CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 29, 1993
3
New mall raises concerns
Downtown shops fear competition
By Todd Selfert Kansan staff writer
The same outlet mail that may help juvenile the North Lawrence economy may harm the downtown area and the existing Riverfront Plaza outlet mail.
The Lawrence City Commission to March 16 to plan to build the 84,000 square feet.
The new mall's location on North Third Street, just south of Interstate 70, has some concerned that shoppers will neglect the downtown area.
"There is the chance that people will turn off the interstate and shop at the new mall and not go downtown," said Dan Watkins, a representative for the Riverfront Plaza.
Price Banks, Lawrence/Douglas County planning director, said another concern was that rezoning more land for commercial development
contradicted goals set in Plan 95, a comprehensive plan for land use in Lawrence through 1995.
One Plan 95 goal was to maintain the downtown area as the city's central business district.
Banks said that although existing buildings were vacant, the city was approving more commercial development than was agreed to in Plan 95.
But Rob Phillips, a member of the North Lawrence Business Association, said the New York-based Stanley K. Tanger and Company mall could provide the area with needed economic development.
"North Lawrence business people are excited about this project." Phillips said.
Banks said that although the project would increase development in North Lawrence, it also raised a concern that the area around the new mall could become overdeveloped because of other smaller projects that typically develop around malls.
Banks said that even with the concerns, the city's staff never had recommended shelving the project.
Wint Winter Jr., a representative for the Tanger group, said the new mall would help the city comply with the Plan 95 goal to maintain downtown as the city's central business district.
"With the city's growth to the south and west, this would also help bring balance to the north and east sides of town." Winter said.
The city commission has approved development plans for two Walgreen's stores, a Hy-Vee supermarket and a Wal-Mart store. All of the sites are in south or west Lawrence, well outside the area recognized as the downtown in Plan 95.
Winter said the new mall would be an extension of the central business district.
"Extending the downtown is an interesting concept," Watkins said. "They're saying that this project will be complimentary to the business center of Lawrence. I'm not sure I agree with that."
Watkins, the Riverfront Plaza representative, said describing the project as an extension of the business district was an overstatement.
New businesses develop on Lawrence's horizon
Some Lawrence businesses and
some cities are concerned that the
downtown area will be hurt
by new business or the loss of
new businesses in other areas.
Doug Hesse / KANSAN
Rain orshine
Even through yesterday's rain, the frenzy for Final Four T-shirts continued. These shirts were being sold outside the Kansas Union. However, many Lawrence businesses reported that KU memorabilia sales were brisk.
Late break Bars prime places to view Jayhawks while on vacation
Late break disrupts fan unity during victories
By Mark Button
Kansan sportswriter
While the Kansas men's basketball team traveled the road to the Final Four, many of its fans took a detour last week.
While the 'Hawks spent their spring break playing in the NCAA basketball tournament in Chicago and St. Louis, many of their supporters were at the beach or on the ski slopes.
Lawrence senior Wade Freeman was in Dillon, Colo. on a ski trip.
"We weren't certain that the BYU game would be shown because they were showing mostly Western Region games," said Freeman, who was relieved to find the game broadcast in the region.
Freeman said that although the victories against Brigham Young and California were great, he was disappointed that all the students couldn't have been together in Lawrence.
"It's too bad spring break didn't come a week earlier," he said. "But now that all the students are back, we'll be out in full force if we happen to beat North Carolina."
Ixtapa.Mexico.
Another diehard Jayhawk fan, Chicago senior Adam Moriet, was not in Lawrence last week. In fact, he was not even in the United States. Moritz spent his week away from classes in
He said that he and his family were getting groceries when they passed by a bar and saw the BYU game on television.
However, watching Kansas play California would not be as easy.
"There were a lot of California fans there," he said. "They were pretty rowdy, but when Rex hit his fourth three-pointer, they pretty much shut up."
"The place was having problems with their satellite dish," he said. "I had to call the cable man, speaking in Spanish, and have him come to the bar and find the right channel."
Moritz also said that he and his family were not the only basketball fans in Mexico.
during Saturday's Indiana game, but his luck with viewing the games had not run out. The pilot called a 45-minute delay, and Moritz watched the end of the game at the airport.
Moritz's flight home was scheduled
Brian Merckens, Dearbom, Mich., senior, was one of the Jayhawk fans who spent his spring break the same place he spends the whole semester — at school.
Merckens said that since most of the students were gone, the school unity was not as strong as it was in 1991.
"When we beat Indiana in the third round of the 1991 tournament, everyone went nuts and stayed that way for the next three games," Merkens said. "This year, after beating Cal, there were only about 250 students at Wescoe. But things were back to normal after the Indiana game."
Joe Heim, Clarence, N.Y., graduate student, tries to conquer Civilization, a computer simulation game that pitted Heim — as Emperor of the Mongolians — against the world.
Simulation fans like designing game strategy
By Brian James Special to the Kansan
What Joe Heim saw shocked him. An armada of Russian ships was right off the coast with a phalanx of French soldiers not far behind, threatening the very existence of his peace-loving continent and the thousands of people living there.
As Emperor Joe, leader of the Mongolians, he decided he had to do what was best for his people.
He turned off his computer. "I really hate to see my people suffer," he said.
Besides, he had more important work to do than play Civilization, a computer simulation software game, all night.
Civilization, introduced in 1991, is just one in a growing field of reality-based computer simulation games that cater to users with more sophisticated tastes — often, those who don't like Nintendo.
"Simulations offer a real challenge," said Heim, a Clarence, N.Y., graduate student. "You have to plan strategies, be knowledgeable and think about long-range effects of your actions in order to be successful. The game isn't decided on how fast you can hit your finger on the paddle button."
Typical simulation fans are in their 20s and 30s, software industry experts say.
"They don't appreciate the no-brainer games anymore where you blow things up and shoot people," said Glenn Pericvall, a sales associate for Electronics Boutique at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park. "There are more like chess games, with logic and realistic consequences involved with every action."
Jeremy Littlejohn, Ottawa sophomore, has been playing simulation games for a couple of years with his friends. He has three of the games, but Civilization is his favorite.
Like many simulation fans, he enjoys the game's complexity.
"Building up your civilization throughout history with technology and warfare advances makes it in-depth and so real," he said.
Computer users now enjoy a diverse selection of simulations in which they can play out alternative careers.
SimCity, introduced in 1989, offers a chance for aspiring mayors to build their own city, juggling everything from taxes and property values to crime and traffic congestion. The game, like most other simulations, is essentially a balancing act: raise taxes and people leave town; cut the police budget and crime increases and the value of property plummets.
Other simulation software like SimLife and SimEarth allow simulation users to play with evolutionary processes involving various life forms and formations of land masses. Railroad Tycoon and A-Train let users work at becoming ruthless railroad barons. Crisis in the Kremlin and Shadow President are games that allow power-hungry simulation players to run countries.
The games, which are sold in disk format, are compatible with most personal computers, including Macintosh and IBM computers. Prices generally fall in the $25 to $50 range.
Sally Vandershall is a representative of Maxis, the software company that developed SimCity and similar games. She said that the unique possibilities the simulation games offered made them distinct from other games.
Greg Keizer, a consulting editor for PC Games, said simulations had practical applications also.
Vandershaft said booming computer sales in the past five years and the availability of powerful computers at lower prices, opened up new markets of software users.
"I see potential for some of these to be used in schools for history and science. SimCity has already been used in some college-level classes to teach city development."
Donna Luckey, KU associate professor of architecture and urban design, used SimCity in an urban planning course three years ago. She plans to use two other simulation games, Fish Bank and Stratigem, in two environmental planning courses next semester.
Luckey said that simulations were not widely used in KU classrooms but that they were effective teaching aids.
"I strongly favor gaming because you learn to be a decision-maker and work with all this feedback, which is helpful in any level of construction," she said.
"It's usually a fun thing to work with, too. We tie it in with something larger, and apply it to a lesson."
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