I was a long-time resident
of Topeka. I was born at Stormont-Vail
Hospital in 1959. I grew up in a small
two bedroom house at 627 Oakley Street. I went to Gage Elementary School, Landon
Middle School, and Topeka West High School.
I graduated from the University of Kansas and came back and lived in the old house at 1127
SW MacVicar.
Do I know Topeka? Yes, I know Topeka and most of the movers and
shakers there. Do I have opinions
regarding the direction the city has taken in the last thirty years? Definitely.
I remember what Topeka was like
in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Why do I say all this? Somebody
will ask. Someone will say I don’t have
a right to say anything about Topeka because I no longer live there.
In 2002, a letter to the editor of the Topeka Capital Journal was entitled,
“What’s the Matter with Topeka?” It was
a well-written epitaph by a middle aged professional who loved Topeka but could
no longer live there because the jobs for mid-level professionals were
gone. I read the letter with interest,
and I related to most of the claims stated in the letter.
This article will present some of the issues and
problems that Topeka has encountered in the last thirty years. My primary question, “What’s the Matter with
Topeka?” will be addressed. The reader
may not agree with everything I say, but this is my opinion as viewed from
abroad. As such, take it with a grain of
salt and an eye for sheer entertainment value.
In Defense of a
Hometown
Ask my friends, and they will say without a
doubt, I’m the last defender of Topeka.
That’s true. If I’m in a group of
people and someone utters a negative comment about Topeka, I will defend my
hometown. Defense is not always easy,
but I carry the torch that keeps the spirit of my hometown alive. I don’t know why I do it, but I feel I owe
Topeka something. There are not many of
us who will do this.
Unfortunately, sometimes I’m called to defend
Topeka on an almost daily basis.
Negative comments can come from all over. I have several friends from Lawrence. I can almost predict that they will say
something bad about Topeka. My
co-workers slammed Topeka almost as
often as grabbing a cup of coffee. At
first, I would be quiet so that no waves were generated. Finally, I got worn out and tired of the
bland, obnoxious, barrage of idiot generalizations, so I began my crusade to
defend my town.
What were once endearing qualities about Topeka
suddenly took a turn for the worst. I
think it began in the 1990’s and the downhill turn never looked back. The change was so radical that it even caught
me by surprise. In the following
sections, I will attempt to address some of these backward slides and try to
figure out how to reverse them.
Crime
It is sad when crime takes center stage in a
community. Ask people to name three
things that need to be fixed in Topeka, and crime will usually be in the top three. Google “crime statistics for Topeka, Kansas,”
and there is a link that plainly lists Topeka’s crime statistics in several
critical categories. You can also
compare these statistics to other communities in the United States. I chose Spokane, Washington; Colorado
Springs, Colorado; Lincoln, Nebraska; Iowa’s Quad Cities, and Springfield,
Missouri. I was determined to find a
community with a similar population and with similar crime problems. While these other communities occasionally
beat Topeka in a specific crime category type (rape, theft, etc.), Topeka
usually won (or lost) hands down.
Sometimes they lost big time.
Their crime rate would be as much as twice per 100,000 population as
these other communities. What is the
result of this study? Topeka’s crime
problem is not a perceived reality, it is genuine.
Unfortunately, the reputation of rampant crime
is not a secret. It is well known. It has forced residents to move out in all
directions from the city limits and into the county. The theory is that most of the crime is
centered in downtown, mid-town, North Topeka, and the Oakland areas. In order to avoid it, residents have moved to
comparably quiet Shawnee County areas, or even Jackson, Douglas, Jefferson,
Wabaunsee, and Osage Counties. One of
the problems with this theory is that it’s wrong. Crime has moved to certain parts of the city
that never witnessed significant crime before.
The county has now become easy pickings for thieves, drug dealers, and
general criminal mischief.
Since crime has taken center stage, people are
reluctant to move here. The population
of Topeka has not significantly increased in the last twenty years. Recently there was a celebration in town
because the town’s population increased by a thousand people. That is less than 1% of the population, and
certainly nothing to celebrate. Worse
than that, the crime rate would have to decrease even more significantly for
Topeka’s reputation as a crime haven to disappear.
What can Topeka do about this? I think the movers and shakers in Topeka
realize that crime is a problem. I think
they can successfully point to short-term trends that may show an improvement
in crime statistics. I don’t think they
can point to any long-term gains. One
answer might be to hire more law enforcement.
This would require more funding, but I think this issue is so important
and crucial right now that more money needs to be invested to curtail it.
Some things can’t be fixed. Public opinion, for example. The best thing Topeka can do is cross their
fingers and hope that the rumors and the bad press on crime goes away. In time, other communities may take over the “Dodge
City” role that Topeka has inherited. If
Topeka can make positive, public gains in other areas, the combination may be
enough to curtail the bad image of crime.
Heritage
Topeka has a rich heritage, no doubt about
that. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad. The Latin community in
Oakland. The Oregon Trail. The Free State-Proslavery movement of the
1850’s. Topeka is the home of the Kansas
Museum of History and the Kansas Center for Historical Research. The town, however, has trashed nearly
everything unique and vital in the way of historical architecture.
Take for example the governor’s mansion that
existed for decades prior to Cedar Crest.
Once Cedar Crest was donated to the state for use as an executive
mansion, the former governor’s residence became nothing but a pile of
debris. It happened so fast that no one
even realized it was happening.
Then there was the old First National Bank
building that sat at the corner of 6th and Kansas Avenue. It went down in similar fashion. I thought the same thing was going to happen
to the Columbian Building, not once but several times. Old Victorian mansions in Potwin Place and
Auburndale have also voluntarily disappeared.
Some would say they fell in the name of progress. I think the lack of interest says reams about
Topeka as a community. Everything is
disposable. Oddly enough, it took several years for the
New England Life building to come down even though it was an empty shell after
the 1966 tornado, but it took hardly any time at all for the 1st
National Bank building to come down.
There have been recent strides to save buildings. The John Ritchie house. The school where Brown vs. the Topeka Board
of Education played a pivotal role.
While the latter is truly a dark incident in the town’s history, (what
town wants to be the one remembered for segregation so ridiculous that it
literally changed history for everyone else), I guess it is an effort
nonetheless. Topeka needs more of
that.
I will close this section by stating another sad
realization—the Kansas Museum of History is an award-winning state museum. I wonder how many Topekans have never visited
the museum? Unfortunately, the answer to
that question is perhaps in the thousands.
Jobs
A city must have a versatile job base to remain
vibrant. In the last twenty years or so,
Topeka has shown more talent in losing companies and jobs than in gaining them.
One of the darkest chapters in the town’s
history was the loss of the Menninger Foundation a few years back, when it
moved to Houston, Texas. In the first
place, the Menninger family is a big part of Topeka’s heritage. This clinic became world-renowned in the
fields of psychology and psychiatry. As
an unusual sidelight, it was always fun to see Hollywood celebrities around
town while they stayed at the foundation getting help. It must have been a dark day indeed when the
doors closed on that place. What was
left was a ghost facility that sat in a ravine below WIBW, ignored and quickly
gathering weeds. The Fleming Company is
another example. Losing Flemings can be defined as disaster in the grandest
scale for a city the size of Topeka.
One of
Topeka’s mainstays for decades is the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant that sits
out at the north edge of town. Goodyear is
a Geiger counter for business prosperity in town. When employees are laid off, it usually
doesn’t bode well for the town. When the
plant is running at full capacity, things are generally good. The sporadic lay-offs and slowdowns are a
part of life, and whether Goodyear is prospering or not, it is a union plant in
a non-union environment.
One of the largest employers in town is the
state. Two large state office buildings
and a host of other facilities dot downtown and everywhere else. The state and its seemingly endless supply of
clerical jobs is the promised land for many young farm kids fresh out of high
school and begging to get out of the country and into the city. A substantial percentage of state employees
are fresh recruits from nearby rural counties.
Lately the endless supply has started to dry up, and there are fewer
farm kids that are able to make the transition to their first taste of city
life. The state has become an unreliable
source of jobs. Even a portion of the
prison system has left for El Dorado.
The old “diagnostic facility,” a fancy word for felony initiation into
the state system, used to sit on the east side of town. Now it sits near El Dorado on the outskirts
of that town.
Last, let’s not forget about Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Railroad used to employ hundreds
of accountants and other administrative staff, not to mention rail yard workers
and others. Beginning in the early
1980s, things have not looked so bright for Santa Fe, at least in Topeka. Their bad luck seemed to escalate as soon as
their brand new windowless office building was constructed on the east side of downtown. Perhaps making it “windowless” had a sideline
advantage—passersby could not view all the empty cubicles.
This is a brief laundry list of some of the
heavy hitters. This is off the top of my
head and I’ve probably missed a few. One
could also comment about Jostens and Payless Shoe Source and Frito Lay. The most amusing thing about Payless Shoe
Source is its invisibility. It is
fantastic that Topeka is the national headquarters for Payless. What is amusing
is that nobody knows, and Payless doesn’t seem to advertise it.
So, you might ask, how can this be
resolved? Right now, I’m writing this as
we face a recession. Topeka has some
motivating factors that employers would find attractive—an educated workforce,
inexpensive resources, tax breaks, available inexpensive housing, and a
population that makes it not too big and not too small. A push needs to be made to accentuate these
opportunities.
Leadership
The job of Topeka mayor must be a thankless
job. No matter how good a mayor you are,
your decisions and power are overshadowed by a little thing called the Kansas
Statehouse and another position known as the Kansas governor. When the mix of state and municipal power has
a general atmosphere of “give and take,” all is good with the world. Otherwise, forget it.
Since the June 8, 1966 tornado, Topeka can count
itself lucky to have several good mayors.
Charles Wright was mayor at the time the city was split in half by one
of the worst tornadoes in the history of recorded disasters. It has been called the first $100,000,000
tornado. Lesser men might have thrown up
their hands and dragged their feet through miles of destruction and red
tape. Charles Wright set the stage for
putting Topeka back on track. For the
most part, his administration was successful.
He was followed by one of Topeka’s best known
mayors, Bill McCormick. McCormick served
throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. He
was not flamboyant, but he was consistent in his actions and honest in his
intentions. Topeka prospered greatly
during his administration. The 1980’s is
characterized by Chuck Wright’s visionary son, Doug Wright. Doug Wright was young and willing to try new
things. Some of them worked, some of
them didn’t. Doug Wright was sort of a
Bill Clinton in miniature. While some
dreams failed, who really kept track?
Topekans felt good about themselves, and the town seemed to be growing.
The 1990s through the current decade saw things
unravel a bit. Crime increased. Industry left. Businesses stagnated. When Mayor Joan Wagnon set her lofty goal of
planting trees along one busy thoroughfare while crime and unemployment
escalated, it became clear that things were not going well. Butch Felker took a stab at trying to get
things right, but seemed stuck in quagmires of unnecessary bureaucracy. Duane Pomeroy and James McClinton served
such short terms, I’m not certain if they did much of anything. Too bad for Pomeroy. The Pomeroy name is famous in Topeka, and he
held great promise.
Strange Shifts in
Prosperity, Both Good and Bad
When I grew up in Topeka, the vibrant center of
town was not the downtown or west but rather South Topeka Boulevard. This is where White Lakes Mall, Katz, a bevy
of nice restaurants, and a run of strip malls kept things hopping. We would drive the strip on Friday and
Saturday nights, much to the chagrin of Topeka police. I assumed the trend would continue. It did not.
In the 1980s, the Shideler family and others
sold parcels of land along Wanamaker Road.
A wonderful center of business was planned. This included a bunch of hotels, Circuit
City, Target, a Super Walmart, and the crowning achievement, Westridge
Mall. I assumed that Topeka could
support two malls. I was wrong. Within months after Westridge Mall opened, White
Lakes went downhill fast, and so did everything else around it. The center of commerce moved from South
Topeka to West Topeka. Housing
followed. It was such a dramatic shift
that it may have surprised everyone in Topeka.
In fact, this dramatic change may be one of the things that sent the
town into a tail-spin.
Other parts of town held promise, albeit
briefly. During Doug Wright’s term,
North Topeka was promoted as a trendy spot for bars and nice restaurants. A great little French restaurant gave North
Topeka a try. But there was not enough
energy or excitement to motivate enough people to go there. Downtown Topeka on the south side held more
promise. When I was growing up, downtown
Topeka was a bit sleazy. They had an old
rundown Playboy Club and a smattering of skanky bars. This slowly began to change. Macys and Dillards occupied a large building
in the center of downtown. Other local
businesses held promise, like Wolfe’s Camera and Video. At the north end was Montgomery Wards. Montgomery Ward’s moved to Westridge Mall,
as did Dillards. The Santa Fe general
offices began promoting shorter lunches so employees could leave earlier. State employees were offered similar
motivations. Thus, no time to shop or
eat lunch, and thus, fewer customers. The
movement of Montgomery Ward’s and Dillards eventually to Westridge Mall left
the dream of a trendy shopping mecca in downtown Topeka without an anchor
store.
One of the bright spots in Topeka’s development
was the construction of the ExpoCentre on Topeka Boulevard at the Shawnee
County Fairgrounds, and the renovation of the Topeka Performing Arts Center in
downtown next to the courthouse. The
renovation was well prepared and executed, and the old building never looked
better. The ExpoCentre offered a
medium-sized venue for sporting events, concerts, conventions, and
gatherings. These were both positive
advances that faced lukewarm receptions from a significant percentage of Topeka
taxpayers.
Another positive development was the advancement
of Washburn College since the June 1966 tornado. The tornado all but flattened most of the
university. Since then, many new campus
buildings were built on the foundations of the condemned ones. Today, the college has transformed from those
dark days into a significant place of learning with an extensive curriculum and
world-renowned professors. What makes
this even more significant is Washburn’s placement an hour from Kansas State
University, an hour from Emporia State University, and thirty-five minutes from
the University of Kansas. One might think
that Eastern Kansas has enough places of higher learning. Somehow, Washburn has been successful in
competing with the big boys by offering attractive alternatives for adult
students.
This section has definitely been a mix of the
good and the bad. The good is, truly,
quite good, so why does Topeka have problems?
Atmosphere of
Hate: The Phelps Family
Unfortunately, Topeka gets publicized quite
often, and it really has nothing to do with the town. In the last twenty years, Fred Phelps and
members of the so-called Westboro Baptist Church have spread their home-grown
message of hate against gays to all corners of the United States. Every time they stage a funeral protest
somewhere, Topeka is included in the news report. The mere mention of where the Westboro Baptist
Church is located is all it takes. The
name Topeka becomes etched in
people’s minds along with “hate” and the Phelps family.
I grew up in the shadow of the Westboro Baptist
Church. My boyhood home was two miles
away. My old historic home that I
restored in the 1980s and 1990s was a mile away. When I was growing up, little mention was
made of the Westboro Baptist Church.
Once in awhile, the Phelp’s kids would come by selling candy
door-to-door to raise money for church-related projects. Sometimes it would be as late as 9:30 at
night, which seemed a bit strange, but whatever worked I guess. I went to school with two of the Phelps
boys, Jonathan and Nathan. Considering
their devout religious beliefs, I found it strange that their parents would
even send them to a public school, but they did. Looking back on it, I would’ve thought that
a private religious school or home schooling would have been their schooling of
choice. Both boys were likable
kids. Jonathan had a great sense of
humor and at that time, I would consider him a friend. Nathan was a grade or more ahead of me, so I
didn’t know him as well, but his personality seemed similar. Never would I have imagined that their
family harbored any hatred for any one based on their sexual orientation.
Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church
seemed to spring to life in the latter half of the 1980s. Their picketing and protests began primarily
near the Shawnee County Courthouse and at a street corner near the entrance to a
strip mall known as Gage Center. The
protesting spread like wildfire. Next it
was in front of homes where folks lived that publicly disagreed with them. Next, it was in front of churches that had a
more liberal atmosphere towards accepting gays.
This quickly changed to gay funerals, or funerals that had some type of
connection to the gay lifestyle. And so
on and so on. The stage changed. It was no longer just Topeka. The protests moved to Lawrence, Kansas City,
and points east and west, wherever there was publicity and a news camera. Suddenly Topeka took front and center.
Another dark day in the history of Topeka was
the day the Ku Klux Klan staged a gathering on the Capitol steps, and not too
far away, the Phelps clan spread their usual hate-fest. Some fools bragged about how this made Topeka
look like a defender of free speech. I
just call it stupid.
For years, the Phelps exorcised some type of
svengali hold over the movers and shakers of Topeka. I don’t know how it happened, but everyone in
town was scared of them. Scared of the
picketing coming a-knocking at their doors, scared of lawsuits, you name
it.
One example of this was a show that aired on
WIBW TV 13 at noon on Saturdays, called “Your Question Please.” Each Saturday, three different local
clergymen were selected to come on for a half hour to answer people’s questions
about God, religion, the hereafter, anything.
There were often questions about the Phelps, usually something like, “Do
you believe what they believe?” This
made every religious leader who came on that show extremely uncomfortable. None would answer the question
directly. Most shriveled up like a dried
prune and prayed that the question would go away. They didn’t want the Phelps family to picket
them. The closest religion that the
Westboro Baptist Church seems to emulate is the Primitive Baptist Church. On the Primitive Baptist Church website,
there is a disclaimer where it states the beliefs of the Westboro Baptist
Church are not the beliefs of the Primitive Baptist Church. This is the only place and location where I’ve
ever seen the Baptist Church make a stand against the Phelps. Most of the time the Baptists seem
complacent to let the Phelps family run wild.
They seem more interested in boycotting Disney World than in having the
Baptist religion pop up every time a news report mentions the Westboro Baptist
Church. This seems to be the status quo among Topekans
and one of the flaws behind the rise of the Westboro Baptist Church. They have no one with the guts to defy
them. The problem is, every time they
get their name in the papers, the city of Topeka, Kansas is right there with
them.
One last thing to consider-- if Topeka is in the
running to attract a great company, and it is between Topeka and, say, four
other cities, what will the impact of the Westboro Baptist Church be? Nothing?
Something? Everything? I don’t have the answers. But if I ran a company and I had to choose
between Topeka and four other cities, and none of the others attracted regular,
negative press regarding a religious group constantly promoting hate, I may
choose one of the other four cities rather than expose my staff and employees
to this regular annoyance. Think about
it.......
Despite my early acquaintance with Jonathan
Phelps, I find the family antics inexcusable.
I will never forgive them. At the
age of four, I had to teach my daughter about hate due to witnessing this group
picketing at the corner of 10th and Gage. I feel disgusted and violated that the issue
of hate had to be brought up to a four year old. How many other parents feel likewise? I defend freedom of speech. But freedom of speech brings with it certain
responsibilities. I don’t feel that
picketing a funeral is part of that responsibility.
Topeka: The Future
I think Topeka has a potentially bright future,
I really do. It is the hub of a
marketing area that extends west to Manhattan, north to the Nebraska line, and
south to Emporia. That is a lot of
territory. Why things don’t seem to gel
remains a mystery.
As I said in the beginning, Topeka shares real
estate with the State of Kansas. That
can have some advantages, but also some disadvantages. I think it is time the city took on a new
identity besides the Capitol City. The
town can’t fully rely on state jobs to offset private enterprise anymore.
First, eliminate crime. Take back the night, take back the
city. Then, focus on attracting industry
first and foremost. The town’s image
needs a facelift. Nearby Kansas City and
Lawrence do not have to zap all the energy out of Topeka.
That is about all. I will be watching, as will the rest of the
nation. I will continue to brag about
Topeka and talk it up, but please try to make that job a little easier. Right now it feels like an uphill battle.
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