Local Columns

Opinion: The ‘Happy Days’ of housing supply

Last semester, I asked students in my sustainable city planning class to close their eyes and visualize the typologies of five cradle-to-grave residences: birth residence, high school residence, current residence, parent’s residence and oldest family member’s residence. About 80% ...

Opinion: Ruling highlights the fragility of voting rights

On May 31, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled on a case challenging the state’s 2021 election laws that made it more difficult for Kansas citizens to vote. In its majority decision, the court states that there is no right to vote enshrined in the Kansas Bill of Rights, but that voting rights ...

Opinion: Partisan solutions on guns inadequate

Why did this happen? How can it be prevented from happening again? These are the questions asked after gunfire erupted at the conclusion of the Kansas City Super Bowl parade that left one person dead and dozens injured — including 11 children. Citizens turned to the government for ...

Opinion: Bipartisanship progress is possible

As this year’s legislative session ends, it would be easy to focus on the overwhelming partisan conflict and stalemate that has become a reality in Kansas politics. However, legislative Democrats and Republicans have been able to make progress by working together on several criminal justice ...

Opinion: Housing needed, not a football stadium

Kansas policymakers are abuzz about the recent defeat of a sports stadium tax in Jackson County, Missouri. Unfortunately, they’re saying all the wrong things. To paraphrase James Carville, “It’s affordable housing, stupid.” If the tax had been approved, the money would have gone to ...

Opinion: Progress in state’s lead pipe problem

In November 2021, I wrote my second column for Insight Kansas as a guest contributor. I wrote on the prevalence of lead pipes in our state. The number of lead pipes in Kansas is particularly high, comparatively, because lead mining was a major industry in southeast Kansas and southwest ...