The headline said, “City cool to firm’s offer on Farmland.”

The big question in Lawrence today is: Is there anything that can be proposed, whether it is a retail development, an industrial facility, highway or street extensions, the location of new and better recreation facilities, zoning and land use for industrial development or any other significant issue in Lawrence that would merit the enthusiastic support of a majority of local residents?

Lawrence, once looked to throughout the Midwest as a positive, forward-looking and growing university city, has almost stalled. The citizenry seems to be severely divided, perhaps more so today than in recent years.

There are few positive developments, and there is growing concern or belief that “the staff” at Lawrence City Hall really is in control of the city’s destiny.

The public has little, if any, idea of the critical role of the staff, who do not have to answer to the public, only to the city manager and, to a lesser degree, to city commissioners.

They can do whatever they wish. They can give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down to a worthy project or they can almost kill a project with review after review and study after study. They can review a policy and find it isn’t up to date and call for a new study and policy, which, in turn, causes many other related policies all to be reviewed and changed.

Currently, Lawrence is no place for investors, entrepreneurs and visionaries. They’ll be so bruised and frustrated, they will decide to go elsewhere to make an investment.

Of course, this plays into the hand of those in Lawrence who are opposed to almost any change.

As has been noted before, the city lacks powerful leaders. Who are the city’s leaders, individuals who have the track record, courage, vision and wisdom to merit the support of a wide cross-section of the community, individuals who are genuinely interested in what is best for the city and its residents, today and tomorrow?

A recent letter to the editor complimented Lawrence city officials for being cool to a proposed ethanol manufacturing facility and outlined a multitude of reasons why an ethanol plant would be terrible for the long-vacant former Farmland Industries plant site.

This is not unusual. There are strident opponents to most any development in Lawrence. Consider the wild negative arguments years ago about the Meadowbrook development. Consider the opposition to Alvamar and the recent fight put up by those opposed to a new Wal-Mart store at Sixth and Wakarusa streets. Opposition to completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway has added tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to the cost of the project while Lawrence’s traffic woes become greater and more dangerous. The effort to “protect” Lawrence’s “central business district” continues to fire heated debate.

Name the project, and there are sure to be loud, vocal and well-organized negative voices. Added to this is a city staff that fails to show any degree of enthusiasm, excitement, sense of urgency or support to get something done for the betterment of the city.

A lot of people have a lot of ideas about what they consider to be badly needed projects in Lawrence. These ideas cover the waterfront, but there’s one problem: The city doesn’t have the money to build and operate these facilities. It’s to the point that within a short time, it’s likely there will be a major battle between city, county and school officials over who gets what share of the city’s cash-short treasury.

One observer likened the current Lawrence situation to a car traveling down a rutted country road at a fairly good speed and the driver suddenly comes to a large, very muddy dip. When confronted with such a situation, the driver must maintain his forward motion and not slow down. If he slows down, the car is likely to become stuck, leaving the driver unable to do anything but spin his wheels.

It isn’t a pleasant situation to acknowledge, but Lawrence currently is stuck in a bog and is spinning its wheels. Once momentum is lost, it’s doubly difficult to regain the momentum and move forward.

This being the case, the big question is: Where is the leadership to regain the city’s momentum, enthusiasm and excitement?

Every delay, every day Lawrence doesn’t get its act together means the city could be losing out on a promising new industry or business, along with new residents, the accompanying jobs and new tax revenues. Also, every delay gives our competition a better chance of landing a new payroll at Lawrence’s expense.

How long can Lawrence and its residents tolerate this debilitating and paralyzing situation?