Lawrence more than just a home to KU

City offers rich mix of cultural, educational opportunities

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Many people may have heard of Lawrence because it's the home of the nationally ranked Kansas University men's basketball team.

But to the people of Lawrence, it's much more.

Some like it because of its location between two larger metropolitan areas.

Others point to its historical role in not only the early days of Kansas, but as one of the first battlegrounds of the Civil War.

Still others like Lawrence for the diversity of its population and its cultural opportunities as a university community.

Also, the city, which has about 80,000 people, often shows up in various lists as among the top places to live in the country.

For example, Relocate-America.com named Lawrence one of the Top 100 places to live in 2004.

Also, in 2004, Forbes magazine ranked Lawrence as the sixth best smaller metro area to launch a career or a business.

And the city was among the top 15 in "The 100 Best Small Arts Towns in America" by author John Villani.

Geography

If you really want to know about Lawrence, one of the best people to talk to is Judy Billings.

Not only a long-time resident, Billings is senior vice president in charge of tourism for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Lawrence doesn't really match up to the image that many people might have of Kansas, especially its terrain.

Early settlers laid out the city between two rivers, the Kansas River and the Wakarusa, which has over the year earned Lawrence the nickname "River City." The city now spans about 28 square miles, with KU's main campus built on a hill, Mt. Oread, in its center.

"People from out of the state don't realize that we have lush, green rolling hills in this area and a lake," Billings said.

Just to the west of the city is Clinton Lake, an Army Corps of Engineers' reservoir that was ranked among the top 50 lakes in the country by Boating World Magazine (July 2000 edition).

Like to golf? The city is also home to Alvamar Golf Course, which is consistently listed in Golf Digest among the 100 best public golf courses in the country.

Arts and culture

Thanks to the university community, Lawrence offers a wide variety of cultural and educational opportunities, Billings said.

The National Endowment for the Arts has placed Lawrence among the top 12 cities in the country with the largest percentage of professional artists in the work force.

Billings listed several of the city's highlights:

• The Lied Center, KU's performance arts center.
• The downtown, which including locally owned shops, restaurants, live music venues and an outdoor sculpture exhibit that changes each year.
• The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, a KU think tank that studies politics and public policy.
• The Spencer Museum of Art, KU's art museum.
• The Lawrence Community Theater.

"All of those cultural kinds of things that we experience here as residents are important, in addition to the landscape," Billings said.

Also, the proximity to larger cities is important to many people interested in moving to Lawrence.

Lawrence is within a 45-minute drive of Kansas City, Mo., on the east, and a 20-minute drive to Topeka, the state capital, on the west.

"All of those things are important when you're talking to people who have never been here," Billings said.

Forming a free state

"This community has a sense of its place," Billings said. "That's something that a lot of areas, a lot of communities, don't have. We have a sense of belonging here, a real pride in who we are in this community. A lot of that goes back to our history."

The city was founded in 1854 in an effort by free-state forces from New England to keep Kansas from entering into the union as a slave state.

The "free state" theme is still alive today -- the city named its second high school Free State High School. And one of the most popular restaurant-bars in the downtown Lawrence is the Free State Brewery.

A local physician even financed a film about Lawrence's history, "Lawrence: Free State Fortress," which chronicles the first 10 years of Lawrence's history, including Quantrill's Raid in 1863. The film can be viewed during business hours Monday through Saturday at the Lawrence Visitors Information Center.

There's a bill before Congress to make Lawrence and northeast Kansas into a National Heritage Area that would promote tourism based on the area's "Bleeding Kansas" history.

The Old West Lawrence neighborhood, which is just west of Lawrence's downtown, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Youthful, educated population

Billings said that employers who are moving to Lawrence find they like the strong Kansas work ethic.

Lawrence also has a higher educational level, per capita, than other cities in Kansas -- and in many parts of the country, she said.

"We have a highly educated work force here," Billings said.

Census figures show that 92.8 percent of the city's residents (age 25 and older) have graduated from high school, compared to 86 percent in the rest of Kansas and 80.4 percent nationally.

Also, 47.7 percent of Lawrence's residents age 25 and older have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 25.8 percent in Kansas and 24.4 percent nationally.

In terms of home ownership, most of those in the city rent. Census data showed that in 2000, 45.9 percent of the city's population owned homes, compared with 69.2 percent in Kansas and 66.2 percent across the country.

The median value of a home in 2000 was $118,400, compared to $83,500 in the rest of Kansas and $119,600 in the U.S.

Because of Lawrence's high quality of life, the city has many people who choose to live here, even if it means they can't get their ideal job.

"There are people who have credentials and have abilities beyond the position they're holding at the moment," Billings said. "People like the quality of life here and they live here because of that. They're willing to take a job that they might not be willing to take in another community."

The median household income in Lawrence was $34,669, compared to $40,624 across the state and $41,994 in the U.S.

The 2000 census also showed that 18.9 percent of Lawrence's population was below the poverty level, compared to 9.9 percent across the state and 12.4 percent nationally.

Billings said Lawrence is home to many people who commute to work to Kansas City or to Topeka.

"But I have to tell you, we have a lot of commuters coming in," she said. "There are a lot more commuters coming in than most people would believe."

The top 10 major employers in the city include KU (9,555 employees), Lawrence Public Schools (1,687), Pearson Government Solutions (1,540), City of Lawrence (1,397), Lawrence Memorial Hospital (1,160), Hallmark Cards (881), Kmart Distribution Center (627), the World Company, which publishes the Lawrence Journal-World daily newspaper and operates the Sunflower Broadband cable/Internet/telephony company (584) , Berry Plastics (500), and Amarr Garage Doors (441).

Diverse population

Lawrence's population includes an ever-changing mix of students, faculty, their spouses and families, and retirees who are drawn to the city.

If Lawrence seems a little more dynamic than other areas of Kansas, that's because its population younger.

While the median population age in Kansas is 35.2, the city's median age is 25.3 years old, according to the 2000 federal census.

By gender, there are 39,803 men and 40,295 women.

The 2000 Census also found that nearly 10 percent of Lawrence's population speaks a language other than English at home.

The city's population by race is as follows: whites, 67,122; blacks, 4,078; Hispanic or Latino, 2,921; American Indian and Alaska Native, 2,344; Asian, 3,030; Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 56; some other race, 1,086; two or more races combined, 2,382.

Also, you won't find ethnic pockets in the city -- USA Today ranked Lawrence as one of the least segregated communities in the country.

Family oriented

For families, Lawrence offers educational programs, such as classes for young people at KU's Natural History Museum and Lawrence city parks and recreational classes, Billings said.

"Sports are huge for families," she said.

Opportunities abound for youth sports, including soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, basketball, swimming and track programs.

"The Lawrence Arts Center is very, very unique," she said. "I don't know of another community that has an arts-based preschool. Our arts center is very unique."

Lawrence also is a popular place for older people.

"All of these retirees are moving back here. The culture is very important to them," she said.

They like the entertainment, educational and cultural opportunities offered at the university, she said.

"There's just something for everybody," she said.