The principle of uninhibited ci TO

to be firmly fixed in the minds of deme
‘planners. No where is this more evident than on
West 23rd street. Between Massachusetts and Iowa
lies a virtual Disneyland of taco joints, car lots
franchised all-night restaurants and hamburger :
mills. All with one purpose and one purpose only--
_ to sell as much as possible to as many as possible
_ at the highest possible price. :

While it’s perfectly true that this is the goal of nearly
all retail businesses, the merchants of 23rd take this
to its surreal extreme. This is Texas Tom's territory
--a kind of homesteading act signed by Ronald McDon-
ald and Mayor McCheese...an all too familar world of
ereated wants and needs...a world that produces con-
sumer junkies groping for product identification and
instant gratification...an ecological disaster at best,

West 6th and Iowa streets represent the very directions
in city growth that Lawrence cannot afford to take.
Similar areas in big cities are unlivable. The typical
fast-food, car-lot strip is a direct outgrowth of the
automobile and really cannot exist without it. Without

ACO FA

 

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| t's round-up time here at T -T -Texas
Tem's tortiaria out on the 23rd street trail to the
‘south and west of greater downtown Lawrence,
Kansas. Ona cold and frosty night three PUBLIC
NOTICE staffers tired, hungry and curious drove
to the strip. We were on assignment; a dietary
check on one of the newest eatin' places in town.

We arrived on the strip. Twenty-two! ! My God,
there's actually 22 consumption spots on this
avenue, A new burgeria is to open soon at 23rd and
Naismith. The town should celebrate the gala
opening of the 23rd on 23rd. :

A VISTA worker, an enviromental studies major
and a journalism major; three people who should
have known better, who did know better. But we
were there,

"This is Texas Tom's territory. ' The sign told of
21 other locations in the U.S.A. Glaring yellow

neon lights circled the menu. Order. We must order
some food. We were starved.

Better get something special. A treat at ol‘ Tom's.
We ask for a Texas Burger Basket, 88 cents. A
People Book coupon entitles: us to a little number
called the Round-up special: taco, burger, fries,
onion rings and a drink, all for 99 cents. A real
deal in a medl in this year of the buy-centenial fest.

The girl behind the counter instructs us to answer
the numbers of the two slips of paper she hands us.
One other person sits in the vast, shiny emptiness
of the place. His eyes reflect the sani-white ceiling
lights. He's obviously stoned. We all seem a bit
nervous. It's our first adventure in Texas Tom's,

We sit down at one of many vacant tables. The gold-
flecked, white table top is cold. A chilling draft
Seeps in through the giant plate glass windows.
It's chili and hot apple cider weather outside. The
Snow has brown edges along the 23rd street drag.
I think about good chicken tacos in Mexico. Street
grinders sell chicken, beef, or chili pepper tacos
for a peso or two Texas Tom charges 39 cents,
not 8 or 12 cents. The girl calls our numbers.

We request ketchup, pay and return to our icy
table and to the January view of 23rd street. The
traffic never stops. The ketchup has a picture of
Tom in blazing red; it was manufactured in
Cincinnati, Ohio. We dig in. It was terrible. The
fries were yellow and greasy, the burger was tiny
and dry with wilted green and brown shreds of

 

 

lettuce scattered over the patty and the taca. The
bun was in a state similar to the poinsettias dying
by the cash register. It was the taco and the onion
ring that finally convinced us to cease our sample
test. Tomatoe paste a la H.L. Hunt, thick &zesty
like plaster was smeared on top. The taco shell
was banana yellow&tough. The onion rings, all two
of them, smelled. They tasted worse.

The strip along 23rd street boggles the mind. The
diversity and ingenuity of American enterprise is
here displayed. The all-American franchise on the
cise! Gimme-a-hamburga -fries-to-go-ii -you-please!
A sign boasts: 17 billion burger macs devoured be -
neath the golden arches.
at neighboring establishments.
has counted the chicken-bone remains at the Colonel's.
The digested tacos and burritos? Billions, to be

sure,
millions of paper cups, but only a small number of
the waxy, deluxe containers, lids and straws dot the
strip in Lawrence.

The door opens and a shivering figure enters Tom's
place.
passes, and he drops a quarter on the floor. He

looks nervous. He drops the quarter again and bends
once more to retrieve it.
street and his eyes tell how long he’s been high.
He's in Texas Tom's territory now. He orders,

‘You know we could go down to Shorty's some tim?...
on a Saturday night and do another food review, "
Mark suggested.

"Yea, you know it's places like this that are running
the Shortys' and the Moore Burgers out of business,"
Steve said.

"Texas Tom's used to be just a small drive-in in

Kansas City a few years ago,'' Mark said, examin-
ing one of the french fries.
bought ‘em out.
iness.

"Yea, and the 23rd street strip will extend westward
all the way to Clinton Reservoir. ..eateries, quick
shops, gas'n'gos', and bait shops sprinkled in with
boat yards, '' Steve said.
are, the more traffic there will be and’ soon 23rd street
will have to be widened again which will create more
traffic and more businesses..."

‘(Qlould you eat blindfolded?

large volumes of high speed _ private transportation, it
would be impractical to construct these eateries, In-
evitably, as these areas grow so does the traffic prob-
lem. As the traffic flow increases this stimulates fur -
ther growth of the strip, And so--not unexpectedly --
the faster the strip grows, the faster the strip grows.

A good question at this point is what is meant by the
word ‘growth’. Clearly there can be at least two def -
initions: the populist-environmentalist version and the
Barkley Clark-Ronald McDonald definition. For our
friend Ronald, growth means selling that extra billion
quarter-pounders with cheese a year. It means consum
ing fantastic amounts of electricity to heat their stoves
and light their signs, All this energy is expended to
produce food of questionable nutritional value for the
sake of convience, Growth that is represented by these
corporate clowns is the same as the mentality that sees,
Lawrence as the logical extention of Kansas City and
that pushes for the Haskell Loop.

But clearly, Lawrence is not Kansas City nor is Law-
rence its offspring, Lawrence has neither the same

  

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ll PEF
ze

Statistics aren‘t as visible
No doubt someone

Soda and ice purchased in the millions upon

We keep a clean ship here.

He stands in front of the counter. A minute

He glances toward 23rd

‘Someone must have
Gonna make this a prospering bus-
There will be hundreds of Texas Tom's soon.

”"

"The more businesses there

 

  
 

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You can see them if you stand where the door swings

When you have finished, walking out the door pick your

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PUBLIC NOTICE PAGE 9

problems or resources and thus most of the "progres-
ive" solutions to big-city economic growth and planning
problems simply do not apply here. Building super
highways through neighborhoods does nothing to re-
lieve the traffic problems in other parts of the city--
it only aggravates them. Simply allocating KX number
of dollars for highway development through East Law-
rence or promoting franchised taco joints throughout the
the town still leaves houses in need of upgrading, peo-
ple in need of more efficient social services, and the
city in need of a responsive government. It's coping
with these problems in a human way that represents
the real challenge.

McDonaldland is not a place where economics and plan-
ning took place as though people mattered, ~—Lawrence,
with just a little effort, can be. West 23rd street

need not happen again and the pattern of haphazard
growth can be averted if Mayor Clark and his friends
can rid themselves of tneir desire to compete with
Kansas City and Topeka.

You, we, I deserve a break today from McDonalds!

  
 
 

Petcare

We cant
atford all this
nolse/

 

R ide your pinto pony to Texas Tom's Restaurant
on West 23rd street. Taco John's is just east of it.
You can't miss Taco John's because it is painted vi-
olently in red and orange. Running down Texas Tom's
is like running down heroin , it's too obvious to either
be fun or enlightening. Texas Tom's was flown to
Lawrence in an airplane big enough to swallow a whale.
It was dropped from the plane and it parachuted to the
earth where it landed on an asphalt slab. This is its
present location.

Outside of Texas Tom's, cattle are unloaded by the
hundreds each day. They are slaughtered in the rear
parking lot. Texas Tom's chefs can be seen at 9
o'clock every morning, standing in the lot holding clip-
boards, waiting for another shipment of the delicious
Colby Cattle whose flesh is the most delicate in the
world because their feet.are tied together from their
birth, and they are never moved until they are taken to
the slaughter.

And so the burgers in Texas Tom's are the very best
anywhere, thick sizzling patties of the tenderest ground
chuck, smeared with catsup and mustard, draped with
onions and pickles and tomatoes, served ina small damp
white cloth on a marble top counter. Heft that hambur-
ger, where will you find another one like it in Lawrence?

The rumor is that next year they will be expanding,
They plan to carry a modest supply of stereo equipment
then, and it is possible that there will be a new t-shirt
shop specializing in iron-on goods.

The superb landscaping outside, and the lack of harsh
colors within, the tall pines arching to the heavens and
the soft carpets, the Texas Tom Experience is one that
Lawrence needed.

Let those who say the restaurant has no decor, ne
scheme or class, look again. The waitresses wearing
pink tights and short white dresses serve you with a
crisp orderliness. Some of them are wearing the cow-
boy hats, when they can afford them. Plus the ones /
who can't afford them can dance naked in the kitchen.

open. They want to let you see the inside workings of
this masteffully, engineered food service unit.

A real bonus was the King Oliver, New Orleans West
End Jazz Band playing quiet music when we walked in,
The quiet walk over thick carpet put us at ease, and
the shutters held in the artificial light overhead.

teeth with one of the minted toothpicks, Make your
pony gallop back down 23rd. Don't think about the cost,
think about the pleasure.

 
  

 

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