Updated March 6, 2024, 3:00 p.m. CT
With little recognition and no pay, Topeka Neighborhood Improvement Association members have toiled for decades to make life better in the mostly poor areas where they live.
That’s been frustrating at times in a city where officials and the NIAs don’t always agree, veteran members of those groups told The Capital-Journal late last month.
Still, those volunteers keep fighting because they love their neighborhoods and know that “if we don’t do it, nobody else will,” said ShaMecha King Simms, president of the Historic Old Town NIA.
The Hi-Crest NIA has long made crime prevention the key issue to help neighborhood residents feel safe and welcomed.
King Simms described herself as being “NIA until I die.”
She expressed pride about the dedication and devotion her fellow Topeka NIA members show regarding the low- and moderate-income neighborhoods where they live.
“They could move out of their neighborhoods if they wanted to, but they don’t, because they love them,” she said. “And that passion — you can’t buy that. It has to be in your heart.”
What is an NIA?
Members of Topeka’s 21 NIAS meet regularly to organize and carry out efforts to beautify, safeguard and create a vibrant community in the neighborhoods where they live, the city’s website says.
Members give input to Topeka’s city government about matters that include street conditions, crime prevention, lighting, development and preservation.
For it to be able to have an NIA, 51% or more of the households in a neighborhood must have incomes less than 80% of the Topeka-area median income, as determined by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. […]