City is more than KU
For many of the more than 23,000 students at the University of Kansas, Lawrence is that town that is spread out around the University.
The issues and conflicts that produce passion in Lawrence sometimes produce little more than a yawn from the average KU student. But while KU is the center of your universe for four years (or sometimes longer for the less fortunate), the city of Lawrence should be an equal partner in its importance to KU students.
EVERY FACET of your lifestyle while attending KU—what you do, where you go, where you live and how you live-is affected by the decisions
that are made concerning the future of Lawrence.
And that future is at a crossroads. Will Lawrence continue the rapid growth that has characterized the last few years or will it adopt a more controlled and orderly approach to expansion?
The burgeoning influence of neighborhood groups and continuing questions about zoning changes have combined to draw more students into civic affairs. Students living in the Oread neighborhood, and other students as well, realize that they no longer can afford to ignore the concerns of Lawrence. Whether for one year or four years—or longer—Lawrence is home.
Fairer representation needed on commission
Two years ago this month, the voter of Lawrence rejected by a 340-1 margin a referendum that would have changed Lawrence's present city manager-compromise form of government to a mayor-council form of government.
The move by voters is a rational one, as the mayor-council form is more suited for cities with populations of 50,000-plus population. In fact, only four cities in Kansas with populations of more than 10,000 have a mayor-council government. The largest of these, Prairie City, has 279,000 voters.
While the move to reject that type of change was a rational one, there is an irrational opposition in Lawrence to all types of change in city government. But a real need does exist for a change and it should be examined.
THE PRESENT form of government comprises five commissioners who are elected at-large from the city and who earn $900 a year for their services. One of the commissioners acts as mayor, and the other, acts as the mayor. The mayor, then, acts mainly as a figurehead.
The persons doing the actual job of running the city are the city manager, who earns somewhere in the range of $30,000 a year, and his staff.
We can believe that the system does, in fact, work nicely if we also ignore the fact that a large part of Lawrence remains unrepresented by the current system.
Of the five commissioners now serving, none is from North Lawrence. And one recently elected commissioner, Marci Francis, is the first commissioner in more than a decade from the howley student-populated Oread neighborhood just east of the KU campus.
A qualified city manager who can run the city's business is a must for the city size of Lawrence. But so is representation on the commission for all of its residents.
MOST OF THE commissioners tend to travel south and west Lawrence, as three of the first five are from North Carolina.
Despite this lack of representation, major efforts have been mounted since the mayor-council question was raised two years ago. There may be several reasons for it.
First of all, all areas such as North Lawrence, East Lawrence and the Oread community historically have had a lack of political organization. But recent efforts by such groups such as the Oread Community, the Pinkney Neighborhood Association have attempted
Mary Ernst
to make those areas more viable and more visible during political decision making.
THESE ORGANIZATIONS have all too often, however, been the only means of representation for those areas that they represent. That is because they lack equal representation on the commission or because they have no representation on it at
And efforts to change the system rarely come from the people within it.
Former Mayor Marie Argersinger said during the debate in 1977 that the possibility of commissioners elected from districts, instead of at-large, would not help the cause of representation for all Lawrence residents. Lawrence residents.
"The idea of geographical representation is a big, bad mistake," she said. "It would just lead to the councilman bickering over regional votes, and I would hate to see that. Think the other commissioners are really like me. And think I'm responsive to the people, too."
AND MIKE Wilden, assistant city manager, said, "Right now the commissioners look at what's best for the whole city. But with districts you would have that 'I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine' business."
Such arguments may be valid if the commissioners do look at what is best for the entire city, not just the interests of south and west Lawrence.
But there is some question as to how well that is done. Complaints by neighborhood groups in several areas of the city show that they are not being well represented.
In including the interests of North Lawrence in commission meetings would be a good start.
CHANGES MUST be made. Barkley Clark, Lawrence's new mayor, said recently that when Lawrence reached a city commissioner, the city commissioners by districts might work.
That wait may be a hard one for many residents of Lawrence. Representation is vital to them in their struggle to keep their areas as functioning parts of the city.
It is that struggle that must be supported by city officials and by residents of Lawrence who wish to see all members of the community served by city government.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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In stark contrast to the pictureresque KU campus lies the neglected Orcad neighborhood.
Oread neighborhood needs rezoning
Too many of the Victorian structures in the neighborhood—the area east of the KU campus to Massachusetts Street and north of 17th Street to Ninth Street—have lost their aesthetic value.
The porticos, bay windows and turrets of many of the two and three-story houses have deteriorated because of their age.
Porches are cluttered with rotting wood, abandoned refrigerators, bikes, furniture and trash.
Parking space in the area is cubicle. Yard care, except for a few notable cases, is nonexistent.
More importantly, the structures provide efficient apartment units for KU students. The rent is low, but the overall quality of the units is only adequate because owners and landlords seek quantity for profits rather than prices.
BUT THE problems facing residents in the neighborhood are the same old problems of the past.
About two years ago, the Oread Neighborhood Association was formed to work with the city in areas of planning, rezoning, environmental and safety inspections and services within the neighborhood. Part of the problems then stemmed from the high residential density of the neighborhood.
Landlords and owners wish to maintain current Oread neighborhood residential zoning codes, which are the two highest density residential zoning codes, and this allow for new developments of units to be crammed into two or three-story structures.
Today, the concern of high residential density still exists, and a battle to rezone the neighborhood is being staged between owners and landlords against tenants and owner-occupants.
THEERE are a number of houses on Ohio Street that contain at least six apartments, and a three-story house with a basement on Louisiana Street has mailboxes for 15 apartments. The hallways of this structure are not
equipped with smoke detectors or fire alarms, a building code requirement.
The current residential zone codes for the neighborhood allow one unit, or apartment, for 500 square feet of lot area.
The Oread Neighborhood Association, representing the interests of tenants and owner-occupants, on the other hand, wishes to rezone the area so that the density of the neighborhood would be stabilized.
A rezoning of the Oread neighborhood that would reduce the number of apartments allowed for each lot is needed.
Such action would help to improve compliance of structures in the neighborhood with the uniform building code. Such an approach would reduce neighborhood. It would reduce future conversions of houses into multi-family structures, and thus reduce the need for new construction.
"TFS A MESS up there," Gene Shaughnessy, city building inspector, said of the complaint of structures that were found in the apartment.
Shaughnessy said that the existing structures in the area were converted into multi-family units from one-family units before the current residential zone code for the Oread neighborhood was enacted in 1986.
As a result, the structures are legal as apartment dwellings but do not conform to uniform building codes for new buildings.
EFFORTS to rezone the neighborhood would stabilize the neighborhood's density or decrease the density of ewaters fed there.
MORE OVER, Shaughnessy said, his office did not have the staff or time to check if all repairs to existing structures complied with the building code. He said the growth of the area was too great for his office tocheck a particular area for repair.
Shanghuesy said if houses in the Orchend neighborhood were checked for compliance with the building codes for new structures, 80 percent would be in violation of the code, especially in areas of electrical wiring and plumbing.
Garner Stoll, of the Lawrence-Douglas County planning department, said the continued status of the Oread neighborhood had a high density zone would lead to a construction boom that would arrange the construction of more duplexes and four-plexes.
Many structures would fail to meet set back and off street parking requirements as well. One owner in the neighborhood said he knew of only two structures in the area that met requirements for fire safety.
New construction in the neighborhood, Shaughnessy said, has been in new and smaller family units such as duplexes; larger structures for more occupants would not meet building codes.
Any new repairs, and more importantly, construction,
must meet new building code standards. Thus landlords
and owners find it more profitable to continue to rent out
existing structures in a zone that allows a high density
"Zoning is never retroactive," Stoll said.
The result of renting structures as multi-family units to maximize profits is overcrowded, neglected and cluttered.
What's more, any beauty the neighborhood might have is lost in the transient status of some of the tenants and the apathy on the part of the landowners or landlords who live outside the neighborhood.
A rezoning of the Oread Neighborhood would help prevent future cramming of structures, improve chances for mandatory compliance of the building code, and ensure that new construction would house smaller family living units, all of which would help restore the beauty of what was once a Victorian neighborhood.
Saturday morning. No school today, but the cartoons are playing on television so you have to get up. But you really don't mind because you've been looking forward to doing all week. Now, what kind of mess all we need, Olive Oil get themselves into today.
In between a commercial and a bowl of Sugar Pops your mother informs you that she is planning to go "uptown" and asks if you're interested. Of course, the answer is yes, and with speed that even Superman would envy you're dressed and ready to go.
Oh, I remember. I remember those Saturday mornings when my big only bwry was not a jacket, and it wasn't without telling a "story," when a new pair of tennis shoes (black hightops, please) were as highly valued as gold; and when the call upstown was the promise of new adventure.
UPTOWN WAS the name that black folks where I lived called the area officially known as downtown. I'm not sure why it was called that, but when it came time to go there my younger brother and I would pledge to the car, my mother usually at the gym, only about a 15-minute drive from where we were. I'd have I don't have to wait long before the fun began.
There were stores upon stores on the two long city blocks that composed the heart of the downtown area. Montgomery Ward, J.C. and a few other big name wares were there.
On a clear day, crowds of shopers filled the sidewalks. Some just look, with some that know more.
And then there were the kids like me, in short pants and high-top sneakers, who tagged after mothers who seemed to have no sense of time.
BUT THERE was more to downtown than just following Mom. Going downtown was fun. There were lots of things to do and see, but most of it, someone might even buy you something.
For example, there was this talking mym bird in The Leader clothing store. My brother and I, while waiting for our mother to try on every outfit in the house, would spend hours fussing over it. We had quite figured out how it could talk but we did have a few theories.
During the Christmas season, upwinter was the place to be. The brightly decorated trees were a welcome addition to the occasion, not to mention Santa Claus. Penney's and Ward's had the best toy departments, and we would make it our business to present items before new镀 under the tree.
At the end of a long shopping day, if we were lucky, there was a stop at the long soda fountain in Grant's five and dime. There, a large glass bottle of soda and your today's quarter pounder, and a chocolate
malt was served in a tall glass, not in paper cups. And you could always find your car at the parking lot.
TODAY, THE uptown that I knew and loved as a kid is dead. The stores with the exciting toy departments, the Saturday morning throngs, the smartly dressed maquines and the long soda fountain have moved west, to the new indoor shopping mall.
At first the downtown merchants vowed that they would continue to operate their stores downcity. The developers' first overtures indicated that the downtown area would not be affected adversely by the new mail.
They also pay millions of dollars in state and local real estate taxes and generate an estimated 8.5 billion in sales taxes. Town have even renamed themselves after the name of a new mail. So it is no wonder that they eliminate the space that surrounds them.
But one by one, hurt by the reduction in foot traffic, the merchants were forced to pack up and business. It was either that or get busy. It was simply a matter of survival.
The shopping mall was something new to the city that had a certain mass appeal.
CONVENIENTLY located just off the great American highway, these meticulously planned and brightly conceived one-stop shopping, and turned it into a virtual one-stop culture, providing a cornucopia of products nested in an ecological ideal idea.
But mails also are powerful, so powerful that they overwhelm everything else. There is nothing strong enough to balance them. Mails use up more than 2 billion square feet of retail space. They employ more than 4.5 million people.
Malls have quietly entered—and quietly transformed—many communities, but they were a major part of the transition into new places, abused the landscape, created eyesores (deserted downtowns). They have produced chaotic traffic conditions and even disrupted local community services.
In the next few weeks Lawrence will be considering the advantages and disadvantages of having its own indoor shopping mall.
The developers already have stated that the city can support another shopping mail. The downtown merchants however, are saying otherwise. The battle lines are clearly drawn and an ensuing fight should and be expected.
Thriving downtowns have become somewhat of a novelty these days, a rare find in most cities. The trend is clearly toward the shopping mall.
But, although the malls provide almost anything one may desire, there is a certain faceless anonymity about them. Basically, you don't see anyone you've seen one mall, you've seen them all.
It would be a darn shame if Lawrence were to lose its downtown to the proposed mail. In these prefabricated times it is nice to be able to relive old memories.