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Opinion
University Daily Kansan; September 28, 1982
Zoning change justified
The issues of growth and development are among the most serious facing the nation's communities today. Among the most difficult questions is how to protect residential neighborhoods in prime locations from encroachment by burgeoning business expansion.
This question will come before the Lawrence City Commission tonight.
Involved is a man named Rolland Johnson, 901 Connecticut St. He seeks to have his lot there rezoned from a RM-1 multiple-family rating to a C-4 general commercial rating.
Although their intentions of protecting the neighborhood are wellmeaning, what they propose in denying the rezoning is to make Johnson a pawn in the development controversy.
In 1928, Johnson's parents set up a family grocery in a cement building adjacent to their home. Until 1966, the lot remained zoned for light industry. That year, the zoning was changed to general commercial, the C-4 Johnson now seeks. Then, in 1975, the City Commission downzoned about 24 acres
in the area to residential. Provisions were made for those who protested at the time to keep their C-4 zoning. Johnson's father at that time was ill with cancer and did not attend the meeting. His lot was rezoned.
Before he died, Johnson's father had wanted to establish a refinishing business in the family building. Now his son bones to do this.
He should be permitted to. In the first place, a refinishing business is not likely to bring with it a stream of commercial development. In fact, the house and building leave little room on the lot for expansion. In addition, the lot, on Ninth Street about three blocks east of Massachusetts Street, has historically been zoned commercially or industrially. Some of the lots surrounding Johnson's are zoned C-4.
A new zoning category for such "ma and pa" businesses as Johnson proposes is an interesting idea, one the commission should look into. But it is not the only answer. The commission has little to justify denying a request to restore Johnson's C-4 rating.
Garbage collectors don't get thanks, or pay, they deserve
This column could be construed as trashy.
This column could be construed as trasy.
Of course, when writing about garbage collection, the end product can't help but be trashy.
This column is intended as a literary tribute to the rubbish collector, the not-so-common common man whose unglorified work is an unappreciated but very necessary cog in the machine.
On occasion during my childhood, notably on seasonal holidays, my mother would give me a book to read.
HAL KLOPPER
My mother was not the only one who practised such favoritism. Obviously, people seem to appreciate the postman more than the garbage collector.
However, the only gift our garbage collectors ever received was one old, metal trash can. It was replaced by two plastic receptacles of a somewhat lesser quality.
a strange thing results from this favoritism. When our daily mail is taken from its receptacle and all the personal letters and bills are separated, what do we have left?
That's right, junk mail.
And where does the junk mail go?
The postman bringeth, and the garbage man taketh away.
Still not convinced of the value of garbage collectors? Well, put this tidbit of information in your waste basket: four college graduates work for an organization. And one of them even has a master's degree.
The men who load our refuse into trucks never seem to get the respect they rightly deserve. Both malliam and garbage men work at a public service job, and both work in rain, sleet and snow, but one of them will not receive a pension fund upon his retirement.
An Pat Mills, chief of campus custodial services, says, "I don't think anybody enjoys the mess."
Mills said the four graduate students were working for him primarily because they could
not find openings for employment in their fields of study.
"It bothers some of the guys to be seen doing it (collecting garbage)." Mills said. "They're always worried about their friends seeing them. But it doesn't faze me in the least."
It doesn't faze Steve Belles, either. He loads garbage for the Lawrence Department of Sanitation and says "I don't mind it."
You see, the world's trash collectors, by the nature of their job, could be considered to be almost effortlessly partaking in what history's grand philosophers strived to achieve — the ultimate virtue.
Let's put this into perspective.
H Shakespeare once wrote, "There is no virtue like necessity." We have already determined that the collection of trash is a necessity. Cynology will help to complete the connection:
"There is no virtue like necessity.
collecting garbage is necessary.
Therefore, collecting garbage is virtuous.
What Plato and Kant needed to do was mind the mess, not mess up the mind.
Back to the subject, however. Despite their virtuous ways, garbage collectors are being discriminated against, both by lack of public appreciation and by lack of increased wages.
"There certainly aren't any pants on the back for picking up trash." Admitted Mills.
Mills, by the way, is not only in charge of refuse disposal at KU, but he and his crew also arrange chairs and other accessories for all the special campus events that occur during the year, such as Bob Hope's visit to Allen Field House this Saturday.
Mills has been trying to raise his income for five years now. By denying him both that pay raise and that clap on the back for his crew, we in the Lawrence community are not only refusing to accept the value of a virtuous, not to say much-needed service. Pity.
I propose the granting of both of these important wishes for KU and Lawrence garage construction.
But everyone can contribute to the second with
just a thank you or bit of appreciation once in
a while.
The first wish, for a pay raise, is in the hands of University and city officials and may take
And Mom, next time you give the garbage collectors a trash can, please include a box of
Letters to the Editor
Hardage's plans will take too long to work
To the Editor:
In response to the Sept. 21 article about Sam Hardage, I would like to ask what has happened to the Harvard School of Business. More information should be provided to hardage should have learned there.
He claims that one way we can better the education system is to attract new business to our state, bringing in new revenues. So far, so good. However, what they forgot to teach Hardage at Harvard was that it takes time to attract businesses and then even more time for companies to acquire them. The state faces are immediate, requiring a leader to pull our economy together.
See, what Hardage, who has never held public office, forgot to mention was that you have to have a foundation with which you can attract these new industries. He also forgot to mention that since Governor Carlin has been in office, Kansas has prospered, climbing from 16th to fourth among states with the best industrial climates.
He forgot to say that thanks to the governor, we have among the lowest utility rates in the nation, that our unemployment is far below the national average and that there have been no general tax increases during the governor's administration.
He seems to forget that it takes a healthy economy to attract business, not business to attract a healthy economy. Sure we need to improve our education system, but, Sam, I can't work to work. We need both short-and long-term solutions, the kind Gov. John Carlin is offering.
Scott Swenson
Campus coordinator of Kansans for Carlin
Topeka sophomore
We are writing regarding the article in the Sept. 22 Kansan headlined "KU may hold back the heat," by Steve Cusick Bill Hogan is quoted as saying that Haworth residents had complained of "not being warm enough," which implies that we want our heat turned on.
No heat yet, please
To the Editor.
We empathetically DO NOT! All we requested was that our air conditioning be turned off. In the event of a fire, we should turn it on.
ridiculous to maintain an air-conditioned temperature of 60 to 65 degrees in Haworth. For the past month we have been freezing!
Thank you for the opportunity to statement; and thank you turning our air conditioning.
Jan L. O Neill
Accountant I, department of human development and family life
Rebecca Stattemire
Secretary I, HDFL
Donna Hunter
Clerk Typist II
Kathy Wright
Clerk Typist II, HDFL
Small towns not alone
To the Editor:
I would like to direct this letter to Tracee Hamilton in regard to her column on small-town
Take heart, Tracee, small western Kansas towns are not alone as targets of stereotyping. All of Kansas is a target; a visit by a New York, N.Y., relative proved this all too true. Upon arriving at my family's home in Overland Park, she was shocked to find no wheat field up to our back door and no cows in our barn. (The barn was also missing.) Her impression of Kansas was that which she derived from what else, "The Wizard of Ox."
I'm not sure, but I believe people think there are two Kansas Cities: the one with the shopping centers, the Royals, the Chiefs, the Plaza and things like that, and the one in Kansas with the cows and wheat. (Since I live in Kansas, I must live in K.C. 2.)
It's time to come to the aid of all of Kansas (the land of abs, not Oz). If Kansas is all farms and such, how is it that one of our counties, Johnson, is one of the nation's richest? Someone must be doing something right. Does wheat bring in that much money?
Let's hear it for all of Kansas!
Overland Park sophomore
Gun ban not answer
Hal Kipor, like every Kansan columnist to mention gun control since I came to KU in 1976.
To the Editor:
has shown his ignorance of the subject.
Banning guns would not prevent their use in assassination attempts, or crime in general.
Britain's gun laws are highly touted as proving the utility of such laws. Yet the only in-depth study of Britain's gun laws found that, "Half a century of strict controls on pistols has ended perversely with a greater use of that class of weapon in crime than ever before." In fact, it recommended "abolishing or substantially reducing controls of any sort (because their enforcement) diverts a vast amount of police time and effort."
Gun laws cannot prevent the Hincockes of the world from obtaining guns. Obviously, strict gun laws did not prevent the 1981 attempted assassination of the Pope in Italy or the 1974 attempted assassination of the Korean president and murder of his wife while in Japan.
As a practical matter, a ban such as Klopper suggests in his Sept. 14 column would be impossible with our Fourth Amendment protections. Such respected anti-gun figures as federal appellate Judge Malec Milky have admitted this and proposed that warrantless searches be allowed to be conducted. Others, such as Norval Morris, former President Carter's appointee to head the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, have even suggested universal personal searches.
If the Second Amendment can be eroded or repealed (Those who doubt the applicability of the Second Amendment to individuals should read "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate"), how sacred can the rest of the Bill of Rights be? If the Fourth Amendment can be applied selectively, what is to prevent selective application of other constitutional protections?
Perhaps of more interest to the Kansan staff are the First Amendment implications. Several studies have found the media to be among the greatest factors in our high crime rate. Studies have also found that the media's portrayal of the criminal with a bandit gun to be primarily used by criminals is not the press, then, not as susceptible as gun owners to calls for repressive measures?
John B. Barrett Clearwater law student
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kalman (USPZ 600-640) is published at the University of Kannan, 118 Fhlst Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 60042, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the time when students are not in class. Subscription fees are $15 for six months or $7 perDOU. The University Lawnmen, Kan. 60044. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for its six months or $7 perDOU. The student activity fee (POSTMATTER) adds address changes to the University Daily Kalman.
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