Tuesday, April 3, 2007
It prohibited indoor smoking in almost all public places in Lawrence. It’s the reason that more than three unrelated people cannot live together in some areas of the city. During the next few years, it may give students easier ways to get to campus and may impose more regulations on landlords.
It is the city commission, and voters will choose its new lineup today. But history suggests that University students will do little about it.
Student voting rates have lagged behind the general Lawrence population in the last two city commission elections. In February’s city commission primary, students voted in dismally low numbers.
Douglas County cannot measure precisely how many University students vote, but Keith Campbell, county deputy of elections, said the county’s data about 18- to 24-year-old voters allowed for guesses about student voting.
The 10 Lawrence precincts that currently have the highest percentage of 18- to 24-year-old registered voters all had voting rates below the county average in the 2003 and 2005 commission elections. These precincts are all located near the University campus.
In Precinct 10, which includes the Daisy Hill residence halls, nearly 80 percent of registered voters are 18- to 24-years old. Campbell said Precinct 10 regularly has the county’s lowest voting rate in local elections.
The Precinct 10 voting site closed early on the day of the February primary because only five of its nearly 2,000 registered voters showed up, Campbell said.
votingBB
Several city commission decisions in recent years have made a difference in students’ lives in Lawrence, and the new commission elected today will also address issues important to students.
Key decisions
Single-family home ordinance, 2001: the commission voted unanimously to prohibit more than three unrelated people from living together in homes zoned as single-family.
Public smoking ordinance, 2004: the commission banned smoking in all enclosed public places in Lawrence, by a 4-1 vote.
Guns near bars, 2006: the commission unanimously decided to prohibit the possession of firearms within 200 feet of the premises of drinking establishments.
Issues to come
Rental registration: this summer, the commission will consider whether to require all rental properties in the city to obtain licenses and submit to regular safety inspections. Currently, this requirement applies only to rental properties zoned as single-family, which does not apply to most rental properties in Lawrence.
Downtown safety: the commission continues to study ways to prevent violence downtown. Possibilities include increasing police presence downtown or an entertainment licensing system, which would give more reponsibility to business owners to prevent violence.
Bus coordination: the city and the University will consider merging or overlapping the KU on Wheels and Lawrence Transit System bus lines, which could make it easier for some students to get to campus.
Katie Loyd, Lawrence junior, has made an effort to educate students about the city commission race in her role as Student Senate community affairs director. She prepared biographies of the candidates, which are available at studentsenate.ku.edu.
She said students should vote to make sure the city listened to their concerns.
“They’re much more likely to work with the students if they know that they vote,” Loyd said.
She said the city’s noise ordinance, transportation system and property taxes were all issues that could have implications for students.
Burdett Loomis, professor of political science, said many of the issues in this year’s election probably weren’t very interesting or important for students, though.
“If you’re talking about development and whether to put a Wal-Mart on the west side of town or not, I don’t think that’s relevant to most people’s lives,” he said.
City commissioner David Schauner, who is running for re-election today, said he probably wouldn’t pay much attention to city politics if he were a student.
“Most students are more interested in just being students,” he said.
He said students who paid attention could find issues they might care about, such as rental property registration and a proposed domestic partner registry for same-sex couples.
Candidate Carey Maynard-Moody said all students would have to choose whether to become involved in their communities some day after they graduated, and she said participating in city government could provide a good introduction to community leadership.
“Studying should be what students do best,” Maynard-Moody said, “and studying candidates’ platforms and voting in this election will serve students well later on.”
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
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Comments
City commission? What?
This is a very good topic. I had to think about how I felt about it for a while.
It is important that students focus on being students. That is our primary job. We do not always have the time or means to follow the city campaign trail, the state campaign trail, or even the student-senate campaign trail in addition to our course load. Yet the mishaps students face, such as the living sutuation issue Matt mentioned, create disadvantages.
I would like to know that the Lawrence community wants to reach out the student population, not limit it.
I work 20 hours a week and am enrolled in 15 hours of upper-level courses. I transfered to KU in 2004 to be in a college town condusive to my education needs.
Does the city of Lawrence expect students to put aside their homework and minimum wage jobs to be properly represented in the city commission? Or will Lawrence residents embrace their young scholars and go to bat for them in the commission race? I pray for the latter.
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