Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) recently saw the culmination of Imagine KC, a community wide collaborative effort to build a more sustainable future for the Greater Kansas City area. In partnership with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC ) and others, KCPT launched the innovative project in October and held a series of 45 public forums over six months, culminating on April 22. The forums sought input from community members regarding their vision for the future development of the region. KCPT and MARC hope the outcome of the project will shape the decisions of elected officials and city planners “for years to come.” “We set out to develop a citizen engagement project to paint an alternative vision of development,” said Mike Zeller, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement at KCPT and one of the developers of Imagine KC. “The primary barrier [in the past] has been the inability to imagine a companion form of development to the highways and cars model.”
Zeller added that April 22 was KCPT’s “biggest night of television,” with a 50-person community forum, a live phone bank, web input, and original computer animations depicting the positive impact of a light rail system in the region.
Imagine KC was characteristically multimedia in nature. It provided a number of ways for citizens to participate, inviting them to attend public forums, view the forums on KCPT or online, visit the One KC Voice log, provide feedback through surveys, chat online and take action politically.
The project is also a shining example of the way public television can unite the community it serves.
“It was a convening conversation for the entire metropolitan area: ordinary citizens and policy makers, city planners, mayors,” Zeller said. “It was a sensational night.”
