions! 😁