KCPT and the Mid-America Regional Council explore ways our communities are planning for a vibrant, connected and green future.
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VIsit imaginekc.org
Imagine KC Marathon
Imagine KC brings the regional community together for an in-depth look at new strategies for regional growth and development. Visualization techniques, expert opinions and interactive tools will explore possible scenarios for the region’s future and look at work and initiatives currently underway which demonstrate sustainable community development principles.
Watch Saturday, April 21, 2012 beginning at 4pm on KCPT2.
Imagine KC: Natural Resource Conservation
The October 13 episode of Imagine KC will focus on natural resource conservation in the built environment. The show will demonstrate why planning for what we don’t build matters just as much as planning for what we do build. Stories will look at how preserving the natural environment improves quality of life, reshapes our built environment and creates a more sustainable region by providing benefits to those who live downstream.
This episode also highlights communities that are mixing “green” with “grey” infrastructure to address a number of problems. They are making strategic landscape investments to minimize flooding and water pollution, provide healthy recreation options, protect wildlife habitats and beautify neighborhoods.
We’ll also see how residential and commercial properties are incorporating sustainable features such as rain gardens and green roofs and other green solutions, to bring the built environment and the natural environment closer together.
Imagine KC: Connected Corridors
The August 18 episode of Imagine KC will look at strategies to connect our region’s most vibrant places along key arterial streets and corridors. A regional corridor strategy is in the works that will increase transportation choices to allow residents, workers and shoppers to more easily travel around the region by foot, bike and transit. Stories in this episode will look at plans and work underway to connect priority corridors to form the backbone of a regional system and how some of our region’s most valued places will benefit from improvements and revitalization along these routes.
It might be hard for some to “imagine” what all these changes will look like in local communities, so for this episode we traveled to another region for an up-close look at how implementing similar corridor strategies actually transformed communities into more vibrant places. Viewers will also get a guided “tour” of the six corridors in the Kansas City region that will soon experience their own transformations.
Learn more: imaginekc.org
Imagine KC: Building Healthy, Local Food Systems
Increasingly the region’s residents are looking for better access to fresh, local food, and showing an interest in producing and selling food closer to home. This is a result of a growing awareness of the health, environmental and economic benefits of buildSing a sustainable local food system.
Many local governments also recognize these sustainable benefits and are responding with a range of actions and planning activities. Examples include innovative land-use ordinances that support urban and rural agricultural practices, new resources for community gardening, incentives for retail businesses that sell healthy food, and opportunities for local producers to sell in markets and other local outlets.
This episode will take you to the Ivanhoe neighborhood in Kansas City, Mo., where residents are not only growing community gardens and urban orchards but also operating food stands to sell their products in what is recognized as a food desert. You’ll see how a Juniper Gardens project in Kansas City, Kan., is helping refugees use farming techniques to develop viable business plans while improving access to fresh, healthy food in the urban core. And you’ll visit one of more than 100 local schoolyard gardens where school children are becoming more connected to fresh, healthy food, and learning where food comes from and why that matters.
Imagine KC: Creating Sustainable Places
This episode of Imagine KC will feature the region’s new Creating Sustainable Places” initiative. We’ll hear from HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims, who sat down with us for a short interview following his March 24 announcement of the grant, to discuss what this opportunity means from a national perspective. Co-chairs Jan Marcason, City Council, Kansas City, MO, and Curt Skoog, City Council, Overland Park, KS, will talk about how the project will unfold and who’s involved. Local planning and sustainability experts will describe how focusing on strategies to develop sustainable corridors and activity centers, and advance new conservation efforts will result in a region that is more vibrant, connected and green.
Imagine KC: Vibrant Communities
Episode 3 of Imagine KC focuses on creating and sustaining vibrant activity centers, and the critical role these community anchors play in the region’s Centers, Corridors and Conservation strategy. Stories explore a widespread desire to revitalize historic downtowns, develop more active centers in older bedroom suburbs and build new centers in emerging suburbs on greenfield sites. This episode of Imagine KC demonstrates the defining characteristics of different types of centers by highlighting regional examples and showing how quality urban design principles have been, and continue to be the key to creating our most beloved community places. We also explore some local government plans and ordinances that can help the region achieve its vision for a connected network of vibrant activity centers.
In short, this episode answers the questions: What does a vibrant community look like and what policies and actions can local communities use to guide the development of these centers?
Imagine KC: Energy Efficiency and Conservation
This second episode will focus on the third C, Conservation, as we talk about energy efficiency and conservation in our built environment — the homes we live in, the buildings where we work, the schools we attend, even our city and county facilities.
By making our built environment more energy efficient and conserving energy, we save money, protect natural resources and create more attractive and comfortable places to live, work, learn and recreate. This episode will take a look at work that’s leading the way toward a more sustainable energy future for our region. We’ll explore the benefits of LEED-certified building practices in the public and private sectors, community weatherization initiatives to help residents save energy and money, and we’ll learn about new and exciting energy technologies designed to improve our homes and public services.
This episode will look at the successes of the Johnson County Sunset Buildings in Olathe; Posty Cards Plant in KCMO; JE Dunn Headquarters in downtown KCMO; and Project Living Proof .
Imagine KC has been generously funded by: Hall Family Foundation, Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, Garney Family Foundation Fund, ULI Kansas City, Lafarge, Inc. and the Kansas City Chapter of the AIA.
Imagine KC: Introduction of the 3 Cs
The first episode of a twelve-part series describes examples of community successes in Lee’s Summit, Troost Corridor and Shawnee, KS., as well as work now underway across the region.
Watch the full episode. See more KCPT Specials.
Imagine KC: Where Can We Go From Here?
What should our region look like in 20, 30 or 40 years? How can Greater Kansas City build a sustainable future? In April, 2009 KCPT and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) are partnered on an innovative community engagement project that spanned seven months, involved thousands of citizens and culminated with a live program involving citizens at home, on campuses around the Metro and in the KCPT studio.
The results will shape local decisions for years to come as elected officials, planners and other local leaders use the feedback from this project to shape their own ideas about how our region can become more sustainable.
Imagine KC is a co-production between KCPT & MARC
Imagine KC Project team
Bridging The Gap
Kansas City Public Television
Mid-America Regional Council
One KC Voice
Regional Transit Alliance
University of Kansas
Platinum Sponsors
Burns & McDonnell
KCP&L
Bronze Sponsors
Johnson County Government
Mr. Goodcents Foundation
Major funding for this project is provided by the Federal Highway Administration.
