Randy Weseman, superintendent of public schools, announced Monday evening that, for the fourth year in a row, elementary enrollment has fallen in Lawrence. Despite building new schools and closing older schools, the elementary school population is now below the level of 1990.

Mr. Weseman suggested that a possible reason was that young families with children are leaving Lawrence. “I can’t quantify this, but … of people moving out, they are talking about lack of affordable housing.” Weseman was quoted as saying.

At another location the Lawrence City Commission is debating the concept of a “living wage.” The purpose of this new ordinance is supposed to be to make it possible for working families to afford living in Lawrence.

At the same time, neighborhoods all over Lawrence have been struggling to preserve their character as families move and older people die out. Their place is taken by groups of university students with radically different lifestyles. Quiet family neighborhoods are being converted wholesale into extensions of student dormitories. Late-night parties, streets full of parked cars, trash in lawns with chairs and sofas thrown out on the curbside, and the absence of young children. These are all signs of the quiet conversion of Lawrence to a student ghetto.

Lawrence is paying a terrible price for the lack of civic leadership.

The older neighborhoods in the center of Lawrence, which should be the ideal location for young families, with their existing schools and streets and affordable housing, are no longer desirable for families. The single-family homes there are being turned into rental businesses. These businesses can charge students far more than most families can afford.

Families cannot compete with students for single-family homes. Further, with the school board intent on closing the schools in these areas, there is no incentive for families to return. And for those that try, they find that the house next door is rented to a group of students who party all weekend, block their driveways with their cars and throw beer bottles and McDonald’s trash in their lawn.

By subsidizing rental property in single-family neighborhoods, the City Commission is allowing the center of Lawrence to be destroyed. By allowing rental businesses to replace owner-occupied homes, the City Commission is forcing families from Lawrence to move to Eudora, Baldwin, Lecompton, Tonganoxie and the countryside around Lawrence. By ignoring this continual crisis, the City Commission is driving businesses like grocery stores, hardware stores, furniture stores, even banks, the post office and the police department out of downtown Lawrence and into the suburbs. As these basic businesses leave, as schools close, as families migrate, Lawrence is undergoing a fundamental shift.

A “living wage” will not return families to Lawrence. They cannot return as schools close and neighborhoods are converted to business houses, one house at a time. Already we have lost McAlester School, East Heights, and Centennial. The next schools to close will be Cordley and New York. Who then will go to Central Junior High School? And after that, where will the children come from to attend Lawrence High School?

The center of Lawrence and its soul is dying. The City Commission and the school board look on in wonderment.

What is the matter with Lawrence?

Arly Allen is a resident of Lawrence’s Centennial neighborhood.