MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2008 50 CENTS

Wichita: stuck in neutral Study examines residents’ feelings about area

GRIEVING FOR ALEX

Wichita: stuck in neutral

Study examines residents’ feelings about area
Courtesy of the Funcheon family
Alex Funcheon with his sister, Gloria, when he
was home on leave shortly before going to Iraq.

Family,
A Gallup-Knight Foundation study claims that communities with high citizen
engagement grow and prosper more than others. According to the study,
these are the factors that drive citizen engagement in Wichita.
friends
remember
a soldier
“Don’t worry ill be
coming home before you know it.”
Alex Funcheon, e-mailing his parents,
five days before he was killed in action
BY ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle

Five days after Alex died, a tornado nearly two

miles wide blew the western Kansas town of
Greensburg to splinters. A
dozen died. Dozens injured.
Four days after that, the
BY FRED MANN Funcheons buried Alex in a
The Wichita Eagle cemetery north of Wichita.
“Yesterday, my brother was
CITIZEN ENGAGEMEN

T
he more passionate residents feel about their com- put into the ground,” his little
munities — and the more engaged they are in them
— the more communities grow and prosper, a new Wichita lags co
m
T sister Gloria wrote in her
diary. “People got out of their
study shows. in citizen enga munities of similar size cars to watch. Police saluted.
gement.
The Wichita area has fewer engaged residents Strangers cried. In the limo no
than cities of similar size, according to the Soul of Wichita one spoke so I looked out the
the Community study by Gallup and the Knight Foundation. Engaged window. Looked into the faces
We’re stuck in “neutral,” it claims. Neutral 24 percent of strangers looking at me.”
Gallup defines “citizen engagement” as a person’s psycho- Not engaged 43 percent The day after the funeral,
logical connection with his or her community, which goes
beyond mere satisfaction into passion and pride. Comparison ci
34 percent President Bush appeared in
Greensburg, kissing homeless
PART TWO
We believe our community is strong in education and ties mothers on the cheek, hug- OF SEVEN
(Columbia, S.C
.;
basic services such as highways, housing and health care, Tallahassee, Fla. Lexington, Ky.; ging children, chatting up lit-
the study shows. ; Columbus, Ga. tle old ladies beside base-
)
But we’d love it more if the city featured more entertain- Engaged ments gaping at blue sky. The Funcheons watched
ment venues and social gathering spots, were more aestheti- Neutral 30 percent this on the news.
cally pleasing, and were more welcoming toward different Not engaged 38 percent Air Force One had landed in Wichita so Bush
types of people, the study says. 32 percent could fly in a helicopter to Greensburg. Bob
growled at the TV: “He should have called us.”
Please see SURVEY, Page 6A Gloria rolled her eyes. Did her father feel entitled?
Gloria was 18, just graduating, a stalwart on East

Please see ALEX, Page 6A

Wichita Eagle illustration FBI, EXPERTS CRITICIZE RANKINGS

CONGRESS COULD VOTE TUESDAY FORT RILEY FAMILY TO REUNITE IN D.C.

$15 billion Soldiers land tickets
auto bailout to Obama inaugural
in the works
BY DAVID GOLDSTEIN
Eagle Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — Army
BY LORI MONTGOMERY Sgt. 1st Class Leroy
Washington Post Williams schooled his three
children on the presidential
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats campaign every night after
are drafting legislation that would give the tee- he picked them up from day
tering Detroit automakers at least $15æbillion in care on his way home from
emergency loans early next week and grant the work.
federal government broad authority to manage Even 2-year-old David,
a massive restructuring of their operations.
The proposal, which could be put to a vote in
when his father showed him
a photograph of the
Congress as soon as Tuesday, would establish a Democratic candidate,
seven-member “auto board” of Cabinet officials would say, “Bawack
and a chairman to be appointed by President Obama!”
Bush to oversee both the short-term loans and a Now their father is bring-
long-term effort to restore the faltering industry ing them to Washington to
to profitability. If the companies take the cash, see President-elect Obama’s
they would be accountable to the government inauguration.
for nearly every move, and for every transaction It will be a long trip from
of $25æmillion or more. Fort Riley — where
As part of that restructuring, General Motors, Williams is stationed —
Chrysler and Ford could be asked to jettison for David and his sisters,
their top executives, said one of the chief archi- 5-year-old Chantee and
tects of the plan, Senate Banking Committee 8-year-old Alexis.
Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. Stating bluntly But it will be an even
longer journey for their
Please see BAILOUT, Page 4A mother.
City moves
up 31 spots
Staff Sgt. Demetria
Williams will be coming all
the way from Baghdad,
on crime list
where she is a medic with BY HURST LAVIANA
the 300th Military Police The Wichita Eagle
Co. at Fort Riley.
How did the Williams Wichita has jumped 31 places in a controversial
family snag not just one, or annual ranking of city crime rates that was pub-
two, but five of the hottest lished last month.
tickets around? The survey of 385 cities with 75,000 or more res-
Leroy Williams, who has idents concluded that
spent the past five months Courtesy photo Wichita ranked 91st in the
as chief cook, chauffeur and Sgt. 1st Class Leroy
homework helper on top of Williams and Sgt. Demetria
number of serious crimes per
100,000 residents. The city
INSIDE
his job at the base, said: Williams ranked 122nd last year. Top 5 and bot-
“You try to always be posi- Of the six Kansas cities in tom 5 cities and
tive and good things will “there’s never going to be the survey, only Kansas City, where other area
happen.” another ‘first’ black presi- which ranked 42nd, was cities rank, 6A
Credit Sen. Pat Roberts of dent,” he explained. In Iraq higher on the list.
Kansas, who when told of since July, she has leave Wichita Deputy Police
Williams’ request for tickets, time coming. Chief Tom Stolz said he wasn’t sure it made sense
quickly agreed. Her husband was about to to compare cities with such large population differ-
“You have a person who is spend $2,000 for tickets ences. But he said it was only logical to compare
coming all the way from through an online offer crime rates of cities of similar size.
Baghdad, for goodness’ before a friend warned him “I’m skeptical, but at the same time, I’m going to
sakes,” the Republican law- off. When he learned that defend it to some degree,” he said. “If you’re just
maker said. members of Congress had looking at whole numbers, you’re not going to
Williams and his wife had tickets to give away, he know who’s getting better or getting worse.
talked about attending the
inauguration because Please see TICKETS, Page 8A Please see CRIME, Page 6A

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