What makes Lawrence such a special place to live? What is it about the city that makes it the envy of so many other communities and a city where people would like to live if they can find attractive employment opportunities?

There is no single answer to these questions but rather a combination of factors that, when joined together, present a highly attractive montage. The “Lawrence Montage” has many pieces, including the physical attractiveness of the city, and its geographic location between Kansas City and Topeka. Lawrence has good transportation facilities, ample water (which easily may become this country’s most precious natural resource and cannot be taken for granted), clean city and county government and law enforcement and a work force with good work habits and low absenteeism. We enjoy free summer band concerts, the presence of Kansas University, with its many assets, thousands of talented young men and women and hundreds of teachers and researchers, good health care and a general and genuine sense of pride by a majority of residents who want to make it an even better city in the years to come.

Lawrence is, indeed, a unique and special place, but there is no room for complacency or for carelessness that handicaps the city’s continued growth and development. Just because Lawrence has enjoyed a highly successful past is no guarantee this is an automatic script for the future.

Putting these many assets aside and focusing on just one piece of the montage, it is interesting to note what takes place in Lawrence’s culture and sports scenes.

This past Wednesday, the KU men’s basketball team was playing before a packed house at Allen Fieldhouse, and Anoushka and Ravi Shankar drew a standing-room-only audience for a concert at the Lied Center. At the nearby Dole Institute of Politics, Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, spoke and answered questions to a large crowd as part of the Institute’s “Hollywood and Politics” series. Before taking his current job, Glickman served in the U.S. House, as U.S. secretary of agriculture and as director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

This was just one three- or four-hour period in Lawrence, and the events noted above were but a small portion of the varied activity in Lawrence that particular day.

The wide range of cultural and educational events, along with all types of sports programs, offers Lawrence residents a broad smorgasbord of activities. There is something to satisfy the tastes of most any resident of any age.

At the same time, many challenges need to be addressed if the city is to become even more attractive. The city is far behind in planning for the smooth, easy flow of traffic in and out of the city, as well as within the community. Recent events have focused the spotlight on possible weaknesses and oversights in accurate city forecasting and planning for the future, whether for streets, sewer systems, adequate water treatment facilities or other city services.

The seriousness of these challenges cannot be underestimated, but, at the same time, it is important to take note and appreciate all the good things about the city.

The future of the Lawrence area is bright, due to its many assets, the vision and courage of past leaders and the city’s current visionaries, but the community and its residents will not reach their potential unless they aim high and refuse to accept mediocre performance. Lawrence residents should not be content to settle for second place.