Frank

Since the first time I visited Lawrence as a child, I associated Lawrence's popularity with its downtown, more specifically Massachusetts Street, of course. This was at a time in my life when I was completely enthralled by anything associated with Lawrence or the University of Kansas. I thought that what we have here is better than any other city or site that I had visited. Now that I have lived in Lawrence for nearly four years and have visited other great college towns, I am starting to revisit how great Lawrence's social and economic "hot spot" is.

Anyone can see how vastly popular and successful the downtown is by going to Mass Street on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. There is hardly a spot to park on the main drag and the sidewalks are bustling with an array of people. It's not like this all the time though. When I go to downtown a lot to go bar hopping, Mass Street is a ghost town with a few drunken stragglers dotted along the sidewalks. Yes, I know most families are asleep then, but where is everyone else? I look at Iowa City, Iowa for an answer to this scenario. The home of the University of Iowa, this downtown bustles until almost 3 a.m. Why there and not here? The main part of this downtown is based around a city square, or as they call it, a pedestrian mall. There are an abundance of late night food vendors, a city square packed with bars and plenty of seating and décor to keep the most sober of minds occupied. Popular shops and restaurants line the streets that branch from this main meeting point. I am not saying that Lawrence needs to accommodate the town drunks, but city planners need to gain a better sense of community spaces.

These congregation spots work for those late at night, but even more importantly for the rest in the community to share during the day. Another college town that exhibits this notion of a town square, and that I am very familiar with, is Ft. Collins, Co. Home of Colorado State University, and the distinguished title of "Best Place to Live" by Money Magazine, Ft. Collins is home to "Old Town Square", a congregation spot much like Iowa City's, but is used just as much during the day than at night. Old Town Square holds concerts regularly, an assortment of shops and restaurants, ornamentation such as waterfalls and sculptures and even an ice skating rink in the winter months. From this description alone, Lawrence's downtown is lacking.

I understand city planners 30 or 40 years ago didn't plan for Lawrence's downtown to be designed that way, but with the ongoing effort to keep Lawrence's economy localized, this would be a great way to bolster that platform. These two college towns that I have given as examples have monstrous malls in the vicinity, but the downtown doesn't suffer one bit. As much as Lawrence residents complain about a new Wal-Mart and bringing a shopping mall to Lawrence, the best way to deal with these issues is to strengthen what we already have, a downtown with great community appeal and POTENTIAL. Make the Mass Street experience in all of downtown so Vermont and New Hampshire Street can create a sense of a complete downtown feeling.