Niná’s 4 tips for getting stuff done

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Niná (pronounced Nine-uh, and “No ‘Ms. Niná.’ It’s just Niná”) Whiteside-McCord won safer streets for her neighbors and the families served by schools in her neighborhood, but she didn’t do it alone. The redesign of a formerly complicated and dangerous intersection in front of the Ewing Marion Kauffman School just off of 63rd Street in Kansas City, Missouri, was the result of strong relationships, teamwork, and good old fashioned phone calls.

On a sunny morning in June, a crowd gathered at the corner of Meyer Boulevard and Bushman Drive in front of the Kauffman School. First was Katie, Teresa, and Greta of the Neighbors United For Action neighborhood association. Two Kansas City Police Department officers, both named David, came directly from another community meeting. Dennis, an area superintendent from City of Kansas City Missouri Public Works was right behind Tom, Dinah, LaMonica, and Jacob from the UMKC Center for Neighborhoods. Niná, who had invited all of these people, also brought her young neighbor Kevin.

Niná (center, next to her young neighbor Kevin) and her team of neighborhood champions

The story

A couple of years ago, a driver struck 13 year old Kevin while he was crossing the street in front of the Kauffman School. Kevin wasn’t seriously injured, but a driver struck and killed 13 year old Isata Mansaray at a nearby intersection just last summer. The incidents spurred Niná to take action for safer streets in her neighborhood.

“My classmates in the UMKC Center for Neighborhoods Neighborhood Leadership Training program helped me choose this crosswalk project,” Niná says. “Not every student rides the bus to school, and we have a lot of students who walk. Some actually come from 66th or 67th street– all the way up to 69th. They’re crossing six lanes of traffic.”

Niná began making phone calls to her neighbors and friends, to her City Council representatives and Public Works, and to the Kauffman School, rallying support so that what happened to Kevin and Isata doesn’t happen again. 

Because of the high rates of crashes resulting in serious injury and death along Meyer Boulevard, the corridor is a priority for traffic calming for the City of KCMO. Within just a few months, the City was making plans to redesign the intersections where drivers hit Kevin and Isata. Click here to read about progress at this intersection

 

The strategy

So how did Niná win such a significant safety improvement for people who walk and bike in her neighborhood? She has four tips for making big change in your community:

1. Be informed and prepared

Niná talks to her neighbors, attends meetings, and writes down her ideas and concerns in notebooks she keeps in her car. “When I go to these meetings, I have the exact area of town that I'm talking about written down,” says Niná. “When you take notes, people pay attention because they know that you're keeping an eye on things.”

Niná also participated in related community engagement work BikeWalkKC was performing for the City of KCMO. She joined walk audits we organized and leveraged information we gathered about the Meyer corridor to strengthen her case. Click here to read the Meyer Boulevard Walk Audit Report. 

2. Give and take

Niná believes in having a real relationship with decision makers in her community. She understands that showing up consistently builds trust with city and neighborhood leaders. “In order for you to get something for your neighborhood, you gotta give something,” she says. “That means you need to go to their meetings. You need to support them on things that they're doing. They work for us, but we gotta work for them also. It's reciprocity.”

And she expects decision makers to trust her in return. “I call people. At any meeting that you see me at, I tell all City officials, ‘If you don't want to talk to me, don't give me your cell phone number.’ And I have everyone's cell phone number.” Click here to use BikeWalkKC's "Find your City Council Member" tool

3. Don’t try to do it alone

There’s no doubt that Niná is a powerful figure in her community. She’s smart and charismatic, she cares deeply, and she’s an experienced neighborhood leader. But she’s savvy enough to understand that a strong coalition makes enduring change. 

Every person standing at that corner on that spring morning had a hand in her project, and there were still more collaborators that couldn’t make it, like the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King (“Those are my girls! Even Mother Superior attends the 5th District meetings”), Kauffman School staff and parents (“They’ve been trying to improve things since they opened”), and Michael Kelley from BikeWalkKC (“He helped with my powerpoint, and he knew who to invite to the walk audits”), and City leaders (“[Mayor Pro Tem] Ryana Parks-Shaw started her walking tours in our neighborhood”). Click here to view the City of KCMO's Neighborhood Direct resource guide

4. Pass it on

Niná served on her neighborhood association for 15 years, but she’s still learning new things and passing along her wisdom to the next neighborhood leaders.

“The Neighborhood Leadership Training program was the best move I ever could make because now that we have a new board coming in, some people were never part of the neighborhood association,” she says. “I have a different kind of experience and mentorship that I can share with them. I'm able to help them find different avenues that can help them as they're stepping into these positions.”

Summer school students use the new raised crosswalk. You can see the temporary stop sign and the barriers closing Bushman Drive

The solution

The little crowd in front of the Kauffman School admired the new, temporary stop sign at the corner, the raised crosswalk spanning Meyer Boulevard, and the orange striped barriers blocking Bushman Drive and simplifying the tangled snarl of Meyer Boulevard, 63rd Street, Bushman Drive and The Paseo. Drivers traveling through were still getting used to the new configuration, and some drivers still failed to yield to walkers and bicyclists trying to cross the street. But Niná and her neighbors are confident that the changes they fought for will improve driver behavior and make Meyer safer for everyone. “It works,” says Niná. “I mean, I am in just total awe that this project went off without a hitch.”

Congratulations to Niná and her neighbors!

Are you inspired to make a difference in your community? BikeWalkKC is here to help! Contact Michael Kelley or Avery Jones at policy@bikewalkkc.org with your questions about advocacy and organizing.

Want more stories about real people that fought for safer streets and won? Read these inspirational blogs from our archives:

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