A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY,APRIL1,2003
TALKTO'US
Kristi Henderson editor
864-4854 or khendarsan@kansan.com
Jenna Goepert and Justin Hening
managing editors
864-4854 or jgoepert@kansan.com and
thanning@kansan.com
Leah Shaffer readers" representative 864-4810 or lshaffer@kansan.com
Amanda Sears and Lindsay Hanson
opinion editors
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Eric Kelting business manager 864-4358 or adsales@kansan.com
Sarah Jantz retail sales manager 864-4358 or adsales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson general manager and news adviser 884-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
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EDITORIAL BOARD Vote for improving Lawrence
Today is voting day for the Lawrence City Commission. Out of six candidates, three will be elected. If you are registered in Douglas County, go vote, especially if Lawrence's growth is important to you.
In a way, the city commission is like a group of superheroes. There's a retired director of housing and neighborhood development, Lynn Goodell; an attorney for the Kansas department for Health and the Environment, Dennis "Boog" Highberger; a seasoned commissioner, Mike Rundle; an attorney who represents teachers, David Schauner; a scientist, Lee Gerhard; and a developer of shopping centers, Greg DiVilbiss. The residents of Lawrence can sleep soundly knowing that there's always a city commission watching out for them.
They look over the fair citizens of Lawrence, preserving the quaintness and originality, potentially protecting them from the evil corporate retail stores trying to take over the city.
In reality, the city commission can only pass resolutions and ordinances establish policies for Lawrence approve the budget and hire the city manager. It is up to the commission to keep Lawrence growing without it turning into an urban sprawl, and plan new and better developments with neighborhoods in mind as one candidate put it, to prevent Lawrence from turning into "Anytown, USA."
Educate yourself on the candidates' platforms. You can do that by checking out the Student Legislative Awareness Board's Web site at www.ku.edu/-slab/.
If issues like economic growth and tax abatements for new businesses are important to you, the registered voters of Douglas County, voting for the city commission today is a must.
Jon Ralston for the editorial board
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
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Shaun Morrell opinion@kansan.com
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FAIER'S VIEW
PERSPECTIVE
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Support local-minded candidates
Some people in this town are willing to fight for what makes Lawrence great. Finally, they have a chance at succeeding.
Think of anything the City and Planning Commissions have approved in recent memory, Wal-Mart. Home Depot. Countless soccer-mom subdivisions. The South Lawrence Trafficway. Corporate handouts.
Not exactly the things you love about Lawrence, are they? Whatever happened to building parks, bike lanes, and neighborhoods people cared about? What happened to Downtown as Lawrence's commercial focal point? What about jobs with which a worker can support his family?
These things fall by the wayside when citizens lose control of City Hall and big developers take over. Such has been the political climate here in recent memory.
Electing realtors, bankers, builders, and other Chamber of Commerce poster children to ensure planned and prudent growth is much like electing foxes to oversee chicken coop construction. But it's hard to fight the money interests.
During its reign, the Chamber's regime has been quite successful at bending rules for developers while marginalizing citizen groups from the city planning process.
The result is a city built on the whims of a short-sighted, profit-hungry machine — a city that looks more and more like any other sprawling, place less suburb in the country.
Believe it or not, it could have been worse. In the late 1980s, a developer attempted to ramrod a proposal through the City Commission allowing for the construction of a gigantic shopping mall at the north end of Massachusetts, Kentucky and New Hampshire Streets.
On top of Mount Oread sits a community of thousands of potential voters, and every campaign knows that it can win the election if it wins the students' hearts.
If not for people like Mike Rundle, you'd be eating Chick-Fil-A among junior high kids at the Free State Food Court right now.
Mike stood up to the developers back then, winning his first election to City Commission and helping defeat this disastrous proposal. He's up for reelection April 1, and this time, he's brought friends with him.
Together with Dennis "Boog" Highberger and David Schauner, Rundle dominated the City Commission primaries in February.
Ever since, the opposition has been scrambling desperately to find a campaign strategy to deflate the hopes of this citizen-powered campaign.
Despite the unfortunate propagation of misinformation on campus, it does highlight one fact of which all six of the candidates are acutely aware: the student vote is critical in this election.
Rundle, Highberger and Schauner are running on a platform of the very proposals for which citizens have been calling for years (and to which the developers' regime has consistently said "no"). Protect downtown. Build bike lanes. Grow sensibly. When corporations ask for tax breaks from the city, make them pay a fair wage to their workers.' Listen to neighbors and students first, not developers' hired consultants.
Bring a friend and vote on April 1, but be armed with the truth and a clear vision for Lawrence's future.
What frightening ideas these must be
Greg DiVilbiss, a son of a developer, has been campaigning vigorously on campus with the promise that he will fight to repeal the single-family zoning ordinance that reduced the number of unrelated roommates from four to three. However, he has not acknowledged this pledge in any other publication but the University Daily Kansan. When confronted, he even disavowed the promise at the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association open forum.
Additionally, rumors have surfaced that suggest the progressive candidates intend to close down local bars near campus, or to restrict their operating hours. This is also an outright lie circulated by a desperate campaign with the intention of provoking an angry student reaction.
to the cadre of opposition candidates whose campaigns were funded almost entirely by home builders, property management firms, and construction outfits. In retaliation for their dismal showing in the primaries, they have turned to blatant misinformation as a last-minute tactic to win votes.
Morrell is a Salina graduate student in urban planning.
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check has gone to support local business.
A guy told me last week that when he masturbates, he pictures me. Is that a compliment, or should I be offended?
I'm at the University of Colorado at Boulder right now, but after spending spring break with my crazy girls at KU, I'm making my declaration right now. I'm transferring to KU for my sophomore year.
check has gone to support local business.
Your mother chose life. Key word: chose.
I just need to say that my buddies and I were at Rick's Place the other day and Lord Wad and his Duke of Suck blatantly and maliciously stole our quarter.
图
You know you're living in McColum when your khaki shorts turn orange just from sitting in the cupboard over the winter.
Michael Moore didn't even graduate from college. President Bush got his degree from Yale. You tell me who should be making the decisions.
CITY COMMISSION CANDIDATES
Six candidates are competing for three open seats:
Greg A. DIVibiss Age: 42
Occupation: Real estate leasing Lee Gerhard
Occupation: Real estate lover
Lee Gerhard
Age: 65
Occupation: Partially retired geologist,
Kansas Geological Survey
Lynn Goodell
Lynn Goodell Age: 66 Occupation: Retired director of Housing and Neighborhood Development
Dennis "Boog" Highberger
Occupation: Attorney for Kansas National Education Association
Age: 43
Occupation: Attorney for Kansas
Department of Health and Environment
Mike Bundle
Mike Rundle
Age: 49
Occupation: Shift manager, Community
Mercantile Grocery
Voting will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 45 polling places in Lawrence. Advance ballots sent in by mail must be received at the courthouse no later than 7 p.m. today.
To find out where to vote, call 832-5281.
David Schauner
PERSPECTIVE
Big business yet to damage downtown scene
Big Brother is coming to Lawrence. Avert your eyes, hide your children and pray to the god of your choosing.
Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Borders they're all part of the global corporate machine that is turning Lawrence residents into credit card-wielding, dollareyed zombies who are drawn irresistibly to their power.
George Orwell was right in 1984, and we can see it here in Lawrence.
Poppycock.
As the city commission elections arrive, I've grown tired of hearing psuedo-Orwellian appeals to the community, warning about the corporate conspiracy.
In the book, Orwell depicts shoddy products such as "Victory cigarettes" that fall apart faster than they burn and "Victory alcohol" that would cause even the sots of Lawrence to retch. The poor quality is a result of extreme government control that dominates every aspect of the citizens' lives.
Adam Pracht
opinion@kansan.com
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I wonder how many of them have actually read 1984.
The irony of summoning Orwell's ideas as the defender of Lawrence business is that the local government is stepping in on the side of small business rather than major corporations.
If anyone can be accused of calling upon Big Brother, it would be those who look to the protecting wing of government for their businesses.
I won't make that accusation because literary allusion breaks down in the face of the economic reality in Lawrence.
I love local business, don't misunderstand me. I've been astonished by the vibrant downtown and the variety of shops available. A lot of my paycheck has gone to support local business.
I simply refuse to underestimate their power in the economy of Lawrence.
While consumers will use national chains, I don't believe they can compete with the solid customer loyalty of local merchants.
Lawrence's historic downtown district has the support and the dollars of local consumers, as recent articles in The University Daily Kansan have suggested.
For evidence, one doesn't have to look far. Borders stands near the Raven Bookstore and the Dusty Bookshelf each business catering to an economic niche.
Starbucks makes up cappuccinos just across the street from La Prima Taza and Java Break.
But for a truly dramatic example, I would turn to the example of the Riverfront Plaza.
If Wal-Mart will destroy local business, why hasn't the current one already done so?
On June 10, 1998, an article in The University Daily Kansan reported that the plaza, which was nationally owned and operated but locally managed, was starting to fold. It eventually closed and the space is now filled with hotel rooms.
Several factors were blamed, but I'm inclined to agree with the assessment of Aaron O'Dell, assistant manager of the plaza's now defunct Bugle Boy Outlet store. He said that out-of-town business had remained constant but that local traffic had declined.
The mall lacked an atmosphere and history, which is the strength of Lawrence's downtown.
Encourage local leaders and shop owners to permit larger corporations. Then go out and support local businesses with your checkbook.
Then it will be obvious that Lawrence businesses can stand up to their Big Brothers.
Prachit is an Emporia junior in Spanish and journalism. He is a Kansan copy chief.