THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JULY 7, 201
EAST LAWRENCE
WiFi-less coffee shop promotes
AMELIA ARVESEN
news@kansan.com
East of Massachusetts Street are warehouses, brick sidewalks, artists' studios and lots of potential.
That's what Louis Wigen-Toccalino, who attended the University in 2003 saw when he opened Decade coffee shop in May at 920 Delaware St. in a 100-year-old building.
Coffee and pastries, he said, only act as an excuse for people to gather. He decided to not offer WiFi and instead focused on creating a central meeting spot for the community.
"They used to be where visionaries and revolutionaries got together to plot and scheme and hatch ideas and discuss," Wigen-Toccalino said. "I want to bring back the activity, the social fervor, the engagement.I just want it to be a social space for people to come in groups and talk loudly."
Decade is just one of the many new developments in the Cultural-Arts District of Lawrence and Wigen-Toccalino expects the coffee shop to thrive.
Susan Tate, the CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center, said the area is experiencing greater investment in arts and culture than it has before.
Tate said the LAC won a $500,000
grant from ArtPlace America for a proposal to revive the six blocks of Ninth Street that connect the Warehouse Arts District with downtown. Bike lanes and lighting will be added and a creative team will incorporate art into the street redesign.
"I think it's really important to note that whatever happens along the Ninth Street corridor or in other parts of the cultural district will be a community driven planning process," Tate said.
The community involvement will be headed by a director of arts and culture.The city is in the recruitment process but Diane Stoddard, the assistant city manager, already knows the first year of salary will be funded by one-third of a $75,000 Kansas Creative Arts Industries grant to the city.
Stoddard said the rest of the grant will go toward creating a city-wide cultural plan to bring together different parts of the city rich in culture, such as the art organizations, historic areas, museums and community of artisans and craftsmen.
The specific goals and strategies of the plan will come out of discussions with stakeholders and City Commission meetings in the future.
"Whatever medium you want to use, it's those types of minds that we want
Rebecca Dreyfus, a barista at make lattes, cold brews and eto attract," Brady Pollin president of Economic De Corporation of Lawrence want to foster an area when neurs and startups can fe in Lawrence and start the nies here."
Wigen-Toccalino said Decade without even kno the plans for future devele he's realized it's an excitin
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person is using his or her phone for written communication. If, based on their observations, they think the person is using the phone to write send or read written communication they can pull them over and issue a citation.
"A lot of it's a judgment call," Kellerman said.
"If we write a bunch of tickets or we write a few, we're still bringing attention to this law and an awareness that we don't just enforce this July 1 through July 10; we enforce this yearround," Kellerman said. "We are always looking for this on top of all the
The special enforcement period ends July 10.
other violations, so just overall, we're just wanting people to put the phone down and drive."
Edited by Emma LeGault
944 Massachusetts Street
785. 832.8228