Page 6A
Monday, September 16, 1996
Bird's EyeView
he war rages on between skate-boarders and the rest of Lawrence. Area skateboarders are feeling shut out when it comes to finding a fum, legal
place to skate.
place to skate.
Mike Wildgen, Lawrence city manager, said skateboarders had a sufficient place to skate, but they destroyed it.
And Lawrence police are tired of telling the same people not to skate downtown.
"I skate across campus all the time, and every time I do, I feel like a criminal," said Benjamin Tuttle, Moraga, Calif., senior, and manager of Let it Ride Skateboards and Snowboards, 609 Vermont St. "As of now, there's nowhere in town that's worthwhile and safe for skateboarders."
One 16-year-old Lawrence resident, Tom Foster, said
there was nothing the cops could do to stop the skating through Lawrence.
"The cops can give us tickets, they can put up signs, they can tell us not to skate, but it won't do any good.," Foster said.
Tuttle, Foster and throngs of unhappy skaters feel they are getting the short end of the stick. A city ordinance forbids skating within 1000 feet of Jayhawk Boulevard or within one block of Massachusetts Street between Sixth and 11th streets.
"That pretty much consumes all of Lawrence," said Justin Nicholson, assistant manager of Let It Ride. "We understand why they want us out. Skaters understand that. But we have nowhere else to go."
Wildgen, who has worked to solve the problem, sees things differently than Nicholson.
"The restrictions apply to about 1 percent of the city," he said. "The rest of the world is their apple."
This includes a skateboarding area at Burcham Park, between Indiana and Second streets.
between Indiana and Second streets. Nicholson said the city didn't fund the area. Instead, a
"There's the skate park, but right now it's in shambles," Nicholson said. "It's so small and the wood wore away real quick."
Turtle added that the park was too small to hold more than 10 people safely.
Other skateboarders said bad weather and rollerbladers led to the park's deterioration.
Wilden said the skateboarders themselves ruined their best skating outlet.
going to last.
KU police said the skateboarding problem was troubling, and relations between officers and skateboarders were a bit shaky. Gayle Reece, community education and media officer, said KU police commonly found skateboarders in restricted areas and had to decide whether to issue citations or give verbal warnings.
"Police don't really have a choice," Reece said.
"There's a little animosity there I guess. Regardless of whether we agree with the law, we are supposed to
their best skating out.
"The skate park at Burcham opened in July, and they've basically treated it like a junkyard." he said. "We've gotten complaints from neighbors that there's trash all around it. I don't know how much longer it's going to last."
"If we see cops we just pick up our boards and walk away fast," he said. "We get out as fast as we can, but we never run. The cops usually circle around and follow you."
Nicholson lamented the strained relationship between police and skateboarders.
"It's sad because the younger kids are getting a negative view of authority because they're not allowed to practice their sport," he said.
Cullison said he believed that the police had a vendetta against skateboarders.
"Once, in the gap between the Antique Mall downtown, we were just sitting there, and the cops made us leave just because we were holding skateboards," he said. "They need to chill out."
sad. They need to be careful Nicholson said area skaters had difficulty being heard and felt shut out by the city, particularly in light of the construction of Lawrence Municipal Pool.
"The city spends $3.8 million on a swimming pool and they give us nothing?" Nicholson said. "Something's wrong with that. Basically, skaters haven't been treated as citizens for a long time in Lawrence."
Tuttle said Lawrence Skateboard Association hoped to raise $2,000 to build a new park.
5. (1) $4 \times 2 = 8$
Borders Bookstore expansion meets Lawrence resistance
By Liz Musser Kansas staff writer
Students and professors read a lot of books.
Edmée Rodriguez/KANSAN
Logically, a new bookstore would be a welcomed addition to college towns like Lawrence. This may not be true.
A proposed plan to build a Borders Bookstore in Lawrence has been in limbo for months because of resistance from some Lawrence residents. Although the national chain could provide readers with a diverse supply of books at low prices, the people of Lawrence are not that easily tempted.
The proposed site of The Borders Bookstore, on the southeast corner of Seventh and New Hampshire streets, has a long history. It was built in 1896 as a stable.
Part of the opposition is an aversion to corporate business and a fear that Mom and Pop establishments would become extinct.
Borders' officials and developers said that they were determined to expand to Lawrence. And if they do, several Lawrence citizens want the Borders' expansion to be done on their terms.
"Our intention is not to keep Borders out," said Brad Hebel, coowner of Terra Nova Bookstore, 920 Massachusetts St. "But the people of Lawrence deserve more."
The proposed site for the new bookstore is on the southeast corner of Seventh and New Hampshire streets. Some consider the site to be historical. The original structure, which was a livery stable, was built in 1870. In the late 1920s through the early 1940s, the Lawrence Buick Company occupied the building. If the plan for Borders was approved, the building, along with the rest of the block, would be demolished.
About 1300 Lawrence residents signed a petition that said they did not want the building demolished because it was a part of Lawrence's history and needed to be preserved. Instead of building a new structure, opponents prefer that the old building be incorporated into the design of the new Borders Bookstore.
it is entirely possible to retain the existing structure," said Barry Newton, associate professor of architecture and urban design. "The design they have now is a steel-frame warehouse with a wallpaper facade over it. It doesn't take a brilliant architect to realize that better things could be done."
Winton Winter, co-owner of the land and Lawrence attorney, said that two other prospective buyers had considered reusing the existing structure for their projects, and they had decided against
reusing the building.
"We have actively searched for people who will adaptively reuse the building, and the market has said no," Winter said.
Winter has argued that the fight to save the Buick building is unjustified because it is not on any historic registers. He said that a survey that was conducted by Deon Wolfenbarger, a preservation consultant for the city of Lawrence, said that fires and renovations had stripped the building of the historical integrity necessary to make it a candidate for state or national historic registers.
One prospective buyer said that the rehabilitation would be too expensive. The other prospective buyer, a bar called Eskimo Joe's, could not move into the building because it is not zoned for a bar.
"This confirms, from the most credible source — the city's own historic preservation consultant — what we've known all along," Winter said.
The preservation of the Buick building is not the only issue. Since that building is within 500 feet of the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Massachusetts St., a building that is on the National Register of Historic Places, the new Borders could damage the historic environs of the hotel.
"It's about preserving an entire context," Newton said. "If there wasn't that 500 feet, there could be new buildings all around the Eldridge, and it would end up looking like a curiosity."
The Historic Resources Commission, an advisory committee for the city commission, voted unanimously to recommend that Borders not be issued a demolition permit based on the buildings proximity to the Eldridge. The HRC's recommendation has been forwarded to the state historic preservation office. If the state agrees with the HRC, the permit issue would go before the city commission for resolution. If the state office disagrees with the
Some people are opposed to any big businesses coming to Lawrence, he said.
Though the Borders' battle has been fought from a purely historical angle, Winter said that he was not convinced that historic preservation was the main issue.
HRC's decision, demolition could proceed immediately.
"The building is not historically significant, so I can only come to the conclusion that some are using the issue of historic preservation for other purposes," Winter said. "Some are just sentimentalists who yearn for a smaller, less crowded Lawrence."
But David Longhurst, president of Downtown Lawrence Inc., disagreed.
"Take the Gap for instance," he said. "This is a company that has the potential to threaten a lot of local retailers, but they are moving into an existing downtown building. There has been no public outcry about the Gap. This shows that the real issue has more to do with the character of downtown."
Steven Jansen, director of the Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Massachusetts St., said he straddled the fence on the Borders issue.
"These people all love the same community, the words are just different," he said. "This debate is a sign of our vigor and vitality. The absence of a debate would be more serious and more disheartening."