Friday, Jan. 31, 1986
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
9
Park 25 tenants won't get boot
Bv Juli Warren
Staff writer
Residents of Park 25 Apartments, 2401 W. 25th St., would not be unpropted by the proposed purchase and renovation of the complex, Park 25 officials said Wednesday.
But it seems the proposal will have an uphill battle getting past the city commission.
A public hearing to consider whether $4.4 million in industrial revenue bonds should be used to purchase and renovate the complex is scheduled for the Feb. 18 city commission meeting.
Two Wichita men, Donald J. Walenta and Ronald K. Peden, are proposing the purchase.
A spokesman for the company that owns the apartments, J.A. Peterson Realty Co., Kansas City, Kan., said Park 25 residents probably wouldn't
be affected if the complex was bought.
Ken Riedemann, the spokesman,
said that most Park 25 residents were
students and that about 60 percent
vacated for the summer.
vacated for the summer.
If the complex was purchased, he said, the vacant apartments would be renovated during the summer.
the earliest that a buyer could take possession of the complex, Riedemann said, would be the end of April.
Private companies can obtain loans at lower interest rates with city backing of IRBs. The city must approve the bonds, but is not responsible for paying the bonds if the company defaults.
paid by the agency. In accordance with federal law, 20 percent, or 51, of the 254 units would be reserved for low- to moderate-income residents if the IRBs were granted.
Commissioner Sandra Praegel said the commission normally granted IRBs for manufacturing firms that would bring jobs to the city and would not be competitive with existing industries.
existing industries.
According to the application for the IRBs, the Park 25 project would employ six people.
But several commissioners expressed concern that the project would be competitive with other apartment complexes.
Mayor Mike Amyx said he thought it might be unfair to other apartment owners or soften the market, creating vacancies in other complexes.
completer Commissioner Ernest Angino said he thought it would set a precedent for other potential apartment buyers.
Angino also said he was concerned that students would qualify for the low- to moderate-income requirement, which he said he doubted was the intent of the federal law.
Commissioner Howard Hill said, "At this point, I'm opposed to it.
According to Riedemann, seven of the apartments are "unrentable."
"It's tempting to do something, though, because Park 25 is not in the shape the proud citizens of Lawrence would like to see it in."
Commissioner David Longhurst said that in order for him to vote in favor of the proposal, he would have to be convinced that it met the intent of the IRB authority and that it wouldn't hurt other apartment complexes.
Praeger said she was waiting until the public hearing to decide what stand she would take.
Critic wants honesty in new architecture
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
Society is so manipulated by trends in art and architecture that people can't distinguish their own tastes anymore, a visiting art and architecture critic said last night.
Donald Hoffmann, who has been an art critic for the Kansas City Star since 1965, lectured in 3193 Wesco Hall last night to about 750 students and faculty members. The lecture was sponsored by the School of Architecture and Urban Design.
"The architectural community has been babbled to itself." Hoffmann said. "And they have hardly been speaking to the public."
The problem with architecture critics is that nobody speaks honestly about architecture afymore. Hoffman said. Critics have become too concerned with pleasing the intellectuals rather than speaking to the public.
Hoffman said he thought criticism had to come from outside of architecture because much of the writing about architecture today was little more than public relations written by architects.
Marc Trudeau, Palm Beach,
Fla., sophomore, said after the lecture that he thought Hoffman was just dictating his own opinion.
Trudeau said he was studying architecture and understood the difficulties in trying to come up with good designs while pleasing the client.
"If you design something, you want it to be good." he said. "Of course, I'd really be hurt if someone came along and just tore it apart with criticism."
Hoffmann said many architecture magazines written by architects were purely promotional and served their own cause.
Other writers who are not architects, he said, want to boost their own fame by promoting some architects who might become famous in later years.
Hoffman showed slides to the audience. He said buildings which were aesthetically pleasing were designed to fit into the environment, had a social content and had moral implications.
For the critic, Hoffmann said, it is important to look beyond the stylistic attributes of the buildings and instead look at the other implications of the structure.
Author gives speech about Mid East wars
By Brian Kaberline Staff writer
The past wars in the Middle East are tame compared to those yet to come, an author of several books about the Middle East said last night.
"There are going to be no more clean little wars in the Middle East," said Stephen Green, the author.
About 100 people attended Green's speech, titled "America's Geo-Political Suicide in the Middle East," in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. It was sponsored by the department of political science and the Saudi Arabian Students Club.
Green, whose latest book is titled "Taking Sides, America's Secret Relations With A Militant Israel," predicted a massive arms buildup by Arab countries, most notably Egypt.
The next war will not see tank against tank and plane against plane, it will see collapsing apartment buildings in previously untouched cities such as Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Green said.
Israel and the United States are seriously misjudging Egypt, he said. Although Egypt seems peaceful, it is seeking the capacity to destroy Israel.
Because the Arab nations know they can't match Israel in a full-scale
war and because of the danger of using nuclear weapons on a neighboring nation, Egypt is working to develop strategic weapons as a threat to Israel, he said.
The buildup by Arab nations, Green said, has come in an attempt to keep peace through deterrence. Although the thought seems strange to many Americans, deterrence has kept the United States and the Soviet Union out of war for forty years while the Middle East repeatedly has been rocked by war.
Green said Israel's bullying tactics were undertaken with both the knowledge and the help of the United States.
The United States not only has given Israel the latest arms and intelligence information, he said, but it has covered up several instances of Israeli espionage in this country.
Until a solution to the problems in the Middle East can be found, he said, the United States will see a steady increase in activities against it. He said the coming action would be more than terrorism, it would be like "a series of Irans."
Michal Medved, president of the KU chapter of the American Zionist Youth Foundation, said she believed Green was taking facts and turning them to fit his views.
SLASH & GASH WEEKEND!
A ROBERT SHARP Production + WES GRAVEN Film + JAN NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Starring RIM KIN SAXON + ROME BLANKLY + HEATHER LANGERKAMP
Co-Produce SARA ROSNER + Produced by ROBERT SHARP + Written and Directed by WES GRAVEN
R
Fri. & Sat. Jan.31 & Feb.1 3:30 & MIDNIGHT
Woodruff Aud.
$1.50
11