What happens in Lawrence …

At the very last session on our intercity visit to Lawrence, Kan., participants stood up, Quaker meeting style, to say thank you to someone or to commit to something. It had been a jam-packed, eye-opening, exhausting three days, and we were trying to synthesize all we had learned before climbing back aboard the bus and heading to the airport.

We had just finished recording our Five Big Things (which got compressed down to three, given our fatigue and tight time schedule) on sheets of newsprint and draped them over a chair. I wanted to make sure those brainstormings made it off the page, so I publicly committed to seeing that the good ideas the trip had inspired for what might be possible in Chapel Hill be unpacked and tried on once we got home.

Another council member edited my declaration into a sound bite: “Make sure what happens in Lawrence doesn’t stay in Lawrence.”

A few enterprises made it worth taxpayers sending every member of council on the trip. First, was the Bioscience and Technology Business Center. Built on 80 acres of endowment land on the University of Kansas campus, the bio-tech business hub comprises a mix of established corporations and start-ups. Funding is 60% private and 40% public monies. All decisions about the hub are made jointly by the university, the private-sector partners and the town; each entity gets only one vote, which motivates the three parties to cooperate and collaborate.

The university’s tech transfer office makes its home there, and the next phase of construction will include a 20,000-square-foot daycare center. A hotel and conference center have already broken ground nearby, and plans are underway for residences just outside the campus perimeter.

Next up was a tour of Peaslee Tech and Lawrence College and Career Center. Because the technical school and career center don’t accept Pell Grants nor make federally funded loans, the two institutions have much greater decision-making flexibility, unimpeded by federal regulations.

The tech school and career center don’t train any student for a job that pays less than a living wage. None pays less than $15 an hour. Because the school and center leverage apprenticeships, students make a living wage while learning. The curriculum teaches green deconstruction of buildings; repair and maintenance of machines that make parts; plumbing, electrical and HVAC; and carpentry. The buildings were financed by 11 banks that pooled resources to make the loan.

On our final day, we toured Sports Pavilion Lawrence, a 180,000-square-foot indoor sports center, free to all town and county residents and KU students. In addition to basketball, volleyball and pickleball courts, the center has areas for gymnastics, indoor soccer field, cardio and weight rooms and a wellness center that includes physical therapy. The center draws more than 20 tournaments a year, which brings in money toward operating costs and boosts revenue from hotel occupancy taxes.

Seeing success in other towns gave me hope that there is more to development than luxury apartments.
— Nancy Oates