Bringing neighborhoods’ voices to the front is candidate’s focus

Gwen Klingenberg

Age: 54
Address: 4900 Colonial Way
Occupation: Private music instructor
Substantial business interests: Klingenberg lists her husband’s 401(k) retirement plan, but reported no ownership in companies, real estate investments or other matters. Klingenberg does report that she serves as the president of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, the vice president of GrassRoots Action, and as treasurer for the Campaign to Save the T.

Perhaps it was a crummy Lawrence apartment in 1979 that set the wheels in motion for Gwen Klingenberg to immerse herself in the business of City Hall.

“It was so bad that we had to go to a nearby gas station to use the bathroom,” Klingenberg said. “But it was the only thing I could afford.”

And back then, Klingenberg was just another 20-something who didn’t know much about how to speak up and draw attention to an issue in Lawrence.

But she did know that she was getting a raw deal.

“The landlord lived downstairs, and his half of the house was working fine,” Klingenberg said.

Fast forward about 25 years, and Klingenberg felt like she was in the same boat. After just buying a house in northwest Lawrence, plans for a new Wal-Mart store at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive came forward. Klingenberg was concerned the new store would drive large amounts of traffic through her neighborhood.

This time, though, Klingenberg knew what to do. She and a group of neighbors began organizing formal opposition to the Wal-Mart plans, and she started attending meetings of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods. That’s where she realized she could dive deep into a world of Lawrence politics and policy.

“I raised my hand to volunteer at the very first LAN meeting I went to,” Klingenberg said.

Light reading

Klingenberg is ready to dive deeper now. She’s seeking one of three seats up for grabs on the Lawrence City Commission. But she’s doing so at a time when matters in her personal life have become choppy.

Klingenberg and her husband filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection about four months ago. That followed Klingenberg hurting her back and becoming unable to work for about a year-and-a-half.

Klingenberg, though, said she decided to pursue a seat on the commission despite her financial problems because she thinks she brings a unique set of skills to the table. For one, she actually likes reading all those government documents.

“I’m one of those weird people who enjoy reading the codes in Horizon 2020, and all the documents that come forward in City Hall,” Klingenberg said.

That’s a skill she’s been putting to frequent use. After becoming involved with LAN as part of the Wal-Mart issue, Klingenberg became the president of the organization about five years ago. Since then, she estimates that she reads several hundred pages of information related to city business each month, and attends most City Commission meetings.

“If it has something to do with a neighborhood, I try to read it,” Klingenberg said. “And if I have questions, I call people at City Hall. They definitely know me.”

During the last elections, she also was active in the Campaign to Save the T, a local group that successfully campaigned for the passage of two sales taxes to fund the city’s public transit operations.

Klingenberg, 54, said she’ll now be splitting her time between those duties and a new business venture that she is starting. She said she has begun offering private music lessons, now that the workers compensation program has cleared her to work.

The business, she said, fits her background. Klingenberg received a music and voice degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she grew up in a house with a father who was an English professor at the school and a mother who was a vocational teacher. Klingenberg previously operated a private music practice in Lawrence, shortly after she came to the community in 1976 to study for an advanced degree in geology at Kansas University.

“I enjoy everything about music,” Klingenberg said. “It is just me. I’m the type of person who will break out singing in the house.”

The issues

Klingenberg has campaigned on bringing a stronger neighborhood voice to the City Commission. Klingenberg said she believes the City Commission has allowed the city’s housing and retail markets to become overbuilt, often to the detriment of existing areas of town.

“I’m concerned right now that paying attention to the people has sort of dwindled because we’ve got such other big issues and we’ve been so concerned about getting big businesses and being business friendly that concern for the neighborhoods has fallen off,” Klingenberg said.

On other issues, Klingenberg said:

? She wants the city’s economic development efforts to be focused more on growing existing small businesses rather than working to attract large businesses from outside the community. Klingenberg was among a group of residents who came out in opposition to plans to create a new 150-acre business park near the Lecompton interchange on Interstate 70.

? She would seek to protect social service agencies from across-the-board cuts in funding as commissioners deal with shortages in city revenue.

“Government needs to be taking care of its people,” Klingenberg said. “Human services are so vital to people who are walking that fine line.”