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University Daily Kansan, August 20, 1981
Mayor brings new image to job
By TIM ELMER
Staff Reporter
Outside and inside, the white, weather-beaten house of Lawrence Mayor Marci Francisco is a picture of striking contrasts.
Located on the northeast corner of 11th and Ohio streets, the small, two-story Victorian house must have been a source of great pride for its late 1800s owner. Now it seems tired, burdened with countless coats of caked on paint.
THE ROOF ON the west is new and light brown. The screened-in porches on the first and second stories sag with the rooftops. They are covered with an assortment of weeds.
The roof on the east is old and dark green. The open porches on the first and second stories appear to be structurally thin. The grass is green and cleanly cut.
On the inside, new refinished golden oak floors sparkle with a deep richness. The other parts of the interior are deteriorated.
"About two weeks ago I remember being very depressed because of my house," Francisco said. "Look at this sheetrock tape. When they put the tape on, it was torn and shifted down and the paper crinkled in the corners. I just lust it off."
"And like this room, all the plaster came off when it was rewired and insulated. And then I go to the kitchen and there is a crack and I sort of start fearing for my life but I have to do something about it but then I have to do something about it because I have totally destrored it."
Like her house, Francisco is a picture of striking contrasts.
DRESSED IN SOILED blue jeans, a dark orange-colored T-shirt and sandals she sat in an orange director's chair and talked about being the mayor.
She said that although she was the mayor of Lawrence, she wasn't what many people expected a mayor to be.
"For some reason I don't think people expected the mayor to be as young as I am," Francisco said. "They didn't expect the mayor to be a 'her.' They don't expect her to be single, and they don't expect her to have dipsiping on the Fourth of July. I don't think that is what they expected of their mayor."
She really didn't know what people thought about her personally, she said.
"Possibly they think I have a little bit crazy, that I talk too fast. I suppose most of the world thinks that I must do drugs. Most of my friends don't do drugs. That isn't, that I don't, but I think that is part of people's image of me."
Francisco said that she had gotten high one time several years ago.
"THERE WAS THIS concert in Kansas City. Everyone felt you had to get high when you went to a concert. Well, all I can remember are the lights at intermission. I was so mad because that was the only time I had been in Kansas City since we a concert. I missed out on the concert, and I thought, what was the use."
At times she still can't believe she is the mayor, Francisco said.
"I am still surprised when I read that I must be framed" Francisco, I think, that can't be me.
Francisco, 31, is the youngest mayor in the history of Lawrence. She has been a member of the city commission since April 10, 1979 and she was elected mayor last April. Her great-grandmother was mayor of Lawrence from 1914 to 1918.
Francisco - said she _hadn't - ever planned to seek the position of mayor.
"I didn't say, 'here is what I want to do.' I didn't plan to be in politics. I sort of just ended up doing this and here I am. I have enjoyed it."
Francisco said she couldn't say who her supporters really were.
"I think it was a strange coalition of
originally became interested in architecture, she said, because she liked to work with her hands and the cut-and-insert design projects designed for design projects allowed her to do that.
"I have always seen a contrast between teaching and doing, and I still find myself torn between them," she said.
Francisco is a dynamo of activity. She seldom sits doing nothing, she said
She was cutting matting for a picture frame while she was talking and was constantly getting up from her chair to look for the various items she needed.
"I am always active," she said. "I am a little upset with myself now because I knew you were coming so I should have had something here to do while I was talking to you. Friends tell me to 'sit down'!"
She got up and brought back her book of sketches. It was half-filled with sketches of houses, churches and architectural detail.
Francisco said she liked to sew for rentation. She also finds sketching for rentation.
SHE LIKES TO drink beer, she said. She works at the Hawk's Crossing each
' . . . . I don't think people expected the mayor to be as young as I am. They didn't expect the mayor to be a her. . . . to go out skinny-dipping.'
bicycle riding and senior citizens that put me in office. It is really hard to know for sure. Older people were saying 'she is too young, but she comes from such a good family.' I heard that one a few times."
FRANCISCO IS AN avid bicyclist. In 1978 she and a friend cycleled 2,000 miles to California. She rides her bike in the countryside. She has no driver's license.
"Everybody was sort of going to college," she said. "My parents said I didn't like it, I could quit. We had a real fight because I didn't want to go to school in the first place, and I kept trying to and they kept saying, 'oh my gosh.'"
Francisco went to Machelale College in St. Paul, Minn. for two semesters but completed her degree in architectural design at the University of Kansas.
SHE TEACHES IN the School of Architecture and Urban Design. She
She said people thought she shouldn't be working there.
Francisco grew up in Priaire Village. Her father is an orthopedic surgeon. Her mother has a degree in art history. Her father has a brother and a sister. Althanus brought him and go to college. Francisco said his parents encouraged her to do so.
Wednesday night as bartender, which she said she thoroughly enjoyed.
"I got a letter from this one guy signed, 'In Sorrow.' He said I was setting such a bad example for people because I was drinking beer. There are people who do it and of what everyone else is doing and therefore think it is unreasonable."
She said everyone has to deal with the uncertainty that is often involved in making choices in one's life.
THE TIMES SHE has been caught making apparently contradictory statements to different people concluding that she was the most foolish, she said.
Aware of how the public sometimes reacts to her private life, Francisco was somewhat reluctant to answer personal questions.
Being involved with the city commission, however, has made her less irritable.
"I definitely have had these images of myself being foolish," she said.
"You know that whatever you say is going to be repeated," she said. "You sort of watch a little more carefully what you say. You are not so apt to say the first thing that comes to mind because if someone else talks to you about a problem, you may get a different view of the situation. You may have to back off from what you have just said and I try to avoid that."
"We all have to make choices," she said. "I mean, look at this house. You have to make choices whether you want a nice floor or whether the walls should be fixed and about how much you can afford to do. People are always making those choices for themselves. How do you make those choices for the city?"
When asked if she was affectionate,
she instantly said yes. She did not
elicitely.
Because she is the mayor, it is her responsibility to make hard decisions, she said.
"It's having to admit to yourself that you do have a responsibility to make decisions," she said. "So even though it is hard at times, I guess I can accept that."
THE DECISION-MAKING responsibilities concerning city management are shared ones, she said. The mayor has given her more power than the commissioners.
To make herself more accessible to the public, she said, she became the first woman in Manhattan to
“There is nothing you can do by yourself,” she said. “There is very little to do as mayor except to talk to people, and there does tend to get quoted more often.”
Francisco said there were several goals she hoped to achieve as mayor. She would like to see a review of the zoning in town. She would like to get a strong commitment for downtown development and establish a more reasonable procedure for mission meetings as getting the commission agenda published earlier.
SHE IS OPTIMISTIC about the future.
"I think I have an optimistic attitude toward life. I am very scared about some of the things we seem to be getting ourselves into, such as nuclear power, but I haven't given up. I feel changes can be made."
About her own life, she said, "I am lucky. I have a nice life. I have good friends in Lawrence and Lawrence is my favorite person on running into them wherever you so."
She liked being independent, Fran-
cielle said. She could, she could do
whatvghe wanted.
Francisco said she was not against the idea of marriage.
"I don't plan not to get married," she said. "I am not worried about not being married."
However, she said, "my mother, would love it."
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